Issue with hardware acceleration while trying to play old WMV files with VLC 3.0.20 "automatic" settings

[miljo]

Hi!

I've been using VLC for years now and used to be able to open these old WMV files normally in older versions of VLC. I think VLC 3.0.18 was the last version where they worked fine and I kept transferring my setting with every VLC update. With the newest version of VLC (3.0.20) I was getting a black screen with audio while trying to play the videos. MPC-HC and Windows Media player worked normally. I've tried a few settings in VLC preferences and this seems to be an issue with hardware acceleration. The "automatic" setting in "hardware acceleration" picks Direct3D11 and it can't decode these old WMVs properly while all the other files work. Everything, including the old WMVs, seems to work fine if I manually pick DXVA 2.0.

I don't know much about this stuff, but there seems to be an issue with how VLC automatically pics the hardware acceleration method. I've got Windows 10 x64 with all the updates and VLC uses my laptop's integrated graphics card. It's a i5-10300H cpu.

[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 or on Justpaste.it if it's too long.

Also upload a short sample of your original problematic file to WeTransfer.com or Disroot.org and then post the link to the file here.
https://wetransfer.com
https://upload.disroot.org

[miljo]

Please open (...)

https://pastebin.com/NWSBYDk2
https://we.tl/t-NwSIHya8E2

I've used the "automatic" settings to make the log. The sample file played with no video, a black screen. It played normally later, when I manually picked DXVA 2.0 in VLC settings. It looks a little as if the video and audio were out of sync, but that's normal, that's what the original source looked like.
I've redacted my Windows username from the log entries and replaced it with the word "main".

[Lotesdelere]

The video is WMV3 and I can't reproduce the issue with my Nvidia cards, I guess it has something to do with the drivers of your Intel UHD graphics card.

[miljo]

The video is WMV3 and I can't reproduce the issue with my Nvidia cards, I guess it has something to do with the drivers of your Intel UHD graphics card.

Thank you for trying to help!
The video used to play normally in older versions of VLC and I noticed that MPC-HC automatically picks "DXVA 2.0 (native)" as the hardware acceleration method on my laptop. I don't know if it does that by default or based on the computer's graphics card. Anyway, I just though this might be about how new VLC handles hardware acceleration.

[skipskip]

Same problem here, WMV played fine until newest update now black video and sound

[DJX]

Same issue after updating to 3.0.20.
Old WMVs have black video.

Intel UHD 620
NVIDIA GeForce MX130

[MystiqueWanderer]

Sorry for the delayed reply. I just saw your post. I think the first thing you need to do is to ensure that your graphics drivers are up-to-date. Sometimes, compatibility issues can be resolved with driver updates.
Since you're using an i5-10300H CPU with integrated graphics, you can download the latest drivers from the Intel website or use the device manager to check for updates.
Finally, Before making changes, you can back up your current VLC settings. Go to %APPDATA%\vlc and copy the vlcrc file.
If problems persist, try a clean install of VLC, which means uninstalling it, deleting leftover settings, and then reinstalling.

[spaceling]

A reddit user, seckatary, posted a solution which, after some tweaking, ultimately helped me get VLC rendering WMV files again in Windows 11. (Their suggestion is at https://www.reddit.com/r/VLC/comments/1 ... t/kbnricq/.)

The fix that worked for me was to disable Hardware Decoding under FFmpeg.

In VLC, go to: Tools >> Preferences >> Inputs/Codecs >> Video Codecs >> FFmpeg
then change "Hardware Decoding" from "Automatic" to "Disable"
click Save, and restart VLC.

(seckatary's suggestion was to switch the option from "Automatic" to "DirectX Video Acceleration DXVA 2.0" but that didn't work for me, so this solution is likely dependent on something else going on.)

[DJX]

While these may temporarily fix the issue, they can not be called solutions because of the fact that this worked without changing settings before 3.0.20. This is a regression in 3.0.20.

[Ginetto]

A reddit user, seckatary, posted a solution which, after some tweaking, ultimately helped me get VLC rendering WMV files again in Windows 11. (Their suggestion is at https://www.reddit.com/r/VLC/comments/1 ... t/kbnricq/.)

The fix that worked for me was to disable Hardware Decoding under FFmpeg.

In VLC, go to: Tools >> Preferences >> Inputs/Codecs >> Video Codecs >> FFmpeg
then change "Hardware Decoding" from "Automatic" to "Disable"
click Save, and restart VLC.

(seckatary's suggestion was to switch the option from "Automatic" to "DirectX Video Acceleration DXVA 2.0" but that didn't work for me, so this solution is likely dependent on something else going on.)

Works for me, thanks!