multiple instances of player

[neyugn]

Would anyone know how to enable this option on the mac version--Windows is no problem, but for some strange reason VLC doesn't have this option on their mac!

Thanks!

[daviddevereauxweber]

I would also like to have the ability to spawn multiple instances of vlc on Apple OS X.

Dave

[LazyGourmet]

You can always duplicate the .app and do it that way.

[fkuehne]

... or you can use the Terminal to launch it multiple times. The command is "/Applications/VLC.app/Contents/MacOS/VLC", if it is installed to the global Applications and wasn't renamed. Please ignore the output in the terminal window

Just for your interest: This option isn't available on Macs for a reason, as running the same multiple times is strongly against Apple's usability guidelines.

[freedumb2000]

Just for your interest: This option isn't available on Macs for a reason, as running the same multiple times is strongly against Apple's usability guidelines.

That is true...but if you look at QuickTime for example you can see that it defaults to allow multiple video windows to be opened at the same time. Just drag a video on the .app icon and it will open a new window for each video. This kind of behaviour would be of great use for VLC as well.

[fkuehne]

Yep, indeed. There used to be idea how to implement this, but due to technical limitations of our current architecture, I fear this may take until 0.9.1, thus at least half a year.

[fkuehne]

Yep, indeed. There used to be ideas how to implement this, but due to technical limitations of our current architecture, I fear this may take until 0.9.1, thus at least half a year.

[kirby900]

How about now? Are multiple instances of VLC supported yet?

[fkuehne]

Well, yes, you can launch VLC as often as you like using the Mac OS X Terminal. With currently released versions, it is impossible to view multiple inputs within a single instance though.

[heruan]

Will in future releases be possible to view multiple inputs within a single instance (in Mac OS X Lion)?
It would be very useful to view network camera streams, maybe in a grid layout or just multiple windows!

[fkuehne]

Sorry, but no. For this purpose, it would probably make sense to create a custom application based upon the VLC engine, which can rather easily accomplish this goal.
In mainline VLC, this is almost impossible to do.

[mkeller]

As a workaround, I use this Droplet:

Code: Select all

on run do shell script "open -n /Applications/VLC.app" end run on open theFiles repeat with theFile in theFiles do shell script "open -na /Applications/VLC.app " & quote & (POSIX path of theFile) & quote end repeat end open

Paste it into a new AppleScript Editor script and save as application. Launch it to get a separate instance of VLC, or drop one or more files onto it.

[Vega]

I Love the above script! Well done, mkeller! It works like a charm.

Now I just want to set that application to be the default opening program for mp3's, but as soon as I click the "Change All" button in the "Get Info" window for that file type, it changes to iTunes.

Does anybody know how I can get this little script .app to be able to open all mp3's (for example) by default? I can set it to open individual files by default, no problem, but I cannot get it to stay when I click "Change All".

I am running OSX 10.7.3

Cheers,
Vega

[tomyt]

Does anybody know how I can get this little script .app to be able to open all mp3's (for example) by default? I can set it to open individual files by default, no problem, but I cannot get it to stay when I click "Change All".

I am running OSX 10.7.3

Cheers,
Vega

I have the same issue. If I go to "get info" and change the default app, it reverts back to quicktime (for avi files). It won't work for the script. Any help?

[hyperwind]

I NEED the same. Mac OS X allows multiple WINDOWS for any application, so cut the crap please.
Devs just have to implement this into VLC for MAC.

I may as well explain why it's so needed, all right: one window with its own playlist is DEDICATED to watching a series, positioned remembered, another windows is for occasional movie with friends etc.
Also, it would be great to finally remove the BUG - playlist is emptied every time you just quit and get back to VLC. Why??? There's no sane reason for that!

[dfuhrmann]

so cut the crap please.

We eagerly await your patch, if this is so uber important.

Also, it would be great to finally remove the BUG - playlist is emptied every time you just quit and get back to VLC. Why??? There's no sane reason for that!

This is not a bug, its intended behaviour. You need to save a playlist if you want to preserve a certain set of files. And the media library is an auto-saving playlist, so its exactly what you ask for. Just look at the documentation before complaining...

[soul_in_a_fishbowl]

Just look at the documentation before complaining...

On another note,

if you do end up using mkeller's workaround and then end up with way too many instances open, here is a script to force close all of them:

Code: Select all

tell application "System Events" set processlist to (unix id of every process whose name begins with "VLC") repeat with someunix in processlist do shell script "kill -KILL " & someunix end repeat end tell