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How can i handle to see the VLC playlist beside my main window?

Example: I have a bunch of movies which i created a playlist for. But on my 27" iMac, i don't want to see every movie in fullscreen. For that, i want to see my playlist beside my main window.

Is there a skin or a workaround to do this?

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5 Answers 5

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36

It is rather simple. The question is old but since I was just checking myself for the same problem and others might to.

Hit ⌘ + , to open VLC preferences. Uncheck the Play video in main window option. In the interface tab the one that usually opens first.

Videos will spawn in a seperate window and the main holds the playlist.

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  • 2
    Also just to clarify, the shortcut is cmd, (command followed by comma) This is the standard preferences combo and works in most apps.
    – bernk
    Commented Sep 3, 2014 at 9:36
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    this is one feature that the vlc team cant get it straight.i have to say its pathetic..i want to have dock playlist and view the video at the same time..you can view the video with dock playlist but u cant resize the video size cause there is bunch of useless menu/controller on top of it..apparently its impossible..so sad
    – slier
    Commented Jan 28, 2015 at 6:55
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    This option is gone! :( I remember it, it's just not there anymore.
    – Liz
    Commented Apr 24, 2015 at 22:00
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    Wow, this has bothered me for years, thanks. I see the option in VLC version 2.2.1 in the "Interface" panel of the preferences, it's worded "Show video within the main window" and unchecking it now makes a separate window appear for the playlist.
    – alxndr
    Commented May 30, 2015 at 1:24
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    This is great, it allows to show Audio Visualizations without hiding the Playlist. In VLC 3, it is under Preferences > Video > Show Video within the main window.
    – wisbucky
    Commented Dec 18, 2021 at 23:47
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Under the Menu item "View" see "View>Docked Playlist". If it has a CHECK next to it, it is "Docked", all in 1 window. If you remove the CHECK, you will see the "Video" and "Playlist", in 2 windows.

(I thought the original answer was saying "View", as in "look at" or "look for" the option "unCheck" ... and spent forever unsuccessfully going through the Preferences looking for "unCheck", when, obviously, "VIEW" was a MENU ITEM, at the top of the VLC window!)

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  • That menu is also gone!
    – Marecky
    Commented Jan 28, 2023 at 17:15
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Someone else mentioned that, yes, you can dock the list, but above the small video play window is a larger menu of options (podcasts, disc, etc) that are useless to my immediate need, and cannot be hidden. Really dumb. I also can't get my version of WMP to do the same thing either. Ugh. I'm working on a freelance project where I need to watch several videos and click through them, and I just tried it out in Win Movie Maker, and it works better there. You can just plunk videos into the right window (gives nice big thumbs), minimize the ribbon, and stretch all the windows for optimum fit.

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On a newer version 3.0.3 the enabling the:

Enqueue items into playlist in one instance mode

fixed the problem.

enter image description here

This fixed the problem on Ubuntu 18.04 but I still think it is relevant on this forum because VLC is cross-platform.

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0

On 3.0.18 I tried clearing

Preferences > Video > Show Video within the main window

but I could not get this to work initially. I got it to work by resetting all preferences, clearing the above setting, quitting VLC. After doing that, I could view the video and the playlist simultaneously.

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