Improvements for EngPlayer

[realgooseman]

Hi @Falldaemon,
I daily drive EngPlayer already but these suggestions would greatly improve the app, let me know what you think.

Easy playlist switch

Currently the app always starts with playlist selection menu. It would be better if EngPlayer directly opens on the favorited playlist (or first playlist if none favorited). And also add a button or menu inside interface to easily switch between playlists.

Basically bypassing the launch playlist selection menu and integrating it inside the interface.

Option to hide interface categories

An option to hide specific interface categories like VOD, Shows, Media, Recording to only keep channels page. Simplifying the interface for simpler usage.

Option to hide playlist categories

An option to manually hide specific playlist categories would be nice. Something like locked elements but to hide them from playlist instead of locking.

External players

Extending the usability by adding an option to open streams in an external video player like MPV or VLC. Path to player could be configured in the settings and used as default or fallback.

[Falldaemon]

Hi @realgooseman,

Thank you for using EngPlayer and for your detailed feedback. Here are my thoughts on your suggestions:

Easy Playlist Switch: This is a very logical request. I am considering adding a "Remember Last Playlist" option or a quick-switch button in future updates to bypass the launch menu.

Hiding Interface Categories: The left panel is designed to keep all controls easily accessible to the user at all times. However, please note that when you switch to Full Screen mode, the panel automatically disappears to provide a clean viewing experience.

Hiding Playlist Categories: I agree with the distinction between "locking" and "hiding." In a future update, I plan to add a separate "Hide" option to the context menu (right below the "Lock" feature) for bouquets you want to remove from the list without setting a PIN.

External Players (MPV/VLC): My goal with EngPlayer is to provide a seamless, all-in-one experience. Opening streams in external players creates separate windows, which breaks the application's single-window integrity. Therefore, I am not considering adding external player support for the time being.

Thanks again for your support!

[linuxubuntu63]

Hello.
Thanks for your great app !
Finally a good one for Linux !

In live tv, in the player what is the buffer time ?

As you said, i hope in next release an option "remember last playlist" and the possibility to "hide category" in live tv and vod/séries.

Can you add a button "stop" when we watch movie, in order to stop the movie correcly ?

Can you add a category (History) ?

In live tv, when we select a channel, the player start and in left panel we see the epg Channel, can you add a " previous button" to go back to channel listing without close the player (choose another channel while watching the first one select) ?

Hope you read me and thanks again !!

[Falldaemon]

Hello!

Thank you so much for your kind words and support. It makes me very happy to hear that you appreciate EngPlayer on Linux!

To answer your questions: The live TV buffer is dynamic (usually a few seconds) to balance stability and low latency. Regarding the "Stop" button; I designed the interface to be minimal and modern, so the Play/Pause button handles both functions comfortably.

Regarding your other requests (History, remembering the last playlist, etc.); I have noted them down on my wish list. I will try my best to implement them if possible, but I cannot make any definite promises at this stage as they require significant changes.
Thanks again for the feedback. Stay tuned for future updates!

[linuxubuntu63]

Ok.
Thanks for answer.

In next update it's plan to have the ability to hide category in tv and vod (like realgooseman said) ?

Thanks a lot

[gambler145]

I have problems with subtitles in some programs and some movies, it would be great to arrange so that you can have VLC as an extra player when things go wrong. You have done a great job, I will completely switch to this one. But it might be good if you add VLC as an external player, then you can subtitle everything. It might work better in English, but with Swedish as the language, there are sometimes problems. They work in VLC, but playing there is complicated, there is a lot of cutting and pasting. If you fix that, you will have a super player better than Televizo for Android. They have the same problem with the subtitles, but have VLC as an external player, and then the subtitles always work.

[Falldaemon]

"Hi again!

I am working on the subtitle issue you mentioned. I believe it is related to character encoding (missing Latin-1 support for Swedish characters), and I have a fix ready.

To give you the correct instructions to test this fix, I need to know: Are you using the Flatpak version, or are you running the app from the GitHub source code?

Please let me know, and I will send you a quick command to apply the fix and verify it immediately.

Thanks!"