Assign File Types to VLC

[Abe Lincoln]

no one in the team has time to code that (even though i agree that adding/deleting/changing registry keys is trivial)

This is a bunch of sorry-ašsed bullshit. No wonder people just use Windows Media Crasher or bugAMP.

It's something that would take 15 minutes to code - I'm sure the 'team" has plenty of time to police these forums (judging by the edits made to an above entry in this thread) - maybe they should take a day off from moderating the forums and go do something more useful.

Blahblahblah platform independant, sorry, that's a load of bullshit no matter what way you try and spin it.

This is like a car dealership selling cars with empty gas tanks, requiring buyers to manually push the cars down the street to the gas station to fill it up themselves, then throwing a hissy shitfit when someone suggests they fill the cars up in advance, blubbering and moaning about "platform dependacy" (what if the Lexus requires 91 octane gas, but the entry level compact car can get by on 87 octane? OMG IT'D BE A WASTE) and how it would take a whole thirty minutes per shipment to get all that gas in the cars.

[The DJ]

And this makes you the customer asking for free cars ???

[j4Ck 7h3 r1pp0r]

no one in the team has time to code that (even though i agree that adding/deleting/changing registry keys is trivial)

This is a bunch of sorry-ašsed bullshit. No wonder people just use Windows Media Crasher or bugAMP.

It's something that would take 15 minutes to code - I'm sure the 'team" has plenty of time to police these forums (judging by the edits made to an above entry in this thread) - maybe they should take a day off from moderating the forums and go do something more useful.

Blahblahblah platform independant, sorry, that's a load of bullshit no matter what way you try and spin it.

This is like a car dealership selling cars with empty gas tanks, requiring buyers to manually push the cars down the street to the gas station to fill it up themselves, then throwing a hissy shitfit when someone suggests they fill the cars up in advance, blubbering and moaning about "platform dependacy" (what if the Lexus requires 91 octane gas, but the entry level compact car can get by on 87 octane? OMG IT'D BE A WASTE) and how it would take a whole thirty minutes per shipment to get all that gas in the cars.

right, this would be 15 minutes of work to code for win32. and another 15 to code the kde/gnome counterpart and encapsulate both versions in #ifdef .. #elif .. #endif directives.
then why don't you stop whining and make the tool, then contribute it.

[sailor.nir]

I see there's lots of discussion about auto file associations.
Whether there's an automatic tool to do it or a preferences tab or neither, why do we have to come to the FORUM to find this info?
I've just spent a bunch of time searching the FAQ and KB, to no avail. Doesn't the solution (whatever it is at any point in time) belong THERE???

Also, for the current solution of just re-running the installer, will that not reset any of my other prefs? I believe the reply to this should also be mentioned in the FAQ/KB.

Thanx,
Nir

[CloudStalker]

Well from what I understand, they (the developers) may be planning on adding something in the preferences that allow the user to change file association to VLC, without the need to reinstall it.

Also, for the current solution of just re-running the installer, will that not reset any of my other prefs?

If you reinstall VLC media player, during removal of the previous program, you will have the option of selecting a box: “Delete preferences and cache”, leave the box unchecked. Reinstall VLC and upon reinstallation leave the box unchecked yet again. It should not delete the changes you’ve made in the preferences menu.

Just to make sure though, you can copy the “vlcrc” file and move the copy to another place on your hard drive where you can access it. The file is located in: C:/Documents and Settings/User (you)/Application Data (folder is hidden, make it visible)/vlc/vlcrc. Copy that last one and move the copy elsewhere.

After VLC is installed, go back to that directory and move the copy into the "vlc" folder; overwriting the current vlcrc file.

[axel1973]

i thank you for cross-platform developement and all the free hard work. but however u cant say and do A and dont do B and C as long u offer also a MS windows version.

u are right. file assosiations is OS part. but u have to think as a simple user, not an IT administrator. if u are building a windows version of vlc you should also be aware of "windows users" and the common way applications assign and re-assign filetypes to itself and not let the user do it filetype by filetype. this may need to enter some "windows only code" to the source. but its just nessesary to build a proper intuitive user-iterface. else there are no or just few users. lets say..

u can have the best working routine or programm...without a intuitive user-friendly interface no one will use it. and for "simple windows users" missing file-associations are a bigger problem than u might believe.

i recommend to implement such a "after installation filetype re-assignement feature"

[Jean-Baptiste Kempf]

NSIS is easy to modify. Patches are welcome.

[Tommahawk]

You should be able to do it natively through the OS, my issue Firefox uses windows media player to play mpg files through a webpage link but when the file is on the hard drive vlc is used

http://kb.mozillazine.org/File_types_an ... ad_actions

[Jean-Baptiste Kempf]

Try nightly builds.

[clamenza]

Oh come on. This is such an essential and universal feature in media players that if the devs don't see the need for it, it's the reason VLC isn't mainstream. Just because it's great doesn't mean it can't go mainstream.

[Jean-Baptiste Kempf]

Oh come on. This is such an essential and universal feature in media players that if the devs don't see the need for it, it's the reason VLC isn't mainstream. Just because it's great doesn't mean it can't go mainstream.

WTF? the feature is present in VLC.

[foobar]

Hello all,

Thank you for the free hard work, VLC is cool. I'm using 0.9.9 (Windows), I downloaded zip version and tried to associate mp4 files (just mp4, nothing else). Some registry entries are written, but association does not work.

-
foobius

[VLC_help]

Could you paste what VLC wrote to your registry when you used the file association setup?

[foobar]

I believe I'm not missing something, but can't be 100% sure because I searched the registry manually. Anyway here it is:

Code: Select all

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00 [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.mp4] @="VLC.mp4" [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\VLC.mp4] @="Media file" [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\VLC.mp4\shell] @="Play" [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FileExts\.mp4] [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FileExts\.mp4\OpenWithList] [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FileExts\.mp4\OpenWithProgids] "VLC.mp4"=hex(0):

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foobius

[VLC_help]

There should be at least shell, shell\Play, shell\Play\command and DefaultIcon for that filetype. Otherwise it won't work. If you cannot find them, there is a bug.

[Noodled24]

This is INSANE.

It's a media player... which does not allow you to specify the media types it should play. Unless you uninstall and reinstall? Seems like a backwards way to do things.
Like telling people the easiest way to go back to the start of a video is to reset your computer. It just makes no sense.

I've used VLC for a while, decided to try a few other media players the other night to better tag my music - they took over most media formats. So my options are now - uninstall VLC. Or spend a not insignificant amount of time tracking down and changing the file associations one at a time?

If the aim for VLC is to get as many users as possible then it might be an idea to work out a means of doing things that don't involve telling the user to uninstall, because once they do, they might end up trying another app.