VLC pixelated gray screen

[computerguy]

This is extremely annoying when it happens, although I've noticed that it only seems to happen when another process is making heavy I/O demands.

Frankly I'd prefer if VLC just stalled for a moment rather than having decode errors which cause this grey screen. I've tried disabling frame skip and all the other options that I could think of, but nothing helps. There must be some way - some setting - that will make VLC wait if necessary to read the required data instead of just turning grey. Does anybody have any suggestions?

While I don't speak for the VLC team, the short answer is no. Resource contention problems sepecifically regarding mechanical drives has always been there. It generally is not the responsibility of each software vender to monitor and adjust it's programs behaviour, based on current/predicted system load. That responsibility has always belonged to the operating system.

If you have read my listed solutions to this problem up the page a little, your particular problem could be solved by precaching media to ram. Heavy IO on a mechanical disk will inevitably result in this grey-pixelation, as will HIPM/DIPM enabled mechanical drives over AHCI-SATA links. The read request simply cannot be fulfilled in a timely manner.

I don't think you understood my post. First of all, no other video player that I've seen has had this problem. Secondly, the issue isn't that the data isn't read, the issue is that VLC goes blindly on to try to keep playing when the data hasn't been read, resulting in video stream corruption, which makes everything go grey. If it simply paused the playback until the data was available, it wouldn't have this problem. There's no practical reason why pausing a video and then resuming it should corrupt the data stream in this manner.

[thesandvolcano]

This is extremely annoying when it happens, although I've noticed that it only seems to happen when another process is making heavy I/O demands.

Frankly I'd prefer if VLC just stalled for a moment rather than having decode errors which cause this grey screen. I've tried disabling frame skip and all the other options that I could think of, but nothing helps. There must be some way - some setting - that will make VLC wait if necessary to read the required data instead of just turning grey. Does anybody have any suggestions?

While I don't speak for the VLC team, the short answer is no. Resource contention problems sepecifically regarding mechanical drives has always been there. It generally is not the responsibility of each software vender to monitor and adjust it's programs behaviour, based on current/predicted system load. That responsibility has always belonged to the operating system.

If you have read my listed solutions to this problem up the page a little, your particular problem could be solved by precaching media to ram. Heavy IO on a mechanical disk will inevitably result in this grey-pixelation, as will HIPM/DIPM enabled mechanical drives over AHCI-SATA links. The read request simply cannot be fulfilled in a timely manner.

I don't think you understood my post. First of all, no other video player that I've seen has had this problem. Secondly, the issue isn't that the data isn't read, the issue is that VLC goes blindly on to try to keep playing when the data hasn't been read, resulting in video stream corruption, which makes everything go grey. If it simply paused the playback until the data was available, it wouldn't have this problem. There's no practical reason why pausing a video and then resuming it should corrupt the data stream in this manner.

I understood your post and humbly suggest that you haven't understood mine. Here is my 'guess' as to whats going on. From my university days I remember video encoding involved the use of 'key-frames' and it is these frames only that continue to play when a read request cannot be fulfilled. I'm betting all the key-frames are read into ram at the start of a stream and are the sole reason VLC continues to play at all. Now someone somewhere probably thought this a 'robust' solution so as not to stall/break/desync the stream under resource restricting scenarios.

I have also pondered why other video players avoid this particular problem and here's my two-cents. The 'other' player reads in much larger chunks of data and makes sure to issue a read for the next chunk well before the last chunk has been processed, thus ensuring any finer grained power management (HIPM/DIPM) gets mitigated, along with (but less reliably) your basic IO contention on mechanical drives.

In all honesty your requesting an enforced pause as opposed to pixelation doesn't sound unreasonable. Pseudo: "If pNextReadBuffer != FULL Then PAUSE_PLAY" doesn't seem to difficult a task. But what happens when the competing process (Defrag for example) fails to relinquish the disk for the next couple hours? Any program is going to have problems here. Even a 'read well ahead' type player is going to have a problem here. Short of reading the entire file into ram, we are going to get problems here. Strictly speaking it is the OS's responsibility to prevent these kinds of problem through pre-emptive (or is it non pre-emptive?) scheduling.

I should also admit to be a little confused regarding your last sentence. Your first post indicates 'heavy I/O' conditions, but the last sentence of your second post indicates power management related. In any case the result is resource contention/data starvation and has 'practical' implications/considerations beyond the basics I have now elucidated on.

[ream]

I've had this forever, thought it was hardware, but it happens pretty much with every (new) computer. Happens from SSD too.

Occuring every minute or so.

The comment above by jokerzz81 fixed it partially. I changed the dynamic range and the grey is no longer there, however, it still happens because I hear the sound stuttering just like it did before, only without the picture turning grey. Watching a documentary is "unwatchable" because of stuttering.

I will next change the buffering time and see how it goes. I have a feeling it's a buffering problem.

I have a feeling this is happening to millions of people, since I experience this on different machines. It does NOT happen in WMP, PowerDVD, Classic Player, it's a VLC related problem.

By the way THIS HAPPENS TO AUDIO ONLY FILES TOO. For longer files, like audio books, the stuttering happens too! You can then rewind and see that's it's not the file, it's the VLC. Does not happen with other programs.

Updating to the latest version did not fix a thing.

[thesandvolcano]

I've had this forever, thought it was hardware, but it happens pretty much with every (new) computer. Happens from SSD too.

Occuring every minute or so.

The comment above by jokerzz81 fixed it partially. I changed the dynamic range and the grey is no longer there, however, it still happens because I hear the sound stuttering just like it did before, only without the picture turning grey. Watching a documentary is "unwatchable" because of stuttering.

I will next change the buffering time and see how it goes. I have a feeling it's a buffering problem.

I have a feeling this is happening to millions of people, since I experience this on different machines. It does NOT happen in WMP, PowerDVD, Classic Player, it's a VLC related problem.

By the way THIS HAPPENS TO AUDIO ONLY FILES TOO. For longer files, like audio books, the stuttering happens too! You can then rewind and see that's it's not the file, it's the VLC. Does not happen with other programs.

Updating to the latest version did not fix a thing.

I have only just noticed that I'v been posting to the "Mac OSX Troubleshooting" part of the forum. Ooops! The problem and solution I have posted should really belong to the Windows part of the forums! So Ream, whatever OS your on your gonna need to start ruling things out. If I were you I would get hold of some free ramDisk software and see how it reads off that. I only suggest this because I am absolutely certain it is caused by HIPM/DIPM on my last two rigs.

I to have my nVidea DR set 0-255, but on my rig it definately has nothing to do with this problem. I simply like deeper blacks.

[kapiken]

I am having this problem as well, early 2011 MBP with Mountain Lion and VLC version 2.2.4 64-bit.

It would usually only happen whenever I moved the laptop while playing something (like for instance plopping it down on a pillow after standing up), the screen would flash for a few seconds and go back to normal. But a few minutes ago, a movie started freezing up while I was doing some network and CPU intensive tasks, leading me to think it was not the HDD as I previously thought. The majority of what I play are mp4 files.

The 6000ms trick worked for the remainder of the file, but it was only 10 minutes or so. I may reinstall the player or downgrade to another version as there is still no solution to the playlist on top issue.

[kapiken]

I do not see a way to edit my previous post so I will have to bump to update.

I downgraded to the 32-bit 2.0.10 version, and while I still experience a slight pause whenever I "plop" my laptop down (the only way I know how to induce the problem condition), I no longer experience green or gray screen scrambling. In other words, the video picture stays the way it should be. I have increased the caching just in case, but this is an acceptable solution. The only tradeoff is that I lose on demand window scaling.

[skippi]

I also have windows 7 64 bit and cannot edit any MP4 video without it then greying out as described above. It is nothing to do with the video as it was captured on a 12MB pixel camera and it plays well in media player.

I've tried deleting vlc and redownloading

[Lilly Begonia]

Ah! I'm having this issue too, with VLC 2.2.5.1 and It's happening across my network on the new machine, and on the machine I have the videos on. Both are late 2012 Mac Minis, one with 8gb memory and one with 16gb memory, both running 10.12.4 Sierra, networked via WiFi and CAT5 ethernet. The videos are on 4 WD 5tb USB disks which are on a 13 port USB 3.0 hub, so I don't think my network is the issue. Most of my videos are mp4 format but the format doesn't seem to matter, it happens with all the videos and on both machines. I very much need a solution to this issue. I've used only VLC player for years, and I don't want to switch. For me the video locks up for a while, and when it starts again I get that gray pixelation for a few seconds. This happens every couple minutes. I have 14.2tb of video I'd like to be able to enjoy in VLC player, but maybe I just need to find a new player that doesn't do this. I don't know, I'm really stumped at this point.

[vogelscheuche]

Same Issue here. Grey pixeled scenes by playing .avi files, but MKV have no problem.

Latest VLC 2.2.5.1 64bit on Mac Pro 5.1 with GTX680.

Fresh install of latest Sierra 10.12.5, standard settings, nothing helps.

EDIT: Setting Cache to 6000 ms seems to fix it by now.

[Lilly Begonia]

I'm at 10.12.5 now too, and nothing helps. One cannot but hope that Videolan can at last address this issue that is affecting so many of their loyal users as it has gone on for far too long without redress. Without corrective measures on their part I don't see how VLC player can continue.

[rontavius]

I also have this problem, but only on my laptop, a fairly new Dell XPS 13. The problem does not occur on my desktop, even when using the same video and version of VLC. It seemed to diminish when I activated the Hardware-accelerated decoding to automatic, in the Preferences: Input/Codecs. It still happens part of the time though. It's amazingly inconsistent. I can open the same vide ten times, and about half will show this gray screen problem, the other half of the times not.

[thesandvolcano]

Well I just tried to explain the likely cause of this problem to someone over on the Windows forum, but alas I think I failed to convince. So i'll start this one by stating that I am 99% certain that the problem is triggered by a delayed or unfulfilled read-request. I made a fairly detailed post on page 4 of this thread where I tried to explain to someone why IO contention will cause the problem. There is another post on same page where I explained how SATA-AHCI's HIPM/DIPM will also cause the problem, but the best solution is only available on Windows machines as far as i'm aware. If there is a Mac guru out there who knows how to disable HIPM/DIPM on MacOS, I'm sure some of these folks need to hear from you.

The only other solution on this thread with any legs is increasing the read buffer size, with the caveat that it only serves to mask the problem rather than fix it. Without reading back over the whole thread, I believe there are a few network streamers with the problem and I will remind them that they need to consider 'link state power management', any potential network interference (little Johnny upstair's copying down something he shouldn't? Hmmm?), wireless interference etc., on top of mechanical drive IO contention and AHCI's HIPM/DIPM.

Now a brief note on IO contention but only Windows based i'm afraid. Windows 7 comes preconfigured to run several IO heavy task's on a regular schedule and off the top of my head these are: Windows Update, WinDefender, Defrag, WinSAT, RACtask etc. I'm sure Macs run the equivalent of at least some of these. Now if the movie your watching exists on a separate physical disk than your OS, the impact of these kinds of tasks will be minimal (except a virus scan I guess). If however your on a single disk rig or laptop, IO contention can become a real problem and so I recommend turning off as much IO heavy crap as you can.

So in summary then, and I apoligise for this lengthy post, anything that slows down or interrupts a VLC read-request is going to cause this problem. Honest... Scout's Honour...

[JanetCooper]

I have been having the same problem - the pixilated grey/silver screen...I never had this problem with VLC EVER...I have been using VLC for close to 9 years and it had always worked beautifully, until now!! Could the upgrade have something to do with it...Can I go back to the last build I had?? You really need to fix this problem because it looks like you got a lot of disgruntled & p.o.'ed folks out here!!

How do I fix this?? I'm not tech-literate & I don't understand all those big techie words everybody throws around...I would like to know what the simple solution might be...
Sincerely, JANET MARIE COOPER

[GRUZINKERBELL]

JUST GO TO PREFERENCES> SHOW ALL SETTINGS> INPUT/CODECS>SCROLL DOWN>SET FILE CACHING OPTIONS TO 10000ms (10 SECONDS) FOR FILE CACHING and DISK CACHING and LIVE CAPTURE CACHING , DONT TOUCH NETWORK CACHING SETTINGS.
IT WORKS EVERYTIME....

[scrutinizer1]

Mac OS X Lion, the latest VLC version. The same problem trying to view a movie by opening BDMV folder of ISO (disk image, opened with Disk Mounter Utility). It's said a lot in this thread, all these super-geeky prefs, requiring to take at least a 4 year courses in video editing and camera shooting, trying hard to comprehend the meaning of each. I have Macgo Blu-Ray Player, it plays the same movie flawlessly, BTW without the need to carry out two separate useless actions: #1 mount the disk image #2 open BDMV folder in the very convoluted way implemented in VLC. For CPU usage jumped up to 95% which wasn't the case with Macgo. The key factor for me is ability to play BD disks seamlessly. I already had this software downloaded 2-3 years ago, I then realized it fell short of success to play properly BD content that is not MKV. Its bunch of functions that are really useless on Mac as they duplicate iTunes functionality are showing off its bloatness. Having installed for the second time I see little has changed and my old decision to uninstall it was very much correct. Sorry, guys, 0 improvements on playing ISOs after so many years. Climbing onto the old wit, uninstalling. If you want to resolve this issue I'd strongly recommend not to withhold another 40 bucks and buy a very reliable product capable of playing the same formats as VLC is advertised as having ability to.

[dkim68]

JUST GO TO PREFERENCES> SHOW ALL SETTINGS> INPUT/CODECS>SCROLL DOWN>SET FILE CACHING OPTIONS TO 10000ms (10 SECONDS) FOR FILE CACHING and DISK CACHING and LIVE CAPTURE CACHING , DONT TOUCH NETWORK CACHING SETTINGS.
IT WORKS EVERYTIME....

Hey, I'm on Windows and this worked for me. The problem has been plaguing me for over a year. Just wanted to say thanks GRUZINKERBELL!

[thesandvolcano]

OMG! The last time I needed a codec pack for anything was way back on Windows 98! The posters on this forum suggesting codec packs are at best self-promoters and at worst malware spreaders.

If your a casual user who doesn't understand my description of the underlying problem, just increase your read-buffer size (cache) as I and others have suggested. While it won't completely fix the issue it will improve matters considerably.

I strongly suggest you ignore the advice of the previous poster.

[mystuffhere]

In all honesty, if you're using Windows, the best media player by far is Media Player Classic Home Cinema (MPC-HC). Historically, VLC always seemed to be doing weird --please stay polite-- with the video/audio. It's better than it used to be but still, sometimes the way VLC acts make no sense. Unfortunately for us Mac users we're stuck with VLC. If there was a port of MPC-HC for Mac I would switch to it in a second.

[ajmas]

@thesandvolcano I have removed the reply.

Please be careful of any posts that take you to 'codecs', since some of these instructions may lead you to malware. If you see suspect replies please report them to the moderators - thanks

@mystuffhere there are certainly other players out there, though do remember as with many things open source, they are done in free time. Additionally there are always going to be issues and sure things could be better, but many of these issues aren't simple to solve. As for the current issue if you have short video samples that demonstrate the issue, then that is always useful to the devs. It is hard to fix a problem that can't be reproduced all the time.

[Derock]

I've used VLC for years but this problem has gotten so bad I just had to switch players. Can confirm that the .mkv files play completely fine in other players including potplayer, MPC-HC (an outdated player) and DivX (must pay for full features). The problem therefore lies with VLC itself.

[astro2]

This is due to a corrupted in your video stream (a I-frame is missing once in a while). VLC 2.2 will be able to deal better with those situations in some formats, but it won't be perfect because VLC cannot invent missing information.

I doubt that's the problem since everyones having the problem, and it never happened and now it occuring, PLUS i doubt you would have this issue in the mobile version of VLC, because the mobile version on my samsung galaxy note 4 works flawlessly, its free and does almost exactly everything a pc version would do from selecting different language tracks to selecting subtitle tracks. Just copy any media file and its watchable. I've NEVER had that issue on my mobile

this is obviously some glitchy thing that vlc picks up i.e some file gets corrupt or some technical jargon i can't figure out, all i know is its common and surprised VLC devs haven't found the culprit and fixed it by now

[Art Vandelay]

When playing videos on my Laptop, I changed to MPC-HC too. Because if you increase the network caching to 10 seconds, it takes too long if you skip to another position in the video. That's really annoying if you have to search a position if you don't start a movie from the beginning.

It's a pity because I like VLC very much.

[NuMystic]

Well it's clear the devs don't care enough about this to actually fix it and have even made posts hand waving it suggesting that people should just buy new hardware since they're not having the issue on better rigs.

It's quite simple though. x264 encoded video is simply CPU intensive to decode. If you cannot, don't whine, but buy a faster computer or don't play the videos (/seek alternative versions).

Videolan - VLC media player
Derk-Jan Hartman
Developer

Fact remains that other players like MVC, DivX, and ElMedia have no problems on the exact same computer with the exact same files that VLC now chokes on every couple of minutes.

Tried resetting caches and every single other suggestion made in this thread and others and have watched the builds for Mac decline for many years now. (the quote above is from a thread in 2009!)

After being a loyal VLC user since 2001 I'm sad to say I've been left with no choice but to use other alternatives that are free of these persistent performance issues.

Currently IINA is my movie player of choice. No grey screens, no stuttering, no freezing.

Hopefully they'll take this seriously enough at some point to actually fix the problem in which case I'll be so very happy to return and become a supporter once again for the app I've evangelized to everyone I know for all these years.

Given the attitude of the developers that's unfortunately not likely to happen.

So I bid you all farewell folks. It's been a fun ride.

[bunnykhatana]

To fix this here is a simple trick...
Just Head toward the Preferences > select Show all settings (Lower left corner) > Then select Video and Codecs (from that list) > in Right SIDE scroll down UNTIL you see {{ File caching }}
>> Change It's value from 300 to 1000
It WORKED FOR ME...!

[PaddyP69]

@thesandvolcano - I tested RAMdisk and for me at least, you're dead right, it's a disk power management issue. I made the change to the registry as per your instructions and the ACHI - Link Power Management - HIPM/DIPM option appeared in the Power Options / Advanced Options screen. I was expecting to be able to disable it (as I thought that if this was the problem, that's what I should do - perhaps I misunderstood you?), but that option wasn't available. So instead, I chose "Active" and voila, the video is running smoothly again....at least for now. I've no idea if this is the opposite of what you were recommending, but thanks either way.