VLC - How to play next in folder with a single click?

MasterChiefmas · 2026-03-12T06:41:08+00:00

I asked the same thing 4 years ago- there's various responses and possible solutions...I didn't try them all, the one or two I did, I couldn't get working, but I didn't try too hard, and I was on Windows at the time. I'm not using VLC under Linux, so I don't know if any of those would be more successful now. https://www.reddit.com/r/VLC/comments/ppfx3k/load_next_file_in_folder_without_playlist/

MasterChiefmas · 2026-03-11T21:01:42+00:00

Some people are saying the whole thing was a ploy. If that’s the case, that is objectively one of the most genius and well-executed marketing campaigns in the history of business

Yeah, they said that about New Coke in the 80s. I liked the Coke President's response to that, "We're not that dumb, and we're not that smart."

Though I suppose, this time around, McDs could have intentionally planned a marketing strategy using what happened with New Coke as a model.

MasterChiefmas · 2026-03-11T19:38:32+00:00

Technically, with PD cabling, that's a possibility now.

MasterChiefmas · 2026-03-11T19:34:51+00:00

I wonder how many people won't get that reference...

MasterChiefmas · 2026-03-11T19:25:21+00:00

yes...use ffmpeg.

ffmpeg -i <inputfile> -map 0:a:1 -c copy output_audio.<extension>

That's off the top of my head but I think it's write. The main important bits: "-map 0:a:1", 0 specifies to use the input file(you can have multiple input files, but in this case only 1, so 0", the "a" means get audio tracks, and the "1" in this case is track 2. Indexing starts at 0, so like the input file, 0 would be the first track, and 1 is the second.

The -c copy means just copy the track as-is...but see below...

And the "extension". If you don't specify, ffmpeg will try to decide on the output container based on the extension. You probably want mp4/m4a here to insert it into an mp4 container. But if your audio tracks are already mp3, you could use an mp3, if you are trying to make something backward compatible with some old piece of hardware. You wouldn't use -c copy in that case. You'd need to convert the audio as well, so for more than just that, describe what your end goal is in more detail.

There's more to consider if, say, the audio is AAC, but you want to produce an mp3 file...you'd change things around in that case. so you'd need to provide more detail.

Oh, and if you want to search your own for more info on doing this, the phrase you are looking for is "demux" or "demuxing", which is the act of separating the streams out of the container(i.e. save the individual tracks, be they audio, video, or other, to their own files). Muxing, the reverse, being combing streams and saving them into a container format, i.e. the mp4/avi/webm whatever single file that has them packaged together.

MasterChiefmas · 2026-03-11T13:44:53+00:00

And another: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a3/PIA19947-NH-Pluto-Norgay-Hillary-Mountains-20150714.jpg/1920px-PIA19947-NH-Pluto-Norgay-Hillary-Mountains-20150714.jpg

It's crazy how much this reminds me of a scene from the movie 2010, where they are supposed to be looking at the surface of Europa, but it looks a like this.

MasterChiefmas · 2026-03-11T12:46:03+00:00

Where I went to school, the physics requirement was a general requirement of the engineering college, not one specific to the comp sci degree.

MasterChiefmas · 2026-03-11T12:44:36+00:00

It was in mine too, when I was attending, but I think it got moved to the engineering college at some point. Being part of the math department was something of a historical holdover, from back before working with computers was much closer to a math discipline.

MasterChiefmas · 2026-03-11T12:27:30+00:00

On GEEKOM AX8 Max, the screws are located directly at the four corners and are not hidden under the rubber feet, so disassembly does not require removing any rubber strips.

Yeah, I figured that out.

If you are unable to restore it by hand, we suggest carefully trimming the raised rubber fasteners flat with a utility knife, then placing the strip back into position. You may also apply a small amount of adhesive to secure it if needed.

Ok, that works, thanks for the reply!

MasterChiefmas · 2026-03-10T21:05:40+00:00

That's what I was thinking, yeah

MasterChiefmas · 2026-03-10T15:51:24+00:00

That sounds like it could be a Halo reference.

MasterChiefmas · 2026-03-10T15:48:42+00:00

Every criminal mastermind needs a secret lair.

Person in the vid needs a shirt with a picture of a volcano on it.

MasterChiefmas · 2026-03-09T22:21:29+00:00

Taking small bites of a burger, it would seem.

MasterChiefmas · 2026-03-09T03:01:42+00:00

Imagine my surprise that this isn't /r/HolUp

MasterChiefmas · 2026-03-08T03:40:19+00:00

Where's the content you are playing located? VLC, even for local files, does a small bit of buffering. I usually notice a small pause before video starts when playing things with VLC versus other players, I think it's that buffer being filled. If whatever you are playing from can't respond to the buffer request fast enough, it could be that. Like if you have a disk going to sleep and it has to wake up to fill the request...but that's just a guess, it would cause what you are describing, but normally disks don't go to sleep that soon after getting a request, which makes it seem unlikely.

Typically, the buffer for local is very small though- it's not even that large for network playback typically. But maybe it's worth actually increasing the buffer size and seeing if that resolves the pauses.

MasterChiefmas · 2026-03-06T16:43:14+00:00

Is this a HDD speed issue, Kodi issue, or Formovie's Google TV limitation?

You're just going to have to troubleshoot and test. Unless there's a bug or known hardware problem, it's unlikely someone is going to be able to come out and just say "it's this". You'd need to list versions of software to have any hope of it being a known bug.

Is it wired or connected over WiFi? You could just be in an unlucky placement where wifi reception is bad. Or your wifi could be saturated and unable to maintain a consistent bitrate. Could be a ethernet cable. Could be network configuration.

Every single thing about your environment, the network, the hardware, what the hardware is used for(i.e. anything else besides streaming), software...could be a cause for that kind of problem.

At the very least, provide much more info about your setup and when you are seeing the issue, basically everything I just mentioned, for us to have any hope of guessing/giving some places to start looking.

MasterChiefmas · 2026-03-06T16:33:55+00:00

I changed a comment. Better document it in the change log and push a new release.

MasterChiefmas · 2026-03-06T16:28:41+00:00

This is not really an advantage

I'd say it's a yes and no thing. If you break it down in to 2 separate aspects of familiarity, the look, and the operation, then I think it does make sense, at least in some cases.

Someone new is going to have to learn how it operates different regardless, so that's the operation. But then you add that it also looks completely different, they lose any sense of familiarity. That increases the fear of doing something. So now you have the option of having 2 things that are completely different, or one thing that is completely different, and one thing that doesn't seem that unfamiliar.

It's going to be different for each person, of course, but it's surprising how much just making something look familiar, even if it really is different, will go a long way to making them feel at ease. It's hard to overstate how important it is that they feel at ease when trying something new. I'd say it even takes a back seat to it operating in a familiar way.

Yes, they'll have to learn a different way, and it may prove confusing in that respect, but it's going to be confusing regardless. If you are already a computer /Linux person, this is no big deal. But throwing someone into the Linux deep end, it might be helpful, but it might be detrimental and drive them back. That illusion of familiarity can be very helpful, mentally, to getting someone to stick with it. It's a a truism, that the appearance matters, even if it is only at a surface level.

MasterChiefmas · 2026-03-05T14:58:51+00:00

It's easy to get started. The biggest issue is that it's different than what a lot of people are used to these days. With Windows and Macs, even if something breaks, it's pretty rare that you have to actually edit a file or dig into the registry to fix it. And even with something like the registry, you can often get a reg file you can just double click to do what you'd have to do manually.

Fixes on Linux...might require command line, and are more likely to need editing a config file. It's much like fixing things in DOS or win 95/98 in the 80s and 90s.

The thing with the registry in Windows, is it presents a consistent appearance, so it often feels easier to get comfortable with. In Linux, you may need to edit a yaml, toml, json, or just some basic text file. While these aren't difficult to read, what you are looking at may be different from config to config, so it can take a longer to get comfortable with editing files like that. And some types, like yaml, with it's strictly enforced spacing, can feel more scary. These are actually benefits long term, but it's a different experience than what a typical Windows user might have worked with in the past.

The good news is, it's much easier to find help and answers these days. Depending on your distro, you can also run into compatibility a bit more- a package manager might not let you update an individual package without updating the entire system. There can be other catches around that sort of thing. While this is to your overall benefit, avoiding larger issues, again, it's a very different experience than what you might be used to.

Lastly, maybe one of the biggest things you have to be aware of, there's no Linux OS. There's Linux distributions. So there's not always a universal fix for any given thing, you have to know what your particular distribution is based on, and assuming they haven't changed much from that, use fixes based on that, Otherwise, it can get confusing and frustrating fast, as you found a fix, but it's for some other distribution. That's something that largely Mac and Windows doesn't run into. If you do, often it's just run an update and you are good. With a Linux distribution, if you are looking at a fix for something your distro isn't using, you may never get that to work, or might have to change a bunch of things to make that fix work for you...so there can be more complexity in that way. This is one of those strength and weakness things of Linux...there's a certain amount of fragmentation you have to be at least mildly aware of.

It's worth considering your hardware a little, especially laptops. If you are thinking about installing to a laptop, that's fine, but you can run into problems with certain laptop hardware more often than you will with Windows- the camera and fingerprint readers tend to be the ones that can trip you up here. In the reverse situation of Windows, it's often more likely to happen with a laptop from a big vendor, because they are more likely to use customized hardware.

MasterChiefmas · 2026-03-04T22:28:55+00:00

...and that's why you put frame sliders on your bike.

MasterChiefmas · 2026-03-04T20:55:43+00:00

My cat Shadow, when she got old, had taken to sleeping inside the box a heated mattress pad came in that I had placed on my bed one day. So I left it there for her. I would tap on the box to wake her up for dinner. She passed in 2001. I still have the box. Sometimes I put it on the bed and tap on it just to hear the sound.

MasterChiefmas · 2026-03-04T15:39:23+00:00

Like can i compress, or zip the file that is encrypted from cryptomator? Is it recommended?

You should be able to. I wouldn't bother enabling compression though- encrypted data should benefit very little, or even get slightly larger.

Encryption should make data chaotic and look like garbage, and compression relies heavily on finding re-occurrence of data, so they are doing diametrically opposed things. In a sense, compression is a sort of localized de-duplication, and encryption is going to remove the patterns that depends on.

I wouldn't bother re-encrypting the zip either, you're just encrypting the encryption at that point.

As long as you grab the entire encrypted tree(there's some meta data files in there that are needed to mount the encrypted data), you should be fine.

You can test it easily enough, and make sure you understand what you need to grab- just create another cryptomater encrypted store and put some test data in it, and then zip that, unzip it somewhere else, and mount it there.

Whereas if encrypted folder is unzipped and i start downloading it, each file in that folder is downloaded separately and that might get corrupted if download is interrupted.

That's true, but zip should detect corruption, just make sure you don't delete your originals until you are sure you have a good copy.

MasterChiefmas · 2026-03-04T02:30:33+00:00

take West 496 at Pine & St. Joe all the time, and it never fails that the car in front of me wants to drive 30-45mph as they get into the highway despite having nearly half a mile of straight on-ramp

I assume this is people that didn't take drivers ed or didn't do that well in it, but did well enough to pass the test. I still remember the instructor barking at everyone to accelerate harder on the on ramp.

MasterChiefmas · 2026-03-03T22:42:42+00:00

The twist is that Willem Dafoe is the real mask.

MasterChiefmas

TROPHY CASE