Customizing VLC 2.0's Mac interface

[fkuehne]

Hello guys,

I just did a post on my blog explaining the most asked ways for customizing the Mac interface introduced in the 2.0 release.

How can I hide the sidebar?

Is there a way to get rid of the playlist?

Can see the playlist while watching a video?

Answered here: http://feepk.net/customizing-vlc-for-mac

[punk0t]

Hi Felix,

thanks for that post. I watched it as well as I did an intensive search for my problem. I want to see further columns to the playlist, i.e. title numbers. All hints I found refer to any Windows Versions of VLC. Do you have useful hints?

Thanks in advance
Thomas

[fkuehne]

Hi Thomas,

So far, this feature isn't supported on the Mac. However, I've implemented it about two weeks ago. It will be part of VLC's next major release 2.1. It is available through our nightly builds, but is still considered as unstable.

Cheers,

Felix

[punk0t]

Hi again,

just want to say thanks for your response and - most important - for implementing

CU

[kdunk]

I've used VLC for mac for several years for individual videos, and I appreciate all the updates in VLC 2. I'd like to use it for browsing an extensive video collection of short home video clips (music lessons). The clips are arranged in folders on my Mac Mini, and the My Videos feature works well for browsing them and selecting the video I want to play. But there's one annoying feature that I can't seem to turn off. Whenever I open a folder, the first video plays. I can stop it with a keyboard shortcut (command-.), but that still takes a second. I'd like to open a folder, find the video I want to play, and then start playback by clicking on it. Is there a setting that will change this behavior in VLC? Or would there be a better way to organize my clips (over 200 short clips -- I need to organize them in groups to keep browsing manageable). Any advice or suggestions welcome.

[kdean]

Maybe try:

Preferences -> Show All -> Playlist

Deselect Auto start. Save and restart VLC.

[kdunk]

Many thanks. I'm not sure I even saw the 'show all' option, and I didn't realize that there were more preferences than you could find on the main panes. I'm not sure unchecking auto-start for the Playlist setting will do it, since these aren't playlists, but are individual files. But there are quite a few more settings to look through and try out. I may have luck with as setting in Interface settings.

[joeblow8579]

Is there a way to adjust the behavior of the main "fast forward/rewind" buttons in the 2.x interface? Previously (up until 2.0), those buttons performed a "Short Backwards/Forwards Jump", versus their current behavior of "Next/Previous Track." The 2.x behavior is a deal breaker for me. I have no interest in Next/Previous Track, and lots and lots of interest in easily being able to rewind a few seconds. I use those buttons all the time for that purpose, so I've resisted upgrading to 2.x to preserve their functionality.

I realize I could customize keyboard hotkeys to do the short jumps, but I'd prefer to be able to do it with the mouse as well as the keyboard. I don't see any way to customize the main control toolbar's interface, and don't see any way to change those buttons' behavior. Is this possible, or do I need to go back to VLC 1.x?

[kdean]

Press and hold the buttons briefly for scanning.

[joeblow8579]

I don't want scanning, I want a single press 7 second rewind/fast forward. Like a "I missed what s/he just said, let me quickly rewind to catch it."

I have no clue why this was changed from 1.x to 2.x. I don't know anyone who likes the new behavior. At some point, is the OSX version going to pick up the ability to customize the toolbar like the Windows version has? If not, could we get an advanced option to change the behavior of those two buttons?

[kdean]

You'll be able to have both the rew/ff and prev/next buttons again in VLC 2.1 when that's released.

[joeblow8579]

You'll be able to have both the rew/ff and prev/next buttons again in VLC 2.1 when that's released.

Fabulous, thanks for the info. Will the rew/ff buttons behave like the 1.x buttons did by default? In 1.x, they did a short forwards or backwards jump, which was perfect, especially since you can customize the length of that jump in the options.

[schwartez]

Hello, I was hoping to see if it is possible to set a video to play in 2.1 Stereo instead of 5.1 Surround. If possible, I would like to set 2.1 Stereo as the default. I'm on an Intel iMac running OS X 10.5.8.

[schwartez]

Also, I often play videos on my TV by connecting it to my iMac. When I do this, the videos look really dark on my TV. I usually just go into the Video Controls and up the Brightness. Is there a better way to do this?

[kdean]

Adjusting Gamma should yield a more natural result for the difference between a computer and tv.

[schwartez]

Thanks, kdean, I'll give that a try!

[joeblow8579]

kdean,
Today I downloaded VLC 2.1.0, and I'm not seeing any new interface elements (see my previous posts in this thread for more detail). I don't see any FF/Rew buttons aside from the "Next/Previous" buttons that debuted with 2.0. As I said before, I'm looking for a return of the "very short skip" buttons that existed in VLC 1.x. Am I missing something in the settings? I didn't see anything that would add the buttons to the interface, and the default behavior of the buttons that exist there are the same Next/Previous that the other 2.x versions have had.

[kdean]

Under the menu View --> Show Previous and Next Buttons.

Although it looks like they introduced some inconsistency now if you play video in a separate window.

If you turn on the second set of buttons. The playlist window has a short click on the RW/FF jump briefly as expected, but the video window still interprets a short click as a chapter jump and the extra buttons aren't added to the video window.

Playing video in the Main Window seems to be fine with the added buttons.

[joeblow8579]

Great, thanks for the information. It behaves pretty much as I want now, and I'm able to customize the very short jump length in the options, so I'm back where I was in 1.x. I only play in the main window.

Thank you for your help.

[sebnapi]

I modified my VLC to show the video in a borderless window, it looks awesome, but i miss the option to show the controls, which we all know from the fullscreen mode, in windowed mode. This would be a very nice and IMHO easy to implement option which others would like too.

Thanks!

[basstrax]

Hey sebnapi!
How were you able to do that? For the past several months I've had just that! (borderless window) Problem is, I don't know what I did to make it happen! It was kinda on accident. But since updating to 2.1.1, I have not been able to make the window borderless. I've tried changing all the preference settings as recommended all over the internet, but no luck! Thanks for any help!

[secretman]

Under the menu View --> Show Previous and Next Buttons.

Although it looks like they introduced some inconsistency now if you play video in a separate window.

If you turn on the second set of buttons. The playlist window has a short click on the RW/FF jump briefly as expected, but the video window still interprets a short click as a chapter jump and the extra buttons aren't added to the video window.

Playing video in the Main Window seems to be fine with the added buttons.

Thank you, I was not able to find this option. Why aren't the controls the same by default in fullscreen mode and regular window mode? It doesn't make sense. Besides this, I want to see the stop button in fullscreen mode. Is there any way to do this??

[dfuhrmann]

You cannot customize the fullscreen controller.

Why do you deperately need a stop button? Please check out the main menu, or just hit Cmd + . to stop playback.

[ibolg254]

Hi
I am new to BluRay
I can't even download the needed file "libaacs.dylib" because it's taking hours to load down (931 kB) - lol
The next problem for me would be, where to put it, your instruction says: ~/lib directory - what means ~ ?
Do I have to put it in the hidden library like the "key database" ?

Facts: VLC player Version 2.1.5 Rincewind (Intel 64bit)
iMac 21" Mavericks OS 10.9.4
BD Player Samsung SE-506

thx for help
Rolf

[sunjo]

Hey sebnapi!
How were you able to do that? For the past several months I've had just that! (borderless window) Problem is, I don't know what I did to make it happen! It was kinda on accident. But since updating to 2.1.1, I have not been able to make the window borderless. I've tried changing all the preference settings as recommended all over the internet, but no luck! Thanks for any help!

Yes I would also like to know how one can get the borderless window.

My brother has it on his VLC (version 2.1.4 tho) - we're both running on Yosemite and I think we have the same settings but I don't understand why I can't make it work.
Does anyone know how to do it ?


Thanks!!