Hi all, Last week, in an attempt to make my desktop more readable to my ageing eyes, I bought a $40 stand and set up my monitors vertically (see 1st pic). Changing the KDE setup to accommodate this (Kubuntu 20.04 LTS) was easy, and all of my apps seem to work fine with the new setup ... except VLC. VLC no longer works the way it used to. Videos will now play only if I decouple the video window from the VLC interface ("Integrate video in interface" must be unchecked). And now if I try to resize the interface, it visually "stutters" (see second photo) and remains stuttered in this form until I resize the window again. I have tried multiple options for video output with no change in behaviour. Again, the videos display fine but only if I separate the video window from the interface window. Resizing the video window works fine. Also, videos displayed inside the browser (ie Plex and YouTube) work fine. All suggestions are appreciated. Evan Leibovitch, Toronto Canada @evanleibovitch / @el56
On Mon, Jan 25, 2021 at 1:23 AM Evan Leibovitch via talk <talk@gtalug.org> wrote:
Hi all,
Last week, in an attempt to make my desktop more readable to my ageing eyes, I bought a $40 stand and set up my monitors vertically (see 1st pic).
Changing the KDE setup to accommodate this (Kubuntu 20.04 LTS) was easy, and all of my apps seem to work fine with the new setup ... except VLC.
Quite some years ago I chose to have more than even 2 monitors - - - - I do have one that is in portrait mode and absolutely love it for reading pdfs! (So I 'get' at least somewhat of your gist - - - grin!). I use LXQT and I've not found such behavior - - - - -maybe check that out. Regards
On Mon, 25 Jan 2021 at 02:23, Evan Leibovitch via talk <talk@gtalug.org> wrote:
Last week, in an attempt to make my desktop more readable to my ageing eyes, I bought a $40 stand and set up my monitors vertically (see 1st pic).
Changing the KDE setup to accommodate this (Kubuntu 20.04 LTS) was easy, and all of my apps seem to work fine with the new setup ... except VLC.
VLC no longer works the way it used to.
Videos will now play only if I decouple the video window from the VLC interface ("Integrate video in interface" must be unchecked). And now if I try to resize the interface, it visually "stutters" (see second photo) and remains stuttered in this form until I resize the window again.
I have tried multiple options for video output with no change in behaviour. Again, the videos display fine but only if I separate the video window from the interface window. Resizing the video window works fine. Also, videos displayed inside the browser (ie Plex and YouTube) work fine.
All suggestions are appreciated.
Hi Evan. I apologize for not directly addressing the problem you're asking about, but I'll offer a couple possible solutions. If you're not tied to 'vlc', try 'mpv' as a movie player. I have both installed and used vlc as my main video program for many years, but now mostly lean to mpv. Can't promise it won't have issues with the layout, but I think it's worth a try. The "aging eyes" issue is one I'm familiar with: my desktop now has a 43"(!) primary monitor that's flanked by a couple vertical monitors (those are different computers, and not always on). Re-arranging the login screens to be vertical can be a real PITA depending on which login manager it is, otherwise it works quite well. If money (and desk real estate) aren't an issue, I would recommend seeing if you can find a big-ass monitor in the 40" range - I love that thing. Your eyes will thank you. I was lucky though: it's actually a "monitor" rather than a repurposed TV, it's 4K, and I managed to get it for under $600 a couple years ago. (Looking at current prices of 40"+ monitors, I'm thinking I should be using the phrase "spectacularly lucky.") That's not a popular market segment, so such items are thin on the ground and/or quite expensive. If you're okay with a TV (I'm not clear on the disadvantages - distorted colour palettes, high contrast, limited ports?), those are available at lower prices. -- Giles https://www.gilesorr.com/ gilesorr@gmail.com
On Mon, Jan 25, 2021 at 10:24 AM Giles Orr via talk <talk@gtalug.org> wrote:
On Mon, 25 Jan 2021 at 02:23, Evan Leibovitch via talk <talk@gtalug.org> wrote:
Last week, in an attempt to make my desktop more readable to my ageing eyes, I bought a $40 stand and set up my monitors vertically (see 1st pic).
Changing the KDE setup to accommodate this (Kubuntu 20.04 LTS) was easy, and all of my apps seem to work fine with the new setup ... except VLC.
VLC no longer works the way it used to.
Videos will now play only if I decouple the video window from the VLC interface ("Integrate video in interface" must be unchecked). And now if I try to resize the interface, it visually "stutters" (see second photo) and remains stuttered in this form until I resize the window again.
I have tried multiple options for video output with no change in behaviour. Again, the videos display fine but only if I separate the video window from the interface window. Resizing the video window works fine. Also, videos displayed inside the browser (ie Plex and YouTube) work fine.
All suggestions are appreciated.
Hi Evan.
I apologize for not directly addressing the problem you're asking about, but I'll offer a couple possible solutions.
If you're not tied to 'vlc', try 'mpv' as a movie player. I have both installed and used vlc as my main video program for many years, but now mostly lean to mpv. Can't promise it won't have issues with the layout, but I think it's worth a try.
The "aging eyes" issue is one I'm familiar with: my desktop now has a 43"(!) primary monitor that's flanked by a couple vertical monitors (those are different computers, and not always on). Re-arranging the login screens to be vertical can be a real PITA depending on which login manager it is, otherwise it works quite well. If money (and desk real estate) aren't an issue, I would recommend seeing if you can find a big-ass monitor in the 40" range - I love that thing. Your eyes will thank you. I was lucky though: it's actually a "monitor" rather than a repurposed TV, it's 4K, and I managed to get it for under $600 a couple years ago. (Looking at current prices of 40"+ monitors, I'm thinking I should be using the phrase "spectacularly lucky.") That's not a popular market segment, so such items are thin on the ground and/or quite expensive. If you're okay with a TV (I'm not clear on the disadvantages - distorted colour palettes, high contrast, limited ports?), those are available at lower prices.
I'm presently fighting with videogen (mode utility) trying to find some way tp dp exactly this. Got the TV for just over $500 including all the taxes and sundry other 'fees'. I want to use it as one more monitor - - - - except EDID is not working so I'm trying to find a way to develop a custom modeline then I will have 3840x2160_30 - - - - likely quite good enough for CAD work. (Any ideas/suggestions please let me know (on knees begging!!!)) Regards Regards
On Mon, 25 Jan 2021 at 11:25, Giles Orr via talk <talk@gtalug.org> wrote:
If you're not tied to 'vlc', try 'mpv' as a movie player. I have both installed and used vlc as my main video program for many years, but now mostly lean to mpv. Can't promise it won't have issues with the layout, but I think it's worth a try.
Interesting results. mpv works fine, but I miss having a playlist and advanced controls (ie, speedup). I discovered "smplayer", which gives a fuller feature set to mpv/mplayer, but it then has the same problems as I encountered with VLC. The "aging eyes" issue is one I'm familiar with: my desktop now has a 43"(!)
primary monitor that's flanked by a couple vertical monitors (those are different computers, and not always on). Re-arranging the login screens to be vertical can be a real PITA depending on which login manager it is, otherwise it works quite well.
It was super simple under KDE "display configuration" settings. If money (and desk real estate) aren't an issue, I would recommend seeing
if you can find a big-ass monitor in the 40" range - I love that thing. Your eyes will thank you. I was lucky though: it's actually a "monitor" rather than a repurposed TV, it's 4K, and I managed to get it for under $600 a couple years ago. (Looking at current prices of 40"+ monitors, I'm thinking I should be using the phrase "spectacularly lucky.")
The two screens in my photos are each 28" and 4K <https://www.samsung.com/us/computing/monitors/uhd-and-wqhd/samsung-uhd-28-monitor-with-high-glossy-black-finish-lu28e590ds-za/>, so I'm very happy with display quality. At $300 each in Xmas sales my cost was about the same as yours and total screen size is comparable. Don't think I have much budget to upgrade them in the near future. Current 4K monitors of 40" or more appear upwards of $1,200. If you're okay with a TV (I'm not clear on the disadvantages - distorted
colour palettes, high contrast, limited ports?), those are available at lower prices.
As an alternative I had considered a high-end 42" 4K TV. They're about $600, and the lag time on high-end units should be acceptable for most uses except high-intensity gaming (which I don't do). The big difference in price is because TV manufacturers get subsidized for access to TV-watching data, which is a non-issue if the screen is not enabled for the Internet or "smart" features. - Evan
| From: Evan Leibovitch via talk <talk@gtalug.org> | The two screens in my photos are each 28" and 4K | <https://www.samsung.com/us/computing/monitors/uhd-and-wqhd/samsung-uhd-28-monitor-with-high-glossy-black-finish-lu28e590ds-za/>, That's a weird picture. In it, the monitor has an aspect ratio of roughly 2.4 -- very wide. The actual monitor should have an aspect ratio of 1.777777.
On 2021-01-25 4:24 p.m., D. Hugh Redelmeier via talk wrote:
That's a weird picture.
In it, the monitor has an aspect ratio of roughly 2.4 -- very wide. The actual monitor should have an aspect ratio of 1.777777.
Looks like they've stretched the main image horizontally. The thumbnail (which is the same image source) has an aspect of ~1.8. They wouldn't stretch their wide screens to try to sell more of them, would they ...? cheers, Stewart
On Tue, Jan 26, 2021 at 02:03:00PM -0500, Stewart C. Russell via talk wrote:
Looks like they've stretched the main image horizontally. The thumbnail (which is the same image source) has an aspect of ~1.8. They wouldn't stretch their wide screens to try to sell more of them, would they ...?
But all the other images look fine, just the initial one is wrong. -- Len Sorensen
participants (6)
-
D. Hugh Redelmeier -
Evan Leibovitch -
Giles Orr -
lsorense＠csclub.uwaterloo.ca -
o1bigtenor -
Stewart C. Russell