QT4 Consolidation Thread - VLC's New Interface

[MetalheadGautham]

wow... CloudStalker is starting to become the "creative inspiration" behind VLC. Am I missing anything here?

Anyway, I think it will be cool if the new QT4 interface includes environment specific bindings on the theme. You could, for instance, support intergration with Xfce, Gnome, KDE, IceWM, as well as intergration into the theme of Windows Vista or something. This way, VLC won't end up being the Ugly Duckling among common windows programs.

[Jean-Baptiste Kempf]

Qt integrates perfectly in KDE, Windows from 98 to Vista.

On Gnome and Xfce, there is the cleanlooks theme to get it close (run qtconfig-qt4 for that) or the old interface.

[MetalheadGautham]

hey j-b, is it nessary to keep QT's older versions even if I install QT4?

I did this:

Code: Select all

sudo apt-get install qt4-qtconfig

and I ended up installing ~23 mb of stuff. Is it the entire QT4 library ? or should I do

Code: Select all

sudo apt-get libqt4

for that?

EDIT: I noticed that QT4 can't control QT3 programs, from what I saw in Hydrogen's interface.

[Jean-Baptiste Kempf]

No you don't need QT3. QT3 is slow and painful.

[CloudStalker]

There's one more thing that has been puzzling CloudStalker...

...why is it so difficult to adjust the video window all of the time? If for instance you want to move the video window around on the desktop, move it to a second monitor/TV or stretch it across two monitors, why the annoyance of having to hard set it in the Preferences.

When you want the function on, go to the Preferences, find the function, save it, restart the video. When you want the function off go to the Preferences, blah blah blah...you get what CloudStalker is saying? Well why not this:

[31] Detach Video Window from Interface

This is somewhat similar to the Extra GUI Buttons - Image Clone and Image Split but a little different actually. Just like the current playlist function, why not make it so that the video window can be detached and docked to the interface? As always CloudStalker has provided some screenshots (Resolution: 1280x720).

Detach video


That bar will only be
visible when a video
is playing but then
disappear when a
video is not playing.
While it's there I
thought to add my
previous idea
(Image Clone and Image Split).

Clone video


Split Video


And the "X" can be to close the video track.

I hope that this makes some sense. Eh...um...nope, that's pretty much it, nothing more to say.

[jech]

It looks to me, that VLC is becoming not only a video player but also an audio player. I think the place for album art could also work as a place for video (if they are in the media library).

Anyway what a good video player needs is a filter component, which flilter the library by genre/artist/album. Something like the one you can find in Winamp, MusikCube, iTunes etc. I created my ideal GUI for foobar2000. It looks like this:



If you would take any inspiration from it, I would really appreciate it.

[Jean-Baptiste Kempf]

I don't really understand.

[CloudStalker]

(Sometimes it's too much to type "CloudStalker" all of the time, so... )

I think that I know what jech is trying to say, at least the thing about the album art, and I have something to add to it as well...I. You know how when you start a video in VLC 0.9.0 the preview window appears right above the controls? Is it possible that maybe the widget for album art could also become the preview window for video (changes automatically or by manual input)? Well Clou...opps...I was also thinking that it would be a nice place to show the visualizations for those that don't really care about having the album art displayed all of the time.

Hmm.... As a Mod I guess that I could edit this post later to avoid further embarrassment but why not just submit a normal post? Nah.

[Jean-Baptiste Kempf]

vlc --qt-always-video...

[jech]

I had two separate ideas/requests. The first one as you understood is to use the place for album art to preview videos in media library.

The other idea was to create some panes which can be used to filter media library by genre/artist/album. This feature is very popular and useful. For example there are 3 different components (plugins) for foobar2000 which bring this functionality. The best one is probably Facets (have a look at it). This feature can be also found in iTunes, Winamp 5 or Songbird. Do you understand what I mean?

[Jean-Baptiste Kempf]

Yes, I do. Not for next version, clearly not, but maybe the following one.

[CloudStalker]

Nothing much but I just wanted to know if you might consider change the appearance of the seek bar a little bit. There are some skins that have a trail end and it just seems easier to see and interact with.

Maybe if the seek bar's height where increased a bit and a trail was added it might improve that area of the interface. I'm not sure if this is skin specific or if it can be forced though. Well anyway I guess this is more of a visual tweak then anything.




________________________________________


CloudStalker, you really should start simplifying your posts, you could have just said: "Here jb, think of adding this: <Image>" but noooooo, you had to go into this long discussion of blah blah blah.

You better hope that you made this tiny enough so that nobody else can read it.

[Jean-Baptiste Kempf]

Nothing much but I just wanted to know if you might consider change the appearance of the seek bar a little bit. There are some skins that have a trail end and it just seems easier to see and interact with.

Maybe if the seek bar's height where increased a bit and a trail was added it might improve that area of the interface. I'm not sure if this is skin specific or if it can be forced though. Well anyway I guess this is more of a visual tweak then anything.

Well, yes, I agree, this would be better, it can be done, but it isn't a priority so far.

[CloudStalker]

Understood, just thought that I'd throw it out there...

...along with other personal problems. "Who told you to speak?!"

[CloudStalker]

Quick suggestion: when you move the mouse over a button on the interface it'll usually show what that button's function is (Play, Pause, ect). Could it also show what hotkey is currently assigned to it? Sometimes when changing the hotkeys it's easy to forget what you assigned to each button, a quick mouse-over will easily reveal it to you.

Btw I'm nowhere near a computer and haven't been for awhile, so if CloudStalker is missing something it's because there's no visible VLC interface to work with so I can't do testing, atleast not until tomorrow.

[Jean-Baptiste Kempf]

Could be useful, yes...

[CloudStalker]

Could be useful, yes...

Thanks.

CloudStalker has yet another question:
When hiding the controls and menus (Minimal View) could you also make it resize the controls matrix automatically? Also for those that may have forgotten what hotkey is used to reveal the interface, hows about an expand button?

[vlcrcuser]

Does VLC ver 0.9.0 allow user to use an available system font for the playlist ?
If not, please add this feature in the future . The current font on the playlist didn't display non-ascii characters properly . (example: ă,á, ạ, â )

[CloudStalker]

I suggested that as well (Font Styles). Depending on the resolution of the desktop fonts can appear too small and very hard to read. Maybe you're talking about something different.

[Jean-Baptiste Kempf]

Did you try development version.?

[vlcrcuser]

JB,

I've been tried the latest version 0.9.0-20080123, the playlist displays non-ascii characters incorrectly.
It's nice if VLc allows user to select 1 of the system fonts for the playlist, also change text color and size as CloudStalker requested .

[Jean-Baptiste Kempf]

Screenshot ?

[CloudStalker]

I kinda copied and pasted the image from Rocket Dock because it had exactly the settings I want VLC to have.

[vlcrcuser]

Screenshot ?

Add Media file using 'Add to playlist' button: (window )

VLC Playlist displays:

[Jean-Baptiste Kempf]

Add a trac ticket.