VLC Will Not Play H265: Possible Fix

[gorman_canker]

***EDIT

VLC ver. 3.0.11

/EDIT***

I've used VLC for years. The only thing I can think of that caused this issue is a recent (within the last 5 days or so) update from Windows Update. I don't play H265 videos every single day, so I can't say for certain when it broke, but it had been working for weeks on a relatively new Win10 installation.

Suddenly about 2 days ago, H265 videos wouldn't play. The audio worked, but the video was a mash of color on one side of the screen. Tried two different H265 videos and both failed. H264 still worked.

I reset preferences. Failed.
Did several other things, all Falled.
Read somewhere to change the Video Settings > Output from "Automatic" to "Direct3D11 Video Output". Failed.
Did many other things. (including uninstalling and reinstalling VLC) All Failed.
Went back to changing the output and started working the list downward.
Direct3D9 Video Output. Failed

Then tried: OpenGL Video Output for Windows SUCCESS.

Suddenly started working again. Everything else seems normal now.
When it didn't work, the computer froze a couple times and I had to restart. I became concerned that something other than VLC was to blame.
I have no unusual symptoms now that I've selected the "OpenGL" option.

Posting this here in case it helps someone else, and also so that the Developers might get some idea of what the problem is, and how to fix it.

I can post the "messages" (log diagnostic thing) on request.

[Rémi Denis-Courmont]

TBH, this screams of problems with the display driver rather than VLC (can't be sure though).