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I am new to AutoHotKey. I spend about twenty minutes setting up my computer each day and I am just doing things I think this program can automate, but there are a lot of steps and I am also unsure if this level of complexity really is possible or not.
I will attempt to make my description short but I will give every detail that matters.
Okay, so, first, I want to make sure everyone is familiar with the two programs I want to use. One is titled VLC Media Player and I am sure everyone has heard of that. The other is titled Ontop Replica and it is available free online. It is an amazing program to keep windows on top of others by somehow making use of the desktop composition system, some call it aero.
Okay, so, imagine that I have this setup.
Windows 10 64 bit FX 8320 16gb DDR3 Nvidia GTX1050 4gb
VLC 64 bit version Ontop Replica
Those are the important parts.
Using Ontop replica, I can put the VLC videos into an A-B loop to run throughout the day, and minimize them, and they play through only the ontop replica window without issue. This seems to minimize resources to play the videos, whereas arranging the 7 VLC windows uses more power for the same result. Using Ontop Replica here actually seems to reduce impact.
So, I have 7 videos, and here is what needs to happen, which I do every day.
- Open 7 instances of VLC media player.
- Open each video in an instance.
- Open 7 instances of Ontop Replica.
- Link them all to the VLC windows.
- Set each video to play on an A-B loop from specified starting second to specified ending second.
- Place each VLC instance into minimal interface mode
- Arrange the ontop replica windows such that four can stack in the available space vertically along the edge of the screen, and the remaining three sit side by side in the remaining space at the top of the screen, leaving a large section of the lower right screen empty. Seven small rectangles surround a large rectangle. Look here for a basic idea of what I mean. Color boxes are the ontop replica windows and the white box is the area left without a window
Is this too complicated for Auto Hot Key or can it be done? I thought since VLC and Ontop Replica are both open source perhaps the coding could work out but I am not informed enough on this to really attempt it without some encouragement that it appears possible.
In other words, I do not expect someone to do it for me but it would help me to know now if people think this is not even possible. I would not want to spend hours or days trying something that cannot work. I am appreciative of all who respond.
Thank you.
Paul Alminas
Posted 2019-08-29T21:04:57.973
Reputation: 11
2Auto Hot Key can definitely do it, but it will not be an easy task. I would start to look into what you can automate outside of Auto Hot Key. For example, start the videos in one command directly with VLC Media player. You can even put that as a shortcut in your
shell:startupfolder and you have a few steps less to worry about. If each VLC Media player has its own windows title, it should be pretty doable to use its mouse movement and sendkey functions to do what you would normally do manually. – LPChip – 2019-08-29T21:16:34.3071Thank you for the quick response. That is a sensible route to go. I think I can make the files open with VLC 64 bit already in minimal interface mode, I am unsure if I can specify an A-B loop or not. I will examine if I can do that somehow. I do not know how to really use the mouse movement functions. I guess I need to read about that. I appreciate the direction. – Paul Alminas – 2019-08-29T21:24:24.027
You can setup VLC Media Player to always play the file repeatedly. If you crop the movie such that the A-B loop is from start to finish, you do not need to set any loop points. Just open and go. – LPChip – 2019-08-30T07:11:38.313
Well? Were you successful? Just out of curiosity. (FWIW I agreed with LPChip's assessment...certainly should be possible, not easy, made easier by offloading some of the work). – B Layer – 2020-01-19T14:39:46.587