Multiple VLC windows open when playing 2 or more mp4 files. One has UI and the other plays video and wont close.
When opening multiple mp4 files in file explorer, VLC will open with what looks like two instances of the program running. One window will have the VLC UI but will just be playing black, while the second window will not have the UI, but will be showing the video. The UI on the other screen does work on the video and reflects the status of the video in terms of elapsed time, etc. The window without the UI will also not close when “x” is clicked on the window. I have attached a screenshot of what this looks like.
To recreate:
- Highlight more than 1 mp4 file in file explorer.
- play the files, either by pressing Enter, by right clicking and selecting “Play,” or by right clicking selecting “Play with VLC media player.”
The issue does not happen when only selecting one file to play, or if they are played by selecting “Add to VLC media player's Playlist”. This issue does not happen with all of my mp4 files, but for a certain subset of mp4 files, it happens every time. I am not sure of the codecs being used in those files, as they are university lectures that I did not make. I have uploaded one of the video files to the samples server. I figured you could just copy it to see the issue with multiple files. I've confirmed that opening multiple copies of the file i've uploaded will cause the bug to manifest.
In following the bug reports procedure, I made sure I have the latest version of VLC, and the issue persists. So the issue is present in versions 2.2.x and 3.0.2. I have reset my preferences and the issue remains. I have searched but not found this issue reported in other bug reports. I have marked the severity of the bug as minor since there are work arounds and the bug does not crash the system or the program.
My system information: OS: Windows 10, version: 1709, OS Build: 16299.431 MOBO: Asus Z270-A CPU: Intel Core i7-6700K GPU: NVIDIA Geforce GTX 970
In addition, I moved the mp4 files to a Lenovo Thinkpad laptop running Linux. The bug was not present when using VLC 2.2.2 running on Ubuntu 16.04 LTS.
Laptop system specs: OS: Ubuntu 16.04 LTS CPU: intel Core i5-7200U GPU: intel HD graphics 620 (Kaby Lake GT2)