VLC playback stalls on certain video files

[redhawk]

I've recently updated from 1.1.11 to version 2.0.2 to see if there has been any improvements or new features to VLC however I would like to address some problems I have encountered.

For some reason version 2.0.2 is using approximately 10% more CPU load than 1.1.11 while playing h.264 / he-aac content.
While I would expect CPU usage to vary slightly between different versions of VLC I think 10% is quite a considerable jump.
I have no video enhancements enabled with default settings so I assume this has something to do with the decoding libraries.
My CPU is a P4 @ 1.60GHZ which granted isn't fast by today's standards however this doesn't excuse VLC higher CPU usage for performing the same task as previous versions.

VLC stalls when playing VOB files created by my Cyberhome DVD video recorder (DVR-1600) even when using VLC in DVD mode, however Windows Media Player, Power DVD and Mplayer had no problems.
If I remux the VOB file into an mpeg-2 file VLC play without problems it would appear something inside the VOB container is causing problems.

(My next problem involves a video encoder which I'll refer as T* apparently posting names of non-open source encoders will get you banned although in fairness this one is part freeware part commercial)
VLC also stalls after 2 seconds of playing MPEG-1 files encoded by T* if Bitrate was set to 1500 kbits/sec however when set to 1000 kbits/sec it does not stall playback, other video players i.e. Windows Media Player, Mplayer and PowerDVD are unaffected.
If I encode MPEG-1 video using ffmpeg with the same settings as T* then I have no problems with playback using VLC.
Interestingly if I demux the video stream generated by T* then it opens and plays fine in VLC without stalling.
I've always had problems with VLC and T* for as long as I can remember I really hope VideoLAN could fix this rather annoying bug.

If VideoLAN would like some sample files to demonstrate these problems let me know.

Richard S.

[mva5]

I'm experiencing the same problem, and I can't find any solution. Can someone please look into this?
Now I have to use windows media player. I'll make this my default player if this problem persists

[Lotesdelere]

Please open Tools -> Messages (set Verbosity to 2) before you start the playback and then paste the full resulting log here or on Pastebin.com if it's too long.

Also upload a short sample of a problematic file to either http://streams.videolan.org/upload/ or to MirrorCreator.com or to EmbedUpload.com, so it will upload the file for you to several other hosts, and then post the link to the file here.

[redhawk]

Thanks for the links, I just uploaded my sample files so hopefully someone will take a look at them.
I had already enabled messages with verbosity set to 2 but no error messages got reported.

Richard S.

[Lotesdelere]

What are the names of these files ?

[redhawk]

I uploaded them using the VideoLAN uploading page I wasn't given any URL or reference number.
The zip file was "samples.zip" which contained 2 files sample.vob and sample.mpg

Richard S.

[Lotesdelere]

I uploaded them using the VideoLAN uploading page I wasn't given any URL or reference number.
The zip file was "samples.zip" which contained 2 files sample.vob and sample.mpg

I can't find this file and not even the attached comments.

[redhawk]

I've uploaded it again the zip file is "playback_stall.zip" if you still haven't received it I could upload the media files individually.

Richard S.

[Lotesdelere]

Another TMPG files playback report. I think there is already a ticket about that.

[redhawk]

I have the debugging logs for both files VLC wasn't printing any information before as I explained in another post.

For the VOB file: http://pastebin.com/jzVyY0Ft
For the MPEG-1 file: http://pastebin.com/zj8LM79L

The MPEG-1 problem is a weird one if I reduce the bit rate from 1500 kbits/sec to 1050kbits/sec VLC is more than happy to play, if I encode with ffmpeg at 1500 kbits/sec VLC is also happy to play.
I've done a log for the lower bit rate MPEG-1 for comparison - http://pastebin.com/DEE6ygnC

Richard S.