The VideoLAN Forums

Hi all,
Using VLC for many years, i'm really not sure why `lost` frame statistic is collected on a monster PC. Here are my specs:

I7 740QM Quad-core
6 GB RAM
GTX 460M 1.5 GB GPU with 314.22 stable driver.
Win7 x64....

I can open and play files very smoothly and monitor the resource usage of GPU via GPU-Z. The GPU decoding is enabled though. I see 2-3 lost frames within a minute just after opening a 720p or 1080p video. With those specs and videos, shouldn't i see even a single lost (skipped) video frame?

Is there any brief reason for this to explain?

Note: Mostly tried this behaviour with MP4 videos downloaded from Youtube and with a few low-res avi, mpeg2 files.

No help?

No help?

...sorry...wow, a month without a reply!...that's pretty awful! So, that's mostly why I'm replying...even if I don't really think I have a good answer.

I only have 2 ideas: Your video card is "GTX 460M"...now I don't wanna say it's bad (it probably isn't), but it is true that all the "M" (mobile/laptop) versions of graphics cards are "less powerful" than the non-M versions. So having the M-version is the only thing that stands out in your specs.

The other thing is to try is to change the video output method, to see if your video card handles another one better. I can't even guess what output method your VLC is using right now...well it's one of DirectX, Direct3D or OpenGL, but I don't know which one it might default to.

So, to change the video output method...

1. In VLC, click Tools ► Preferences
2. At the bottom left, for Show settings, make sure Simple is selected (it should be)
3. Along the left, click Video
4. On the right-side, in the section Display (near the top), for Output...
   
   • 1st of all, write down what is ALREADY set (is it on "Default"?) & post that in a msg on the forum
   • Change the value to something else, try DirectX or Direct3D or OpenGL
     
     • Note: You must finish these steps each time you try a different setting (including saving & closing VLC, below -- actually, I just read on the Wiki, that you might be able to get away with simply stopping & restarting the playback, so you could try that).
5. Click Save
6. Close VLC to commit the pref change (otherwise, if VLC crashes, this change {or some changes} might not be saved)
7. Run VLC & see if that fixes the problem

...hopefully 1 of the other output methods will work better on your video card. However, VLC is smart & should already be using the one it thinks is best for your computer (at least that's what I think it's doing -- auto-detecting the best output method for each computer it's on).

I see 2-3 lost frames within a minute just after opening a 720p or 1080p video.

...you said "just after opening"... does this frame loss stop after the video gets going?...or do you continue to have 2-3 frame lost per minute?

Oh, I thought of 1 more reason: hard drive...perhaps the video card is fine, but the hard drive can't read/cache video fast enough???...I'm just shooting blanks in the dark. I don't really know why your computer loses frames, I'm just trying to think of everything it might be.