VLC not playing videos in OS X Yosemite

[fffan9391]

Ever since upgrading to OS X Yosemite on my Macbook Pro 13", VLC (2.1.5) will not play videos of any file type and often crashes when trying to do so. I tried uninstalling and reinstalling and nothing changed. Am I the only one having this problem?

[Wayne Borean]

Ever since upgrading to OS X Yosemite on my Macbook Pro 13", VLC (2.1.5) will not play videos of any file type and often crashes when trying to do so. I tried uninstalling and reinstalling and nothing changed. Am I the only one having this problem?

My problem is different - I get video, but no audio. Audio works in QuickTime, iTunes, Chrome (YouTube), and DVD Player.

Audio was working in VLC before the upgrade. Now, nothing. Also using V2.1.5 of VLC.

Also MacBook Pro 13", mine is a 2010 machine.

Wayne

[marcowicz]

I have same problem as Wayne. No audio from VLC 2.1.4 and 2.1.5 since upgrading to Yosemite. Audio is functioning normally system wide (iTunes, Quicktime, etc.), but not with VLC.

I have reported a bug.

[marcowicz]

Have found that nightly build 3.0.0 works (audio normal)

[poikkeus]

Since installing Yosemite, some files (.mp4) play fine...but .mkv files refuse to load. About thirty seconds of loading, I have to force quit.

[dfuhrmann]

Try VLC 2.2 which should show a progress dialog, or wait (like more than 30 seconds).
VLC is probably regenerating font caches which only needs to be done once, but it takes some time.

[imom]

I just upgraded to Yosemite. I get sound but the video freezes once a second. (v2.1.5)
It's unusable now.
I tried the 2.2 and 3.0 nightlies but they have the same problem.

EDIT: I re-started the Mac and repaired permissions, and that fixed it.

EDIT: I spoke too soon. The problem returned.

[videojim]

Yeah, I'm seeing this as well after upgrading to Yosemite last night.

A long (3-5 minutes) hang up before the video starts playing eventually. Every video I try, including ones that played fine before upgrading,that play fine in Quicktime player, and MPlayer Extended. Once the pause is done, the videos do seem to play fine.

Tried the latest 2.15, 1.1.12, 3.0 nightly build, 2.2 nightly build. All do the same thing. Cleared caches, repaired permissions, deleted all the VLC prefs. Nothing helps.

EDIT: Opps... spoke to soon. While I can start playing the video after the long pause, all the controls don't work and the spinning beach ball shows up.

EDIT 2: Reset the preferences a couple times from within the program (odd that deleting the preference files didn't seem to do that--where are you keeping the preferences?) , and reopened it several times and it seems to be behaving itself now.

EDIT 3: Nope. Doing it again.

[Wayne Borean]

Running the nightly 3.0 fixed the problem for me.

I'm not sure that the problem is with VLC. For a while the system sounds were gone, even though iTunes was working. Now they are back, and everything is working fine.

I got a message when Yosemite was installed that it was 'optimizing the system' and I have to wonder if maybe the optimization program is to blame. I don't know how long it ran, or even if it has finished running yet, because I only got the one message.

Wayne

[readytorun]

My VLC player is constantly falling out of sync regarding the audio and video. I have to empty my system caches pretty much all day continously just to stop the stuttering not only in VLC but system wide.

I am talking with people in the Apple Support Forums who also have problems and it seems like Bluetooth is part of the problem, but also Safari. Whether or not I'm using my bluetooth headphones or not the video is --please stay polite--. also when I exit VLC after the audio delay happens, sometimes almost as bad as 3 seconds out of sync, I get a weird ghost window of the main player window and the colors are messed up predominantly black where white should be...sorta like if you inverted the screens colors in that VLC window space.

I am on a late 2012 iMac using nightly build 3.0. this version actually improved things from the stable regular version of vlc.
anyone else having multiple problems with yosemite? i also never get email notifcations.

The sync happens either after a 5 min period of viewing or if, god forbid, I open a single Safari page, either way it will start stuttering and falling out of sync with the video.

[Wayne Borean]

I am talking with people in the Apple Support Forums who also have problems and it seems like Bluetooth is part of the problem, but also Safari. Whether or not I'm using my bluetooth headphones or not the video is --please stay polite--. also when I exit VLC after the audio delay happens, sometimes almost as bad as 3 seconds out of sync, I get a weird ghost window of the main player window and the colors are messed up predominantly black where white should be...sorta like if you inverted the screens colors in that VLC window space.

I am on a late 2012 iMac using nightly build 3.0. this version actually improved things from the stable regular version of vlc.
anyone else having multiple problems with yosemite? i also never get email notifcations.

The sync happens either after a 5 min period of viewing or if, god forbid, I open a single Safari page, either way it will start stuttering and falling out of sync with the video.

Well, I have Bluetooth turned off, and never use Safari. That may be why I'm not having that problem. I'm heading to bed, will try turning on Bluetooth, and using Safari while watching a video in the morning.

Wayne

[imom]

I've noticed that video is jumpy now in all applications so it seems to be not a VLC problem but a general Yosemite video issue.

[kdean]

If you're on an older Mac, maybe try this to see if your performance improves.

System Preferences -> Accessibility -> Display

Check "Reduce transparency".

With my 2011 iMac the widespread transparency causes higher cpu usage, window animation is choppy, and even dragging / resizing windows is laggy. Removing the transparency brings back the performance I expected. Note I haven't tested the performance of VLC with this, but I wouldn't be surprised if it's affected. I run the latest 2.2 Nightly in Yosemite without any issue so far.

[poikkeus]

Only when I try to play .mkv files, I get a vlc screen that doesn't load any video. I wait as long as three minutes, after which, I get a "Not Responding" message after I force quit.

I don't seem to have a problem with VLC audio (.mp3) files, or nearly all video (.mp4. .m4v, .flv, .avi, etc.). But the problem always happens when I try to play an .mkv file.

When I try playing an .mkv file with Quicktime, it takes at least ten minutes just to render. Therefore, at least on my system, .mkv is the culprit.

[GoodEyeDeer999]

I have been using VLC on Windows for quite some time without any problems. Recently I tried the mac version 2.1.5 on OS X Mavericks virtual machine running on VMWare with Windows 8.1 host. Whenever a video file (e.g. mp4, flv) is played, it only outputs the sound but not the image. One may argue that this is not a real Apple machine and something is missing but XBMC plays the same video files without any problem.

Have also tried 3.0 nightly build without success.

[poikkeus]

Just minutes ago, I installed v 3.0 of VLC from the developers' nightly build. I can't speak for the stability of the current version, but .mkv files play perfectly once I updated. For me, this solves the issue that started appearing once I started using Yosemite.

[imom]

Unfortunately "reduce transparency" did not help.

[Ace Rimmer]

Upgraded to Yosemite, VLC not playing the audio correctly on .avi files. The volume is much too low. Sometimes the dialog is missing altogether and the background music can just be heard. Selecting 'reverse stereo' produces loud crackle. Really weird. Installed Mac Media Player and it works fine, but would like a working VLC as it has better features (equalizer e.g.)

[dfuhrmann]

Just minutes ago, I installed v 3.0 of VLC from the developers' nightly build.

It is cool that you test the nightly builds. Note through, that _currently_ you should test the 2.2 nightly build, because this is the nearly stable version which will be released soon. VLC 3.0.0 is the next next version which might be still unstable currently.

[LethalLullaby]

I'm facing a similar problem ever since I updated to Yosemite. There is no video or sound. Instead, it says that the player will only work with an OS version 10.4 or higher.

[dfuhrmann]

Hehe. This means that you need to update VLC. You must be running an extremely old version of VLC, which is not aware of the new Yosemite operating system.

Just download the newest version from videolan.org.

[rcil2003]

I updated to Yosemite today and ran into this problem

Youtube, etc., plays sound fine

I tried nightly build 2.2 and 3.0 - neither worked

And the latest released version - did not work

Would really appreciate a fix as watching videos is one of the main things I use the Mac for!!!