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Titanium Man · Oct 1, 2004, 10:16 PM

I have a strange problem with the Griffin Powermate. It works fine with all my apps except for VLC. VLC ignores all input from the Powermate. Has anyone else had this problem or is it a peculiarity with my system?

I'd really like to have the Powermate set to do things jump ahead or back one minute, advance frame either way, or other VLC functions that have complicated key combinations. I've emailed Griffin tech support and gotten no response.

drive-thru · Oct 2, 2004, 05:02 AM

Not sure why it won't work in VLC (and I don't have a Powermate to test).
Just make sure the keystrokes you program it for in VLC do what you expect them to, go to VLC>Prefs>Hot Keys and there's a list of shortcuts, which you can change, to perform all of the commands. Make sure these match up to what you programmed into the Powermate.

Titanium Man · Oct 2, 2004, 05:07 PM

I've tried all that (Mama didn't raise any Mac-ignorant fools). Even deleted the VLC settings and started fresh. Even simple commands like command-up to increase volume don't work.

Can't anybody else with a Powermate check to see if it works with VLC on their system?

Guido · Oct 9, 2004, 10:49 AM

I have powermate, but it won't work presently on any of my programs (or even global). I have installed and reinstalled the powermate software to no avail. It used to work great on my imovie application, then I put it away for awhile. Now, nothing.

What is VLC by the way?

drive-thru · Oct 9, 2004, 11:37 AM

VideoLAN Client (VLC) is a media player which plays, pretty much, every format of video. Well it plays almost every .avi I've ever tried. It's a great piece of software, nice clean & simple interface and not fat with features.
I guess it's similar to MPlayer, but I've not used MPlayer in a while.

Titanium Man · Oct 10, 2004, 12:26 PM

Originally posted by Guido:
I have powermate, but it won't work presently on any of my programs (or even global). I have installed and reinstalled the powermate software to no avail. It used to work great on my imovie application, then I put it away for awhile. Now, nothing.

Sounds like your Powermate is dead. Mine works perfectly with every application. Except VLC. And I really wish Apple would fix the scrolling. Even with Smooth Scrolling on, the jerkiness of the scrolling makes things hard to read. All this neat stuff in Jaguar, Panther and Tiger and they can't fix something basic that affects every user every day.

Jens Peter · Oct 10, 2004, 12:52 PM

Well, I tested VLC with my powermate.

It works I can play/pause (click/long click) and change the video size (double/normal) by scrolling.

But if I exit VLC, and start it again, the shortcuts doesn't work. Then I can open PowerMate Preferences, and click the Apply Now button, and it works again. Only until I quit VLC.

I don't know if this is a VLC issue, or a Powermate issue. But it's annoying.

Titanium Man · 09:18 PM

Thanks. At least now I know it's not my system.

I tried your technique and unfortunately, it doesn't work at all for me even when I used "Apply Now" with VLC running. I think it's a VLC problem since the Powermate seems to work with everything else. It's one of the problems with Open Source software. With no one person running the show, programmers work on whatever they want to work on. If none of them think standard hooks for control functions are important, the problem will never be fixed. Not to mention there's no accountability. If someone uses a quick and dirty shortcut to get something done, he can't be fired if it isn't 100% or even 80% functional. And the group says "What do you want for free?" This will continue to be a problem for Linux. Not that I mind. I much prefer OS X.

mintcake · Nov 17, 2004, 09:01 PM

Well it's behaving oddly for me. It works, but some commands only work if they're reapplied in SysPrefs (jump forward, jump back), some aren't working at all (volume up/down, full screen) and one works all the time (clicking the PowerMate to pause/start).

ech0 · Jun 14, 2005, 12:17 PM

i dont know if you guys figured it out yet as these posts were from last year but let me tell you how i fixed the vlc/powermate problem. you have to open up the com.griffentechnology.PowerMate.plist. look for "VLC." change both "VLC" to "VLC media player". powermate should recognize it after you save the plst. there are two plst files so do this to both. or (im assuming this works but havent tried it myself) you can just rename VLC to "VLC media player" then go and set up settigns in the powermate contol panel. hope that helps. annoyed me very much not being able to scrub in vlc but this solved it.

-Q- · Jun 14, 2005, 03:41 PM

Originally Posted by Titanium Man

It's one of the problems with Open Source software. With no one person running the show, programmers work on whatever they want to work on. If none of them think standard hooks for control functions are important, the problem will never be fixed. Not to mention there's no accountability..

One of the nice things about open source software is that you can oftentimes talk directly to the person who wrote the software (or plays a large part in its creation), which is very much not the case with commercial apps.

The DJ is a regular poster here and he does a lot of work on the mac port of VLC. Perhaps once he sees your post he can provide some insight (or at least some direction that says it's VLC or it's the Powermate software).

Good luck.