Stuttering playback on the Mac? Try this!

[SnidelyW]

After reading some of the previous comments, I decided to take a look at XBMC. After doing so, I have to agree with "huib" who stated that XBMC is really overkill. Over the years, I have taken a look at a variety of audio and video players. For example, in addition to Apple's built-in Quicktime Player and iTunes, I've looked at Chroma Player, Mplayer, XBMC, Movist, Plex and a number of other audio and video players. While a few of these have features that I like, I always come back to VLC as my default video player, and Vox as my default audio player. These snazzy, all-in-one combo apps -- like XBMC -- just aren't my cup of tea. I prefer programs that are dedicated to one primary task, and stick with improving that task.

[megas88]

Ok, so I have a problem with vlc right now. Recently mkvs have once again started taking forever to load. This is a serious reoccurring problem and I really wish it would just stay fixed. It got fixed once then an update came it was broken again, and kept repeating the same problem. If there's an easy bug reporting service I can get to I'd love to report it so it can at least be fixed so I don't have to go back to pre 64bit vlc or other versions. I'm using vlc 1.1.2 on a macbook pro OSX 10.6.4 Intel core 2 duo 2.33GHz and 2gb of RAM. Please help me solve this problem. It's killing me. I just wanna watch my vids! Thank you.

[SnidelyW]

Megas88, you can go to the following page, open a free account, and submit a ticket. However, I'd check first, as I wouldn't be surprised if there is already a ticket for this problem.

http://trac.videolan.org/vlc/timeline

[jagwatoof]

For what it's worth... I'm using a Macmini 3,1 (the 2009 model just before the current generation... P8700, 4 gb ram, nvidia 9400m) OS X 10.6.4 and vlc 1.1.3

With default settings, when I tried a relatively short test video (1440x1080 mpeg4 avi), vlc plays fine for about 2 minutes (seeking to any given location within the video is fine) then it gets glitchy until I reboot (just quitting and restarting vlc doesn't help). After a reboot, I can start vlc again and play that same video again and it'll be fine for about 2 minutes before screwing up again. By "glitchy", I mean it's like the data stream is corrupted or is being lost, so that frames aren't being updated properly. Like if a person is waving his arm, the old position of the arm lingers on the screen, and new placement of the arm comes in with distorted colors and outline.

This video plays fine in Mplayer OSX Extended (even after vlc craps out on it).

I read the thread here and decided to disable (uncheck) the Preferences -> Input/Codecs -> Access Modules -> MMap -> "Use file memory mapping" option. After doing this, vlc plays my test video with no problems at all.

I also changed Preferences -> Input/Codecs -> Access Modules -> File -> "Extra network caching value (ms)" to 1500 ms (up from 900), and I'm able to play pretty much any video over my network (from a Windows SMB share) without any trouble, including some 1080p mpeg4 AVC video files that stutter and freeze up on Mplayer OSX Extended.

Putting this here because even though it's contrary to Fkuehne's suggestion, it makes vlc work correctly for me.

[SnidelyW]

Hello Jagwatoof. Thanks for the info. I haven't had any problems with playing an video files, but I am going to archive your comment for future reference...just in case.

[adrianosc]

DISABLE the MMap -> "Use file memory mapping" option worked for me too. Videos are now playing much smoother than before. I'm using VLC 1.1.3.
Thanks jagwatoof for the post.

[lapinou]

I recently bought the new mac mini (mid 2010) and also had a lot of stuttering in my videos (i have a lot of 1080p mkv with very high bitrate).
I had so much sluttering that i was considering selling it for a windows htpc configuration.

I disabled "Use file memory mapping" too and now it is reading all my mkvs without any problem.

[lapinou]

Oh and also thx to everyone that contributes to vlc (mac or pc version), it is definately the best player on both platforms !
I hope you guys will come out with a mac version with gpu acceleration soon

[massimo.grossi]

On my brand new mac mini (2010) @ 1920x1080 I have the same issue.
Videos play very well inside a window, but If you want to get a noisy shuttering reproduction you just have to full screen it.
The strange is, if you go for cmd+3 window option (very very close to full screen) you play smooth... it's just the cmd+f option that really spoil everything.
I tried with mkv, avi and mp4, the result is always the same.
I hope our heroes can fix this in next release.

[jpcpt03]

Most 1040p video promlems stem from the clock speed in the "PLAYBACK" settings. Likely from the 50cps and 60cps current diverences between Europe and the US on computers that use this for a timing clock. Solution is simple, reduce the playback speed by 50/60ths. Go to PLAYBACK in menu and go to SLOWER. Defult is 50% up or down change. Finer changes in Microsoft are by slider bar. In OSX set in PREFERENCES, HOTKEYS, FINE. This gives a 10% change. Drop to about 80% slower.

[TurboMecca]

I've got the impression that VLC for OSX has a huge problem with memory leakage, it seems to use all available RAM to map the whole movie clip while you are watching it. The explanation to this could be that it is a requirement for making it possible to start the clip where ever you want, without having to wait for a preload of the whole clip (like in Perian for example).

If the size of the movie clip is larger than your installed RAM (4Gb in my case), it starts stutter at the end of the clip when the OS needs to swap out the filled RAM to HDD.

You would think that closing VLC and "kill" it would free upp all memory mapped/reserved by VLC, but it doesn't. You need to either put the movie clip in the trashcan and empty it or reboot your mac, to get your lost RAM back.

I'm gonna try disabling MMap and see if that does the trick.

Edit: Well, disabling MMap didn't do the trick. After one movie clip (4Gb .mkv) all my RAM is occupied and before I emptied the trashcan with the movie clip I wouldn't get any RAM back.

[bradmurray]

I've got the impression that VLC for OSX has a huge problem with memory leakage, it seems to use all available RAM to map the whole movie clip while you are watching it. The explanation to this could be that it is a requirement for making it possible to start the clip where ever you want, without having to wait for a preload of the whole clip (like in Perian for example).

I have never had the same problem. I routinely watch 3-8GB mkv files and VLC is rarely using much more than 100MB of RAM. I leave it open for days at a time as I am always pausing and going back to videos that are left open. I would also know the difference if it were somehow trying to buffer the whole file first. My network is gigabit and I am almost always watching from a server, but everything starts instantly.

[TurboMecca]

Thanks for your reply, bradmurray!
Have you disabled MMap as well?

I'll have to take back what I stated in my previous post.
After a couple of days (after restart/reboot?) VLC doesn't longer seem to use up all RAM, it's almost like the disabling of MMap didn't have any effect at first (when I edited my post).
Anyhow, now VLC seems to work as it should and I'm happy as I ever could be. No more rebooting or throwing movies away to get my lost RAM back.

[tc_2010MacPro]

You might have noticed a performance decrease within the last few releases or finally when updating to Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard.

If you did, try this:

* Go to VLC's preferences
* Click on "All" at the bottom of the window
* Navigate to "Input/Codecs" -> "Access modules" -> "MMap"
* Activate "Use file memory mapping"
* Save the settings and restart VLC.

Afterwards, VLC should perform as expected. We will enable this setting by default in future releases of VLC for Mac OS X.

Hey everyone,

I am running 10.6 and when I attempted to follow these directions, I noticed "Use file memory mapping" was already activated/selected. So at this point, I did the opposite and unactivated/unchecked "Use file memory mapping". Every since then, I have not had any problem playing back .MKV file from standard DVD or Blu-ray DVD.

[roger jonsson]

* Activate "Use file memory mapping"
* Save the settings and restart VLC.

Afterwards, VLC should perform as expected. We will enable this setting by default in future releases of VLC for Mac OS X.

Until the free memory is gone maybe, then what...
After having played a DVD or what ever, all free memory is gone and everything is sluggish, frozen and unresponsive. It probably worsens the situation for HD-video as well after a short time when the free memory is used up (?). I think Activate "Use file memory mapping" should come with a warning!

Here the "Use file memory mapping" is now turned off and will stay turned off. Now I can actually use my computer as normal after having watched a movie.

[roger jonsson]

When comparing if using "file memory mapping" helps, I suggest not playing a part of a video that has already been played with file memory memory turned on, because (I am guessing) it will play what is cached from memory instead of the harddrive. Always try it on a new part or use iFreememory (or such) to clear the caches in between. A short video will probably play better the second time with "file memory mapping", so it may be deceiving...

Remeber the disadvantage of using "file memory mapping" in my previous post. Maybe it is good sometimes, but certainly not always...

[tengo84]

2010 Mac Pro 5.1, OS X 10.6.5, ATI 5870, 10GB RAM

VLC 1.1.3 and 1.1.5 both experienced video/audio stuttering when playing avi files. I unchecked "Use file memory mapping", which was on by default, and the stuttering disappeared in both versions. What's really strange is that the problem only occurred with files stored on my WD 2TB Caviar Black hard drives. Identical files on both of them produced the same glitches. I had no problems with memory mapping playing videos from my 1 TB Caviar Black, or my SSD. Thankfully, all is well now that memory mapping is disabled.

[tripdragon]

MacBook Pro 1st gen
10.6
2 gig ram <~ that's all it can take
VLC 1.1.5
Settings Map feature like above comments On and Off

Video: MKV 1080p file size around 800megs
I still get 'some' VLC quality artifacts but far less than previous versions.
MKV's take awhile to load now but all players do that. Quicktime's, MPlayer

I found out about the purge command in terminal as well to free up some memory now and then.
If I turn Map feature off skipping through the video will delay the audio. With map turned on it's fine.

This brings up another question. Why do MKV's have this long load system? I assume they are getting copied into memory to play. But the video file in them is just h.264's and a normal .mov file or mpeg file never has to load like this.

I thought VLC would read them differently. Saa~

[calibrator]

In addition it also helps to disable the fullscreen menu if you only have stutters in fullscreen.

[georgaba]

Thank you! I registered just to inquire about this, but thankfully I ran into your thread.

[tgeorge]

We will enable this setting by default in future releases of VLC for Mac OS X.

You promised that in 2009, and it's still not enabled by default. If that's not the proof that Mac users are third-class citizens, I don't know what is.

[drshti]

Regarding playback of 1080p .mkv videos: I was having trouble when viewing long zooming shots or pans - motion was jerky, not seamlessly smooth. The main cause turned out to be that I had checked the "sharpen video filter" a long time ago when watching low definition material, and had forgotten about it. It uses a chunk of processing power and is not necessary with HD material.

This fixed that issue, but there were still problems like when a flock of hundreds of thousands of birds took to the sky all at once. Data overload! and the picture would freeze till the action was over. This was fixed by going to Preferences (All) / Video Codecs / FFmpeg there on the 13th line down I changed the "skip the loop filter for H264 decoding" from None to All. I'm happy with the result.

[balajim]

So not as easy as many people would expect from VLC. However, main thing is that it works (somehow)!

[Natte Hans]

thanks for your update...it works again

[lavinj]

I have just bought a MacBook Air 13" Mid 2011 with 1.8Gz and i7 4Gb Ram 265 SSD

Had choppy HD video 1920x1080 playing thru VLC. The file was .mts-

The fix was VLC->Preferences->input & Codecs->Post-Processing Quality 0 (set it to ZERO)

Have Fun! No more choppy videos