Stuttering playback on the Mac? Try this!

[ccnp11]

I have a fully updated MBP, Mountain Lion, running the latest version of VLC just reinstalled a couple days ago. My stuttering problem, actually a pausing/freezing problem, is making VLC nearly unusable. The size/quality of the file doesn't have too much of an effect although extremely large files like blu-ray rips do seem to exacerbate the pauses. I have a network share I use for my media files but the problem is precisely the same if I copy the file to the local machine. I can view these files with no transcoding using XBMC or other media servers across the network or locally. I travel a lot for work and usually my internet access in the hotels isn't enough to stream blu-ray rips so I rely on bringing media files on a USB external....which means I have to deal with the stutter or use another media player. I love VLC but this problem is getting too much.

Just checked my system resources when this problem was just happening with a file on the local HDD. Processor usage was only 11% and I had appx 4Gb of RAM out of 8 total free.

I have increased the cache as per many, many posts that say that is the solution but that only seemed the make the problem worse or no change depending on the file.

I'm not very knowledgable on video codecs or formats, so forgive my ignorance on that front. What can I provide to help troubleshooting?

[bishthebosh]

I too have the same issue.

Was running a Copy of VLC from 2011 and MTS files play well without any problems.
Formatted machine with a fresh copy of Mountain Lion (now with latest update) and downloaded 2.0.3 and MTS files just freeze up when playing.

iMac 2009 4GB RAM

[Vylen]

I get stuttering every few seconds while playing Blu-ray discs.

2010 Mac Pro, OS X Lion, 3.33Ghz, Radeon 5870 1GB, 24GB RAM, LG Blu-ray drive.

Analogue audio output, 5.1 channel.

[flamesong]

I'm not sure if this is related, if it will help or if it just complicates things but I just tried to watch a video on VLC 2.0.3 which was an .avi with the following codec specifications:

H264 MPEG-4 AVC (part 10)
720 x 384
23.976024fps

It played like it was about 8fps - very jerky. I found it so hard to watch I tried VLC 1.1.12 but it was exactly the same. I was beginning to think it was just the video file but tried opening it in QuickTime 7 and it was as smooth as caramel.

[qhjh]

2.2.4 and the problem persists....