The VideoLAN Forums

None of my x265 videos (MKV wrapper) will play. VLC starts, I get a series of flashing black video screens for approximately 3 seconds and then I get the "audio only" screen with only the audio playing.

Default settings. WIN8.1. 16GB ram. No external video card - just using the HD4600 graphics capabilities of my Intel i7-4790 3.60 GHz processor.

PotPlayer has no problems at all. I've tried various combinations of removing hardware-accelerated decoding, and using different codecs (3D11, 3D09, DXVA) to no avail. Never had a problem with any x264 or other file formats. This is simply an x265 issue.

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 Zippyshare.com (200 MB max) or to WeTransfer.com and then post the link to the file here.
http://www.zippyshare.com
https://wetransfer.com

If needed cut it with DGsplit and read here about how to do it:
http://forum.videolan.org/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=57724&p=193335#p193335
100 MB max should be enough.

Log - essentially "no meta fetcher or art finder modules". Since this happens for ALL of my x265 videos, I'm don't understand the benefit of sending a file snippet from some arbitrary file. But, will try if needed later...

main debug: Creating an input for preparsing 'San Andreas 2015.mkv'
main debug: looking for meta fetcher module matching "any": 1 candidates
lua debug: Trying Lua scripts in C:\Users\Kurt\AppData\Roaming\vlc\lua\meta\fetcher
lua debug: Trying Lua scripts in C:\Program Files (x86)\VideoLAN\VLC\lua\meta\fetcher
main debug: no meta fetcher modules matched
main debug: looking for art finder module matching "any": 2 candidates
lua debug: Trying Lua scripts in C:\Users\Kurt\AppData\Roaming\vlc\lua\meta\art
lua debug: Trying Lua scripts in C:\Program Files (x86)\VideoLAN\VLC\lua\meta\art
lua debug: Trying Lua playlist script C:\Program Files (x86)\VideoLAN\VLC\lua\meta\art\00_musicbrainz.luac
lua debug: skipping script (unmatched scope) C:\Program Files (x86)\VideoLAN\VLC\lua\meta\art\00_musicbrainz.luac
lua debug: Trying Lua playlist script C:\Program Files (x86)\VideoLAN\VLC\lua\meta\art\01_googleimage.luac
lua debug: skipping script (unmatched scope) C:\Program Files (x86)\VideoLAN\VLC\lua\meta\art\01_googleimage.luac
lua debug: Trying Lua playlist script C:\Program Files (x86)\VideoLAN\VLC\lua\meta\art\02_frenchtv.luac
lua debug: skipping script (unmatched scope) C:\Program Files (x86)\VideoLAN\VLC\lua\meta\art\02_frenchtv.luac
lua debug: Trying Lua playlist script C:\Program Files (x86)\VideoLAN\VLC\lua\meta\art\03_lastfm.luac
lua debug: skipping script (unmatched scope) C:\Program Files (x86)\VideoLAN\VLC\lua\meta\art\03_lastfm.luac
main debug: no art finder modules matched
main debug: looking for meta fetcher module matching "any": 1 candidates
lua debug: Trying Lua scripts in C:\Users\Kurt\AppData\Roaming\vlc\lua\meta\fetcher
lua debug: Trying Lua scripts in C:\Program Files (x86)\VideoLAN\VLC\lua\meta\fetcher
main debug: no meta fetcher modules matched
main debug: looking for art finder module matching "any": 2 candidates
lua debug: Trying Lua scripts in C:\Users\Kurt\AppData\Roaming\vlc\lua\meta\art
lua debug: Trying Lua scripts in C:\Program Files (x86)\VideoLAN\VLC\lua\meta\art
lua debug: Trying Lua playlist script C:\Program Files (x86)\VideoLAN\VLC\lua\meta\art\00_musicbrainz.luac
lua debug: Trying Lua playlist script C:\Program Files (x86)\VideoLAN\VLC\lua\meta\art\01_googleimage.luac
lua debug: Trying Lua playlist script C:\Program Files (x86)\VideoLAN\VLC\lua\meta\art\02_frenchtv.luac
lua debug: Trying Lua playlist script C:\Program Files (x86)\VideoLAN\VLC\lua\meta\art\03_lastfm.luac
main debug: no art finder modules matched

EDIT: I can tell you that I don't have the directory C:\Users\Kurt\AppData\Roaming\vlc\lua\meta\art - or C:\Users\Kurt\AppData\Roaming\vlc\lua\meta\fetcher
I also do not have the directory C:\Program Files (x86)\VideoLAN\VLC\lua\meta\fetcher. I do have the others...

Please post the full log, from the very beginning to the very end, and also a sample file, as requested.
Which VLC version are you using ?

https://pastebin.com/zQSup7UZ
https://we.tl/t-ifvTyilgJj
3.0.8 - see subject

Your sample is not a valid file which can be played. Please cut the beginning of the file.

https://we.tl/t-Yd1A7ekAUv

Your sample is not a valid file which can be played. Please cut the beginning of the file.

Does the latest file play?

Lotesdelere - do you have everything you need?

FYI: This crashes for me (3.0.8 64-bit Windows 10) with Hardware Decoding (DX11C). Disabling Hardware Decoding (FFMpeg) allows it to play (although my computer can't keep up).

I'm stuck, here. What should I be doing? I provided a FULL log, and a video clip. Doesn't seem appropriate that PotPlayer works and VLC does not.

i just would like to add my stone, because i solved this problem yesterday on my computer.

VLC was behaving strangely including not displaying x265 (black screen) not displaying subtitles in MKV... whatever i did was ineffective, for instance changing the hardware acceleration etc.

i simply reset the preferences, reloaded VLC, and everything went fine again. Apparently the preferences file had been broken, but not reported on start up.

You might want to try the same thing. If it doesn't work for you it is not a time consuming trial.

regards

Marc

Your GPU cannot decode 10 bits HEVC, so it's decoded in software. But in software your computer is too slow to decode so playback is not smooth and many frames are dropped.

i just would like to add my stone, because i solved this problem yesterday on my computer.

VLC was behaving strangely including not displaying x265 (black screen) not displaying subtitles in MKV... whatever i did was ineffective, for instance changing the hardware acceleration etc.

i simply reset the preferences, reloaded VLC, and everything went fine again. Apparently the preferences file had been broken, but not reported on start up.

You might want to try the same thing. If it doesn't work for you it is not a time consuming trial.

regards

Marc

Thank you Marc - I uninstalled VLC and reinstalled. Solved problem. I've been updating VLC for 10 years now, and obviously the .ini or preferences file was corrupted.

i still have the problem saying my input cant be opened...