VLC pixelated gray screen

[Egg]

Registered on the forum purely because of this issue (been a VLC user for x years). Since putting my new-build together a couple of weeks ago this issue has plagued my viewing pleasure BUT......

raphy002 has nailed it (for me anyway): upped the caches and problem solved.

Truly, The Force is with him

[leveleyed]

Hmm. That's odd. I thought this was the forum for "VLC media player for Mac OS X Troubleshooting", but most of the comments here are from PC users.

So, does anyone actually know how to resolve this issue on a MAC? Because the preferences are completely different from on PC, and none of the solutions mentioned here work for Mac. Specifically, I'm on a MacBook Pro, Retina, 15-inch, Early 2013, Processor 2.7 GHz Intel Core i7, Memory 16 GB 1600 MHz DDR3, Graphics NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M 1024 MB, OS X 10.9.2 (13C1021).

Please help. I love VLC, but this gray screen BS when playing MKV files is driving me INSANE!

BTW, I do have Perian installed, and my version of VLC is 0.8.6h Janus (Intel).

Hmm...

So I was just about ready to post this, but before I did, I checked to see if my VLC version was outdated, and holycrapballs it was. Just downloaded the latest version, installed, and mkv files play just fine!

Hope this helps someone else who might be having the same issue on a newer Mac running an older version of VLC.

[rebellionmarch]

I would also like to thank Raphy002 (you posted your fix on my birthday, alas i got my strangers present about a month and a week late, still much thanks), although i find it odd that i am thanking an independent user, and not a vlc staffer, this has been an ongoing issue for months, and as others have suggested this could be fixed by simply upping your default values, i had to use windows media player for the last few months. i really don't see how months of a pervasive issue like this could go unresponded and unpatched. i have always loved vlc since the day i first encountered it years ago, but this has greatly dissapointed me. i thought there was an issue with my brand new out of the box i7 with an r7 graphics card, r7!!

[aaaccc]

raphy002 wrote:PREFERENCES --> Show Settings --> All
Input/Codecs --> [ADVANCED] File Caching
Default 300ms ; changed to 10000ms

This also solved for me.
There is a drawback, though. In case you are playing a dual audio track movie, whenever you switch from one track to the other, there is a silence period.
Length of silence depends upon your setting into file cashing : 10000 ms = 10 seconds = 10 seconds of silence, roughly.
I had to compromise : 1600 ms instead of 10000 . Pixelation disappeared and the silence is tolerable.

Definitively, that is not a solution but just a bypass. VLC staff : please fix it !!!

[hank]

Colored rather than gray pixels, otherwise sounds the same.

VLC 2.1.5; OSX 10.9.5
Mac (Mini, 2012, 12GB 133mHz RAM); Apple stock drive with 250GB free;

Trying the suggestion above:
Input/Codecs --> [ADVANCED] File Caching
Default 300ms ; changed to 10000ms

VLC's file caching only allows 6000 ms as the maximum avalilable
And setting it to 6000 doesn't help.

Dropping the playback speed to about half, however, does solve the pixelation problem.
Ruins the viewability, though.

[aealith]

Same symptoms here. Across different computers all running vlc 2.1.5 on W8.1 64. Grey or green pixels all across the screen playing various files using various codecs (mostly H264 however). The files may be not perfect BUT the symptoms show even on files playing perfectly well on previous vlc versions (not sure about 2.1.4 though).

Hope you guys can fix it soon.

Anyway, thanks for all your work on VLC

Eric

[decanos78]

All I did to fix that exact problem, just uncheck that box, im running
Windows 8 by the way, vlc version - 2.1.5 Rincewind.

https://plus.google.com/u/0/11758939095 ... 2365160504

[El3mental]

I've had the same issue for many months now, through many builds of VLC. It only happens when I skip in videos, and it seems like it only affects WMV's. Increasing the file caching did improve it slightly, the pixelation now clears up twice as fast, but still lasts for ~3-5 seconds. It's usually gray, but is sometimes green. Any advice? Already unchecked the video overlay setting as well - no change.

[aaaccc]

Running Win 7 Ultimate, 64 bits.
To stay on the safe side, I stepped back to release 1.1.11 ( 32 bits ). More than 3 years old !!
No problems whatsoever.

It can be downloaded here : http://download.videolan.org/pub/videolan/vlc/1.1.11/


VLC has always been and is the best Player, by far the number ONE ! Pls , Videolan staff : don't let us down !!!

Thanks and rgds

[AGame20]

Hey Ralphy!

Any chance there is an XML file that we could use to push that out to all the machines on our network? I have about 200 machines with VLC, doing that for each one may be a bit tedious, let me know when you can, thanks!

[aaaccc]

Running Win 7 Ultimate, 64 bits.
To stay on the safe side, I stepped back to release 1.1.11 ( 32 bits ). More than 3 years old !!
No problems whatsoever.

It can be downloaded here : http://download.videolan.org/pub/videolan/vlc/1.1.11/


VLC has always been and is the best Player, by far the number ONE ! Pls , Videolan staff : don't let us down !!!

Thanks and rgds

I tried some newer than 1.1.11 releases and checked on each of them if problem is present or not. I'm running now version 2.0.6 Twoflower , 64 bits, and it is OK.
Thanks for attention

[KelvinOS]

To Raphy, I just opened an account to thank you, You sir are the --please stay polite--

[CorthateTheLast]

To anyone still having this problem, I know this sounds obvious, but try uninstalling and reinstalling VLC. Took care of the problem for as soon as I deleted my preferences and cache. If that doesn't work, just try Raphy's way

PREFERENCES --> Show Settings --> All
Input/Codecs --> [ADVANCED] File Caching
Default 300ms ; changed to 10000ms

WORKED FOR ME.

edit:
I also increased my *Disc caching* and *Network Caching*

[RzrArg]

Ok .... after some months suffering this a little bug chase and this is the debug data.
I have no idea what to do with it but i can tell you this.
Is NOT
Hardrive, sleep state, OS, amount of beer, etc

I Can't confirm if only happens with MKV's ... maybe in a few more days i'll try an AVI.
It happens on a time basis (movie lenght) incresing time until hit a 'center' (ussually middle) of the wierdness and starts to come back in a accelerating/deaccelerating happening.

Debug Data:

WARN mode
main error: ES_OUT_SET_(GROUP_)PCR is called too late (pts_delay increased to 1763 ms)
main error: ES_OUT_RESET_PCR called
main warning: early picture skipped
main warning: playback too early (-64000): down-sampling
main warning: playback too early (-40834): down-sampling
main error: ES_OUT_SET_(GROUP_)PCR is called too late (pts_delay increased to 2319 ms)
main error: ES_OUT_RESET_PCR called
main warning: early picture skipped
main warning: playback too early (-104292): down-sampling

Notice the increase in the pts_delay to compensate, cant get timestamp, no idea how.
And as the movie goes on ....
Bam, in DEBUG mode.

main warning: playback too early (-40013): down-sampling
main debug: resampling stopped (drift: 550 us)
main error: ES_OUT_SET_(GROUP_)PCR is called too late (pts_delay increased to 2345 ms)
main error: ES_OUT_RESET_PCR called
main warning: early picture skipped
main debug: End of audio preroll
main debug: Buffering 0%
main debug: Buffering 14%
main debug: End of video preroll
main debug: Received first picture
main debug: Buffering 28%
main debug: Buffering 42%
main debug: Buffering 56%
main debug: Buffering 71%
main debug: Buffering 85%
main debug: Buffering 99%
main debug: Stream buffering done (2669 ms in 102 ms)
main debug: Decoder buffering done in 0 ms
main warning: playback way too early (-222292): playing silence
main debug: inserting 10670 zeroes


Hope this thing help.

[Stealth]

I had VLC version 1.1.11 "The Luggage" and was happy with it until I tried playing a h265/HEVC video. (it wouldn't play saying "undf" for the video codec)

I downloaded VLC 2.20 and it played but I started noticing the grey screen and artifacts you all mentioned..
I decided to view some other video files that played fine on the older version.
All the video files I tried now have reoccurring artifacts followed by grey screen with artifacts...
If played again, the location on the timeline of the artifacts and grey screen change so it is not in the video.

I decided to launch a "backup" of vlc 1.1.11 and it plays everything right, except the h265/HEVC file, that doesn't play (as usual).


Now I remember why I never upgrade VLC..
ever since the new version 2 came out, the output has been buggy!
I remember the grey screen full of artifacts on my other computer when I tried the "new VLC version 2.0" over a year ago.

Also, im running xp sp3 x86 3gbRAM 1tbHD,
but this is not the only computer of mine thats had problems with vlc2...
the other was xp as well..
I regretted installing it as soon as I remembered the glitches...

[Jean-Baptiste Kempf]

Between 1.1.11 and 2.2.0, there are 40 versions of VLC, including 3 majors versions: 2.0.0, 2.1.0 and 2.2.0.

[Sajadi]

Same problem here, increasing cache to 10000ms gives me a playback time of around 50 minutes before the problem reappears again.

Another friend has the problem too. It seems it has to do with VLC and Nvidia graphic cards or Nvidia drivers - a couple of other friends who have ATI cards do not have that problem, they even can have the cache at standard with 300ms without getting a grey screen.

Please, fix that problem in combination with Nvidia related cards, this grey screen pixel bug is really annoying especially if you want to watch live streams!

VLC has clear problems when you have a geforce card in your computer, i really hope this issue gets adressed in further updates of VLC!

[ppumkin]

I have been having these grey screen issues with streaming from my Raspberry Pi 2. But also when objects move there is ghosting artefacts.

Increasing those network cahcing values did not fix it for me. I think VLC is using some strict h264 decoder causing all these issues.

Yea... before you say it it.. its not the stream.

I am using WebRTC UV4L and when I stream in my broswer, in 1080P from the Pi in H264... its purrrfect!

VLC is doing my head in with this for over 2 years now. I thought it was Raspberry Pi 1 being crap. I need to find another streaming software.

[flcapaci]

I'm having the same gray screens. It happens when I view a video off a USB while copying a file to the same USB. I know it has to do with not caching enough video enough. I'm using Mac so none of the settings are the same as the PC users. If anyone can use a Mac and show me the equivalent settings it would be great.

I found a caching setting (with no tool tip help and no description for what each setting does) here:



I've set the latency to highest. What this means is anyone's guess.

1. If you're a Mac user try setting it to "Higher latency", clicking Save, restarting VLC and playing the video again.
2. If that doesn't work try setting the Hardware Acceleration to VDA or disable and trying again (saving and restarting VLC).
3. If that doesn't work try setting the post-processing quality to 1 and try again.
4. Finally, uncheck "Preload MKV files in the same directory" and try that.

So far, setting higher latency seems to have limited the amount of gray screens but it's too early to tell. Will post more results in time.

[Art Vandelay]

USB Sticks are too slow. You cannot play a movie and copy file on an usb stick at the same time.

[Vorpike]

So the exact file lags on my less power gpu, while it plays fine on my better one (which is weird, videos can be that gpu intensive?), so it has nothing to do with the RAM (which is expected).

[gusrodriguez]

I have the same issue. It happens 2-3 seconds into my RTSP live stream and then again once in a while. Please help? I'm using Mac OS X, VLC Version 2.2.1 Terry Pratchett (Weatherwax) (Intel 64bit).

[Atnaw]

I had the same issue with an Intel NUC i7 where my previous NUC i3 worked fine. The solutions on this thread improved the playback quality in some instances but didn't "fix" it.

Eventually I did a BIOS update, and the problems went away.

[dudioo]

Hello everyone,

I think the problem is that our hardware is getting faster so the hard disk dive idles and has to spin again when the data the file has cached is exhausted. I noticed this because the same external hard drive works fine when using USB2 but when connected to USB3 the issues started.

So, basically simple solution is to decrease file cache from default 300ms down to 100ms. this seemed to do the trick for me, so that way VLC is constantly pulling data off your hard drive so that it doesn't have to stop spinning and then start spinning a few seconds later. See if this works for you.

[Rebel]

For some files this happens every few seconds. However, if I go back in the movie a second or two the area that was greyed and pixelated will play properly until the next time this happens and so on. The information appears to be there but VLC isn't playing it correctly. It acts just like a buffering problem- plays fine for a bit, hangs and degrades the video, then plays fine for a bit. This happens with older, known good files as well and has become a serious issue since my last VLC update.

Same here - I can back up and watch it again and it plays correctly. It's much worse in 2.2.2 than ever before.
I thought maybe it was a setting I'd changed, so I went looking for answers and discovered many users are experiencing the same issue.

I've been using Elmedia Player a lot recently because it doesn't have this difficulty near as often - it usually plays the files without a hitch, proving the files are NOT the problem.

OS X 10.11.3
2014 Mac mini 3 GHz i7, 16 GB RAM & Fusion drive.