H.264 HD Video freezes

[Jinx_Dojo]

Hello, and thank you for not only providing VLC as some of the best FOSS out there, but also providing these support forums, and, from what I can see in other threads, quite a bit of support! My apologies if my issue is mentioned somewhere; I did search, but only found similar issues, whose solutions did not work.

I am experiencing difficulty playing HD video (1920x1080 H.264) MOV files from my camera. It plays a few frames, then the video freezes, while the audio continues, and processing goes close to 100%. If I seek to a new section, it will refresh a frame or two of the video, then immediately freeze again. Interestingly, however, HD video (1920x1080 MPEG2) MTS files from my PVR will play without that issue (I realize they likely require less intensive decoding). Perhaps also of interest is that my ancient Windows Media Player 9 plays the ("bad") camera video with much more limited stuttering--almost watchable even--but no audio, and obviously I'd prefer to use VLC!

I have included details about my system and the two files at the bottom. I have already tried the following:

• Resetting all settings to default
• Enable/Disable Use GPU acceleration
• Enable/Disable Skip H.264 in-loop deblocking filter
• Double-checked that DXDiag.exe says video acceleration is enabled
• Copied media to internal HDD with sustained bandwidth larger than reported bitrate

Currently, I have rolled back to version 2.0.4 to fix another issue (horribly distorted audio--which I hope to address in another thread), but I have of course tried the above settings on 2.1.1 as well. If there is any way I can provide a more detailed debug log, please let me know. I realize that with my specs, I may not ever be able to play fluid HD, but I am hoping there is a way to get the camera's files to run tolerably (>15fps) or even better to perform as well as the PVR.

Details of my system:

• Windows XP SP3
• 2 Ghz Single-Core CPU
• 2 GB RAM
• ATI Radeon HD 2600 (AGP 8x)

I could not find a "spoiler" (expand/collapse) type BBcode tag, so my apologies for the long paste:


MediaTab Information about the camera's MOV file (which does not play well):

===================== General =====================
Complete name : G:\MVI_1684.MOV
Format : MPEG-4
Format profile : QuickTime
Codec Id : qt
File size : 2.43 GB
Duration (ms) : 9mn 59s
Total bitrate : 34.8 Mbps
Encoded date : UTC 2014-02-10 22:37:14
Tagged date : UTC 2014-02-10 22:37:14
CNTH : 9ÓÚÜzU׶Ûlâ¯Ûü9€nXÍ9BçºÓ/~w¾nÛŠÜVï[ø!Ád,11ˆòç@9 ¤

===================== Video =====================
Id : 1
Format : AVC
Format info : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile : Baseline@L5.0
Use of CABAC : No
RefFrames : 1 frame
Format settings - GOP : M=1, N=12
Codec Id : avc1
Codec info : Advanced Video Coding
Duration (ms) : 9mn 59s
Bitrate : 34.0 Mbps
Width : 1 920 pixels
Height : 1 080 pixels
Aspect ratio : 16:9
Framerate mode : Constant
Framerate : 23.976 fps
Colorimetry : YUV
Colos space : 4:2:0
Bit depth : 8 bits
Scan type : Progressive
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.684
Stream size : 2.37 GB (98%)
Language : English
Encoded date : UTC 2014-02-10 22:37:14
Tagged date : UTC 2014-02-10 22:37:14
Color primaries : BT.709
Transfer characteristics : BT.709
Matrix coefficients : BT.601

===================== Audio =====================
Id : 2
Format : PCM
Format_Settings_Endianness : Little
Format_Settings_Sign : Signed
Codec Id : sowt
Duration (ms) : 9mn 59s
Bitrate mode : Constant
Bitrate : 768 Kbps
Channel(s) : 1 channel
ChannelPositions : Front: C
Sampling rate : 48.0 KHz
Bit depth : 16 bits
Stream size : 54.9 MB (2%)
Language : English
Encoded date : UTC 2014-02-10 22:37:14
Tagged date : UTC 2014-02-10 22:37:14

Made with MediaTab 1.2


MediaTab information about the PVR's MTS file (which does play well):

===================== General =====================
Id : 1511 (0x5E7)
Complete name : L:\02162014-2100.mts
Format : BDAV
Format info : Blu-ray Video
File size : 3.68 GB
Duration (ms) : 42mn 50s
OverallBitRate_Mode/String : Variable
Total bitrate : 12.3 Mbps

===================== Video =====================
Id : 49 (0x31)
MenuID/String : 3 (0x3)
Format : MPEG Video
Format version : Version 2
Format profile : Main@High
Format settings - BVOP : Yes
Format settings - Matrix : Custom
Format settings - GOP : M=3, N=15
Codec Id : 2
Duration (ms) : 42mn 50s
Bitrate mode : Variable
Bitrate : 11.2 Mbps
Bitrate maximum : 90.0 Mbps
Width : 1 920 pixels
Height : 1 080 pixels
Aspect ratio : 16:9
ActiveFormatDescription/Str: Letterbox 16:9 image
Framerate : 29.970 fps
Standard : Component
Colorimetry : YUV
Colos space : 4:2:0
Bit depth : 8 bits
Scan type : Interlaced
ScanOrder/String : Top Field First
Compression_Mode/String : Lossy
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.180
Stream size : 3.36 GB (91%)

===================== Audio #1 =====================
Id : 52 (0x34)
MenuID/String : 3 (0x3)
Format : AC-3
Format info : Audio Coding 3
Format settings mode extens: CM (complete main)
Format_Settings_Endianness : Big
Codec Id : 129
Duration (ms) : 42mn 50s
Bitrate mode : Constant
Bitrate : 448 Kbps
Channel(s) : 5 channels
ChannelPositions : Front: L C R, Side: L R
Sampling rate : 48.0 KHz
Bit depth : 16 bits
Compression_Mode/String : Lossy
Video_Delay/String : -446ms
Stream size : 137 MB (4%)
Language : English

===================== Audio #2 =====================
Id : 53 (0x35)
MenuID/String : 3 (0x3)
Format : AC-3
Format info : Audio Coding 3
Format settings mode extens: CM (complete main)
Format_Settings_Endianness : Big
Codec Id : 129
Duration (ms) : 42mn 50s
Bitrate mode : Constant
Bitrate : 128 Kbps
Channel(s) : 1 channel
ChannelPositions : Front: C
Sampling rate : 48.0 KHz
Bit depth : 16 bits
Compression_Mode/String : Lossy
Video_Delay/String : -370ms
Stream size : 39.2 MB (1%)
Language : English

===================== Text #1 =====================
Id : 49 (0x31)-CC1
MenuID/String : 3 (0x3)
Format : EIA-608
Muxing mode : A/53 / DTVCC Transport
MuxingMode_MoreInfo : Muxed in Video #1
Duration (ms) : 42mn 50s
Bitrate mode : Constant
Stream size : 0.00 Byte (0%)

===================== Text #2 =====================
Id : 49 (0x31)-1
MenuID/String : 3 (0x3)
Format : EIA-708
Muxing mode : A/53 / DTVCC Transport
MuxingMode_MoreInfo : Muxed in Video #1
Duration (ms) : 42mn 50s
Bitrate mode : Constant
Stream size : 0.00 Byte (0%)

===================== Menu =====================
Id : 48 (0x30)
MenuID/String : 3 (0x3)
Duration (ms) : 42mn 50s
List/String : 49 (0x31) (MPEG Video) / 52 (0x34) (AC-3, English) / 53 (0x35) (AC-3, English)
Language : / English / English

Made with MediaTab 1.2

[Lotesdelere]

I am experiencing difficulty playing HD video (1920x1080 H.264) MOV files from my camera.

• Windows XP SP3

VLC uses DXVA 2.0 which means at least Vista or higher is required for hardware acceleration to work.

• 2 Ghz Single-Core CPU
• ATI Radeon HD 2600 (AGP 8x)

No way, you need at least a Core2Duo @ 2.6 GHz for playing H.264 @ 1080p in software mode.
Lower resolutions (720p or less) may work if your motherboard is fast enough but in your case the AGP bus might be the bottleneck.

MPEG-2 is less CPU demanding than H.264 that's the reason why you can play it.

[Jinx_Dojo]

Thank you for the reply. I realize advertisement can be deceiving, but doesn't this imply a hardware-based decoder?

Dedicated unified video decoder (UVD) for H.264/AVC and VC-1 video formats

Source: http://www.amd.com/us/products/desktop/ ... specs.aspx

[Lotesdelere]

As said before, VLC uses DXVA 2.0 which means at least Vista or higher is required for hardware acceleration to work.

It might work on Windows XP with some other software though (e.g. MPC-HC).

[JohnDC]

Lotesdelere, can you explain your last comment? Are you saying VLC 2.x doesn't bother looking for h/w acceleration on older h/w and/or OS's?

It would explain much, e.g. why MPC-HC and WMP (and VLC 1.x) can easily handle 1080p H.264 on one of my systems (XPSP3/Abit IC7G/3.6GP4HT/NVGF7900GTS(AGP8x)), but all 2.x VLC versions have stuttering issues with these same videos. Typical CPU usage for 1080p H.264 in VLC 1.x is 45-50% on this system, but is close to pegged on 2.x with severe stuttering.

[Lotesdelere]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DirectX_Vi ... _and_later

DXVA 2.0 enhances the implementation of the video pipeline and adds a host of other DDIs, including a Capture DDI for video capture. [...] a program can also create a pipeline for simply decoding the media (without rendering) or post-processing and rendering (without decoding).
These features require the Windows Display Driver Model drivers, which limits DXVA 2.0 to Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008, Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows 8.
On Windows XP and Windows 2000, programs can use DXVA 1.0. DXVA 2.0 allows Enhanced Video Renderer as the video renderer only on Vista, Windows 7, and Windows 8. (With Windows XP, DXVA-Rendering is possible with VMR9 and the well-known Overlay Mixer.)

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library ... 85%29.aspx

The DXVA 2 API requires Windows Vista or later.