VLC hangs after selecting from a DVD's menu.

[Frisbieinstein]

I'm trying to use VLC media player to play a DVD on my laptop. There are several files available. There is a 22K file that offers several options. I can select an option and get another screen full of options to select a segment with the mouse. No matter which segment I select, the player hangs displaying the traffic cone option. If I use the square button that controls VLC then it also hangs with the orange cone. The >> and << keys simply restart the loop the DVD is in, which doesn't help.

There are also large files. If I open the 107M file the mouse has no effect. If I use the square button that controls VLC then it hangs with the traffic cone logo.

I'm using an LG portable DVD writer that has a player option.

I'm leaving for a 7-month journey soon and want to be able to play DVDs on my laptop.

[Hitchhiker]

I'm afraid I don't have any self-recorded discs and had to use an ordinary movie DVD. As is usually the case these days, there are a number of trailers at the beginning and I used the Playback ---> Next Title option to jump through them. They all played correctly though as did the movie itself.

I think the first troubleshooting step will be for you to create a log file as follows:

• Launch the vlc player and then click Tools ---> Messages and in the bottom left hand Verbosity field, change the "0" into a "2".
• Leave the Message window open and then play your DVD. This will create the log file which you need to copy from the Messages dialog and then paste it into your next post using the Code button (5th from the left above the message box)

[Frisbieinstein]

I'm afraid I don't have any self-recorded discs and had to use an ordinary movie DVD. As is usually the case these days, there are a number of trailers at the beginning and I used the Playback ---> Next Title option to jump through them. They all played correctly though as did the movie itself.

I think the first troubleshooting step will be for you to create a log file as follows:

• Launch the vlc player and then click Tools ---> Messages and in the bottom left hand Verbosity field, change the "0" into a "2".
• Leave the Message window open and then play your DVD. This will create the log file which you need to copy from the Messages dialog and then paste it into your next post using the Code button (5th from the left above the message box)

core debug: VoutDisplayEvent 'mouse button' 0 t=8
core debug: VoutDisplayEvent 'mouse button' 0 t=9
core debug: VoutDisplayEvent 'double click'
qt4 debug: Qt: Fullscreen state changed
qt4 debug: Qt: Entering Fullscreen
core debug: VoutDisplayEvent 'resize' 869x618 window
core debug: VoutDisplayEvent 'resize' 1366x768 window
core debug: picture might be displayed late (missing 4 ms)
qt4 debug: Qt: Fullscreen state changed
qt4 debug: Qt: Quitting Fullscreen
core debug: VoutDisplayEvent 'resize' 1366x687 window
core debug: VoutDisplayEvent 'resize' 1350x630 window
core debug: VoutDisplayEvent 'resize' 853x480 window
core debug: auto hiding mouse cursor
core debug: auto hiding mouse cursor
core debug: auto hiding mouse cursor
core error: ES_OUT_SET_(GROUP_)PCR is called too late (pts_delay increased to 395 ms)
core error: ES_OUT_RESET_PCR called
core debug: Buffering 0%
core debug: Buffering 0%
core debug: Buffering 0%
core debug: Buffering 1%
core debug: Buffering 1%
core debug: Buffering 2%
core debug: Buffering 2%
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core debug: Buffering 3%
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core debug: Buffering 4%
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core debug: Buffering 11%
core debug: Buffering 11%
core debug: Buffering 12%
core debug: Buffering 12%
core debug: Buffering 13%
core debug: Buffering 24%
core debug: End of audio preroll
core debug: Buffering 24%
core debug: Buffering 32%
core debug: Buffering 41%
core debug: Buffering 41%
core debug: Buffering 41%
core debug: Buffering 42%
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core debug: Buffering 68%
core debug: Buffering 68%
core debug: Buffering 69%
core debug: Buffering 69%
core debug: Buffering 91%
core debug: Stream buffering done (458 ms in 9 ms)
core debug: End of video preroll
core debug: Received first picture
core debug: Decoder wait done in 16 ms
core warning: playback way too early (-276056): playing silence
core debug: inserting 13250 zeroes
core debug: VoutDisplayEvent 'mouse button' 0 t=8
core debug: VoutDisplayEvent 'mouse button' 0 t=9
core debug: VoutDisplayEvent 'double click'
qt4 debug: Qt: Fullscreen state changed
qt4 debug: Qt: Entering Fullscreen
core debug: VoutDisplayEvent 'resize' 869x618 window
core debug: VoutDisplayEvent 'resize' 1366x768 window
qt4 debug: Qt: Fullscreen state changed
qt4 debug: Qt: Quitting Fullscreen
core debug: VoutDisplayEvent 'resize' 1366x747 window
core debug: VoutDisplayEvent 'resize' 1350x630 window
core debug: VoutDisplayEvent 'resize' 853x480 window
core debug: auto hiding mouse cursor
core error: ES_OUT_SET_(GROUP_)PCR is called too late (jitter of 29788 ms ignored)
clock error: Timestamp conversion failed (delay 395389, buffering 17997, bound 9000000)
core error: Could not convert timestamp 1547178471971
core warning: early picture skipped
clock error: Timestamp conversion failed (delay 395389, buffering 17997, bound 9000000)
core error: Could not convert timestamp 1547178505337
core warning: early picture skipped
clock error: Timestamp conversion failed (delay 395389, buffering 17997, bound 9000000)
core error: Could not convert timestamp 1547178538703
clock error: Timestamp conversion failed (delay 395389, buffering 17997, bound 9000000)
core error: Could not convert timestamp 1547178572069
clock error: Timestamp conversion failed (delay 395389, buffering 24397, bound 3000000)
core error: Could not convert timestamp 1547178591445
core debug: discarded audio buffer
core warning: playback too early (-70404): down-sampling
core warning: picture is too late to be displayed (missing 49 ms)
core debug: picture might be displayed late (missing 15 ms)
core debug: auto hiding mouse cursor
core debug: auto hiding mouse cursor
core debug: resampling stopped (drift: 1638 us)
core warning: picture is too late to be displayed (missing 22 ms)
core error: ES_OUT_SET_(GROUP_)PCR is called too late (jitter of 29788 ms ignored)
clock error: Timestamp conversion failed (delay 395389, buffering 5807, bound 9000000)
core error: Could not convert timestamp 1547208558971
core warning: early picture skipped
clock error: Timestamp conversion failed (delay 395389, buffering 6112, bound 9000000)
core error: Could not convert timestamp 1547208592337
core warning: early picture skipped
clock error: Timestamp conversion failed (delay 395389, buffering 6722, bound 9000000)
core error: Could not convert timestamp 1547208625703
clock error: Timestamp conversion failed (delay 395389, buffering 8861, bound 9000000)
core error: Could not convert timestamp 1547208659069
clock error: Timestamp conversion failed (delay 395389, buffering 24408, bound 3000000)
core error: Could not convert timestamp 1547208678445
core debug: discarded audio buffer
core warning: playback too early (-64362): down-sampling
core warning: picture is too late to be displayed (missing 48 ms)
core debug: picture might be displayed late (missing 14 ms)
core debug: resampling stopped (drift: 6430 us)
core error: ES_OUT_SET_(GROUP_)PCR is called too late (jitter of 29788 ms ignored)
clock error: Timestamp conversion failed (delay 395389, buffering 6722, bound 9000000)
core error: Could not convert timestamp 1547238645971
core warning: early picture skipped
clock error: Timestamp conversion failed (delay 395389, buffering 7029, bound 9000000)
core error: Could not convert timestamp 1547238679337
core warning: early picture skipped
clock error: Timestamp conversion failed (delay 395389, buffering 18006, bound 9000000)
core error: Could not convert timestamp 1547238712703
clock error: Timestamp conversion failed (delay 395389, buffering 18006, bound 9000000)
core error: Could not convert timestamp 1547238746069
clock error: Timestamp conversion failed (delay 395389, buffering 24406, bound 3000000)
core error: Could not convert timestamp 1547238765445
core debug: discarded audio buffer
core warning: playback too early (-62570): down-sampling
core warning: picture is too late to be displayed (missing 50 ms)
core debug: picture might be displayed late (missing 16 ms)
core debug: picture might be displayed late (missing 4 ms)
core debug: resampling stopped (drift: -945 us)
core debug: EOF reached
core debug: waiting decoder fifos to empty
core debug: waiting decoder fifos to empty
core debug: waiting decoder fifos to empty
core debug: waiting decoder fifos to empty
core debug: waiting decoder fifos to empty
core debug: waiting decoder fifos to empty
core debug: waiting decoder fifos to empty
core debug: finished input
core debug: removing module "avcodec"
avcodec debug: ffmpeg codec (MPEG-1/2 Video) stopped
core debug: killing decoder fourcc `mpgv', 0 PES in FIFO
core debug: saving a free vout
core debug: reusing provided vout
qt4 debug: Qt: Fullscreen state changed
core debug: removing module "packetizer_mpegvideo"
core debug: removing module "a52"
core debug: killing decoder fourcc `a52 ', 0 PES in FIFO
core debug: removing module "samplerate"
core debug: removing module "a52tofloat32"
core debug: removing module "scaletempo"
directsound debug: closing audio device
core debug: removing module "float_mixer"
core debug: keeping audio output
core debug: removing module "ps"
core debug: Program doesn't contain anymore ES
core debug: removing module "record"
core debug: removing module "filesystem"
core debug: dead input
core debug: changing item without a request (current 0/1)
core debug: nothing to play
core debug: destroying useless vout
core debug: removing module "direct3d"
direct3d debug: Direct3D scene released successfully
direct3d debug: Win32 Vout EventThread terminating
direct3d debug: Win32VoutCloseWindow
direct3d debug: WinProc WM_DESTROY
qt4 debug: releasing video...
qt4 debug: IM: Deleting the input
qt4 debug: Video is not needed anymore
core debug: removing module "freetype"
core debug: removing module "yuvp"
core debug: removing module "swscale"

[Frisbieinstein]

VLC Media Player is extremely flaky with menus, and by the developers own admission is on a "best effort" basis and correct operation is not guaranteed. It is often the same with free players, as the reason they are free is often because they don't want to pay the royalties involved. That said, the VLC developer is a top chap though.

If you need to do serious checks, I recommend Cyberlink PowerDVD Ultra - this just works, and is what we use to test playback on computer based systems, and on our last large job (we provided 4 BD and 2 DVD for a Box Set) the people who could not play the replicas with media players were all using free players that could not cope with either our Java code, the menus or even both. As soon as they tried using what Ann described perfectly as a "real dvd program" all the problems went away.

Free media players are usually free for a reason, the main one being they are not worth paying for.

Huh. Too late. Unless I can buy it in Japan.

[robUx4]

qt4 is not in VLC 3.0, we're using Qt5. So you must be using an outdated version of VLC.