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I remember that normally while changing volume or aspect ratio from shortkey or mouse wheel, I was seeing a volume info or the aspect ratio in numbers displayed on the video for several seconds.

But now this is disabled. How to enable it?

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4 Answers 4

Reset to default
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This is called OSD: 'on screen display'.

The setting is under Tools > Preferences > Show settings: All > Subtitles/OSD: check On screen display

enter image description here

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  • But did you actually change the setting? Was it actually disabled? Your question doesn’t sound like you are asking how to re-enable the setting that has been changed (if not by you, then by whom/what?) Your question makes it sound more like it is not functioning correctly, which is a common symptom of a bug in VLC.
    – Synetech
    Nov 15, 2013 at 17:35
  • @Synetech - well. i guess it is much simpler: it was disabled, but i didn't (and don't) know why and when, so I was asking how to get back the feature, that is why the question is not "how to enable etc" because if i knew something was disabled and where i wouldn't have needed a question here. (maybe i should change it now?). i have enabled it and is fine now, not a bug as far as i can tell.
    – user162573
    Nov 16, 2013 at 18:22
  • Ah okay; maybe you reinstalled it, or deleted the preferences file or something (I wouldn’t jump to “it’s a virus! ahhh!!!”). But there is definitely a bug, so if you are playing a few videos and it suddenly stops working, you know what to do. :-)
    – Synetech
    Nov 16, 2013 at 22:09
  • @Synetech - maybe i just un-checked that by mistake when looking up some settings for subs or something. (and maybe i should have mentioned, although this is not OS specific, that vlc issue was in linux, elementaryOS: chance of a virus close to zero)
    – user162573
    Nov 17, 2013 at 18:18
  • I was being facetious, and no, Linux is not immune by any stretch of the imagination; it’s simply still not worth the effort… yet.
    – Synetech
    Nov 17, 2013 at 21:04
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Sometimes, even with OSD enabled, nothing gets displayed, but I stumbled on a "solution" for this. Enabling/selecting a visualization brings back the OSD text.

Audio -> Visualizations -> Spectrometer
(You can try any of the other visualization options you prefer, but don't leave it on "Disable").

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Unfortunately this is a bug that happens with VLC now and then.

Sometimes when you are watching a series of videos, the OSD will show as expected on the first video, but when it switches to another video in the playlist, suddenly the OSD will cease to function. Stopping the video (not just pausing) then playing again will fix it. It is not convenient, but it works for now until the devs can fix the bug.

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  • Holy crap almost 5 years later... this issue JUST bit me for the first time and was driving me nuts. Can't believe this hasn't been fixed yet (macOS)
    – JVC
    Jun 5, 2018 at 23:43
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It's the OSD, sometimes the text disappear because you change the subtitle font. On Mac some font will not show, specifically ones that are not English. You will have to choose between displaying your subtitle in foreign languages or displaying the OSD text.

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