Bug#522825: vlc: tools | preferences usually don't work

[Gary Dale]

Gary Dale wrote:
> Christophe Mutricy wrote:
>> tag 522825 + moreinfo
>>
>> 2009/4/6 Gary Dale <garydale at rogers.com>:
>>  
>>>> The separate control and video windows can't be turned off,
>>>>       
>> That to works around a race condition causing crashes. Better detached
>> video than no video
>>
>>   
> Perhaps, but I never had any problem before.
>
>>> the video window doesn't remember where it was the last time it was 
>>> opened,
>>>     
>> not sure if it is a window manager or vlc bug but yes quite possible.
The control window remembers but the video window doesn't. The player 
doesn't remember volume or mute settings either.

>>
>>  
>>> the playback speed controls are missing,
>>>     
>> They are on each side of the timeline and by right clicking on the
>> "x1.00" in the status bar
>>   
> Not obvious if they are there. Why did you remove the normal 
> double-chevrons? All I saw were the jump to previous/next videos. 
> Removed the current version and went back to the Etch version.
Re-tried the Squeeze version of VLC. I found the fast-forward/reverse 
buttons. Silly place to put them. Why not leave them with the other 
transport controls? And making them so small relative to the other 
controls is not user-friendly.

>
>
>>  
>>> the video seems to use more resources / is choppier than in the 
>>> previous version,
>>>     
>> All videos? can you specify with which codec it happen? which video
>> output do you use ?
>>
>> Also I notice you're using unofficial ffmpeg and libav* that could be
>> what bit you here.
>>   
> I've been playing back avi, mpeg, wmv, mpeg2, DVDs, etc.. Doesn't seem 
> to matter which one. As for the unofficial, I just used  whatever 
> Debian or debian-multimedia provided.
Playing back any file now gives me a b&w 1/4 width picture in a 
full-width window (the right 75% of the screen is black, the rest of the 
picture is squashed into the left 25%). And Aptitude seems to think I 
have the latest versions of ffmpeg & whatever libav files I'm using. 
Could be Debian Multimedia uses something else, but I've never had any 
problems with their stuff before. It's just VLC that is acting up.

>
>>  
>>> the new control  bar has ugly icons,
>>>     
>> 1) test and color are a personnal thing
>> 2) make sure you're qt4 theme is correctly setup (cd. qtconfig-qt4)
>> 3) use the skin interface (or ncurse) if you really dislike qt4
>>   
> Skins don't seem to work (see next problem)
>
>>  
>>> However the problem I'm complaining about is that the tools | 
>>> preferences don't seem to do anything.
>>>     
>>
>> You'll have to be more precise than that. what kind of settings ? have
>> stop/start what you're playing after applying the setting? have you
>> stop and restart vlc ? Are the permissions on ~/.config/vlc/vlcrc
>> correct? does the file get modified when you save a preference 
> I have no indication that any of the preference settings actually do 
> anything.  As for testing, I'll have to "upgrade" back to the current 
> version which I detest.  :)
>
> As for the permissions, they have me as owner with me as the group 
> also. Only the owner has write permissions. The files were last 
> modified on April 16, which sounds about right.
>
>
Some settings do seem to work now. I just made an incorrect video 
setting and couldn't get back into VLC. I had to blow away the vlcrc 
file. So yes, I am able to write to the files. However, it still doesn't 
help me much. The player is still a bug-ridden, unfriendly and now 
useless piece of garbage. I'm going back to the Etch version.