VLC media player for Microsoft Windows Vista

[Jean-Baptiste Kempf]

This article tries to explain how to make VLC work with Windows VISTA

Introduction
Windows Vista was launched a few weeks ago and is selling poorly. I will not comment here on the bugs, the security issues and the other horrors that you may find with Vista...

Vista has a new Drivers model and a new graphic output stack and a new graphic interface, based on DirectX10. For VLC, this means that the video modules may not work correctly, may not show at all... This is a shame, and this is a Driver problem, a Vista problem and a VLC problem.

The big question is that some people have VLC working fine on Vista, others don't. This is primarily a video card issue and or drivers associated with your video card.

The objective is to get VLC working on Vista with Aero enabled.

It seems that deactivating MMX optimisations would fix the problem.

If you use an ATI card, you are a bit luckier than using an nVidia card.

Are you a believer?

HOWTO

1. Update your Windows

2. Use the latest graphic drivers, and latest MotherBoard Drivers. This means nVidia 158.24 and ATI Catalyst 7.5 or newer. If you don't use these drivers, don't expect it to work correctly, and don't expect anyone to help you.

3. Reboot

4. Install or re-install a fresh copy of VLC 0.8.6c (or the last version available) from Videolan website. If you reinstall, delete your preferences folder.

5. Launch VLC and open the Setting tab, click on Preferences.
Make sure the Advanced box is ticked in the bottom right corner.

6. Expand the Video Preference, expand Output modules and click on DirectX. Unclick the option "Use hardware YUV -> RGB conversions". Click back on Output modules and on the drop down box, choose DirectX video output.

7. Save preferences. Restart VLC.

This should correct the issues. If it doesn't, please redo the same steps and try the DirectX 3D output.


Troubles
If you have an ATI card, this should have corrected the issues. That is also true for some nVidia users... But sometimes this is not enough. And then, pfff, take a deep breath and try to follow me.

Two options :

You are not a geek and your computer should just work
Then, try this, Go back to preferences, and change the output modules to OpenGL or GDI... Or any module in the list and hope it works...

You understand a bit more how computer works.
Then use another version of VLC, unreleased, unfinished, unstable as that could do the trick:

Use vlc-0.9.0-svn-20070203-0415-win32 that you can find on http://nightlies.videolan.org/build/win32/
And do the same:

Play with DirectX and Direct3D output modules and play with the option "Use hardware YUV -> RGB conversions"

I hope this helped.
If you are desperate, before hanging yourself, you could try VLC 0.8.5, some people have said this worked...

[concord]

HI I tried what you said to get VLC working in Vista 64bit and I find that if I put the video output to "Windows GDI" it works well but not on the directx setting

Peter

[Noobiee]

HI I tried what you said to get VLC working in Vista 64bit and I find that if I put the video output to "Windows GDI" it works well but not on the directx setting

Peter

YES! thank you for this, this setting works perfectly for me (also on Vista 64bit)

[DJ]

Nice to hear you got it working. But be aware that this module puts all the weight of decoding on your CPU and you will probably have issues with menus playing a DVD. Most likely this is still a Video driver issue.

[Jean-Baptiste Kempf]

the general discussion about Vista has been moved to "Coffee Corner"

[tlazzari]

I am using the 32 bit version of Vista and I had to put VLC to DirectX output to get it to work. The funny thing is...Vista changes the theme setting of windows to classic. Once I close VLC it goes back to my normal Vista settings. I dont much care but it is funny that it does that.

I took a look at my CPU's while running a .mkv file in VLC and my dual core only hit about 25% on both cores...info for the techs out there...if it means anything to them at all.

Thanks for the help though!

[pclausen]

While disabling "Use hardware YUV -> RGB conversions" and choosing DirectX video output does work, it disables Aero as has been pointed out. It also disables Dreamscene (Vista Ultra animated background add on).

Anyway, I can get VLC to work temporarily with hardware YUV -> RGB conversions enabled (and using the default video out) under Vista 64 bit by doing the following:

With a video stream playing, do a Video/Snapshot. While the snapshot is displayed in the upper left corner, playback is perfect, Aero, animated background and all. But as soon as the snapshot fades away (after about 5 seconds), then the main video goes back to a blank white screen.

So does this not point to an issue with VLC vs. the Vista Video drivers?

Btw, I'm running a notebook with ATI x1700 & 7.1 drivers.

EDIT: Nevermind, switching to GDI video output fixes everything as previously posted.

[gmbunn]

Hi all,

Im not very techie and tried the advice above but i couldnt get anywhere. I am running 32bit vista laptop and get no video but just audio when i try to use the VLC player. I tried to change the settings as above but after opening selecting the avanced box, i couldnt find the 'output or direct x modules' They simply arent there!

Can anybody give me any advice?

Thanks

Gary

[divx118]

6. Expand the Video Preference, expand Output modules and click on DirectX. Unclick the option "Use hardware YUV -> RGB conversions". Click back on Output modules and on the drop down box, choose DirectX video output.

This is working for me on vista ultimate 64 bits with a Nvidia 6150 graphic card.
The only thing is that when i start a video vista turns on the colorscheme of vista basic because of incompatibility after shutting down the player the colors are then turned back to aero glass.

Maurice

[Hiro]

HI I tried what you said to get VLC working in Vista 64bit and I find that if I put the video output to "Windows GDI" it works well but not on the directx setting

Peter

I found that works too on my 32bit Vista..

I wonder if it's universal..?

Tho the downside is of course, more strain on the GDI..
Then again, who hasn't put up with those annoying firewalls and antiviruses anyways ^^?

Thanks guys

[Odissine]

Hello all,
I 've installed VLC (last version) on Vista a few days ago but the video is very dark, on XP I don't have this problem...

When I run Divx with Windows MediaPlayer it works good but with VLC it's strongly dark ... I have to modify parameters ...

Is there any solution to resolve this problem ? Did you or do you have the same problem ?

[CloudStalker]

Change the video output module: Preferences > Video > Output modules (Check “Advanced options” box), Save and restart player for every output module that you choose.

Typing the same answer over and over again can get a little tedious, so for now on I’m saving my replies and using “Copy” and “Paste”.

[DJ]

Be carefully some one will come along and claim your impersonal and robotic, without compassion or empathy. Now you wouldn't want that would you?

[CloudStalker]

CloudStalker has no heart anyway, therefore would not care if others view him as empathetic, or robotic. Seriously though, I will try to be a little more personal in my future posts, thanks for the tip.

But to keep things running smoothly I’m going to once again stop posting in this thread until I have some useful information about Windows Vista or can help somebody out with fixing a problem, and trust me, I have lots of problems myself (when dealing with Windows).

[gmbunn]

Hi all,

Im not very techie and tried the advice above but i couldnt get anywhere. I am running 32bit vista laptop and get no video but just audio when i try to use the VLC player. I tried to change the settings as above but after opening selecting the avanced box, i couldnt find the 'output or direct x modules' They simply arent there!

Can anybody give me any advice?

Thanks

Gary

Anybody have any clue as to why these module options simply arent there??

Thanks

Gary

[DJ]

Did you try selecting the Advanced options box in the lower right corner?

[gmbunn]

There's absolutely no mention in any of the advanced options in any category that refers to DirectX? How very weird. Could it be missing from my laptop? Its brand new, but im not very techie in this sense.

I love VLC over WM player and this is driving me crazy!

Thanks

Gary

[DJ]

The Advanced options check box is in the lower right corner of the preferences menu and must be checked.

Then the setting you are looking for is Preferences, Video, Output modules from the pull down select the output. The default is DirectX.

[gmbunn]

Ah I got it now thanks had to double click the video option to get the sub menu's. Doh!!

Thanks for the great help

Gary

[thunderace]

Hi.

Just to let you know: I've upgraded my NVidia driver (GEForce 7600GT PCI-E) to the latest 100.65 and lost the video output in VLC. Sound was stil ok, but no video.
I tried the Forceware beta 101.41, still no image.
I rolled back to the version 97.46 and everything works fine again.
So... be carefull when upgrading your NVidia Geforce Forceware driver.

[DJ]

Just for general information! It seems that most manufactures have suspended delivery of VISTA based systems except for VISTA basic because of the lack of Video card support (drivers). If you do a search on CNET you will find that lots of people are having issues with VISTA and this is not only Media based programs but instead there are issues for every windows program ever created depending on how you use the program. While CNET seems to indicate that the video driver issue may be resolved at the end of March as both nVidia and ATI release new drivers for VISTA the rest of the issues may not be resolved until all the vendors of programs release VISTA ready programs or there is some logo issued (like for XP) that says Designed for VISTA.

Personally, I would not consider VISTA until SP1 is released in the fall (according to Microsoft) and even then considering I will be replacing everything with Designed for VISTA I would probably consider a Mac first as this time frame will probably show that I also need to update all my hardware too with Designed for VISTA and the tear of ultimately 6 versions of VISTA at well over $200 for the Ultimate version is a reticules notion that only serves Microsoft and the vendors of machines that continue to confuse the public regarding WHAT they are buying. Why should I believe that an upgrade will work when it has been proved in every prior version of windows that upgrades don't work and yet Microsoft continues to sell upgrades. Perhaps this is the ultimate bleeding edge of the technology or a game that is played only for your money. The odds are worse than Vegas here that you will bleed or at very least get burned. But for all the true masochists out there, have fun! As for me I will keep the hair I have and not go prematurely gray or bald trying to get VISTA to function.

I notice that Wal-Mart has Windows XP in stock again!

[FnF]

Vista is all over the place here, I only see Vista preinstalled PC's here.

[DJ]

If you are not close to the retail market, you would probably not notice that the manufactures have stopped shipping VISTA based PCs. The duration is expected to be short so the advertising has not stopped.

Wal-Mart is a good indicator and you will find a few PCs limited to what is on hand and VISTA upgrades that don't work. As of 2 days ago they also have Windows XP again which was closed out. Also a few PCs have shown up with XP on them that were also closed out, but they are VISTA ready with the offer of free upgrades (that also probably won't work).

[catr97]

Thank you, I as many got vlc to work on my Vista home premium 32-bit ATI graphic machine with this tip. However as many pointed out Vista is changing the settings back automaticly every time I´m closing vlc...

Is there any way to keep theese settings so vlc works even after a restart vlc?

[ult1matex64]

Sweet got it to work, had to uncheck RGB thing and use OpenGL video mode (Dual Booting Vista Ultimate with an X850XT PE Card)

1st post!