Using VLC on touch screens

You have to turn on mouse gestures

 

One of my frustrations running Windows apps on touch screen computers or tablets is that the touch interface of programs is immature compared with Android or even iOS. This is a surprise, given that Microsoft has worked with tablets for twice as many years as either Google or Apple.

So I love using MX video player on Android, because it has touch-size controls, and touch-sensible controls. For example, to change the volume, I swipe up or down on the right half of the screen; to change the brightness, I do the same but on the left half. The important play-pause and screen aspect ratio buttons are large enough for inaccurate finger touches. Not so for similar programs running on Windows 8.

VLC is probably the most popular video player for Windows, and this week I found that it has Mouse Gestures hidden in its settings and documentation. No matter; they work just fine for touch screens. Now watching movies on my Windows 8 tablet is no longer painful. 

Here is how to enable and then use Mouse Gestures.

Turning On Mouse Gesture Mode

To use gestures on a touch screen computer, you first have to turn on Mouse Gesture mode, like this:

1. In VLC, choose the Settings menu, and then click Preferences.

2. Open the Interface node, and then the Control Interfaces node.

3. Turn on the Mouse Gesture Interface Control option. (See Figure 1.)

4. Click Save.

Figure 1: Finding the Mouse Gesture toggle in VLC

 

Mouse Gesture Gestures

OK, so mouse gestures are available, but what are they? Here you need to consult the VLC documentation, which is online. Problem is, clicking the Help button does not help, because I could not find a reference to mouse gestures. This is probably because VLC is a volunteer effort.

My solution was to use Duck Duck Go to search for "vlc mouse gestures," which got me this page: https://wiki.videolan.org/Mouse_Gestures. As the page admits, mouse gesture support is rudimentary. For instance, we cannot customize gestures. Nevertheless, the available ones are sufficient to make movie viewing on Windows tablets tolerable. 

Here are the gestures I use:

• Double-tap = toggle between full screen and windowed screen

• Right-left drag = play or pause

• Right drag = skip forward by 10 seconds (cannot change this time) 

And Figure 2 has the full list:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Figure 2: Full list of (un-customizable) mouse gestures for VLC

 

 

 

Comments

[Thomas Montgomery]

Thank you so much, I love using VLC for so many reasons and haven't really been using it because of the combination of the horrifically small buttons and my big fat fingers. I've been looking for a way to make the buttons bigger but this will work just great! Thanks again!

[Mdemarcelo]

Thank you so much. It´s been years since I was trying something to STOP/PAUSE VLC in toutch screen mode. Today I find out that I could turn volume up and down, then I end up here. Thanks

[User]

You can change the short skip time length in hotkey settings to whatever you desire.

[Laurie]

I have VLC downloaded and it works perfectly in computer mode, but the minute I switch the screen around to tablet mode, VLC doesn't load properly. I can hear the music, but the image becomes distorted and will not allow me to do anything on the touch screen.

Under TOOLS, I have PREFERENCES, then INTERFACE SETTINGS but there is not an option for mouse gestures.
Under TOOLS, I have CUSTOMIZE INTERFACES but again, there is not an option for mouse gestures.

Is there a way for me to use VLC in tablet mode or is this a lost cause?

Thanks.

[Ralph Grabowski]

I just tested the latest version of VLC (version 2.2.4) on my HP Spectre, a laptop with a 360-degree hinge that switches to tablet mode.

It worked correctly in both modes, regular and tablet. I could change the volume by dragging my finger up and down, and fast forward (and rewind) by dragging my finger horizintally.

I think the tweaks I discuss in this blog entry are no longer needed.