• Re: VLC failing to play video (picture freezes but sound continues) aft

    From Vir Campestris@21:1/5 to All on Fri Jan 20 12:23:35 2023
    On 20/01/2023 12:15, NY wrote:
    Is it just me, or has anyone else found that recent versions of VLC will
    not resume playing of the video part of a file if the video is paused
    and then resumed? The sound continues fine, but the picture is frozen. Sometimes the picture resumes after playing for a minute or so. The only guaranteed remedy is to stop the video (keeping VLC open) and then start playing again, moving to the point in the file where playback stopped working.

    It happens on two different PCs (Windows 7 with ASUS EAH5450 graphics,
    and Windows 10 with Intel UHD / NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 graphics*). VLC support were singularly useless and refused to log it as a bug, even
    after I'd carried out the diagnostics that they requested. V2.1.5 works
    fine and the fault happens with V3.0.18; I've not tried every version in between to determine which version was the first to have the problem.
    I've experimented with various values of "Output" on the Tools |
    Preferences | Video menu, as well as turning on/off "Accelerated video output" and "Use hardware YUV-RGB" (of those which successfully play
    video, none fixes it).


    (*) Piriform "Speccy" lists both ;-)

    I've not seen this - but I run Linux.

    What format video files?

    Andy

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  • From NY@21:1/5 to Brian Gregory on Fri Jan 20 12:25:31 2023
    "Brian Gregory" <[email protected]d> wrote in message news:[email protected]...
    On 20/01/2023 12:15, NY wrote:
    Is it just me, or has anyone else found that recent versions of VLC will
    not resume playing of the video part of a file if the video is paused and
    then resumed? The sound continues fine, but the picture is frozen.
    Sometimes the picture resumes after playing for a minute or so. The only
    guaranteed remedy is to stop the video (keeping VLC open) and then start
    playing again, moving to the point in the file where playback stopped
    working.

    It happens on two different PCs (Windows 7 with ASUS EAH5450 graphics,
    and Windows 10 with Intel UHD / NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 graphics*). VLC
    support were singularly useless and refused to log it as a bug, even
    after I'd carried out the diagnostics that they requested. V2.1.5 works
    fine and the fault happens with V3.0.18; I've not tried every version in
    between to determine which version was the first to have the problem.
    I've experimented with various values of "Output" on the Tools |
    Preferences | Video menu, as well as turning on/off "Accelerated video
    output" and "Use hardware YUV-RGB" (of those which successfully play
    video, none fixes it).


    (*) Piriform "Speccy" lists both ;-)

    What kind of file is it?
    Which video codec?

    Sorry. Should have said. TS format, either MPEG 1 L2 or H264 codec (SD or HD recordings from DVB-T or DVB-S).

    Typically a file can be paused once or twice, and then the picture freezes. Dragging the time to a different part of the file doesn't cure it, but
    totally stopping and restarting the playing (with the same instance of VLC) always fixes it.

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  • From Brian Gregory@21:1/5 to All on Fri Jan 20 12:20:50 2023
    On 20/01/2023 12:15, NY wrote:
    Is it just me, or has anyone else found that recent versions of VLC will
    not resume playing of the video part of a file if the video is paused
    and then resumed? The sound continues fine, but the picture is frozen. Sometimes the picture resumes after playing for a minute or so. The only guaranteed remedy is to stop the video (keeping VLC open) and then start playing again, moving to the point in the file where playback stopped working.

    It happens on two different PCs (Windows 7 with ASUS EAH5450 graphics,
    and Windows 10 with Intel UHD / NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 graphics*). VLC support were singularly useless and refused to log it as a bug, even
    after I'd carried out the diagnostics that they requested. V2.1.5 works
    fine and the fault happens with V3.0.18; I've not tried every version in between to determine which version was the first to have the problem.
    I've experimented with various values of "Output" on the Tools |
    Preferences | Video menu, as well as turning on/off "Accelerated video output" and "Use hardware YUV-RGB" (of those which successfully play
    video, none fixes it).


    (*) Piriform "Speccy" lists both ;-)

    What kind of file is it?
    Which video codec?

    --
    Brian Gregory (in England).

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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  • From NY@21:1/5 to Vir Campestris on Fri Jan 20 16:12:30 2023
    On 20/01/2023 12:23, Vir Campestris wrote:
    On 20/01/2023 12:15, NY wrote:
    Is it just me, or has anyone else found that recent versions of VLC
    will not resume playing of the video part of a file if the video is
    paused and then resumed? The sound continues fine, but the picture is
    frozen. Sometimes the picture resumes after playing for a minute or
    so. The only guaranteed remedy is to stop the video (keeping VLC open)
    and then start playing again, moving to the point in the file where
    playback stopped working.

    It happens on two different PCs (Windows 7 with ASUS EAH5450 graphics,
    and Windows 10 with Intel UHD / NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 graphics*).
    VLC support were singularly useless and refused to log it as a bug,
    even after I'd carried out the diagnostics that they requested. V2.1.5
    works fine and the fault happens with V3.0.18; I've not tried every
    version in between to determine which version was the first to have
    the problem. I've experimented with various values of "Output" on the
    Tools | Preferences | Video menu, as well as turning on/off
    "Accelerated video output" and "Use hardware YUV-RGB" (of those which
    successfully play video, none fixes it).


    (*) Piriform "Speccy" lists both ;-)

    I've not seen this - but I run Linux.

    What format video files?

    Broadcast SD and HD (so MPEG 1 L2 or H264 - TS file).

    I don't think I've seen the symptom with Cinnamon Mint, Ubuntu or
    Raspbian, though I don't tend to use those as much. I'll have a go at
    trying to provoke the problem on Linux.

    On Windows, all it needs is to pause and resume a video a couple of
    times, maybe with a bit of frame-by-frame advance, and the picture will
    freeze when I start playing again, though the sound continues as normal.

    I could understand if it was one PC, but to have it happen on two
    different versions of Windows with different graphics cards, suggests a bug.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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  • From Brian Gregory@21:1/5 to All on Fri Jan 20 17:47:45 2023
    On 20/01/2023 12:25, NY wrote:
    Typically a file can be paused once or twice, and then the picture
    freezes. Dragging the time to a different part of the file doesn't cure
    it, but totally stopping and restarting the playing (with the same
    instance of VLC) always fixes it.

    I don't seem to be able to reproduce your problems with my recordings
    from DVB-S.

    Maybe there is slight corruption due to interference or weak signal?

    But playing a TS file without any help from some kind of additional
    index file is prone to minor problems if you don't just play it straight through from the beginning and instead seek back and forward within it.
    But usually things just go slow as the player establishes it's bearings
    within the file.

    --
    Brian Gregory (in England).

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  • From NY@21:1/5 to Brian Gregory on Fri Jan 20 20:21:59 2023
    On 20/01/2023 17:47, Brian Gregory wrote:
    On 20/01/2023 12:25, NY wrote:
    Typically a file can be paused once or twice, and then the picture
    freezes. Dragging the time to a different part of the file doesn't
    cure it, but totally stopping and restarting the playing (with the
    same instance of VLC) always fixes it.

    I don't seem to be able to reproduce your problems with my recordings
    from DVB-S.

    Maybe there is slight corruption due to interference or weak signal?

    Good thinking, but the pauses happen anywhere and not at specific,
    reproducible places.

    But playing a TS file without any help from some kind of additional
    index file is prone to minor problems if you don't just play it straight through from the beginning and instead seek back and forward within it.
    But usually things just go slow as the player establishes it's bearings within the file.

    Given that PVR packages such as TVHeadend and NextPVR generate TS files
    by default, I'd have thought that they would be a proper playable file
    format. What you are saying makes me doubt this. I wonder if I should reconfigure TVHeadend to save as MKV format - presumably a different
    wrapper with the same codec inside, dependent on whether it's SD or HD.

    I'll do some further tests to see if MPG and WTV/DVR-MS files have the
    same problem, and also whether MP4 files, as downloaded by Get-iPlayer,
    do it. G-iP files should be free of blemishes because they are subject
    to normal error protection/correction of the TCP transport over which
    they are delivered.

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  • From Robin@21:1/5 to All on Sat Jan 21 12:08:44 2023
    On 20/01/2023 12:15, NY wrote:
    Is it just me, or has anyone else found that recent versions of VLC will
    not resume playing of the video part of a file if the video is paused
    and then resumed? The sound continues fine, but the picture is frozen. Sometimes the picture resumes after playing for a minute or so. The only guaranteed remedy is to stop the video (keeping VLC open) and then start playing again, moving to the point in the file where playback stopped working.


    Yes. I tried various things without solving all the problems (usually
    with HEVC). My current policy is use VLC as first choice but switch to
    MS "Films & TV" app if I hit the problem. Much to my surprise that
    usually plays everything w/o problems.

    --
    Robin
    reply-to address is (intended to be) valid

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