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xd1936
Asked: 2016-02-12 15:19:02 +0800 CST

Changing Xscreensaver's Video Player from mpv to VLC

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The official documentation for xscreensaver gives an example of how to play videos as a screensaver:

Install mpv and add something like the following to the `programs' preference in your .xscreensaver file:

 "My Movie"  mpv --really-quiet --no-audio --fs --loop=inf  \
                 --no-stop-screensaver                      \
                 --wid=$XSCREENSAVER_WINDOW                 \
                 $HOME/movies/*.mp4                       \n\

That's all well and good, but I would love to have one less dependency on my system (namely, mpv). I'd like to do the same thing, but with VLC.

I've tried adding this to my .xscreensaver file:

"My Movie"  vlc -L -R -f --intf dummy --no-video-title-show  \
                        $HOME/movies/*.mp4                 \n\

This command works perfectly on the command line, but when launched via xscreensaver, this happens:

Sorry for the blurrycam, I couldn't take a screenshot without exiting the screensaver!
Sorry for the blurrycam, I couldn't take a screenshot without exiting the screensaver!

What do you mean, unknown option or missing mandatory argument '--intf'?! It's right there!

Does anyone know why I can't get this VLC command to run via xscreensaver, when it works perfectly when launched straight-up on the command line?

command-line

2 Answers

  1. I've been using VLC on xscreensaver for almost a year now. The solution posted here didn't seem to work for me without further tweaking. For anyone coming here on a search engine like I did, an alternate solution that works with VLC version 3.0.12 on Ubuntu (Lubuntu) 21.04:

    "Pirate Cinema"  cvlc --loop -Z --fullscreen     \
      --ignore-config --video-filter "vhs"        \
      --no-interact --no-disable-screensaver      \
      --drawable-xid $XSCREENSAVER_WINDOW         \
      --no-audio "$HOME/Videos"      \n\

    Photo of two monitors with the xscreensaver lock screen visible above two different videos:

    photo

    • 2
  2. Best Answer

    this work for me :D

    "Videos"    cvlc --loop --fullscreen --drawable-xid   \
              $XSCREENSAVER_WINDOW                    \
              --no-video-title-show                   \
              /path/to/videos.mp4                     \n\
    • 1