Guidelines

• I have searched the issue tracker for open and closed issues that are similar to the feature request I want to file, without success.
• I have searched the documentation for information that matches the description of the feature request I want to file, without success.
• This issue contains only one feature request.

Problem Description

The new video player UI has various issues related to:

1. Staying on screen for far too long when playback is started or resumed
2. Blocking large portions of the video when displayed, on the edges as well as the (enabled by default) play button

Both of these are especially noticeable when the video is paused

Proposed Solution

First off, to fix the play button issue, the play button should

1. By default only be permanently on screen before playback first begins (i.e. when autoplay is disabled) and never when the video is just paused. This prevents issues when pausing the video to view content.
2. Be much smaller and have a relatively transparent dark border with a brighter icon in the middle similar to the old FreeTube player, instead of the current large and opaque white circle, assuming this can somehow be changed.
3. It should disappear immediately (or with a very short animation) when playback begins.

A good bonus to implement (if possible) is a nice popup animation like the current YouTube player when the video is paused/resumed.

Similarly, the rest of the UI needs some changes as well:

1. The icons at the bottom of the player are way too small and need to be larger (https://lawsofux.com/fittss-law/).
2. The entire UI needs to consistently stay around for ~800 ms then fade out quickly (~200 ms) when playback begins and the mouse stops moving, instead of sometimes deciding to hang around for 1-2 seconds then very slowly fade out.
3. The large amount of padding at the bottom of the viewport results in the progress bar covering up way too much of the video when open, and needs to be made more compact.

Alternatives Considered

Turning off the play button as mentioned in #6205 is not an ideal solution, as it ignores the very important default user experience and does not fix any of the issues related to the other video player UI elements.

Switching back to the old video player would obviously be a regression, so that is not an option here either.

Issue Labels

visual improvement

Additional Information

Thank you for looking into this.
I realize not all of these changes will be feasible, but it would be great if you would look into fixing at least some of them :)
Thank you for making such a great app!