Framerate drops with some MP4 files

[Mickey12]

OK, let me start by saying what I'm working with. It's an old computer: Athlon XP on 1.9 GHz, 1.5 GB RAM and MSI FX5600 128 MB graphics card.

Now, even though this is an old computer I never had any issues playing files until I upgraded from 1.x version (can't remember which it was exactly) to the newest one (2.0.1 Twoflower).

Problem seems to be with MPEG-4 files that have 1 reference frame.

Playback starts normally, and if I don't touch anything it goes smooth. But if I want to jump to a certain point in a video, video drops framerate by a lot, making it unbearable to watch.

Here is info on the file in question:

Code: Select all

General Complete name : C:\test files\TestFile1.mp4 Format : MPEG-4 Format profile : Base Media Codec ID : isom File size : 404 MiB Duration : 21mn 29s Overall bit rate mode : Variable Overall bit rate : 2 630 Kbps Encoded date : UTC 2010-11-22 20:18:14 Tagged date : UTC 2010-11-22 20:18:14 Writing application : Lavf52.62.0 Comment : FlixEngineLinux_8.0.17.1 (www.on2.com) Video ID : 1 Format : AVC Format/Info : Advanced Video Codec Format profile : Baseline@L3.1 Format settings, CABAC : No Format settings, ReFrames : 1 frame Codec ID : avc1 Codec ID/Info : Advanced Video Coding Duration : 21mn 29s Bit rate mode : Variable Bit rate : 2 496 Kbps Width : 720 pixels Height : 540 pixels Display aspect ratio : 4:3 Frame rate mode : Variable Frame rate : 30.000 fps Minimum frame rate : 29.412 fps Maximum frame rate : 30.303 fps Color space : YUV Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0 Bit depth : 8 bits Scan type : Progressive Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.214 Stream size : 384 MiB (95%) Encoded date : UTC 2010-11-22 20:18:14 Tagged date : UTC 2010-11-22 20:18:14 Audio ID : 2 Format : AAC Format/Info : Advanced Audio Codec Format profile : LC Codec ID : 40 Duration : 21mn 29s Bit rate mode : Variable Bit rate : 128 Kbps Channel(s) : 2 channels Channel positions : Front: L R Sampling rate : 48.0 KHz Compression mode : Lossy Stream size : 19.7 MiB (5%) Encoded date : UTC 2010-11-22 20:18:14 Tagged date : UTC 2010-11-22 20:18:14

However, if I re-encode it with Handbrake the file becomes fine again:

Code: Select all

General Complete name : C:\test files\TestFile1-1.mp4 Format : MPEG-4 Format profile : Base Media / Version 2 Codec ID : mp42 File size : 379 MiB Duration : 21mn 29s Overall bit rate mode : Variable Overall bit rate : 2 467 Kbps Encoded date : UTC 2012-06-25 17:19:26 Tagged date : UTC 2012-06-25 17:40:39 Writing application : HandBrake 0.9.5 2011010300 Video ID : 1 Format : MPEG-4 Visual Format profile : Simple@L1 Format settings, BVOP : No Format settings, QPel : No Format settings, GMC : No warppoints Format settings, Matrix : Default (H.263) Codec ID : 20 Duration : 21mn 29s Bit rate mode : Variable Bit rate : 2 335 Kbps Maximum bit rate : 3 573 Kbps Width : 718 pixels Height : 540 pixels Display aspect ratio : 4:3 Frame rate mode : Variable Frame rate : 30.000 fps Minimum frame rate : 29.412 fps Maximum frame rate : 30.303 fps Color space : YUV Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0 Bit depth : 8 bits Scan type : Progressive Compression mode : Lossy Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.201 Stream size : 359 MiB (95%) Writing library : Lavc52.94.3 Encoded date : UTC 2012-06-25 17:19:26 Tagged date : UTC 2012-06-25 17:40:39 Color primaries : BT.709-2, SMPTE 274M, SMPTE 296M Transfer characteristics : BT.709-2, SMPTE 170M, SMPTE 274M, SMPTE 293M, SMPTE 296M Matrix coefficients : BT.470-4 System B, BT.470-4 System G, BT.601-4, SMPTE 170M, SMPTE 293M Audio ID : 2 Format : AAC Format/Info : Advanced Audio Codec Format profile : LC Codec ID : 40 Duration : 21mn 29s Bit rate mode : Variable Bit rate : 128 Kbps Maximum bit rate : 159 Kbps Channel(s) : 2 channels Channel positions : Front: L R Sampling rate : 48.0 KHz Compression mode : Lossy Stream size : 19.7 MiB (5%) Encoded date : UTC 2012-06-25 17:19:26 Tagged date : UTC 2012-06-25 17:40:39

Here's info on another MP4 file that I have that has no issues while playing:

Code: Select all

General Complete name : C:\test files\TestFile2.mp4 Format : MPEG-4 Format profile : Base Media Codec ID : isom File size : 379 MiB Duration : 41mn 39s Overall bit rate mode : Variable Overall bit rate : 1 272 Kbps Writing application : Lavf52.32.0 Video ID : 1 Format : AVC Format/Info : Advanced Video Codec Format profile : High@L3.0 Format settings, CABAC : Yes Format settings, ReFrames : 3 frames Codec ID : avc1 Codec ID/Info : Advanced Video Coding Duration : 41mn 39s Duration_FirstFrame : -100ms Bit rate : 1 100 Kbps Width : 768 pixels Height : 432 pixels Display aspect ratio : 16:9 Frame rate mode : Variable Frame rate : 29.970 fps Minimum frame rate : 7.493 fps Maximum frame rate : 29.970 fps Color space : YUV Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0 Bit depth : 8 bits Scan type : Progressive Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.111 Stream size : 328 MiB (86%) Language : English Tagged date : UTC 2012-01-14 11:00:50 Audio ID : 2 Format : AAC Format/Info : Advanced Audio Codec Format profile : LC Codec ID : 40 Duration : 41mn 39s Bit rate mode : Variable Bit rate : 105 Kbps Channel(s) : 2 channels Channel positions : Front: L R Sampling rate : 48.0 KHz Compression mode : Lossy Stream size : 31.2 MiB (8%) Language : English Tagged date : UTC 2012-01-14 11:00:50

I have tried with GPU acceleration and messing with video outputs but nothing helps. Framerate is also lover with some .VOB and .MKV files that I have, which were playing fine before upgrade.

I don't know what has happened with this update but it has gone to worse and I love my VLC, so I don't want to give up on it.


Any advice?

[redhawk]

Is your CPU getting pegged while playing these video clips??

I've noticed my CPU load is bigger with 2.0.2 than 1.1.11 perhaps VLC is intentionally dropping frames to compensate.

Richard S.

[Mickey12]

Is your CPU getting pegged while playing these video clips??

I've noticed my CPU load is bigger with 2.0.2 than 1.1.11 perhaps VLC is intentionally dropping frames to compensate.

Richard S.

Thanks for the reply.

No. CPU usage stays around 50%.

[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.