Feedback on 0.9.2

[colt45]

First I would like to start off and say thank you to all those involved in the development and testing spent on getting 0.9.X out the door. It's a major milestone and I'm sure a lot of sleepless nights occurred.


With that said, please consider this as constructive criticism. Having just installed 0.9.2 after using 0.8.6x there's one major change that severely impacts functionality for the worse.

"Preferences" is missing from the right click context menu that was present from within VLC 0.8.6x and before. With that option removed it severely impacts the use of VLC with certain skins. I am honestly surprised that something so useful was removed and overlooked.


Some other things I noticed during initial testing of 0.9.2

1. Picture quality appears worse after initial install. (blurred, less definition, not sure if this is just related to sharpness setting)
2. Double clicking video will resize to fullscreen. However, if you double click fullscreen, it does not resize to the previous video resolution. Instead the window is resized to a fullscreen window.
3. Double clicking a file launches VLC, but the file does not autoplay as took place in 0.8.6x


NOTE: preferences were deleted before install of 0.9.2

[Jean-Baptiste Kempf]

Right click menu is still present... What are you talking about ?

Picture, quality, what is your OS ? It should be exactly the same.

I don't understand what you mean by fullscreen windows.

[colt45]

Right click menu is still present... What are you talking about ?

In 0.8.6x you could right click on the player or video output and these options would be listed

Preferences.
Media Info

etc...

Edit: After going back and checking 0.9.2 again, it appears that the Audio, Video, Playback menus appear after a file is opened. My apologies on that misunderstanding. However, in the right click menu "Preferences" does still not appear visible at any time.

Picture, quality, what is your OS ? It should be exactly the same.

OS = XP SP3. Nothing has changed with the OS. 0.8.6i was uninstalled, cache and preferences deleted. 0.9.2 was then installed.
Video settings in 0.8.6i were never edited. The PQ difference between the two default installations though is very visible.

I don't understand what you mean by fullscreen windows.

If the controller and video window are separated by selecting a skinable interface, you have a controller and a video window.
If you double click on the video window, the video is fullscreen. If you double click on fullscreen video output, the video does not resize back to the default video resolution. Instead VLC exits fullscreen mode, and leaves the video in a fullscreen window visible on the desktop. In 0.8.6x when you double clicked fullscreen mode to exit, the video would return to default resolution of the video.

[colt45]

One other observation, but this has been present in VLC for a long time.

Select a skin which does not separate the controller from the video output. close VLC. double click on a video file. VLC does not resize itself to accommodate the default resolution of the video file.

However, select a skin which separates the controller from the video output. close VLC. double click on a video file. The video window sizes itself to the correct resolution of the video file.

[Jean-Baptiste Kempf]

Right click menu is still present... What are you talking about ?

In 0.8.6x you could right click on the player or video output and these options would be listed

Preferences.

etc...

Edit: After going back and checking 0.9.2 again, it appears that the Audio, Video, Playback menus appear after a file is opened. My apologies on that misunderstanding. However, in the right click menu "Preferences" does still not appear visible at any time.

Yes, this is wanted, I don't think this is very useful in a right click-menu, since you have it in the main menu and you have shortcuts.

However, if you really think this is necessary, I will re-had that possibility for 1.0, if you add a trac ticket for enhancement.

Picture, quality, what is your OS ? It should be exactly the same.

OS = XP SP3. Nothing has changed with the OS. 0.8.6i was uninstalled, cache and preferences deleted. 0.9.2 was then installed.
Video settings in 0.8.6i were never edited. The PQ difference between the two default installations though is very visible.

What is your video output ? The only thing is that there is no post-processing in that version, but quality should be the same. try different video outputs.

I don't understand what you mean by fullscreen windows.

If the controller and video window are separated by selecting a skinable interface, you have a controller and a video window.
If you double click on the video window, the video is fullscreen. If you double click on fullscreen video output, the video does not resize back to the default video resolution. Instead VLC exits fullscreen mode, and leaves the video in a fullscreen window visible on the desktop. In 0.8.6x when you double clicked fullscreen mode to exit, the video would return to default resolution of the video.

Is this only in skin mode ?

[colt45]

Right click menu is still present... What are you talking about ?

In 0.8.6x you could right click on the player or video output and these options would be listed

Preferences.

etc...

Edit: After going back and checking 0.9.2 again, it appears that the Audio, Video, Playback menus appear after a file is opened. My apologies on that misunderstanding. However, in the right click menu "Preferences" does still not appear visible at any time.

Yes, this is wanted, I don't think this is very useful in a right click-menu, since you have it in the main menu and you have shortcuts.

However, if you really think this is necessary, I will re-had that possibility for 1.0, if you add a trac ticket for enhancement.

It is very useful in the right click menu, because some skins do not have a preferences button. As far as I'm aware, if that happens you have no way to access preferences unless you change your skin to default.

Edit: I also noticed "Media Info is missing from the right click context menu. This is another option that needs to be added back. Otherwise it is not possible to select via a menu in skin mode.

Picture, quality, what is your OS ? It should be exactly the same.

OS = XP SP3. Nothing has changed with the OS. 0.8.6i was uninstalled, cache and preferences deleted. 0.9.2 was then installed.
Video settings in 0.8.6i were never edited. The PQ difference between the two default installations though is very visible.

What is your video output ? The only thing is that there is no post-processing in that version, but quality should be the same. try different video outputs.

"Video Output Module" is set to "default" in a 0.9.2 default installation.

I don't understand what you mean by fullscreen windows.

If the controller and video window are separated by selecting a skinable interface, you have a controller and a video window.
If you double click on the video window, the video is fullscreen. If you double click on fullscreen video output, the video does not resize back to the default video resolution. Instead VLC exits fullscreen mode, and leaves the video in a fullscreen window visible on the desktop. In 0.8.6x when you double clicked fullscreen mode to exit, the video would return to default resolution of the video.

Is this only in skin mode ?

I will have to check

Edit: It does not happen in default mode which I assume is "QT" interface.

When "classic look" is selected, he video window and controller are one piece/together. entering full screen mode and exiting are fine.
When "minimal look with no menus" is selected, the video window is separate from the controller and properly resizes to default resolution when exiting fullscreen mode.



This only appears to happen in skin mode when the controller and video window are separated. If the skin has the controller and video as one unit together, then this does not occur.

[Lucky1987]

got the same problem:
(2. Double clicking video will resize to fullscreen. However, if you double click fullscreen, it does not resize to the previous video resolution. Instead the window is resized to a fullscreen window.)

and this problem:
I installed this tonight after uninstalling the old version (including deleting settings and cache) and have found that when playing videos (e.g. AVI) full-screen in Vista that the new video controls keep popping up on the bottom of the screen every 3 seconds (disappearing in 1 second) -- as if I was moving the mouse every 3 seconds, which I'm not. Any ideas? If there's a previous thread on this, I was unable to find it.

copied it from this topic:
viewtopic.php?f=14&t=50155

[colt45]

Right click menu is still present... What are you talking about ?

j-b, I went back and checked this out more thoroughly. This explains the initial confusion. You might consider this a bug. It is reproducible.


OS = XP SP3
VLC = Skin Mode

Steps
1. double click a video file associated with VLC. ----->>> file opens VLC, VLC does not automatically start playback
2. press play ---------------------------------------------->>> video playback starts
3. right click on VLC controller area ------------------->>> context menu appears, submenus for Audio, Video, Playback NOT visible
4. repeat step 3 ------------------------------------------>>> context menu appears, submenus for Audio, Video, Playback ARE visible

[Jean-Baptiste Kempf]

Well, OK.

All those issues are in skins mode...

Very interesting. Can you file ONE bug report BY issue in the trac and assign them to me ?
I will do them for 0.9+1

[colt45]

Well, OK.

All those issues are in skins mode...

Very interesting. Can you file ONE bug report BY issue in the trac and assign them to me ?
I will do them for 0.9+1

I don't have an account under trac, I'm busy for rest of the day.

I'll try to get a ticket open in about 10 hours when I have free time. Hope that's ok

[DJ]

I installed and played with 0.9.2 yesterday and worked with it for about 6 Hrs. This is what I found:

1. vlc --intf qt --embedded-video (default with no changes to preferences) seems reasonably stable. However there are some oddities playing any video:

a. The system tray is turned on by default and this must stay on. When you go to full screen and happen to press stop on the pop up controller the whole player disappears. The only way to get it to reappear is through the right click menu in the system tray.

2. vlc --intf qt --no-embedded-video (with no changes to preferences)

a. Try going to full screen and back again by any means possible and you will find that the video screen no longer holds the original size of the video, but instead goes to almost a full screen window making it almost imposable to get to the controller.

b. In full screen mode, right clicking on the video has no effect (no menus).

c. There is no controller with mouse movement in this mode either. Including changing the preferences to use a mouse.

3. vlc --intf skins (with no changes to preferences) using the default skin in the embedded mode.

a. The volume control on the controller does not work.

b. Turning on the mouse in preferences also does not work (full screen mode).

4. vlc --intf skins (with no changes to preferences) using the default skin in the nonembedded mode.

a. See 2. a. and 2. b. above.

b. Turning on the mouse in preferences does work (full screen mode), but is very sluggish or stubborn to do so.

5. Setting preferences to download album art (either mode).

a. Causes vlc to randomly crash.

b. Can't find album art anywhere???

c. Calling a directory with existing album art causes the player to crash. This function does work if download album art is in manual mode.

6. Playlist

a. Can't find the default directory for library in preferences or anywhere else I looked, like My Documents (and sub directories) or the VideoLAN directory and its sub directories.

b. The Shoutcast options are a nice touch for the play list, however choosing several stations sequentially (slowly) causes the player to crash or the station will not (randomly) connect. This occurred more with video than audio, however watching or listening the station would randomly just stop playing.

c. Station art is downloaded and stored in Application Data\vlc and it does show up momentarily and then goes away.

7. Making simple changes to preferences like adding mouse functions or setting all the various advanced functions to be shown in preferences seem to make the player unstable in some mode of operation (embedded, nonembedded for qt or skins).

8. Transcoding functions (default preferences). More formats do seem to connect, however the transcoding for these (valid) formats still does not work correctly. FLC to WAV or MP3 is a good example.

While I realize the enormous amount of work, time and energy that has gone into 0.9.2 it (for me at least) is not ready or stable enough for a first release and will stay with 0.8.6i for everyday use on my other Windows boxes.

[Jean-Baptiste Kempf]

Thanks for the report...

I will work on most issues.
However, since Noone really wanted to test the RC builds, we had to go public...

1.a) I believe this is fixed in 1.0-git

2).a) Ok, I will look at it.
b) c) works on linux, same as a)

3) skins is broken. This is known. I will look at it for 1.0

4) same as 2)

5) Backtrace? Messages ?

6) a) %appdata%/vlc/
b) I will check that. Probably locking in the plalist core.
c) Will be fixed in 1.0, core issue.

7) That is what they are advanced

Messages ?

Yes, but we are not enough, understaffed and with noone actually doing some serious testing on windows...

[DJ]

6) a) The library shouldn't be in a hidden directory. The default could be My Documents\VLC My Music or My Videos is more traditional but many people keep media files on a separate drive so an option in preferences would be preferable to override the default.

I did try 0.9.2 RC and skins wouldn't work at all. Unfortunately I learned about the release very late. Perhaps posting on the main page for testers would be advantages for future test versions.

[Jean-Baptiste Kempf]

6) a) The library shouldn't be in a hidden directory. The default could be My Documents\VLC My Music or My Videos is more traditional but many people keep media files on a separate drive so an option in preferences would be preferable to override the default.

I did try 0.9.2 RC and skins wouldn't work at all. Unfortunately I learned about the release very late. Perhaps posting on the main page for testers would be advantages for future test versions.

Well, this can be discused, but most software like iTunes do it like that... We may provide an override ooptions.

[DJ]

In iTunes for Windows the default directory is My Documents\My Music

It's Real Player that (in my opinion) is odd as it uses a shared directory under all users called My Videos.

[Jean-Baptiste Kempf]

I am really not sure about what we should do though.

[DJ]

What would really be slick is, if there could be a library for Music under My Music and a Library for Videos under My Videos each called VLC and that the Libraries location could be overridden in Preferences for those people that use another drive for media storage.

OH! Using a standard .m3u playlist, the titles are not shown in the playlist but they are in the player. In skins mode the titles are not shown in either the playlist or the player.

[Jean-Baptiste Kempf]

I am thinking about this, ok.

[DJ]

OK! Just keep in mind that each user should have their own libraries. Like iTunes and not a communal library like Real Player.

[Jean-Baptiste Kempf]

Well, I am just unsure about how we deal with directories... So far we have:

- DataDir: C:\Program Files\VideoLAN\VLC
- CacheDIr: %appdata%\vlc, where it stores prefs, and plugins cache
- HomeDir: My Documents

[VLC_help]

iTunes goes to My Documents\My Music\iTunes so I suggest My Documents\My Music\VLC

[Jean-Baptiste Kempf]

iTunes goes to My Documents\My Music\iTunes so I suggest My Documents\My Music\VLC

Hmmm... ML + album art?

[Ma-X]

Here are somefeedbacks from me:

-You may add: Audio Menu -> Visualisations -> Cover
-Pause video & subtitles
-Save Cover when added (or show the button save meta-tag)

[Mantech2000]

I am getting following error when i try to open file in D:\Documents and Settings\COMP\Desktop\Track03.mp3
using right click and choosing VLC in "openwith" menu

File reading failed:
VLC could not open the file "and".
Your input can't be opened:
VLC is unable to open the MRL 'and'. Check the log for details.
File reading failed:
VLC could not open the file "Settings\COMP\Desktop\Track03.mp3".
Your input can't be opened:
VLC is unable to open the MRL 'Settings\COMP\Desktop\Track03.mp3'. Check the log for details.


it is not accepting space
following is copied from messages

main info: Running vlc with the default interface. Use 'cvlc' to use vlc without interface.
access_directory error: D:\Documents: No such file or directory
access_file error: cannot open file D:\Documents (No such file or directory)
main error: open of `D:\Documents' failed: could not create access: no suitable access module
access_directory error: and: No such file or directory
access_file error: cannot open file and (No such file or directory)
main error: open of `and' failed: could not create access: no suitable access module
access_directory error: Settings\COMP\Desktop\Track03.mp3: No such file or directory
access_file error: cannot open file Settings\COMP\Desktop\Track03.mp3 (No such file or directory)
main error: open of `Settings\COMP\Desktop\Track03.mp3' failed: could not create access: no suitable access module
access_directory error: Settings\COMP\Desktop\Track03.mp3: No such file or directory
access_file error: cannot open file Settings\COMP\Desktop\Track03.mp3 (No such file or directory)
main error: open of `Settings\COMP\Desktop\Track03.mp3' failed: could not create access: no suitable access module


It plays just fine when i pull the track over opened VLC player

[Jean-Baptiste Kempf]

Here are somefeedbacks from me:

-You may add: Audio Menu -> Visualisations -> Cover
-Pause video & subtitles
-Save Cover when added (or show the button save meta-tag)

Pause video & subtitles is done.

Visualisation cover to get the same as in full mode ?

Save cover is not yet implemented in core. Please add a ticket for this.