[tromy]

How do you activate the sidebar? I press info and then the left key but that does nothing for me.

You are doing it correctly. While the info overlay is up press to the left and the sidebar will appear.

All of that is assuming the skin you are using is updated to support the new sidebar.

Which PTVL skin are you using?

I'm using PTVL. I've tried other skins too. I'm running 5.6. When in PTVL a lot of functions are disabled like the subtitles key or pressing "m" to bring up the play menu thing won't work.

You propably use v0.5.6 stable.Sidebar isn't available in that version.You have to get development version 0.5.6a or higher