The VideoLAN Forums

First of all, VLC is a great application.

However, I have had one problem with VLC since upgrading to Snow Leopard 10.6 & 10.6.1.

Specifically when I connect my laptop to my HDTV, with mirrored displays (the HDTV resolution at 1920x1080) I have lag/stuttering issues with video on the TV in fullscreen (audio plays perfectly). Prior to Snow Leopard, there was absolutely no lag what-so-ever, so I question whether this is a VLC problem or an OSX 10.6 problem?

This happens when I try to play Xvid, HD .mkv files, DVDs with about equal stutter when fullscreened to 1920x1080.

Thank you for your help.

This seems to be a graphic driver issue (disabling overlay or such)...

Same problem here. VLC, PLEX playing MKV 720p or 1080p on the laptop display with no problems. As soon as I play it on my 42 Samsung TV, I get stuttering in image but not sound throughout the movie. This happens with both 720p and 1080p movies and in all players Quicktime, VLC and PLEX. This did not happen before installing snow leopard. My laptop is MBP 13in mid 2009 (2.53Ghz, 9400m, 4gig Ram)

Is there a solution?

This appears to be a graphics card driver issue. You might want to have a look at the NVIDEA page to see if they offer an update. If not, you'll have to wait for the update from Apple...
Make sure that your kernel runs in 32bit mode. Some graphics card drivers are known to run badly within the 64bit kernel. (You would know if you enabled the 64bit kernel - if you did not, this doesn't apply.)

This appears to be a graphics card driver issue. You might want to have a look at the NVIDEA page to see if they offer an update. If not, you'll have to wait for the update from Apple...
Make sure that your kernel runs in 32bit mode. Some graphics card drivers are known to run badly within the 64bit kernel. (You would know if you enabled the 64bit kernel - if you did not, this doesn't apply.)

Nope, the kernel is running in 32bit and there are absolutely no new drivers from NVIDIA for 9400m for snow leopard. are we really f'd for now?

Just to follow up since my initial post....

I just installed the latest build, from the nightly builds http://nightlies.videolan.org/build/mac ... l/?C=M;O=D
This version did seem to run more smooth initially. When I applied the setting Input Codecs>Access Modules>MMap>Check file memory mapping, this seemed to really help the video skipping on my external 1080p tv.

I think there may still be some slight skipping, but it seems a lot better than before.

I also have the setting Input/Codecs>Access Modules>File>Caching value in ms, set at 7000.

Hopefully this will help you gcubed.

Just to follow up since my initial post....

I just installed the latest build, from the nightly builds http://nightlies.videolan.org/build/mac ... l/?C=M;O=D
This version did seem to run more smooth initially. When I applied the setting Input Codecs>Access Modules>MMap>Check file memory mapping, this seemed to really help the video skipping on my external 1080p tv.

I think there may still be some slight skipping, but it seems a lot better than before.

Enabling MMAP helped me too. But, as you noted, still there's some skipping. I also tried QuickTimeX + Perian 1.1.4, which showed a smooth playback on my external HDTV. If you want a better performance, you can check out this combination (QTX+Perian).

I have the same problem (I updated yesterday from tiger to SL). I tried to increase the cache (for the highest lag). It does not change anything for me.

I did not find where to set the MMAP. I got VLC ver 1.1

My configuration: OSX 10.6.4, MBP core2duo 2.16 GHz, 3 GB or ram, and a samsung LCD HD ready TV (1360*768) plugged in the DVI output of the MBP... and ATI X1600 mobility

Do we have to wait for Apple to solve the issue?

Hi guys.

I've had the same stuttering problem for months. I've tried all the fixes explained here (VLC settings). Some helped but the problem never got really fixed.

Finally I have found a workaround, which doesn't have anything to do with VLC: the TV must be set as primary screen and the laptop monitor as secondary.

Open System Preferences -> Display -> Arrange

Then drag the menu bar from one monitor to the other. This will make the trick.

I hope it helps you guys!