Tuesday, October 03, 2006

Highlights of my new VLC setup

My previous post was kinda long, so I wanted to make a quick post about the new features that my new VLC setup affords me...

New features:

* Screenshots - I can now take screenshots of the video that's playing. In my vlc conf file, I set the snapshot directory to be in my MythImages location, in a VideoCaptures subdirectory. This way I can view them with MythImages. I also have access to that folder through a Samba share, so I can pull them down on my laptop. I mapped the "Record" button to the snapshot command:

# Snapshots
begin
prog = vlc
button = Record
repeat = 3
config = key-snapshot
end


* Audio Syncing - I can now delay/speed up audio at 50ms increments. This is huge, sometimes my video slides out of sync, or the video just plays out of sync. This way, with my remote buttons, I can adjust it at play time with my remote. I mapped the Green and Red buttons to audio syncing:

# Audio Delay UP
begin
prog = vlc
button = Green
repeat = 3
config = key-audiodelay-up
end

# Audio Delay DOWN
begin
prog = vlc
button = Red
repeat = 3
config = key-audiodelay-down
end


* Subtitles - This is pretty huge too... If you ever backup one of your DVDs to your myth box as VTS files, you may want to view subtitles. With my new vlc setup, I can now do this with the "Blank" button:

# Subtitles
begin
prog = vlc
button = Blank
repeat = 3
config = key-subtitle-track
end


* Others - I also mapped keys for volume up/down, and for video speed-up/slow-down. The former is very helpful for quieter videos. In the past, I found myself logging in with my laptop and running alsamixer. This is much easier. For the latter, I haven't found much use, since the audio doesn't play with the speeded-up/slowed-down video.. But hey, I had extra buttons.

I might later on try setting up bookmarks with the number keys, but we'll see. I'm crossing my fingers that there are other commands that aren't listed in the vlc config file, because I'm having way too much fun mapping these to my remote!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

you know mplayer supports audio sync?
default keys (which suck) are:
- = -200ms
+ = 200ms
a small config change and voila.

Blake said...

Nice, I didn't know that. I'm much happier with VLC now, though. It's doing a better job with mpeg4, and doesn't fall out of sync like mplayer did.

thanks for the tip