How can I play a borderless window in the screen's center?

[deathletter]

I am running VLC through a projector, projecting a movie on my wall. I don’t want any window decorations, and I know how to turn those off. However, I don’t want to run in full screen, because of the shape of the wall I’m projecting on. So, I figured I could just put on decorations, move the video to where I want it, then turn the decorations off.

But when I turn them off, nothing happens – I have to restart VLC. This makes sense. But then, when I restart it, the video window automatically goes to the top left of the screen. And since window decorations are off, I can’t move the window to the center, where I want it! I’m hoping there is some way to toggle window decorations in real time, like you can with full-screen.

Summary: I want to have a video playing in the center of my screen, with no borders/windowdecorations at all.

Thanks for any advice. Please let me know if this question is unclear.

[Rémi Denis-Courmont]

On Windows, I think there is the --no-video-deco option (which probably depends on --no-embedded-video). On other systems, I think this is not currently implemented.

[deathletter]

Yes, there is this option, but the problem is that the borderless window goes to the top left of the screen. So, when you do --no-embedded-video, you can move the video window anywhere you want. But then if you use --no-video-deco, the window goes to the top left of the screen. I want a borderless window running in the screen's center though.

[erwan10]

Have you considered the vlc skins2 interface ?

The latest vlc1.2.0-git version now allows relative placement of a window within the screen. You can for instance alter the default skin to meet your requirements. (just need some very basic knowledge of xml)

[deathletter]

Ah, I understand. I know what I'm doing, but don't really have knowledge of xml... would you mind giving me a brief run through on how to alter the default skin?

[Rémi Denis-Courmont]

VLC can't read what you want from your mind. If you want to position the video window, there's --video-x and --video-y, subject to the window manager not overriding the values.

[deathletter]

(Sorry for the late response, I had a relative in the hospital.)

Positioning along the x-axis and y-axis sounds like what I need... where can I find these options? I'm sorry, but I don't understand the "--video-x" terminology... Thanks for your help.