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HI ALL,

I encounter a VLC problem on CPU and memory consumption,

I used VLC play a mp3 repeatedly for about 12 hours , at first the CPU consumption is about 7% , memory consumption is about 13% , after 12 hours playing , the VLC CPU consumption and memory consumption increase to 12%~ 15% and 17% ~20%.

Is it normal ? I mean the CPU and memory consumption did not return to first time playing .
If not , can anybody point out what's the problem is or how to investigate the problem?

Best Regards,
Ke Tao

The testing version of VLC is 0.85

please try with uptodate vlc, 0.8.6c

alternatively, try with a development nightly build trunk version ( http://nightlies.videolan.org )

0.86's CPU consumption is lower than 0.85, but also increase slowly after long time playing.
From 4.6% to 10% after 15 hours playing.

Can anybody point out or suggest how to investigate this issue?
Maybe this reason is one of the following,
1.VLC internal error , some running thread do hard working after long time playing?
2.Third party library error , it cost too much CPU resource at that time?
3.System error , it running slow after long time running??
....

The starting command line is,

./vlc --plugin-path=/root/vlc/lib/modules --aout alsa --alsadev "hw:0,0" -I rc --file-caching 600 --cdda-caching 600 --http-caching 1200 --file-logging -vvvv --logfile /var/vlc.log --logmode text /root/html/dreams.mp3 -L

This is the sar log of VLC long time playing,
please refer to the link:http://www.esnips.com/doc/f6e24adc-4960 ... log-of-vlc

Is it caused by too many malloc memory? I saw there a lots of malloc in fifo block and data block when playing. CPU is busy manage the memory after a long time playing.

I finally find the reason. It's stat module cause this issue.

I have the same problem when streaming dvb-s channels. I found out that vlc memory and cpu usage are rising when my channel for dvb-s card become scrambled. And when it is free again memory usage stays at the number when channel became free again. It doesn't fall back to normal. When this repeats a number of times, vlc uses all memory and swap!

I am using vlc-trunk, and I didn't find any stat module in it!

use --no-stats

kotao_78 could you open a ticket on that issue on trac.videolan.org/vlc so we don't forget about it ?

Hey kotao_78,

I have the same problem with the CPU consumption after playing MPEG2 on local and streaming for about 9 hours. The problem seems to occur faster and more noticeable when more frequent of switching files in a play list. I will try funman's --no-stats flag and see what happen, thx guys for finding this out.

mochi

Argument --no-stats doesn't help in my case. When one of streaming channels become scrambled, vlc starts to consume more and more memory, until system gets really slow. I tested both versions and I came to conclusion that 0.8.6c is a lot better than 0.9.0, but still not without memory rising feature .

Can it have something with libdvbpsi, because I compiled vlc with static linking to latest trunk of libdvbpsi.

Thanks!

Dear kotao_78,

Today I had 4 machines running vlc 0.8.6c from 8am for about 10 hours now, 1 as streaming, 2 watching stream and 1 local playback. with --no-stats the cpu problem is gone and stays normal , without --no-stats I hardly run over 9 hours so I assume it is solved, thank you so much for the info.

And Gujs sorry --no-stats didn't help in your case let you know if I can find anything to help

mochi

Hi,

I was using vlc through JVLC. Now I tried vlc in command line and the problem is gone. Now I don't know if problem is in vlc library or in jvlc library.

If I would only know how to use vlc library in C to start dvb streaming and test this option to!

Dear All,

Let me detail why VLC(0.85 & 0.86) CPU consumption will increase after long time playing.

Please check stats.c(vlc/src/stats.c) GetCounter function,
I found "p_handler->i_counters" will be plus 10 after 1 song played , that implies the loop will take more time more and more , but unfortunately , GetCounter function is called by __stats_Update and __stats_Get , after long time playing , it will cost a lots of CPU at that loop.

Later I'd checked stats module is enable by libvlc.c:688(v0.86).

Anyway , I will raise a trac for it and wish it can be fixed next release.Thanks you all.

Ke Tao

i don't get it, you mean p_handler->i_counters will increase indefinitely when playing for hours ?

and that doesn't explain memory consumption

thanks for the report anyway

Yes , p_handler->i_counters will increase continuously when playing for long time , at first its value is n , after one song played , its value changed to n+10 and .......

And the "i_index" variable will be more large in the "GetCounter" function , that implies the loop will take more time to get the index.
I think will should put the index at top of the array , not at tail.

Anyway , I suggest we should disable "stats" module as default , actually I didn't know how to use it .

i don't get it, you mean p_handler->i_counters will increase indefinitely when playing for hours ?

and that doesn't explain memory consumption

thanks for the report anyway

All I can say (without logging at this point as I am using the ActiveX control in a HTML page) is, I am using Icecast to stream various music videos in ogg format, after each video has played and the next one has loaded, memory consumption grows by about 3/4 MB once a new video is played. The Icecast server has about 25 videos that repeat themselves. So after a few hours of playback, that's it?!?!?!

This surely isn't right. In the end my client machine actually runs out of memory and grinds to a halt.

But on the up side.... VLC is one of the best players that I have come across

VLC 0.8.6c (WIndows)

All I can say (without logging at this point as I am using the ActiveX control in a HTML page) is, I am using Icecast to stream various music videos in ogg format, after each video has played and the next one has loaded, memory consumption grows by about 3/4 MB once a new video is played. The Icecast server has about 25 videos that repeat themselves. So after a few hours of playback, that's it?!?!?!

This surely isn't right. In the end my client machine actually runs out of memory and grinds to a halt.

But on the up side.... VLC is one of the best players that I have come across

VLC 0.8.6c (WIndows)

see my response before.

I have a couple Ubuntu servers streaming video from a dvb adapter 24/7, and one of them freeze a few days ago, trying to discover why i found that vlc use all the ram and swap until colapse (http://pastebin.com/pastebin.php?dl=m59288c2c)

Now looking the graps of the other servers i take notice that it happend there too in diferent time, but luckely it release some memory after a day!! :S (http://img638.imageshack.us/img638/3199 ... sunris.png)

any help would be apriciated.


11:19:35 up 56 days, 21:05, 1 user, load average: 0.12, 0.17, 0.17
Linux ATSC-DECO-4 2.6.27-7-server #1 SMP Fri Oct 24 07:20:47 UTC 2008 x86_64 GNU/Linux
VLC media player 0.8.6e Janus
0b:01.2 Multimedia controller: Conexant Systems, Inc. CX23880/1/2/3 PCI Video and Audio Decoder [MPEG Port] (rev 05)

VLC 0.8.6 has not been maintained for a long time. All calls for willing maintainers have gone unresponded, so don't expect any help.

Im using vlc 1.0.5 now and the problem persist, after a week suddendly vlc uses all the swap and the system crash. Im using it to transmit HD video streams to igmp routers.

Linux BBD-5 2.6.27-7-server #1 SMP Fri Oct 24 07:20:47 UTC 2008 x86_64 GNU/Linux
VLC media player 1.0.5 Goldeneye
8 x pcHDTV HD-5500 Multimedia controller: Conexant Systems, Inc. CX23880/1/2/3 PCI Video and Audio Decoder [MPEG Port] (rev 05)
Mem: 4046184k total
Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU E6400 @ 2.13GHz

You just disable stats module will be OK.

im looking at "configure" script and i dont see any stats module, can u give any hint?

Thanks