I've been running VLC on Mac OS X for quite some time now, and while there are several things that I like about VLC, there are some tiny things that I wish would be fixed. I'm sure many of the things I mentioned (mainly interface glitches) are specific to the Mac port, but I'm not too sure.
Probably the most annoying interface glitch I've encountered using VLC is as follows. If I am currently playing a video file, and open another file from the Finder while the video is still playing, VLC updates the filename on the controller, but leaves the filename in the window Title unchanged. A simple fix, really.
Second, while making use of the option to have the window float above all other windows, the VLC window is also displayed above menus. While this may be intentional, I seriously doubt it, as it makes things harder to turn floating off. Admittedly, I haven't had much experience in programming floating windows, but looking at the iTunes mini player, for example (it can be set to float above all other windows in the Advanced preferences), it certainly seems that floating windows can be made to be below menus.
Third is a problem regarding content buffering, and whether or not it exists. If not, it would be very useful, if it does, a way to specify buffer size would be appreciated.
Fourth is a feature suggestion. I noticed you greatly improved the images for sub-pictures, as you call them. This is kind of stolen from a new feature in the upcoming Quicktime 7, but nonetheless, it could be very useful. If a video is playing in fullscreen, the controller is obviously obscured, thus, there is no easy way to tell how close to the end the video is. In Quicktime 7, it has been made so that if the mouse is moved while the video is in fullscreen, an on-screen overlay showing a translucent controller fades in, and then fades out after a second or so. While a full-fledged controller isn't really necessary (I use hotkeys for navigation, primarily), showing the video position bar, time, and volume bar if the mouse is moved would be phenomenal.
Finally, another suggestion. On older machines (4200rpm hard drive, ouch!), too often video is dropped in favor of audio in order to maintain constant playback. However, when viewing subtitled foreign movies/fansubs, the audio is not as important as seeing the subtitles. While I'm not positive about whether subtitles in another file are displayed continuously with the audio, in most fansubbed files, the subtitles are rendered directly onto the video. Thus, when video is dropped, all we can do is pause it quickly, and hope the video catches up, or constantly jump back a few seconds and hope the video is maintained this time. Suffice to say, neither way works very well. Thus, I'd propose including an option to wait until the video catches up (via buffer, if one already exists), or a way to prioritize video over sound (not as likely, as video is obviously recorded at a higher bitrate, and thus requires more frequent disk reads).
I suppose I've wasted enough time for one day, I certainly hope you take the time to at least consider these features.
Additionally, I've noticed you are looking for Macintosh developers. If you could point me in the direction of any further information, I'd gladly see what I can do to help out.Thanks again!
~ SP
