momentary brief screen freezes occurring irregularly

[ClemH]

I've been using vlc-0.8.6i-win32 for a while and never had any problem with it, until recently.

what is happening now is that the screen freezes (very briefly, just a fraction of a second) with irregular intervals (sometimes occurring as frequently as a few seconds apart, sometimes with several minutes between them). I've been testing later versions of VLC media player (such as vlc-0.9.2-win32 and vlc-1.0.1-win32) but experience the very same problem with them (and with the latest version the screen even freezes permanently and I have to click on it to get it to move again).

this is the type of thing that sometimes occurs with "digital" media, regular DVDs occasionally stop for a brief moment, and if this happens about once (or twice) during the length of a regular movie or concert recording, that is nothing much worth complaining about. but these screen freezes I'm experiencing now have become a nuisance, and they are strange since they didn't use to occur until recently (or only occurred so rarely that I didn't pay attention to them); I don't remember when exactly they began to be this frequent, but maybe it was about a week ago, anyway the problem has become insufferable by now.

as I have no idea what the cause of this problem may be, let alone how to solve it, I'm asking for help from anybody who might know.

[VLC_help]

First, remove %appdata%\vlc folder and check if the problem still exists. If it does, then it is related to something else than VLC (e.g. driver or another software).

[juanmaria]

Hi,

The very same happens to me. I've tried deleting the datadir with no success, when I install 0.8.6 all videos play fine but with the newer versions I got randomly screen freezes on some video files.

It does not happen on all my computers, only in a fujitsu notebook. But it is a Core2Duo T5250@1.50Ghz + 1Gb Ram which seems to me enough to play films. I've tried disconecting wifi, unloading most programs and so on but with no success at all. Only reverting to 0.8. does the trick.

Regards.
Juan María.

[VLC_help]

Does Tools -> Messages... (set Verbosity to 2) complain something during playback?

[juanmaria]

Does Tools -> Messages... (set Verbosity to 2) complain something during playback?

Nothing that I had seen. BTW, where should the messages appear?.

Thank you!

[VLC_help]

To that same window. (open the message window before playback)

[juanmaria]

Ok, I read this message on a PC and when tried this on the other I misunderstood the thing and I set verbosity to 2 on the "preferences" and didn't noticed the "Messages" window.

I haven't got the problematic notebook at hand, I'm playing pictures on a faster one (T6500@2.10Ghz + 4Gb RAM), the problems aren't so visible (not image stopping and pixelated when restarting) but it keeps making small sound jumps and hardly noticeable video pauses.

I have to say that this does not happen on all the videos, the one I'm playing is one of the "problematic" ones and its data, according to GSpot is:

FILE_NAME 4x01.avi
FILE_NAME_WITH_PATH C:\media\gal\4x01.avi
FILE_SIZE 646,991,872
CONT_AUDIO_STREAM_COUNT 2
CONT_BASETYPE AVI(.AVI)
CONT_BYTES_MISSING 0
CONT_INTERLEAVE_ALIGN Split
CONT_INTERLEAVE_PRELOAD 512
CONT_INTERLEAVE_TIME 40
CONT_SUBTYPE OpenDML (AVI v2.0),
CONT_TOTAL_BITRATE 0
VIDEO_ASPECT_CONVERT_AVI1
VIDEO_ASPECT_CONVERT_AVI2
VIDEO_ASPECT_CONVERT_CVD1
VIDEO_ASPECT_CONVERT_CVD2
VIDEO_ASPECT_CONVERT_DVD1
VIDEO_ASPECT_CONVERT_DVD2
VIDEO_ASPECT_CONVERT_SVCD1
VIDEO_ASPECT_CONVERT_SVCD2
VIDEO_ASPECT_CONVERT_VCD1
VIDEO_ASPECT_CONVERT_VCD2
VIDEO_ASPECT_SOURCE_MATCH
VIDEO_ASPECT_TYPE_NTSC
VIDEO_ASPECT_TYPE_PAL
VIDEO_BITRATE 1598
VIDEO_CODEC_NAME XviD ISO MPEG-4
VIDEO_CODEC_STATUS Codec(s) are NOT Installed
VIDEO_CODEC_TYPE XVID
VIDEO_DAR 1.778
VIDEO_DURATION 41:51.920
VIDEO_FIELDS_PER_SEC
VIDEO_FRAME_COUNT 62798
VIDEO_FRAMES_PER_SEC 25.000
VIDEO_H264
VIDEO_MPEG2
VIDEO_MPEG2_3X2
VIDEO_MPEG2_BFF
VIDEO_MPEG2_I_L
VIDEO_MPEG2_PPF
VIDEO_MPEG2_PROG
VIDEO_MPEG2_TFF
VIDEO_MPEG4 MPEG-4
VIDEO_MPEG4_BVOP B-VOP
VIDEO_MPEG4_GMC
VIDEO_MPEG4_NVOP
VIDEO_MPEG4_QPEL
VIDEO_PAR 1.000
VIDEO_PICS_PER_SEC 25.000
VIDEO_QF 0.229
VIDEO_SAR 1.778
VIDEO_SIZE_X 704
VIDEO_SIZE_Y 396
AUDIO_BITRATE 224
AUDIO_BITRATE_TYPE CBR
AUDIO_CHANNEL_COUNT 6
AUDIO_CODEC 0x2000 (Dolby AC3) AC3
AUDIO_CODEC_STATUS Codec(s) are Installed
AUDIO_MPEG_STREAM_ID
AUDIO_MPEG_SUBSTREAM_ID
AUDIO_SAMPLE_RATE 48000

While playing the file, the message box keeps constantly displaying those messages:

main warning: resampling stopped after 78000 usec (drift: -18291)
main warning: buffer is 42458 late, triggering upsampling

From time to time, ciclically, those appear:

main debug: looking for xml module: 2 candidates
main debug: using xml module "xml"
main debug: TIMER module_need() : 1.000 ms - Total 1.000 ms / 1 intvls (Avg 1.000 ms)
main debug: removing module "xml"

And, on very little occasions when video jumped a little I noticed those:

main warning: buffer is 41062 late, triggering upsampling
main warning: resampling stopped after 225000 usec (drift: -24874)
main warning: late picture skipped (72000 > -35101)
main warning: late picture skipped (32000 > -35101)
main warning: late picture skipped (-8000 > -35101)


Thank you!

[juanmaria]

I'm getting new messages, those are the last ones after experiencing some small reproduction fails:

main debug: looking for xml module: 2 candidates
main debug: using xml module "xml"
main debug: TIMER module_need() : 0.000 ms - Total 0.000 ms / 1 intvls (Avg 0.000 ms)
main debug: removing module "xml"
main debug: looking for xml module: 2 candidates
main debug: using xml module "xml"
main debug: TIMER module_need() : 0.000 ms - Total 0.000 ms / 1 intvls (Avg 0.000 ms)
main debug: removing module "xml"
main warning: output date isn't PTS date, requesting resampling (-41000)
main debug: looking for xml module: 2 candidates
main debug: using xml module "xml"
main debug: TIMER module_need() : 0.000 ms - Total 0.000 ms / 1 intvls (Avg 0.000 ms)
main debug: removing module "xml"
main warning: resampling stopped after 12750000 usec (drift: 47708)
main warning: buffer is 55541 in advance, triggering downsampling
main warning: output date isn't PTS date, requesting resampling (-45000)
main warning: timing screwed, stopping resampling
main warning: buffer is 116229 in advance, triggering downsampling
main warning: audio drift is too big (-120166), clearing out
main warning: timing screwed, stopping resampling
main warning: mixer start isn't output start (-52871)
main debug: audio output is starving (180686), playing silence
main debug: looking for xml module: 2 candidates
main debug: using xml module "xml"
main debug: TIMER module_need() : 1.000 ms - Total 1.000 ms / 1 intvls (Avg 1.000 ms)
main debug: removing module "xml"
main warning: output date isn't PTS date, requesting resampling (-40686)
main warning: buffer is 40519 in advance, triggering downsampling
main warning: resampling stopped after 276000 usec (drift: 12644)
main warning: buffer is 40478 in advance, triggering downsampling
main warning: resampling stopped after 276000 usec (drift: 12603)
main warning: buffer is 40436 in advance, triggering downsampling
main warning: resampling stopped after 277000 usec (drift: 12561)
main warning: buffer is 40394 in advance, triggering downsampling
main warning: resampling stopped after 275000 usec (drift: 12519)
main warning: buffer is 40353 in advance, triggering downsampling
main debug: looking for xml module: 2 candidates
main debug: using xml module "xml"
main debug: TIMER module_need() : 1.000 ms - Total 1.000 ms / 1 intvls (Avg 1.000 ms)
main debug: removing module "xml"
main warning: resampling stopped after 275000 usec (drift: 12478)
main warning: buffer is 40311 in advance, triggering downsampling
main warning: resampling stopped after 275000 usec (drift: 12436)
main warning: output date isn't PTS date, requesting resampling (-42000)
main warning: buffer is 54269 in advance, triggering downsampling
main warning: timing screwed, stopping resampling
main warning: buffer is 70165 in advance, triggering downsampling
main warning: output date isn't PTS date, requesting resampling (-50000)
main warning: timing screwed, stopping resampling
main warning: audio drift is too big (-124832), clearing out
main warning: mixer start isn't output start (-50951)
main debug: audio output is starving (177686), playing silence
main debug: looking for xml module: 2 candidates
main debug: using xml module "xml"
main debug: TIMER module_need() : 1.000 ms - Total 1.000 ms / 1 intvls (Avg 1.000 ms)
main debug: removing module "xml"
main warning: output date isn't PTS date, requesting resampling (-42686)
main warning: buffer is 42686 in advance, triggering downsampling
main warning: resampling stopped after 125000 usec (drift: 34832)
main warning: buffer is 42666 in advance, triggering downsampling
main warning: resampling stopped after 150000 usec (drift: 42811)
main warning: buffer is 42645 in advance, triggering downsampling
main warning: resampling stopped after 126000 usec (drift: 34791)
main warning: buffer is 42624 in advance, triggering downsampling
main warning: resampling stopped after 149000 usec (drift: 42770)
main warning: buffer is 42603 in advance, triggering downsampling
main warning: resampling stopped after 424000 usec (drift: 34686)
main warning: buffer is 42520 in advance, triggering downsampling
main debug: control type=1

[VLC_help]

Does it help if you change video output module?
http://wiki.videolan.org/WindowsFAQ-1.0 ... _output.3F

[juanmaria]

Does it help if you change video output module?
http://wiki.videolan.org/WindowsFAQ-1.0 ... _output.3F

I've tried several outputs, it seems that Direct-x improves the audio stops but, somehow, introduces a sort of slow-camera effect on some scenes.

[VLC_help]

If you choose Audio -> Audio track -> Disable, does the freezing vanish?