Tricks and Tips: VLC player

VLC player, a media player capable of playing all (or almost all anyways) video files without the annoying need to install codecs.

But most of you probably already know that, so I am here to show you a few customizations to make it even better. VLC is full of tons and tons of customizations, but unfortunately the labels are full of jargon that even the most experienced of computer users will have a hard time with.

General Info & Tips:

• Preferences window can be brought up using: Tools > Preferences
• In the Preferences window the user can switch between "All Settings" and "Simple Settings" using the "Show Settings" menu in the lower left corner
• Hovering the mouse over a configuration element for a few seconds will show more detailed info about the configuration element
• Preferences>All>Interface>Main interfaces>Qt is configuration page for startup options

Useful Configuration Options:
1. Allow Volume to be set to 400%.
While their are certain methods to set the volume to 400% without this option set, setting this option will allow you to set the volume all the way to 400% using every volume changing method and will show all the way to 400% on the graph.

Preferences>All>Interface>Main interfaces>Qt>"Allow the volume to be set to 400%" (~ middle of screen)

2. Do not resize window on file change.
Preferences>All>Interface>Main interfaces>Qt>"Resize interface to native video size" (~ 1/3 of window down from top)
Turn option off.

3. Subtitle detection path.
If you are like me you hate having all those ugly subtitles files in your movie directory, but want to have them available; The solution is custom subtitle auto detection paths. Subtitle auto detection paths are the directories used by VLC player to search for subtitles for the curentally playing video, the default being the directory that the video is in (.\).
The paths are separated by the "," character.
Personally I use ".\subtitles,..\subtitles,..\..\subtitles,.\",
this searches in the current directory, and any directory named subtitles either in the current directory the parent directory or the parents parent directory.

Preferences>All>Video>Subtitles/OSD>"Subtitles autodetection paths" (~middle of screen)

4. Auto detect subtitles but do not load.
To auto detect the videos subtitles, but not to start using them.

Preferences>All>Input / Codecs>"Subtitles track" (in first sub section "Track Settings")
Set to 0(zero).
Preferences>All>Input / Codecs>"Subtitles track ID" (in first sub section "Track Settings")
Set to 0(zero).


(VLC version 1.0.5)