The VideoLAN Forums

Hello,

I've a serious problem with many videos (e-learning videos downloaded from official site).
Under Windows 8.1 + VLC 3.0.8 just installed, I've no sound (detected codec: mp4a).
Same problem with portable VLC 3.0.7.
No problem with other videos.

Sample (2.8MB):
-------------------
https://www.cjoint.com/doc/19_09/IIswAzyXuRP_VLC-308-no-sound.mp4

Could you please try to play this video in VLC and tell me if you get sound ?
(All is OK in Firefox, I get sound !)

I've no problem to play it with MS-Player, GOM player, MPC-HC player : sound is OK.

What could be the problem ?
What settings should I change ?

I've been using VLC for years, it's my favorite player, I'm quite disappointed by this problem.

Thanks.

Steve

Hi,

Problem: bad faad AAC decoding; see the cmd log with this command line:

vlc.exe --no-repeat --no-loop -I rc -vv --no-lua "G:\Try\IIswAzyXuRP_VLC-308-no-sound.mp4"

Ed.

Hi,

How can I redirect debug log to a file ?
I tried
vlc.exe.... >"debug_log.txt"
but the file is empty.

Thanks.

Steve.

Did you manage to get sound in your PC with the sample video file ?

Hi,

vlc.exe --no-repeat --no-loop -vv --no-lua --file-logging --logfile="G:\Try\VlcLog.txt" --logmode=text "G:\Try\IIswAzyXuRP_VLC-308-no-sound.mp4"

I prefer the cmd log; to save, you click (left mouse button) on the first character, you hold Shift and you click (left mouse button) on the last character; you press Ctrl+Ins, and Shift+Ins in Notepad or other.

"Did you manage to get sound in your PC with the sample video file?" No. For me, your audio encoding is strange!

Ed.

Here is the log:
https://www.cjoint.com/doc/19_09/IItqFdPZwlZ_VlcLog.zip

NB: I've deleted many lines
"faad warning: Bitstream value not allowed by specification", replaced with "..."
to shorten the log.

Message window in VLC run from desktop:
With command line, the log is too large to fit in the log window so the 1st lines vanishes.
I tried to enlarge the buffer of the log window but with no success.

This strange audio encoding is unexpected from a big e-learning web site.
I can't tell them "hey, your audio encoding sucks !" because I can get the sound with other players (ex.:MS player).

Thanks for your help.

Steve

FYI, I've tested the sample video with 7 players and can get the sound without any problem:

- MS Media Player (included in W8.1)
- Xbox Video (included in W8.1)
- SM Player
- DivX Player
- GOM Player
- KM Player
- PotPlayer

I hope we're going to find a solution.
I would be sad to end a long love story with VLC.
It's just perhaps 1 or 2 parameters to set but they are so numerous !


DivX Player infos (if it can help)
================
General
Complete name : C:\VLC_test\VLC_308_no_sound.mp4
Format : MPEG-4
Format profile : Base Media
Codec ID : isom (isom/iso2/avc1/mp41)
File size : 2.85 MiB
Duration : 12 s 523 ms
Overall bit rate : 1 908 kb/s
Writing application : Lavf57.25.100

Video
ID : 1
Format : AVC
Format/Info : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile : Main@L4
Format settings, CABAC : Yes
Format settings, RefFram : 1 frame
Codec ID : avc1
Codec ID/Info : Advanced Video Coding
Duration : 12 s 520 ms
Bit rate : 1 590 kb/s
Width : 1 920 pixels
Height : 1 080 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 16:9
Frame rate mode : Constant
Frame rate : 25.000 FPS
Color space : YUV
Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0
Bit depth : 8 bits
Scan type : Progressive
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.031
Stream size : 2.37 MiB (83%)

Audio
ID : 2
Format : AAC
Format/Info : Advanced Audio Codec
Format profile : LC
Codec ID : 40
Duration : 12 s 523 ms
Bit rate mode : Constant
Bit rate : 310 kb/s
Channel(s) : 2 channels
Channel positions : Front: L R
Sampling rate : 48.0 kHz
Frame rate : 46.875 FPS (1024 SPF)
Compression mode : Lossy
Stream size : 474 KiB (16%)
Language : unk
Default : Yes
Alternate group : 1

Those files have invalid data.
They set some reserved bits.
It only plays on other players because of different error fallback in the decoder. (whole frame in faad)

Hi,

So, is it possible to set VLC to behave like other players and ignore these errors ? How ?

I can contact the e-learning web site to tell them their videos "have invalid data" but I need precise info.
Could you give me significant lines of the log ?

But I guess they're going to say: "Use other players !".

Thanks.

Steve.

Eurêka, I found a solution !

From VLC UI:

Tools/Preferences/Show settings: All/Input.Codecs/Video codecs/Preferred decoders list: avcodec

=> forces VLC to use "avcodec" instead of "faad" that, for dark reasons, fails in decoding audio stream of these videos.

(inspired from this quite old post https://forum.videolan.org/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=117272)

I have to test if I have no regression with other videos.

Steve.

Hi,

You confirm: VLC is produced by propellerheads for propellerheads!

You could change your name for bug_hunter or bug_buster!

You can create a specific VLC for your e-learning; example:
vlc.exe --no-repeat --no-loop --no-ignore-config --config=G:\Try\vlcrc-swscale10 "D:\..."

Don't forget to update your configuration file with a new release of VLC.

Ed.

Hi,

I've tested many different videos (MP4, MKV, MOV, MP3...) : no regression with avcodec !

Any idea why faad has been choosen as default decoder ?
Is it better than avcodec in some cases ?

Steve.

I'm having the same problem, but on MacOS (10.14.6).

The audio from sample file provided on first post plays well on Firefox, Finder preview and Quicktime, but no sound on VLC.

I tried the avcodec solution, but without success.

(Just to be sure: VLC Preferences > Show All > Inputs/Codecs > Video Codecs > Preferd decoders list > typed "avcodec" (without quotes) and clicked save.
Tried to play file, no sound. Closed and re-opened VLC, tried again and no sound, but "avcodec" keeps there.)

Should I use other codec to solve this for being on mac?
If yes, what?

Thanks!

Hi,

I've tested many different videos (MP4, MKV, MOV, MP3...) : no regression with avcodec !

Any idea why faad has been choosen as default decoder ?
Is it better than avcodec in some cases ?

Steve.

Sorry to revive this old thread. The behavior described here still seems to be present in the current VLC version.
Please let me kindly ask you for an explanation.

Thank you very much and kind regards.
DAC324

Hi,

I've tested many different videos (MP4, MKV, MOV, MP3...) : no regression with avcodec !

Any idea why faad has been choosen as default decoder ?
Is it better than avcodec in some cases ?

Steve.

Sorry to revive this old thread. The behavior described here still seems to be present in the current VLC version.
Please let me kindly ask you for an explanation.

Thank you very much and kind regards.
DAC324

With which VLC version?

Sorry to revive this old thread. The behavior described here still seems to be present in the current VLC version.
Please let me kindly ask you for an explanation.

Thank you very much and kind regards.
DAC324

With which VLC version?

To be honest, it is running on Linux. Maybe this is not a problem on Windows anymore but with the version described above, the behavior is still present on Linux.
I have found that thread here while searching for a solution, and the solution described here applies to the Linux version of VLC as well.
Apologies for any inconvenience.

Kind regards,
DAC324

Sorry to revive this old thread. The behavior described here still seems to be present in the current VLC version.
Please let me kindly ask you for an explanation.

Thank you very much and kind regards.
DAC324

With which VLC version?

To be honest, it is

Code: Select all

VLC media player 3.0.11 Vetinari (revision 3.0.11-0-gdc0c5ced72) VLC-Version 3.0.11 Vetinari (3.0.11-0-gdc0c5ced72)

running on Linux. Maybe this is not a problem on Windows anymore but with the version described above, the behavior is still present on Linux.
I have found that thread here while searching for a solution, and the solution described here applies to the Linux version of VLC as well.
Apologies for any inconvenience.

Kind regards,
DAC324

Not our problem. That's up to your distro packagers to update the faulty library.

You can workaround by removing the libfaad_plugin.so from your install