Jerky DVD playback

[Hansomfiser]

Guys,
I have a fast computer with all the latest stuff, and Windows XP Pro SP2. I'm using VLC to watch clips/movies but when I'm watching original DVD's, the playback is a little jerky. It's like it's skipping a frame every fourth or fifth frame or something. Simply jerky playback.
But when I'm playing it in Windows Media Player, it's just perfect.

I have test last weeks Nightly Builds, and also activated the "higher priority" setting in VLC but nothing changes.

Also why is the image a little brighter/worse than in Windows Media Player?

This goes for all of my 40 original DVD movies.

Thanks for your help

[DJ]

Have you tried monitoring Messages? On a commercial DVD the Messages should be quiet or empty and monitoring CPU usage in your Task Manager should show almost NO CPU usage. If either of these are different than described indicates hardware problems.

A good way to start (considering you may have been fiddling with this for a while) is by erasing the preferences directory. C:\Documents and Settings\Owner (this is you)\Application Data\VLC Erase VLC.

Application Data is a hidden directory so you will need to make it visible. Then Reboot your machine. Then Open VLC and go to Preferences, Video and shut of the Skip frames option. Press Save and restart VLC. Now start looking at the things I mentioned earlier.

Brightness and or contrast in VLC are real filters and are not dependent on your video cards settings but does recognize these. The reset I had you do will bring back all the defaults that may have been changed. Brightness, contrast etc. is available from Settings, Extended GUI. Once you get what you want open Preferences and press Save.

[Hansomfiser]

Thanks for your reply DJ.

I did all of what you said, but the playback is still jerky. I can especially notice this when in scenes like somebody is walking on a street, and I see the playback is like sticking 2-3 times quickly per second.
This does not happen in Windows Media Player.

I also checked my task manager, my cpu is at 0%, or 1-2% at most (if I open something up meantime). So I don't think it's hardware-related.


I unchecked the skip frames thing you talked about, but it doesn't seem to solve my problem.
Note that my jerky playback appears even if I play a backed up DVD from my hard drive, or any other .AVI file. Not only original DVD's as you can see.

I don't know what you mean by "messages", sorry.

Please help me

[DJ]

Well I was going to suggest looking at the DMA settings for your optical disk but considering you load this on your HD and still are experiencing problems. Hmm! it may still worth a look at all storage media that use or can use DMA.

AVI is a container and doesn't tell us much about the formats inside. But considering this also is giving you problems I would be looking for Sound card driver updates and would also install the latest version of DirectX runtime. Search "DirectX runtime" on Microsoft's web site, it should be the first or second on the list. As for your sound card's drivers you will need to check with the vendor of your sound card.

All software players use DirectX differently so the problem still could be drivers. Generally if the driver revision is later than Oct 04 it should be fine for DirectX 9c. There is also an issue of some sound cards just do not control the video well for sync and this creates jitter. Jitter will not show up in messages. But Messages may be monitored by selecting View and scrolling down to Messages.

Please see ReClock on the web for more information regarding this issue. This is NOT an endorsement for the program and is suggested here for information only. If you can't find info on the web site any more download the program and read the readme files. There is a long list of reasons jitter occurs in PCs, but it is always sound card related.

[Hansomfiser]

DJ - I installed a new set of drivers for my Sound Blaster card, and also installed the latest, August version of DirectX. It seems to be quite OK now! The image is also better, it looks like it does in WMP now.


Thank you.

Are there any other performance-settings that I can change in VLC for smoother playback?

[DJ]

No not really! You should be about where WinDVD 5 or 6 was with a very slight bit of jitter in certain slow horizontal pans. This did not bother many people and still occurs in the last versions of PowerDVD I've seen.

[Hansomfiser]

I have realized now after comparing exact same scenes from different movies between WMP and VLC, that VLC still is slightly worse when it comes to playback. Especially in a car chase or something like that. It's a little choppy (nothing wrong with sound though).
It's not a big difference but it's still noticeable.
I have a Dual Core (Intel), if that matters.

[Hansomfiser]

I have realized now after comparing exact same scenes from different movies between WMP and VLC, that VLC still is slightly worse when it comes to playback. Especially in a car chase or something like that. It's a little choppy (nothing wrong with sound though).
It's not a big difference but it's still noticeable.
I have a Dual Core (Intel), if that matters.

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