Some interface suggestions for 0.9.x

[Jean-Baptiste Kempf]

Hmmm...
Very interesting post.
Few remarks.
Skins2 interface with nice buttons usually need more (or a lot more) CPU than it should. Therefore the main interface will probably stay native. There is the skins2 module to have more things.
Some people like the kind of interface you describe, but some don't. What you will be able to have in next version is an option to hide the controls. Also you have to understand that you need to be really cross-platform. And this is not easy.
About the size of the controls, you have a good point, but KMPlayer doesn't seem to have a slider. Also, some people like to have a bigger interface. Since I am looking for someone to actually design the buttons, I am a bit in a problem.
About the icons in the menu, I have to disagree. Office applications have it, and it helps the newbies.

[Jean-Baptiste Kempf]

* I don't see why you say they don't fit on Windows or KDE. The icons are designed because the popup Menu is big and long.

* The skins are not that unstable and have been improved.

* KMPlayer interface like are even less integrated to the different OSes than the actual one.

* There is some advanced toolbar that can show more buttons than the normal one.

* I don't see why you suggest to remove preferences, extended panels and fullscreen from the default bar. They are useful and don't make the interface take less space. Same for slower/faster on the edge of the slider.

* Competitions have failed. But we program to have one for skins2

[CloudStalker]

So usually people use players like VLC to play videos on PCs. Mostly while they browse or do something else in the background so screen real estate is really important for most of us as the common resolution ranged from 1024-1280x768-1024. Take an example; you want to play a video while you are browsing so you use your video player to start a video and drag it to the corner. Once the video has started you hardly need to touch the controls for the player except to vary audio or to skip the video which can be done by the arrow keys. The point is that there is no need for the interface once the video starts playing and one can gain a lot of screen space by just getting rid of the controls and just displaying the video. I think this should be made possible in VLC.

Hmmm...
Very interesting post.

I agree. This is somewhat similar to the Interface Houdini and Interface Transparency idea. I think I see something else that could be useful too; I'll post it in the QT4 thread a little later.

Secondly when you need the interface it should be available by just hovering over the video. Just like most media players do when the video is in full screen mode.

Yeah many user have suggested this too, something that works like Media Player Classic would be great so that when you move the mouse to the top or bottom it'll display individual menus.

Lastly the latest trunk builds are using icons in the menus. The thing with icons in menus is that they never merger with all OS so they appear ok on some while totally alien on others. Windows and KDE (mostly) don't have icons for menu entries and the icons being used right now make it look "gnomy" so I am not sure if using icons in menus is such a great idea. The main reason some applications might use icons in their menus is because they have a lot of options and it is easier to identify some frequently used one like save, open etc. VLC doesn't even have that many options so I don't think there is need for icons to make some entries stand out.

I've never really minded the icons in the menu entries but maybe for those that don't like em they can turn them off in the Preferences menu. That's completely up to you j-b, no pressure.

* I don't see why you suggest to remove preferences, extended panels and fullscreen from the default bar. They are useful and don't make the interface take less space. Same for slower/faster on the edge of the slider.

I actually have an idea for this that might make everyone (except for developers) happy. I hope to post it before week's end.

[CloudStalker]

Um it only makes sense to move this to Feature Request topic since that what it is.

Moved.

[Jean-Baptiste Kempf]

I don't see how removing some buttons, that are useful to some people, and that wouldn't make the interface take less place would help...

However, there is already a function that hides the entire interface and just let you Menu+Video, you don't like it ?

According to what principle double-clicking is "more intuitive" than a button ?
Why removing a stop button can help ?

Removing preferences button, why not...

[joseph5]

The thing is most people don't use slow/fast buttons a lot. How often would you need to change the speed of a video? Not very often IMHO.

When you're watching TV shows with commercials, you need to fast forward through them, unless you like them.

[hfswjyr]

I think everyone likes different interfaces on their media players, thats why everyone wants something different.
Personally, I prefer less buttons, but not everyone will appreciate the same.

Has anyone thought to implement the "customize" idea? For example, here is a screenshot of my Firefox Browser.



Notice how the top bar is missing a lot of buttons? I only ever really need the back button because everything else I don't use frequently and I can do it on my keyboard. Firefox lets me "drag" the buttons I don't need out of the browser window. Perhaps that could solve VLC's interface debate as well?

[CloudStalker]

I think everyone likes different interfaces on their media players, thats why everyone wants something different.
Personally, I prefer less buttons, but not everyone will appreciate the same.

Has anyone thought to implement the "customize" idea? For example, here is a screenshot of my Firefox Browser.



Notice how the top bar is missing a lot of buttons? I only ever really need the back button because everything else I don't use frequently and I can do it on my keyboard. Firefox lets me "drag" the buttons I don't need out of the browser window. Perhaps that could solve VLC's interface debate as well?

Yes I have actually, the same exact idea as the Firefox "Customize" option where you can move buttons around or remove them completely from the interface. I've made a mockup of it, I'll post it while I still have a little time.

Exactly the same thing.

[Jean-Baptiste Kempf]

I am sorry, but I disagree, once again:
First, I already removed the preferences button on the interface.
Then, I smalled down the size of the VLC under Linux (windows will follow)
Finally, I implemented on right click on speed a full slider to adjust the speed way more precisely than the predefined speeds.

[kjempe]

OK,

all in all I do agree with the default look of VLC in Windows and OSX. I do not agree, however, with the ugly buttons in the default skin. I mockup'ed a Tango!ish toolbar, which I'd love to have on my machine. VLC doesn't allow me to change the buttons or at least I haven't found a possibility to do that. Does anyone have clues how to accomplish this?



Regards,

Paul

[funman]

you'd have to replace the pixmaps in the source, modules/gui/qt4/pixmaps directory

[Jean-Baptiste Kempf]

Btw, the Ctrl+H shortcut to hide the interface works

[CloudStalker]

I have a question though: could the option to hide the menus and controls also compress or collapse that part of the interface? So instead of the controls just disappearing the interface is actually re-sized to take over that space until the opposite action is done.

[Jean-Baptiste Kempf]

Yes, I am working on it right now.

[CloudStalker]

Always one step.... Great.

[Jean-Baptiste Kempf]

Always one step.... Great.

We are that far from a working interface ?