Simple Preferences

See discussion please

Read this first

The current preferences use a tree that matches the vlc internal mechanisms. The new preferences don't have to use this tree. We can use whatever we want. My first thought is a 1-level sorting, with the main topics displayed with images on the left pane and preferences pages on the right pane.

We can select preferences items one by one, we don't need the full pages that are currently used

VLC definitively needs a "simple" preferences window. Here is a list of some of the settings which would be needed:

Now, proceed

I will agree with the basic premise, VLC needs a simple preferences menu. But if you can't see the current tree of simple preferences as they exist presently how can you have the discussion as to include them or not? There also maybe a few that are not now in the simple preferences that should be or a few that best be handled in a different way or done away with entirely. But how can you see them to be able to relate to them or know out of context? Plus the fact that you will never be sure that you have reviewed them all and the new simple preferences will go through several changes while the end user is still confused and or ends up locking down the advanced options. -- User:DJ I disagree we all work enough with VLC to know the preference menu almost by heart and have VLC installed to check if needed (and that differ between OS and build). Now, with every thing, how do you see which pref is to be included in "the simple preferences" ?!? Xtophe Considering you know it so well you should realize, only the simple preferences are here. -- User:DJ

Perhaps going through the tree and marking everything that can't or shouldn't be changed would make it easier to see and find things. -- User:DJ

(?) = to be decided, (!) = shouldn't be changed, ! = can't be changed.

• Audio !
  • Enable Audio
  • Default audio volume
  • Use S/PDIF when available
  • Force detection of Dolby surround
    • Filters
      • Equalizer with 10 bands
      • Headphone virtual specialization effect
      • Volume normalizer
      • Parametric equalizer
        • Equalizer
          • Equalizer preset
        • Headphone effect
          • Characteristic dimension
        • Volume normalizer
        • Parametric equalizer
          • All Presets (?)
      • Output modules (?) -- Disagree. Only needs to be modified in case of problems -- User:Zorglub --> It's still one of the options which many people have to change, having it handy will be useful -- User:DJ. If we show it up, we should only include really useful modules, like DirectX/Waveout only for aout under windows. Don't show file and dummy for instance User:Zorglub
        • DirectX Audio output -- It'd be best to not have any "module specific" option in these simple prefs. We could have an "Output device" option ... which could be shared by each of the audio output modules. -- User:Dionoea. Very hard to do. Much simpler is to ask for all of them to show. Only those compiled in will show up. Very easy. User:Zorglub
          • Output device
        • File
          • Output file (?)
        • Waveout
      • Visualizations
        • Goom
          • Goom Display height (?)
          • Goom display Width (?)
          • Goom Animation speed (?)
        • Visualizer
          • Video width
          • Video height

• Video
  • Enable video output
  • Full screen video output
  • Skip Frames (?) -- Please change the default to off, effects some newer vid cards adversely. -- User:DJ
  • Overlay video output
  • Always on top
  • Video snapshot directory
  • Video snapshot format
  • Display video snapshot preview (?)
  • Video cropping (?)
  • Source aspect ratio (?)
  • aspect ratio (?) -- a seldom used function for most users. -- User:DJ
  • Windows decorations (?)
    • Filters
      • Image properties filter
      • Clone video filter
      • Crop video filter
      • Deinterlacing video filter
      • Distort video filter
      • Invert video filter
      • Magnify/zoom interactive video filter
      • Motion blur filter
      • Motion detect video filter
      • Video scaling filter
      • Video transformation filter
      • Wall video filter
        • Image adjust
          • All Image properties (?)
        • Clone
          • Number of clones
        • Crop
          • Crop geometry (?)
          • Automatic cropping
        • Deinterlace
          • Deinterlace mode
          • Streaming deinterlace mode
        • Distortion
          • Distort mode
          • Gradient image type
          • Apply cartoon effect
        • Motion blur
          • Blur factor
        • Motion detect
        • Transform
          • Transform type
        • Image wall
          • Number of columns
          • Number of rows
          • Element aspect ratio
      • Output module -- Disagree. Only needs to be modified in case of problems -- User:Zorglub --> It's still one of the options which many people have to change, having it handy will be usefull -- User:Dionoea
        • Image file
          • Image format
          • Recording ratio
          • File name prefix
          • Always write to the same file
        • Open GL
          • Effect
        • DirectX
          • Name of desired display device
          • Enable wallpaper mode (?)
      • Subtitles/OSD
        • Enable subpictures (?)
        • Onscreen display
        • Autodetect subtitles
        • Freetype 2 font renderer
        • Logo video filter
        • Marque display
        • Mosaic video sub filter
        • RSS and Atom feed display
        • Time display sub filter
          • Text renderer
            • Font
            • Text default color
            • Relative font size
            • Font effect
          • Logo overlay
            • Logo file names
            • Transparency of the logo
            • Logo position
          • Marquee
            • Text
            • Marquee position
            • Opacity
            • Color
            • Font size, pixels
            • Timeout
          • Mosaic -- this should *NOT* be in the simple prefs Dionoea
            • Transparency
            • Height
            • Width
            • Position method
            • Number of rows
            • Number of columns
            • Keep aspect ratio
            • Keep orignal size
            • Elements order
            • Delay
            • Blue screen
            • Blue scerrn U value
            • Blue screen V value
            • Blue screen U tolerance
            • Blue screen V tolerance
          • RSS / Atom
            • Fixed URLs
            • Text position
            • Opacity
            • Color
            • Font size, pixels
            • Speed of feeds
            • Max length
            • Refresh time
            • Feed images
          • Time overlay
            • Text position
            • Opacity
            • Color

• Input / Codecs
  • Audio language
  • Subtitle language
  • DVD device
  • VCD device
  • Audio CD device
  • UDP port -- err ... what does that mean ? -- User:Dionoea I have refered users here to change the UDP/RTP (multicast) Port. -- User:DJ
  • Force IPv4
  • Force IPv6
    • Access filters
      • Record
        • Record directory (?)
      • Timeshift
        • Timeshift directory
    • Access Modules
      • Directory
        • Subdirectory behavior
        • Ignored extensions
      • Fake
      • File
      • FTP -- Those ftp settings should be used on a per stream basis, not as a global settings. I thus don't think that they're really needed in the prefs Dionoea
        • FTP username
        • FTP password
        • FTP acount
      • HTTP(S)
        • HTTP proxy
        • Caching value in ms -- why would we only include http caching and not all other caching options ? -- User:Dionoea Because that's almost the only one people will really want to change. We might want to add MMS. User:Zorglub
      • MMS
        • Maximum bitrate
      • Real RTSP
      • SMB -- same comment as FTP Dionoea
        • SMB username
        • SMB password
        • SMB domain
      • TCP
      • UDP/RTP
      • Audio CD
      • DVD with menu
        • DVD angle -- do people ever use this ? Dionoea
        • Start directly in menu
      • DVD without menu
        • DVD angle -- do people ever use this ? Dionoea
      • Screen
      • VCD
      • DirectShow
        • Video device name
        • Audio device name
        • Video size
    • Audio codecs
      • A/52
        • A/52 dynamic range compression
      • DCA
        • DTS dynamic range compression
      • Tolame
        • Encoding quality
        • Stereo mode
        • VBR mode
        • Psycho-acoustic model
      • Vorbis
        • Encoding quality
        • Maximum encoding bitrate
        • Minimum encoding bitrate
        • CBR encoding
    • Demuxers
      • RTP/RTSP
      • Matroska
      • AVI
        • Force index creation
      • Dump
        • Dump filename
        • Append to existing file
      • H264
      • MJPEG
        • Frames per Second
      • MOD
        • Noise reduction
        • Reverb
        • Mega bass
        • Surround
      • MPC
        • Replay gain type
      • Playlist
        • Auto start
        • Show shoutcast adult content
      • Subtitles
      • MPEG-TS
        • Filename of dump
        • Append
    • Other codecs
      • FFmpeg
        • Workaround bugs
        • Hurry up
        • Post processing quality
        • Quality level
        • Ratio of key frames
        • Ratio of B frames
        • Hurry up
      • dvbsub
        • Decoding X coordinates
        • Decoding Y coordinates
        • Encoding X coordinates
        • Encoding Y coordinates
      • Subtitles
        • Subtitles justification
        • Sibtitles text encoding
        • UTF-8 subtitles autodetection
        • Formated subtitles
      • SVCD subtitles
    • Video codecs
      • Fake
        • Image file
        • Deinterlace video
        • Deinterlace module
      • Theora
        • Encoding quality
      • x264
        • All setings are same as Advance options (?)
• Stream output
  • Keep stream output open (?) -- That shouldn't be in the prefs but in the stream configuration wizards and dialogs -- User:Dionoea Is there basic cases where we don't want to keep it open. I would be to changed the default to true in libvlc -- Xtophe
    • Access output
      • File
      • HTTP
      • Shoutcast
        • Stream name
        • Stream discription
      • UDP
    • Muxers
      • MPEG-TS
      • ASF
      • MP4
      • MPJPEG
      • MPEG-PS
    • Packetizers
      • packetizer_mpegvideo
    • SAP
    • Sout stream
      • Display
      • ES
      • RTP
      • Standard
        • Output access method
        • Output muxer
        • Output destination
      • Transcode
        • Video encoder
        • Destination video codec
        • Video bitrate
        • Video scaling
        • Video frame-rate
        • Hurry up
        • Deinterlace video
        • Deinterlace module
        • Video filters & all check boxes
        • Video canvas aspect ratio
        • Destination audio codec
        • Audio bitrate
        • Audio channels
        • Synchronise on audio track
        • Subtitles encoder
        • Destination subtitles codec
        • Overlays & all check boxes
        • OSD menu
      • VOD
        • RTSP VoD

• Advanced
  • Allow only one running instance
  • Allow only one running instance when started from file (?) -- i kind of agree with ipkiss that this option shouldn't exist anyway ... i guess that i'll remove it and change the default value for "Allow only one running instance". People who want more than one instance can change the prefs -- User:Dionoea.. NOoooo please don't. Current behaviour is optimal (but we certainly don't want to show this in simple prefs)! User:Zorglub
  • Enqueue items to playlist when in one instance mode
  • Increase the priority of the process
    • CPU features
    • GnuTLS
      • Check TLS/SSL server certificate validity
      • Check TLS/SSL hostname in certificate
    • Logging
      • Log filename
      • Log format
    • Network sync

• Playlist -- Do these options really need to be in the prefs ? couldn't we just leave them in the playlist dialog/main controller and remember the state when quiting ? -- User:Dionoea. These options are indeed useless here. Just add change_autosave() on them User:Zorglub
  • Play files randomly forever
  • Repeat all
  • Repeat current item
  • Play and stop
    • Services discovery
      • Podcast
        • Podcast URLs list
      • SAP
      • Shoutcast

• Interface
  • Language
  • Show advanced options -- This is "Complex preferences" specific so it shouldn't be in the "simple prefs" -- Usesr:Dionoea This is what locks down the Advanced options. The user should be able to find it in Simple Preferences. -- User:DJ
  • Show interface with mouse
    • Control interfaces
      • Mouse gestures control interface
      • Growl notification plugin
      • MSN now playing
      • Windows service interface
      • VLM remote control interface
        • Gestures
          • Triger button
        • Growl
          • Growl server
          • Growl password
        • MSN
          • MSN Title format string
        • NT service
        • Telnet
      • Hotkeys settings
      • Main interface
        • Interface module
        • HTTP remote control interface
        • Remote control interface
        • Skinable interface (?) Causes crashes, can it be fixed, removed or disabled ? -- User:DJ
        • wxWidgets interface module
          • HTTP
          • RC
            • Do not open a DOS command box
          • Skins
            • Enable transparency effects
          • wxWidgets
            • Embed video in interface
            • Bookmarks dialog
            • Taskbar
            • Extended GUI
            • Playlist view
            • Systray icon

• • ffmpeg-hq ? -- Is this out of place? I can't find it in this context -- User:DJ. It's currently not in video, but codecs, but we are free to put whatever we want wherever. User:Zorglub. Isn't that going to get kinda confusing? User:DJ. Nope :) User:Zorglub Given that it's not in that context either and the only thing that's close is FFmpeg's -- "Post processing quality", I believe you have just proven my point. You maybe free to do what you want, but is it prudent and or wise, or can others understand it? :) -- User:DJ

Wish list:

See Also

• Preferences