VLC Configuration

[seekermeister]

For whatever reason, I have to reset the video configuration each time I open the player for a movie, because it will not retain those settings once the player is closed.

This caused me to look for a means of setting these value permanently. I found two files that are involved to an extent....vlcrc and the vlc-qt-interface.ini. The former appears to be a fairly large file with a lot of options, but almost every line is preceded with a #, with I assume means that it is commented out. Scrolling through the "options", I didn't find anything so as I could set contrast, brightness, hue, saturation or gamma.

The latter file appears to be a more active file, but is much, much more brief, and I don't see anything that I need there either.

Does anyone really understand how these could be used to accomplish what I want?

 

[Dinesh]

It happens with me as well. Everytime I reopen VLC to play any media, it will never retain any settings. I guess that's how its designed to work.

 

[seekermeister]

Perhaps, but I don't remember it doing that in the past...but then again, I didn't use it as much back then, and may just not have noticed. I don't mind the idea of it having default settings, but the user should be able to control them.

 

[Corazon]

Haven't had this issue with VLC. As for gamma settings, those aren't in the main options but under Extended Settings (the mixer icon in the main interface).

 

[seekermeister]

When I click that, or the playlist button next to it, nothing happens.

EDIT: Correction. It does open a settings window, I just didn't see it, because it opened on my other monitor, behind other windows. However, that doesn't help, because that is the same window that I have been trying to use previously. It works, but will not remain where I set it, once the player is closed.

 

[kado897]

I think VLC only keeps the the settings in Preferences not the Adjustments and Effects.

 

[seekermeister]

Since I find no settings for the parameters that I mentioned in Preferences, I guess that is your way of saying that what I want can't be done.

 

[kado897]

Since I find no settings for the parameters that I mentioned in Preferences, I guess that is your way of saying that what I want can't be done.

I think you can. If you go into preferences all settings. Under video there is a Filters option where you can check which filters are to apply and under each filter the values it takes.



I haven't really tried it much myself but it is worth a play.

 

[Corazon]

Exactly which settings are you looking to keep, or is it all of them?

 

[seekermeister]

kado897,

Maybe it can be done there, but if so, it is hidden from me. I scanned through the filters and none of them appeared to do what I'm looking for. I would be more likely to experiment there, if I understood more precisely the terminology of the filters. Also, since there is only one window below each of the two sets of filters, I assume that you could only set one at a time, and I need to set 5 values. Then again, maybe it will accept multiple values, but if so, I'm not sure how you would designate them in a fashion that wouldn't mix them up.

I did post a suggestion on the VLC forum to enable these settings, but will have to wait to see if there is any response.

 

[seekermeister]

Exactly which settings are you looking to keep, or is it all of them?

Hue, Contrast, Brightness, Saturation and Gamma.

 

[kado897]

Maybe you are right. The only one I have used is sharpen.

 

[seekermeister]

I have tinkered with that setting before, but it always produced a distortion of the images, rather than sharpening them for me.

 

[kado897]

There seem to be some file types it works for better than others. It seems to work well on MP4 but not AVI or WMV.

 

[seekermeister]

I may have a few .avi, but no .wmv. 99% of my files are either .mkv, .mp4 or .flv. However, VLC doesn't seem to discriminate, it plays all of them the same...both good and bad...with the exception that it does often reports my .avi files as being broken, and requires repairing them before being played.

 

[Corazon]

Instead of using VLC to adjust your hue/contrast/brightness/saturation/gamma settings, have you thought about adjusting them in your nVidia control panel? You can do this for all hardware video overlays without having to change the desktop color settings.

In addition, the nVidia control panel lets you enable greater contrast, as by default the brightness values range only between 16-235. You can set this to the full dynamic range of 0-255 instead.

 

[seekermeister]

That would be good, except that I have the settings in the Control Panel set so that desktop and other programs display properly. If I reset the Control Panel for VLC, it would throw everything else off, and I just have to reset it each time I use VLC, instead of the player itself.

 

[Corazon]

That would be good, except that I have the settings in the Control Panel set so that desktop and other programs display properly. If I reset the Control Panel for VLC, it would throw everything else off, and I just have to reset it each time I use VLC, instead of the player itself.

No, that's just it - it won't throw your existing desktop settings off. I'm talking about the separate settings for video overlays, which includes what VLC plays. On my system I have the desktop and video overlay settings calibrated separately as well.

 

[seekermeister]

Yes, I have used the Control Panel's video setting in that fashion in the past, but for whatever reason, changing those settings, even with it set to use the Nvidia settings, doesn't change anything in VLC. I don't know why, but it seems hit and miss as to whether it will work, because sometimes it does, and sometimes not.

 

[Corazon]

Hmm, I didn't expect that - for me, the settings always stick when I play a movie in VLC.
I assume you're not trying to enable the same settings in VLC at the same time - so I can't think of what else the issue could be.

Sorry, I tried