The VideoLAN Forums

Hi there,

I've got a problem with VLC 0.8.6c on a G5 Dual 2GHz after changing the old ATI Radeon Mac Edition PCI 32 MB to a new ATI Mac Edition 9200 PCI 128MB because of the fan on the old card getting noisy. The build in agp card (ATI Radeon 9600) is connected to two TFTs and the pci card connected to the TV only. With the new card, vlc freezes the picture on the TV after 5-60 min, no matter if avi, mpeg or a dvd, fullscreen or in a window. The sound still goes on for a short while but the whole system's already crashed & I have to restart the Mac (same problem as: "viewtopic.php?f=12&t=30328"). I'm running 10.4.10. The same happened after starting from a fresh 10.4.9 drive without all the ATI extensions. I also tried VLC 0.8. I always deleted the prefs, disabled the floating onscreen controller, nothing gets vlc to work longer than an hour with the new graphics card. It doesn't crash when I do a "save" boot, but as there are no core video & core audio extensions, the video stutters and there's no sound. It also seems to work when I switch from "Quartz" to "standard" or "OpenGL" mode, but then the video's very choppy, too. Apple DVD Player and Quicktime works, so it must be some conflict between VLC, Quartz and the ATI 9200. After putting back in the old graphics card, vlc works again perfectly.

Any help would be highly appreciated.

sonic

log:

Command: VLC
Path: /Applications/vlc-0.8.6c/VLC.app/Contents/MacOS/VLC
Parent: WindowServer [119]

Version: 0.8.6c (0.8.6c)

PID: 675
Thread: 12

Exception: EXC_BAD_ACCESS (0x0001)
Codes: KERN_INVALID_ADDRESS (0x0001) at 0x0f399014

Thread 0:
0 libSystem.B.dylib 0x9000b6e8 mach_msg_trap + 8
1 libSystem.B.dylib 0x9000b63c mach_msg + 60
2 com.apple.CoreFoundation 0x907deba8 __CFRunLoopRun + 832
3 com.apple.CoreFoundation 0x907de4ac CFRunLoopRunSpecific + 268
4 com.apple.HIToolbox 0x93296b20 RunCurrentEventLoopInMode + 264
5 com.apple.HIToolbox 0x932961b4 ReceiveNextEventCommon + 380
6 com.apple.HIToolbox 0x93296020 BlockUntilNextEventMatchingListInMode + 96
7 com.apple.AppKit 0x9377bae4 _DPSNextEvent + 384
8 com.apple.AppKit 0x9377b7a8 -[NSApplication nextEventMatchingMask:untilDate:inMode:dequeue:] + 116
9 com.apple.AppKit 0x93777cec -[NSApplication run] + 472
10 org.videolan.vlc 0x00016cf0 Run + 168
11 org.videolan.vlc 0x000046a4 RunInterface + 716
12 org.videolan.vlc 0x00004a24 intf_RunThread + 336
13 org.videolan.vlc 0x000a90e8 AddIntfInternal + 348
14 org.videolan.vlc 0x00003ef8 main + 216
15 org.videolan.vlc 0x00002a0c _start + 760
16 org.videolan.vlc 0x00002710 start + 48

After searching the forum for 2 weeks, calling ATI two times and trying every possibility I could think of, I can only choose between these 4 setups:

- Set VLC to Standard (OpenGL) mode: Very bad playback, more frames are lost than shown...
- Set VLC to Quartz mode: Perfect framerate, but the whole system crashes after 5-30 minutes...
- Set VLC to Quartz mode and build in the old Radeon card: Perfect framerate, no crashes, but the noisy fan on the old card is annoying...
- Use QuickTime...

Very frustrating, especially 'cause I payed 110 € for the new graphics card.

Anyhow, thanks to anyone who read the posting,

sonic

I'd check and hope for new drivers for your graphics card, as this is probably an OpenGL driver issue.

Regrettably, your card is somewhat non-standard on Mac OS X, as virtually every Mac uses an AGP card by now, so we can do little about this compatibility issue as I personally don't know anybody having a PCI card. The Quartz mode is non-default for a reason btw. and it will probably disappear in future releases, as it isn't Intel-compatible (and never going to be) and hardly compatible with OS X Leopard or even later releases...

Good luck to get your card working with correct drivers!

Thanks a lot for your response,

I talked to ATI again, they said it can't be the driver, there's only one driver for all ATI Radeon cards (AGP & PCI) and it worked on the other card. But it also can't be the new card itself, 'cause everything works with Quicktime, Apple DVD Player or MPlayer, no dropped frames. Just VLC in OpenGL and full screen mode drops half of them. After reading your post, it seems there's only one solution: Buy a AGP card with TV out, try to sell the build in ATI 9600 (got only one AGP port) and connect the main display and the TV to the new AGP card and use the PCI card for the second display. That means that I have to spend another 300 € just to watch movies on the big screen...

I can't afford that, so unfortunately I have to stick with Quicktime and Co. Bummer!

Thanks a lot anyway,

sonic

If anyone's interested, I found a way to play VLC on the big screen via the PCI card:

switched to openGL output: fullscreen' s choppy, but in a window it's O.K.
choose adjust to screen size in VLC
switch to a 4:3 format in the display control panel
switch the 16:9 TV to letterboxed to get rid of the upper and lower window parts
switch to overscan in the display control panel to get rid of the left and right window parts

looks like fullscreen mode and runs smoothly…

sonic