How do I include a dedicated HDD in my vlc movie list?

[Shabakthanai]

I have a TB HDD that exclusively contains my movie collection. I prefer to use VLC player and would like to include that dedicated drive in their menu. In Dolphin, the drive is identified under Devices, but in VLC, it is not included in the Devices option. Anyone have an idea how to get the drive recognized.

I am a member of the VLC forums but couldn't find the method of entering another post. Any help there would be gratefully accepted too. Thanks! Shab

[dtr]

I'm not sure why VLC doesn't make it easy to change or add the location of non-default location of media and I haven't found a way to do it in VLC, but what you can do is to use Dolphin and create a link(as easy as a quick drag and drop) in the Videos folder in your home directory to the folder on the harddrive device. The next time you open VLC the videos will all be listed. *If you're using Kubuntu 15.04 you may need to mount the device every time you login as I've noticed the auto-mount feature of remembered devices is missing.

[LinkBot]

VLC My Videos


The VideoLAN Forums - Change or Add "My Videos" folder: https://forum.videolan.org/viewtopic.php?t=98393
A wish - mediadirs: allow the 'My Videos' section to link to a user specified folder: https://trac.videolan.org/vlc/ticket/6248

xdg-user-dirs

What is: http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/xdg-user-dirs/

What to edit: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php...er_directories

KDE gui:

KDE4: KDE System settings > Account Details > Paths
KF5: KDE System settings > Applications > Locations



Auto mount KF5

KDE Forums - Automount partitions GUI missing from system settings: https://forum.kde.org/viewtopic.php?f=289&t=126846

[Shabakthanai]

Thanks for trying to help me. You did lots of work on my behalf.

I found input that may help, but it referred to "external hard drives" which is not the case in my computer. I have a dedicated 'internal' HDD for my movie collection.

Unfortunately, I am not knowledgeable enough to take advantage of your further advice. I am so old, I don't think I will have time to learn, either. I will continue to try, but I think I may just have the accept things as they are. I love this stuff so much, it would be nice to have it work like I want.

I had what I wanted until I installed my SSD for the OS. It is only 256 GiB and can't handle the large size of my movie data, and of course was not recognized as /movies in the TB drive. Before I changed to the SSD, I had my /movies located in the primary TB HDD as well as the OS, and there was enough space to handle so much data, and then VLC did recognize its location. After installing the SSD, my movie collection used up the 256 GiB and almost crashed my system before I noticed. I was fortunate and it did not happen, but there were only a few MB space remaining when I noticed the problem. The SSD contains my OS and /home, where /movies would have to be in order to be read by VLC, and there isn't enough room in the SSD.

I still can view my movies. I just have to open /movies in Dolphin and select what I want to view - just a couple extra mouse clicks. It was handier the other way, though. I used my movie collection as a voice in the room before, and if I wanted, I could highlight and select a dozen movies or more, and they would play consecutively until I stopped the play. It worked well, because I had previously viewed all of them, so if I was doing something else on the computer and the movie was just being company, not actually viewed, then when I stopped what I was doing I could resume watching the movie without missing anything because I had seen it before. You are most kind. I wish I hadn't wasted anyone's time on this one.

VLC My Videos


The VideoLAN Forums - Change or Add "My Videos" folder: https://forum.videolan.org/viewtopic.php?t=98393
A wish - mediadirs: allow the 'My Videos' section to link to a user specified folder: https://trac.videolan.org/vlc/ticket/6248

xdg-user-dirs

What is: http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/xdg-user-dirs/

What to edit: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php...er_directories

KDE gui:

KDE4: KDE System settings > Account Details > Paths
KF5: KDE System settings > Applications > Locations



Auto mount KF5

KDE Forums - Automount partitions GUI missing from system settings: https://forum.kde.org/viewtopic.php?f=289&t=126846

[Shabakthanai]

The reason I haven't replied yet is because, after upgrading and updating this last time, I get a freeze while opening 15.04. When I try to use the computer's repair feature, I fine that I am to install "Kubuntu Desktop" which fails to install after I authorize the installation. As a result, I am unable to take your advice at the moment.

In the not recent past, I have used 'Kate' to edit my system, but I can't really remember what it entailed. I had help in the process and cannot find the post where I was helped. I don't even remember what I was editing.

I will take a look at MSPlayer. If it works in Kubuntu 15.04, I will give it a test drive.

I have been using VLC Player for a long time. My primary reason for using it is because I can get almost any video to fill the entire screen. I prefer watching video without the black stripe of screen top/bottom that appears so often in other players.

I am not too lazy to make a couple of extra mouse-clicks to play videos in VLC, but I prefer the efficiency of single-click use. I am an old dog that wants to learn new tricks.

If only I had gotten serious earlier in life, I may have had the time to learn all the things I want to know now. I took the easier route GUI to enjoy my computer. Now, I am only interested learning the how and why of things. Command line and understanding the function of the different applications is necessary, and I am only able to perform the most simple tasks using the Shell.

Thanks for taking the time to point out the options. I will look at MSPlayer first. If it will play full screen, I will be tempted to use it. Nevertheless, I don't learn the editing task that way, so I will continue to pursue understanding that process. Thanks friend.

Hi Shabakthanai,
When learning has stopped you are dead.

And we know you are a very inquisitive man, not afraid to try out new things so you must be very alive

About your question, let me start with explaining I hardly ever use VLC, I find the editable keyboard short cuts of MSPlayer so much easier.
And I hardly ever open something from the application, I use Dolphin to go straight to the movie, music, photo, document whatever and click it to open.

All that said I had a look at VLC and the opening of folders (Ctrl+F).
It shows a split screen 'file manager' with initially only Computer and my home folder in the left pane.

Using the right pane I went to my second internal HD called caddy (/media/caddy) and then kept clicking till I was in the Movie directory I keep there.
Once it was visible I could simply drag and drop it to the left pane.
This survived a restart.

Now another little issue, my second HD is not in fstab and I have to mount it in Dolphin before I can access it in VLC.
(The reason is I'm running a laptop and don't want this disk to use power until I need it)
So either make sure this disk is in fstab and gets automounted or do like I do and mount it via Dolphin only when needed.

LinkBot's informative links say presently Plasma5 is missing an easy GUI way to add missing partitions to automount, could be but then it's not at all hard to edit fstab.

This is using 15.04.