Classic Shell: Forum

Add a VLC Playlist Sub-Menu to Classic Menu

Set VLC: Preferences > Interface > Instances > check "Allow Only One Instance" > Save
Create VLC Button:

• New Item
• Right-Click > Rename "VLC"
• Right-Click > Edit Item
  
  • Command:
    • D:\Program Files (x86)\VideoLAN\VLC\vlc.exe
  • Label:
    • VLC
  • Icon:
    
    • D:\Program Files (x86)\VideoLAN\VLC\uninstall.exe
  • Open Up (for sub-menus)
  • Split Button Item
  • OK

• New Item (Drag Item onto "VLC" button to create sub-menu button)
• Right-Click > Rename "Gordon_Lightfoot" (or whatever your Playlist Name is - no spaces)
• Right-Click > Edit Item
  
  • Command:
    
    • D:\Program Files (x86)\VideoLAN\VLC\vlc.exe "J:\Tenzen's Music\Gordon Lightfoot\Gordon Lightfoot.m3u8" --random
    • Full Name & Location of your VLC Playlist (.xspf, .m3u, .m3u8, .html) surrounded with Quotes
  • Label:
    • Gordon Lightfoot (Name of your Playlist)
  • Icon:
    
    • D:\Program Files (x86)\VideoLAN\VLC\uninstall.exe
  • OK
  Repeat, adding All Playlists as Submenu Items under the VLC Split Button
• Do a Search for all *.m3u files (VLC has some problem launching Certain Videos from Command line in m3u playlists, so Create m3u8 playlists for using VLC with Videos like MP4, etc)
• Highlight all > Right-Click > Filemenu Tools > Copy Path
• Paste results in a Notepad and use the list to create buttons sub-menu Playlist Items
• Create One Playlist under the VLC Button in Classic Start Menu, then copy that button by Ctrl+Dragging it
• Delete the Location Path of the Playlist, but leave the quotes ("") & all the rest of it
• Click OK
• Ctrl+Drag that one as many times as you have playlists to add, leaving that original one as the last item
• Then just paste the new playlist path by clicking between the quotes
• Select each one & change information as follows:
  
  • Arrow Key Down to the Next item > Enter > Edit the Playlist Location (Ctrl+Paste from notepad address above)
  • Tab down & Edit Label > Ctrl + Copy Name
  • Hit Enter to Save
  • Press F2 > Ctrl +Paste to Paste the Name, Delete spaces between Words > Enter
  • Repeat

Add the following parameters in place of --random above, if u like, or dont use any parameters to launch your VLC without added parameters:

• --qt-start-minimized
• --random
• --no-random
• --loop
• --no-loop
• --repeat
• --no-repeat
• --play-and-exit
• --no-play-and-exit
• --play-and-stop
• --no-play-and-stop
• --play-and-pause
• --no-play-and-pause
• --fullscreen
• --audio-visual "visual"

• Select any of the following Default Visualizations:
  • "visual"
    
  • "goom"
  • "projectM"
    • The ProjectM Visualization Doesnt Support Full Screen

Examples:

• D:\Program Files (x86)\VideoLAN\VLC\vlc.exe "J:\Tenzen's Music\80's\80's.m3u" --random --loop --qt-start-minimized
  • Starts Playlist "80's" minimized, with random playback, looping the playlist
• D:\Program Files (x86)\VideoLAN\VLC\vlc.exe "J:\Tenzen's Music\Mood Music\Mood Music.m3u" --audio-visual "visual" --fullscreen --random --loop
  • Starts Playlist "Mood Music" in fullscreen visualization (equalizer) mode, with random playback, looping the Playlist

• The visualizations are different from the normal Audio Visualizations, and this mode doesnt work well when minimized. better use it only for when you're not at the computer, for ambient Music & Lighting/ Display..
• Perhaps a second "VLC Ambient" menu would be better:
  • Close your first VLC Button
  • Ctrl+Drag to copy it and all the playlist sub-items to a new button
  • Rename the button 'VLCAmbient'
  • Highlight the first item, hit Enter, and add "--audio-visual "visual" --fullscreen to your items which already have --random --loop at the end
  • copy --audio-visual "visual" --fullscreen
  • Follow these steps to get it done quickly
    • Enter (close), Down Arrow, Enter, End, Ctrl+V, Enter (Close).. just repeat that
    • its: Down, Enter, End, Paste, Enter

To Fix Chinese/Japanese/Korean Characters from Not Displaying Properly in VLC/iTunes/Quicktime

VLC & other Apple-related Programs can often not read Kanji-type Characters if they were entered in anything other than Unicode (UTF-8)... So, Here are the Steps I took to Fix the Problem:

1. Close VLC First.
2. Download Foobar2000 on the download page of their website
3. Install the full version, not the portable version
4. Click on the Components page of their website
5. Find "Chacon 3" & Download it
6. Extract it and copy the *.dll file to the Foobar2000 install directory, into the folder "Components"
7. Open Foobar2000
8. Browse to a Folder with your non-Unicode Songs in it, Select All, Drag to Foobar - Repeat with all Folders & All Songs not in Unicode or having Display Problems
9. Ctrl+A to highlight all the tracks added to the Foobar Window
10. Right-Click > Tagging > Fix Metadata Charset
11. Set "Preconversion" to "65001 - Unicode (UTF-8)"
12. Set "Original Charset" to "65001 - Unicode (UTF-8)" as well (weird, i know.)
13. Click "Apply"
14. Let it Run
15. Open VLC
16. Delete all the Files & Folders from the Media Library
17. Drag in all the Folders again to the Media Library
18. It should now display names properly...
19. You probably have to re-create all your Playlists.. check it out (use CreateM3U)

VLC is made for Mac by a guy who really hates Windows and has done the least he could do to make it work with Windows.. and any issues related to windows often warrant a literal "Screw Off" from the developers, and endless anti-Windows rants... but if you dont mind tinkering around a bit, its a decent program for Command-line Switches... And the Full-screen Equalizer is hard to beat..

If you have any other Media players you'd like to recommend that have comprehensive command-line options, and are more Windows-Minded & Respectful of the Windows Platform, please post them here!