The VideoLAN Forums

That's good to hear. Thanks for the update.

Thank you so very much for your knowledge and kind patience.

In the Preferences / Video button / Output menu it's advisable to switch it to Direct3D9 since the feature support is only DirectX10 for that card.

Thanks very much again.

I changed to Direct3D9 but nothing changed but, then I decided to try OpenGL video output for Windows - it worked!

I hope this is correct:
https://pastebin.com/hKmNDiyK

Here's a screen capture (WMV) of what happens:
https://gofile.io/d/AiQo0D

Your issue is related to that same as this one is: https://code.videolan.org/videolan/vlc/-/issues/25772 It's not the same - that issue solely relates to jumping to different stages in the video timeline while it's playing. My problem is only if VLC isn 't running and then, I double-click an MP4, V...

What happens when you first press S to stop, and then space/n to play again ?

The problem only occurs when I double-click the file in Windows explorer - VLC then opens and takes five seconds to start playback.

Not the same issue - that one is where the audio starts instantly but the video lags. Also, he says the problem is when he's clicking up or down the timeline.

Windows Media Player suffers no issues at all with any of my video files. The reason I want to stick with VLC is that WMP hasn't got (10 second) jump forward and back buttons which I use a lot.

Free.

Both files play instantly although the second one called Kestrel is an AVI not an mp4. It sounds to me like your antivirus is scanning the file prior to playing a video. It subsequently plays back instantly the second time because it's already been scanned. Are you using Windows Defender or another...

This site's more friendly:
https://gofile.io/d/GctsfH

Same 5 second behaviour on any MP4 from a multitude of sources. Same with MKV, WMV, MOV but, I've just discovered AVIs play instantly.

Actually, I've uninstalled and re-installed each version including the option to delete preferences.

That's not the issue - it's the 5 seconds it takes to start playback after opening VLC.

Thanks for your kind reply, Hitchhiker.

Unfortunately, the first three give the same delay. The CMD option would be vastly slower than the double-click.

I have just upgraded from 2.2.8 (I know... ) because, as follows: If I double-click an MP4 in Windows 7 Explorer, VLC opens instantly and starts playback immediately (happy). However, if I hit the play button to get the same video to repeat, it takes approx 5 seconds to play (sad). Therefore, I hav...