Suggestions: Auto hide UI, windows buttons for full-screen
Posted: Tue Jun 19, 2018 9:01 amLinux is great, and I have to thank all those people who have spent their time for others, but frankly, the video playing experience on Linux is not as good as that of Windows. A lot of people are saying VLC is great, and may be its video playing ability is great, but the UI is honestly bad.
SM Player is a little bit better than VLC in terms of UI, but it still is not as convenient as PotPlayer. Please give PotPlayer a try (freeware, but runs only on Windows), and try to adopt some of its nice ideas into SM Player. Here are some of the good ideas PotPlayer has:
1. Pot has auto UI hide mode. That is, the controls and the window title bar appear only when you place the mouse over it. If not, it will be just 100% complete video window. This may look nothing, but on a device that has a small screen, this is a godsend. This feature can be enabled in Preferences -> General ->Skins -> Auto hide main window skin while video screen is active.
2. Pot shows the window title bar even in full screen mode when you move mouse over it. You may also think that this is nothing, but VLC and SMPlayer have no such thing, So, you cannot close or miminise the window when you playing a video full-screen. You would have to first un-full-screen the video and then minimise the window. Pot's way is more sensible.
3.Again, the chapter marker is so better than VLC. VLC has chapter markers but they are so subtle so that they are difficult to see. And SMPlayer lacks chapter markers. Pot has very easy-to-see chapter markers and you can even assign keyboard shortcuts to "go to next/previous chapter".
4. Pot shows previews when you place the mouse over the seekbar, just like it does to do so on YouTube.
5. Pot lets you adjust the volume before opening any video. This is helpful. For some reason, all other Linux video players have the volume button disabled before opening a video.
SM Player is a little bit better than VLC in terms of UI, but it still is not as convenient as PotPlayer. Please give PotPlayer a try (freeware, but runs only on Windows), and try to adopt some of its nice ideas into SM Player. Here are some of the good ideas PotPlayer has:
1. Pot has auto UI hide mode. That is, the controls and the window title bar appear only when you place the mouse over it. If not, it will be just 100% complete video window. This may look nothing, but on a device that has a small screen, this is a godsend. This feature can be enabled in Preferences -> General ->Skins -> Auto hide main window skin while video screen is active.
2. Pot shows the window title bar even in full screen mode when you move mouse over it. You may also think that this is nothing, but VLC and SMPlayer have no such thing, So, you cannot close or miminise the window when you playing a video full-screen. You would have to first un-full-screen the video and then minimise the window. Pot's way is more sensible.
3.Again, the chapter marker is so better than VLC. VLC has chapter markers but they are so subtle so that they are difficult to see. And SMPlayer lacks chapter markers. Pot has very easy-to-see chapter markers and you can even assign keyboard shortcuts to "go to next/previous chapter".
4. Pot shows previews when you place the mouse over the seekbar, just like it does to do so on YouTube.
5. Pot lets you adjust the volume before opening any video. This is helpful. For some reason, all other Linux video players have the volume button disabled before opening a video.