[vlc] VLC - Feature Suggestion ....

[Raphael McKenna]

Guys

I am a newbie to VideoLan, and think it is great. My suggestions for
future work are as follows:

VLC is technically excellent, and if you are a techie, I am sure it is
adequately documented, logical and intuitive (especially when combined
with the source code).

However, if you are not a techie/Unix - let's say a MS Windows user, and
a dumb one at that, then it is TERRIBLE. A great system has been let
down by a combination of interface design, poor default parameters, and
user documentation.

Taking the default VLC, as downloaded and installed under Windows:
(a) Can it play a DVD, without tweaking some in-depth parameters - NO
(b) Can I stream a file or DVD, without further tweaking? - NO

I have just managed to do both, but only after long hours fiddling with
parameters etc. (recent e-mails helped a lot)

Enough of the ranting, here's some positive suggestions:

DOCUMENTATION

* Too many information sources:
- documents such as UserGuide, QuickStart, HowTo, FAQ
- help files accessible via VLC (-help option etc) 
These sources are inconsistent, and no single one seems to be a
definitive source of information - you have to wade through them all.

* Can you not make all this online Help info available via Windows Help
?
At the moment, this gives very little info indeed - some versions of VLC
do not even give the Version Number here, let alone Help.

* Examples of inconsistency include:
a) SOUT parameter - mentioned in a worked example in the documentation,
but not mentioned in the on-line help
b) DVDOLD parameter - as above
c) usage of @ and // when using streaming IP addresses unclear -
documentation switches between these conventions without explaining why
d) Recent e-mails have made clear that you have to disable Menu Support
if you want to stream a DVD...but I could not find out how to do so from
the command line (command line help does not mention this option at all)

INTERFACE:
Currently the poor user is bewildered by quite complex options. I am not
an Interface Designer, but this really needs to be addressed! 

I had to go into the Preferences - Advanced Options just to play a DVD
for the first time! Surely the defaults should support this! 
The Interface Design needs to support an IDIOT, who just wants to:
- play a DVD
- play a file
- Unicast a DVD
- Unicast a file
One (crude) way MIGHT be to have a menu structure of:
- NEWBIE
	play DVD
	play file
	Unicast DVD
	Unicast File
- EXPERT
	whatever you want here
b) Possibly another option would be to have predefined set of files
containing all these preferences/settings, along with a utility to apply
them?

* Mailgroup on Website:
Could you not make the SPAM filtering rules more visible here? I was
posting messages which were being judged as Spam without me catching on
( I did say I was a newbie).

I appreciate that VLC is Open Source /Freeware whatever, and that you
guys are doing this for yourselves... but you have a great piece of
software, which is spoiled by some easy to fix weaknesses - although
such tasks may not give the developer any great sense of achievement,
they certainly will make the users experience MUCH better. "The ship has
been spoilt for a ha'pence worth of tar"

In the short term, I would suggest reviewing the documentation - the
interface issue will probably be more contentious, and take longer.

Finally, putting my money where my mouth is, I have some time over the
next couple of weeks - if I could have someone knowledgeable (in the UK)
to talk to, I would be happy to enhance some of the (English)
documentation.

Cheers
Raphael
(PS: Please take this constructively - I do think it's a great piece of
software!)


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