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Gussy Up VLC with Winamp Classic Skins
Posted by Kevin Purdy at 3:15 AM on December 28, 2007
Lifehacker reader Bruno writes in with a tip that should give both fans of the old-style Winamp (a.k.a. Winamp Classic) and critics of the cross-platform VLC Media Player's somewhat plain looks a little thrill—VLC can use Winamp Classic skins as its interface. That means the thousands of styles available at Winamps Classic's official site and elsewhere can be put to good use on modern systems. To change VLC's skin, load the program, hit the "Settings" menu, select "Switch interface" and then "Skins 2." Once the modern-looking skin loads, you can right-click on blank space, choose "Select skin" and see how the player works and acts with a Winamp Classic skin. If you want to keep the skin, head for the Interface->Main interfaces->Skins dialog in VLC's preferences and make sure "Advanced options" is checked.
Tags: media players | skins
Comments (AU Comments · US Comments)
There are currently no AU comments for this post.
firesign
Posted 9:56 AM 27/12/07
i'll take vlc just as it is, thanks. very clean and simple, and it just works.
firesign
DarkJesus
Posted 9:43 AM 27/12/07
@HeartBurnKid: Why would it need them?
DarkJesus
HeartBurnKid
Posted 9:25 AM 27/12/07
If it can take Winamp input plugins as well, I'll convert.
HeartBurnKid
Sahel Khan
Posted 9:23 AM 27/12/07
I checked Advanced options under skins under main interfaces under Interface in Preferences. However, once I close VLC player, my skin reverts to the default. I'm using a Windows XP SP2. Is anyone else experiencing this issue?
Sahel Khan
guyfromtrinidad
Posted 11:06 AM 27/12/07
Thanks for this I just finished doing the new installs for the on my sis in laws new laptop and VLC is one of my must installs for any new computer, I am sure she would like the skins option
guyfromtrinidad
HeartBurnKid
Posted 10:19 AM 27/12/07
@DarkJesus: Because I'm a retro-gamer geek, and I have a large collection of .SPC and .NSF files I'd like to play.
HeartBurnKid
BryanC
Posted 9:00 AM 27/12/07
VLC's main point of sale, or not as it free, is the plain usability of it, i don't see the point of using skins on applications that have a use such as playing music, or watching media.
BryanC
Kafka
Posted 12:05 PM 27/12/07
Nice touch, great find Bruno. Has anybody found a way to run global hotkeys (reliably) in VLC? I'd love to move completely to VLC, but the lack of global hotkey support keeps me in an old, pre-bloat version of Winamp. Please forgive me if this sets off the media player wars.
By the way, has anybody else noticed that the text boxes for logging in to LH are now slightly smaller than the text within them? I'm in FF 2.0.0.11.
Kafka
DWeaver
Posted 12:03 PM 27/12/07
Interesting to know!
I'll have to see if "Bunker" works (one of my favorites).
DWeaver
booticon
Posted 8:02 AM 28/12/07
Not seeing much of a point in this, but to each their own. I use foobar2000 for music (ColumnsUI FTW!), and VLC for video, which is almost always full-screened on my second display, so I don't ever see the main interface.
booticon
roadrage
Posted 9:58 AM 1/1/08
I use VLC because it is versatile and reliable. I saw this post and thought....hmmm I would like skinz, then I tried them and would like to say thanks, but no thanks. I use ubuntu/gutsy and running vlc 0.8.6c without issue for all my video and audio needs. I d/l'ed a few skinz and changed to "skins 2" mode and then selected and applied the skinz I d/l'ed and immediately vlc crashed. I then figured I would try with the "default skin2" interface, and this would not support drag and drop of my video files, a feature I use often. Like VLC, then skip the skinz, imho...
roadrage