VLC freezes when finishing big video files (playback)

[nfotis]

Hello,

I am using VLC as my main video player on my laptop (very basic user), with the high-definition videos playing on an external monitor 20" (1680*1050) while I work (the large monitor is the secondary display).

I have stumbled upon some large videos (H.264 - MPEG4 AVC, resolution 1440*1080, 50 FPS) , where VLC freezes just at the end of the video files
When I use control-F to play a sequence of these in a directory, VLC 1.1.8 froze (busy pointer) at the end of the first file, while VLC 1.1.11 froze at the end of the second file (now I re-checked, and it freezes at the end of the first file, giving a white screen and a busy pointer).

I am forced to terminate the process by clicking the [x] corner button, and I get an automatic crash reporting dialog ('the program is not responding', etc.).

If I press 'n' for the next video before VLC reaches the end of these files, no problem.

These videos are a cab-ride from Mainz to Köln over the left bank of the Rhine, and the problematic files are these ones:
12/12/2008 10:01 4,288,161,792 FMBKKE1.mpg
12/12/2008 11:21 3,421,992,960 FMBKKE2.mpg

The URL where I downloaded the RAR file is this one: http://www.lundbykrat.com/gistrup/HD/LinkerRheinHD.rar
(warning: it is a 6.8 GBytes file! Do not overload this server if you are not interested in solving this problem, better to find it over BitTorrent)

My computer:

IBM Thinkpad T60 laptop
Intel T7200 CPU (minor upgrade from T5500, not much difference)
3 GB RAM
Intel G945 graphics
Windows XP Professional (32-bit)

I do not know the behaviour of the player in different OSes.

Cheers,
N.F.

[nfotis]

Update: just tried the latest night build, it just exits when opening the folder with these files...
So, maybe developers would want to have this material on hand for testing...

N.F.

[VLC_help]

Could you cut as a smaller sample? Or do you know how to use gdb?

[nfotis]

I have never used gdb under Windows XP, so I do not know if I can help there
(it's been decades since I used it on BSD 4.2 on an ancient VAX...)

If you cannot download the original videos from the Web site (hint: I used 'wget', because the site often drops the connection), tell me how to cut a smaller sample for you.

N.F.

[VLC_help]

If they are Transport Stream files, you can do the cutting
http://www.avidemux.org/admWiki/doku.ph ... _ts_sample

[nfotis]

I mentioned in my initial message the type of the video:

H.264 - MPEG4 AVC, resolution 1440*1080, 50 FPS

N.F.
EDIT. I got the first 384KB of the first file, and the tail of it
(I suppose that you do not wish to download the whole videos?)

Where should I upload these? Mediafire.com is OK?

[nfotis]

Well, I managed to cut 4 MB headers and trailers...

First video header (4 MB): http://www.mediafire.com/?nco9qbrmdbjz9dl

First video ending (4 MB): http://www.mediafire.com/?bbwrcqk2rg1vyxm

Second video header (4 MB): http://www.mediafire.com/?d8iq6kf6lhk4l88

When VLC 1.1.11 freezes, it shows the name of the second video on the window.

The daily build just exits when it starts a directory that has these two files (it happens these two files are first in the list)

Hope this helps,
N.F.

[VLC_help]

Thanks. I can replicate the crash with First video ending clip.

According to gdb, it is a libavcodec issue
"ff_h264_pred_direct_motion"
which might be related to http://ffmpeg.org/trac/ffmpeg/ticket/312

[nfotis]

Hello again,

Because I am not 100% sure that I submitted the exact offset of the ending of the first video (converting to hex and back from such large decimal numbers was a real problem), I would suggest you download the full RAR file for future tests, at the address I gave in my first message.

Maybe you should alert the FFMPEG guys to these troublesome files?

Also, note that the latest nightly build exited immediately when it opened the directory where these two files were located (didn't even start the first file).

Cheers,
N.F.

[VLC_help]

FFMPEG guys have the files if there is a trac ticket.

And I replicated the crash with 1.2.0 nightlies.

[nfotis]

Sorry for persisting, you mean that you submitted a bug report to the FFMPEG people?

Regards,
N.F.

[VLC_help]

No. I didn't submit anything, since there is a existing ticket for that already.

[nfotis]

Hello again,

I discovered that the problem with the MPEG4 files freezing at the end is more widespread than I realized (not only on the large files I mentioned in the initial post).

Example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IiiIr8BguuQ

I downloaded this video via www.keepvid.com to my laptop, and when it arrived at the end of the file, I got a black screen, then a momentary white and the cursor froze ('busy' indicator).

Interesting detail: if I skip the majority of the video and go immediately near the end of the movie, then VLC finishes normally!
If I let the video play normally, without jumping or interrupting it, then it freezes at the end.

So, I suspect this is not just a codec problem... Please, check it!

N.F.

[nfotis]

Update:
I went back to VLC 1.1.9, and the problem of freezing at the end of a MPEG4 file seems that disappeared.
(I lose some frames when going from window-size to full-screen, but I can live with that)

I do not know if this a codec problem or a VLC problem in 1.1.10 and 1.1.11
(yes, the problem is in both editions - the bug was introduced between 1.0.9 and 1.1.10 )

Regards,
N.F.

[VLC_help]

Does that issue also happen in your setup with VLC 1.2.0 nightly builds?

[nfotis]

Well, I tried to install the latest nightly, and all kinds of strange things happened.

The result?
I discovered that a previous attempt to fix the problem of freezing at the end left the installation at an inconsistent state (manifested as non-operating double-click on files, etc.)

I was forced to do the uninstall from the Windows control panel, and kill some hanging tasks before removing manually the Program Files Videolan directory.

After that, I installed 1.1.12, and things seem to work much better.

(note: the initially reported files do not show time passed/remaining in the playback bar below)

I will play back again the files mentioned in the initial report, but I suspect that the problem was solved (at least in 1.1.12).

N.F.

[nfotis]

Update:
The files mentioned in the original message still freeze VLC when ending
(tested under 1.1.12)

Do you want me to test again with a nightly build?

N.F.

[VLC_help]

If you can, it will help us pinpointing the issue if there is one.

[nfotis]

I will try to re-describe the problem more clearly
(basically, it is the situation described in the first message of this thread):

The versions after VLC 1.1.9 hang at the end of various MPEG4 files
(nearly all downloaded from Youtube, the exception ).

The problem is that I cannot reliably reproduce the freeze reliably in files beyond the big two mentioned in the first post.

The freeze happens if I leave the video playing back without any interruption or jog shuttle (I play these at full screen on my external monitor, if that makes any difference).
I had tried with vlc-1.2.0-git-20111020-0004-win32.exe, but the playback was even more unreliable at the end of most files.

Hope this clarifies things a bit,
N.F.

[nfotis]

Hello there,

I think I found a much shorter video (9m40s) that demonstrates the same behaviour as the huge files in the first message:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ir7sDk6O1Hs

I downloaded it at 1080i resolution (via http://www.keepvid.com), then I played back the MPEG4 file.

Results:
VLC 1.1.12: freezes at end of file (black background, then white background and a busy mouse pointer)

MPC (CCCP): I had already an older version, it played without problems and finished without any apparent error.
Downloaded also the latest version of MPC, it finished without problems.

Uninstalled VLC, installed VLC 1.1.9
VLC 1.1.9: same result(!) - frozen, but after rebooting the computer it finished cleanly

Hope this gives some more information for debugging.

N.F.
EDIT. MPC is not suitable for me either - when I open a directory of such large MPEG4 files, after I use PgDown in order to skip 2-3 files, it freezes too.

[VLC_help]

I will test that file during weekend.

[VLC_help]

I can't replicate the freeze. But it might be related to second monitor, since there has been some complains similar to that.

[nfotis]

Note that I leave the videos playing back on the secondary monitor in full screen mode, while I work on my main (laptop) screen.

Maybe this is the culprit?
What mystified me is that VLC 1.1.9 froze as well, until I rebooted the computer
(maybe some operating system data structure got messed up and couldn't be released?)

I stress again that there seems to be some bug introduced between VLC 1.1.9 and later versions.

Cheers,
N.F.

[nfotis]

Hello again,

just tried with my laptop in single-screen mode (with the second monitor disconnected) and, like you, I cannot reproduce the freeze. I even tried with VLC 1.1.12, and it still finishes normally.

So, I think it is safe to conclude the problem manifests only on computers with multiple monitors?

Regards,
N.F.

[nfotis]

Hello there,

I think it is safe to conclude that the problem with VLC is freezing after finishing a video when playing full-screen on a secondary monitor.
At least, that is my experience with many different videos downloaded from Youtube, etc. - but not every video.

Is there a solution on this problem?

N.F.