This VLC extension increases the playback speed between the dialogues to save you time. This extension works with video subtitles and assumes the subtitles are synchronized to the video.
The Academy Awards committees tend to have a bias towards awarding longer films over shorter ones (Source: "No Time to Pee – why today’s blockbusters are just too long"). This has led to directors and studios striving for longer running times in their productions, in hopes of being recognized by the awards. However, this can often result in films being unnecessarily long, leading to a waste of time for the audience.
An extension that increases the playback speed between dialogues can help save time for the audience. By increasing the playback speed between the dialogues, viewers can get through the film faster mainly without missing any important parts. This can be especially useful for those who want to watch many films in a short amount of time. The extension can be a great way to save time while still enjoying the film and its important parts.
The extension may be particularly useful for films in the following genres:
- Drama: Dramatic films often have long, drawn-out scenes of dialogue that can be time-consuming to watch.
- Adventure: Adventure films often have long, detailed explanations of the story, settings, and characters.
- Documentary: Documentary films can be filled with long, detailed explanations of the subject matter.
However, the extension may impact the overall tone and impact of the film. Here are some genres for which the extension may not be ideal:
- Action: Action films often have fast-paced scenes of battles or fights, and increasing the playback speed between dialogues may impact the overall pacing and impact of these scenes.
- Comedy: In comedies, the timing of the jokes and delivery of lines are often crucial to the humor. Increasing the playback speed between dialogues may impact the timing of the jokes, making them less funny or confusing.
- Romance: Romance films often rely on the slow, deliberate pace of the scenes to build tension and create emotional connections between characters. Increasing the playback speed between dialogues may detract from the mood and feeling of the film.
- Horror: Horror films often rely on suspenseful, slow-paced scenes to build tension and scare the audience.
In general, the effectiveness of the extension depends on the individual film and the genre, as well as the user's personal preferences and settings. The user can determine the minimum duration between dialogues before speeding up, for example, 10 seconds means that the dialogue should be with no subtitles for 10 seconds. Additionally, the user has the option to choose the speed of the video when there are no subtitles and the speed of the video when a subtitle is shown on the screen. It's always best to consider the nature of the film and how increasing the playback speed may impact the overall experience.
Put the file playback_speed_manager.lua in :
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Windows (all users) %ProgramFiles%\VideoLAN\VLC\lua\extensions\
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Windows (current user) %APPDATA%\VLC\lua\extensions\
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Linux (all users) /usr/lib/vlc/lua/extensions/
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Linux (current user) ~/.local/share/vlc/lua/extensions/
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Mac OS X (all users) /Applications/VLC.app/Contents/MacOS/share/lua/extensions/
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Mac OS X (current user) /Users/%your_name%/Library/ApplicationSupport/org.videolan.vlc/lua/extensions/
Put psm_looper_intf.lua in (create intf folder in case it doesn't exist):
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Windows (all users) %ProgramFiles%\VideoLAN\VLC\lua\intf\
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Windows (current user) %APPDATA%\VLC\lua\intf\
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Linux (all users) /usr/lib/vlc/lua/intf/
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Linux (current user) ~/.local/share/vlc/lua/intf/
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Mac OS X (all users) /Applications/VLC.app/Contents/MacOS/share/lua/intf/
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Mac OS X (current user) /Users/%your_name%/Library/ApplicationSupport/org.videolan.vlc/lua/intf/
At the end, restart VLC.
Note: create the directories if they do not exist.
Rename the subtitle file with the name of the video and place it in the same folder. Open the desired video, go to "view" and select the "slowsub" extension.
In the interface it will be possible to select two values from dropdown menus:
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Playback speed (no subtitles) Allows you to select the playback speed when there are no dialogues (no subtitles).
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Playback speed (subtitles) Allows you to select the playback speed when subtitle are displayed.
On first use, the extension will ask to enable the "Loop interface".
All you have to do is give permission and restart VLC (the procedure is guided). From the following times, this phase will no longer be necessary.
This procedure is required to enable the script psm_looper_intf.lua. From this moment the script will be activated in the background at every VLC execution.
Every time VLC or the extension is closed the parameters are set to the standard value. If you want to completely disable the extension (in particular the script psm_looper_intf.lua), you must uncheck the "Loop interface" checkbox, confirm and restart VLC.
To re-enable the extension it is necessary to follow what is explained in the section "First use".
Below is possible to see a preview of the interface.
English and non-English subtitles can be used. Non-English subtitles should be encoded with UTF-8 with BOM. To do so, open your subtitles with Notepad, click on "save as," and then change the encoding to UTF-8 with BOM.
The code was initially written by Michele Gaiarin ([email protected]) and Simone Gaiarin ([email protected]) and can be found on Github: Playback Speed Manager. I forked the project to modify this extension and add with my ideas.
- Adding the option to the user to determine the minimum duration between dialogues before speeding up (for example, 10 seconds means that the dialogue should be with no subtitles for 10 seconds). Initially, it was defined automatically and statically to 3 seconds (the user could not use this parameter).
- Ignoring music by skipping subtitles that include the character "♪", which means they consider as "between dialogues".
- Ignoring square brackets ("[" and "]"), which indicate a song title or sound effect description - consider as "between dialogues".
- Adding playback speed options of x1.25 and x1.5 in dialogues.
- Smoothing the playback speed increasing\decreasing
- Increasing the playback speed a couple of seconds after the current subtitle presents to allow the user to read the subtitle, in which the number of seconds depends on the pre-defined maximum playback speed.
- Decreasing the playback speed a couple of seconds before the next subtitle allows the user to read the current subtitle, in which the number of seconds depends on the pre-defined maximum playback speed.
- Fixing the VLC freezing issue. Every time the playback speed changes, the video freezes for a second. This problem is more noticeable when the difference between the playback speeds is higher (e.g., changing from 1x to 4x, or vice versa). It is a problem with VLC, not with this extension, still frustrating.
- Writing a regex for music, song title, sound effect description, or more things (?).
- Adding to option to the user decide whether to ignore the music, song title, or sound effect description or not.
It was initially developed with the purpose to facilitating a user with the listening of a new language by reducing the speed during a dialogue.
It was later modified to use it as the extension Time Saver (that is no more available on VLC 3.0).
So now this VLC Addon give the possibility to :
- Set the speed of the video when there are no subtitles.
- Set the speed of the video when a subtitle is shown on the screen.
The developed code was obtained starting from the work of the user "mederi" which can be found here.