Hangs indexing, during playback of .m2ts recordings

[Aeneas]

I am finding that simple VLC playback of .m2ts files (hauppauge) works fine,
but when indexing to specific points in the file,
in maybe half the output .m2ts files,
using step-forward, step-backward, or mouse-click in progress-bar,
hangs often result.
Some hangs last for 15 minutes, some 1 minute, some seem to be forever.

Is there a verbose mode for VLC playback which could display
what errors the mpeg parser could be encountering in the file ,
outputting to screen or to a log file ?

Interestingly, a workaround to this problem is to run the whole input file
(which could be 20 hours of recorded tv -- a 60 GByte file -- approx 9.3 Mbps)
through vlc-record feature at high speed (31.25x seems to be the fastest),
then manipulating the resulting m2ts-.ts file.
Sometimes a second round of vlc-record is needed, resulting
in a cleaner m2ts-.ts-.ts file.
I do hope whatever parsing hangs of mpeg errors in the files can be speeded up.
//Windows 11//i5-8250U//16 GBytes Ram//250 GBytes SSD//Intel UHD Graphics 620//Nvidia Geforce MX150//

[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

[Aeneas]

I tried creating a log with the 2 setting, but nothing appeared in the messages window.
Tried to create a short recording file which had this behavior but none of them did.
Maybe size is a factor in these hangs.

I uploaded 2 x 10 GByte files to dropbox, one that exhibits the "Hangs" bug,
and one that does not ("No Hangs", for comparison)
created consecutively on the same Windows 11 run.

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/onk7v6pq ... 12tz9&dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/qi638t45 ... h8kj8&dl=0

[Lotesdelere]

You must have a messages log. Open the messages window BEFORE you start the playback and keep it open during the whole process.

No way, I'm not going to download 10 GB files.
Cut it with DGsplit and read here about how to do it:
https://forum.videolan.org/viewtopic.ph ... 35#p193335
200 MB max should be enough.

[Aeneas]

I tried the method you described and nothing appeared in the Messages window
and maybe 4/5 of the way to the end, it hung for an hour, until I terminated it,
with the Windows Task Manager
indicating it was consuming approximately 25% of the i5-8250U quad processors,
with 2 sub-tasks, 1st being the <filename>, and the 2nd "Messages (Not Responding)".

I double-click the filename from Windows Explorer,
then once it starts and has remembered to filename,
I click 'Stop playback', then I open Tools\Messages ,
set it for the 2-debug setting,
then increase 'Current playback speed',
then click 'Play' .

I am trying another run at regular playback speed, which for this file
is 2 hr, 21 minutes, 23 seconds.

200 MBytes, indicates you are betting the error is in the header of the file --
if the header were corrupted, I doubt any playback would work, at all.

Explain why you do not want to download 10 GBytes ?
It took 4 hours to upload the 2 files; it should be much faster
to download -- probably 5 minutes.
Does your Internet provider charge you by the downloaded GByte ?
A basic Data Plan here for a terrestrial (city-fiber to home-coax) residential customer
is 1280 GBytes per month --
no extra charges if that is not exceeded.
$50 per month extra to obtain Unlimited monthly data.

Your development team should not be without at least one member who has
a terrestrial fiber-based connection.

The fact that I have tried on several iterations to create a smaller file
exhibiting this bug and failed, indicates to me that the greater size
increases the chances for some sort of error content to appear somewhere in the file,
which then causes some algorithm in the vlc mpeg parser to fail.

I will try to find this DGsplit app and create the smaller file to complete my role in this.

[Lotesdelere]

The link to DGsplit is in the post I've linked in my answer. I put it here again:
https://forum.videolan.org/viewtopic.ph ... 35#p193335

[Aeneas]

Again, how do you know that the cause of this malfunction is in the 1st 200 MBytes ?
Do you already know what the bug is ?
I have found a better application to truncate the file to 200 MBytes, called trunc.
The performance of the resulting portion of the file (2 minutes, 20 seconds) when indexing
is attempted is different, and hangs do not occur.
What use is there to download a portion of the file which does not exhibit the malfunction
being reported ?

The purpose of GSplit is the break up a large file into smaller pieces, all of which
are intended to be transmitted over the Internet to the destination,
and then reassemble the original large file with GUnite.

Additionally, I completed the playback of the 2 hr 21 min and 23 secs, at regular speed,
with the Messages 2-debug setting.
Again, nothing appeared in the Messages window, but this time,
no "Messages (Not Responding)" occurrence was noticed in Windows Task Manager.

[Lotesdelere]

Anyway, we still need a log file. Please run VLC from the command prompt with this command line for creating a log file:

Code: Select all

C:\path\to\vlc\vlc.exe --extraintf=logger --verbose=2 --logfile=C:\temp\vlc.log --logmode=text --file-logging

and then paste the full resulting log here or on Pastebin.com or on Justpaste.it if it's too long.

The destination folder must already exist and make sure that you have full access rights to it.

[Aeneas]

I am finding that there is some Message window output on a 3rd laptop
that I have tried.
Does not work on an older Windows 11 (upgraded from Windows 10),
does not work on the Windows 7 64 laptop,
but does work on the newest laptop which is running Windows 11, with the newest bios.
Lots of entries about auto-hiding the mouse, at the beginning,
"picture is too late to be displayed (missing x ms)" , etc.

So this Messages output is now being generated on a platform which did not create
the .m2ts file in the first place.
If that is ok, I should have a complete output in about 3 hours.

I am finding that if I mouse-drag the bottom right corner of the picture window
to make the picture window closed/invisible, the mouse activity can be omitted
from the Messages output.

[Aeneas]

https://justpaste.it/f055z
12891 lines , 811 KBytes .
2 hr 21 min and 23 secs

[Lotesdelere]

In your first post you mention Intel UHD Graphics 620 and Nvidia Geforce MX150 graphics cards but in your log an AMD/ATI card is used.
So, the problem occurs with which graphics card ? What is the model of the AMD/ATI card ?
It looks like you are using different computers, does the problem occur on all of them ?

[Aeneas]

All 3 laptops are running vlc 3.0.20, and all 3 experience the same Hangs
when indexing is attempted with this specific "Hangs" file which I uploaded.
The laptop which created the 10 GByte file which is described in the intro post
which I have uploaded ("Hangs"),
is "...an older Windows 11 (upgraded from Windows 10)..." .
As already described, Messages 2-debug did not work on that laptop.