The VideoLAN Forums

I have been using VLC media player for about a year and there has been no problems with it until recently. I usually use VLC to play ogm, avi, and other various media formats. I am not computer savy but as of now I have run into quite of a problem. Yesterday I tried to open up an rmvb file and later did a quick search and found out that VLC does not support that type of file. I then opened up an avi and discovered it too would not play. Although the length of the movie is displayed at the bottom, there was no picture, nor audio. I then tried to open up the rmvb file on my laptop using vlc once again, this time however it was not intentional. I also then tried to open up the same avi from before on my notebook. Once again the time was displayed at the bottom, but there was no sound, or video. I gave up on it thinking the file was corrupted. I tried watching another movie that I had already previously watched, and found that it worked fine on my PC. However when I tried to play old movies that VLC previously played perfectly on my laptop, they had the same problem as the original avi file. The length of the movie was still displayed but there was no audio or sound. I tried countless ogm, avi, and mpg files with all the same results. I then uninstalled VLC and reinstalled, but that didn't work. I took the next step of deleteing other media players and then once again reinstalling VLC, to no avail. In summary my VLC player on my laptop no longer plays anything even though just a few days ago it worked just fine. I know that i'm giving a very vague description of my problem however it would be much appreciated if anyone could help me with this problem.

OK! A few hints to keep you from going threw this again.

VLC is a stand alone media player that uses its own libraries to decode media files. It does not use Direct Show nor does it install any DDLs or other helper files on your system. The additions to your registry are purely to support the file extensions so that you can double or right click within a menu and have the file call the player. So there is nothing special about the install. VLC will run on a system normally without the install version, the .zip or 7z file can be downloaded from VLC's website (IE no Installer).

In simple terms it is very unlikely that another program will interfere with VLC or that VLC will interfere with another program or player. I can site some very unusual circumstances but the all revolve around VLC's transcode functions and dshow codec packs. These are NOT recommended.

Now down to business. Erase the preferences directory. C:\Documents and Settings\Owner (this is you)\Application Data\VLC

Erase VLC, Application Data is a hidden directory so you will need to make it visible. Then reboot your machine and try VLC again.

Please remember that VLC does not support Real Media files. Though there shouldn't be problems like this in accidentally trying one.

OK! A few hints to keep you from going threw this again.

VLC is a stand alone media player that uses its own libraries to decode media files. It does not use Direct Show nor does it install any DDLs or other helper files on your system. The additions to your registry are purely to support the file extensions so that you can double or right click within a menu and have the file call the player. So there is nothing special about the install. VLC will run on a system normally without the install version, the .zip or 7z file can be downloaded from VLC's website (IE no Installer).

In simple terms it is very unlikely that another program will interfere with VLC or that VLC will interfere with another program or player. I can site some very unusual circumstances but the all revolve around VLC's transcode functions and dshow codec packs. These are NOT recommended.

Now down to business. Erase the preferences directory. C:\Documents and Settings\Owner (this is you)\Application Data\VLC

Erase VLC, Application Data is a hidden directory so you will need to make it visible. Then reboot your machine and try VLC again.

Please remember that VLC does not support Real Media files. Though there shouldn't be problems like this in accidentally trying one.

I have the exact same issue, though it didn't begin after trying to open an illegitimate file. I've reinstalled VLC to no avail, and upon examining the folder you suggested, I've discovered that the folder does not exist in that directory.

I browsed the forums a bit and found a suggestion that said I had to reset the preferences to default. I've done this, and the directory now exists, but I still can't fully open files (it wont play them, it just show's the minimal part of the interface and it does not play. There is no error message). Do I need to delete the directory now that VLC has just now created?

What Windows operating system are you using?
What is your CPU & GPU?

VLC creates this directory the first time it is opened. If you erase it VLC will create it again the next time it is opened.

If you are running Windows 9x - Me stores it in a different place, but then you shouldn't be finding it where I described it.

Considering you appear to be a new user, the problem here is probably very different.

Please describe in your own words what is happening. The file type(s) that you are having problem with and the formats in the container (file type is the container). Format info... can be found by pressing ctrl i and going to the Advanced Information tab while playing a media file.

If nothing shows up in this window you will need to post Messages instead. Press stop and open Messages, press clear at the bottom and then press play in VLC. Post this instead.

If you have sound and no video or video and no sound please say so as all of these things are helpful to us in providing suggestions.

What Windows operating system are you using?
What is your CPU & GPU?

VLC creates this directory the first time it is opened. If you erase it VLC will create it again the next time it is opened.

If you are running Windows 9x - Me stores it in a different place, but then you shouldn't be finding it where I described it.

Considering you appear to be a new user, the problem here is probably very different.

Please describe in your own words what is happening. The file type(s) that you are having problem with and the formats in the container (file type is the container). Format info... can be found by pressing ctrl i and going to the Advanced Information tab while playing a media file.

If nothing shows up in this window you will need to post Messages instead. Press stop and open Messages, press clear at the bottom and then press play in VLC. Post this instead.

If you have sound and no video or video and no sound please say so as all of these things are helpful to us in providing suggestions.

Not new to VLC, but new to this board yes.

Abridged system specs:
Windows XP
Geforce XFX 7800
AMD 3700+

I have no video, sound, or any kind of playback at all when running VLC with any filetype or any including Avi, Mpeg, Mkv, ogm, or any file that I have tried to play. The player opens the file without an error message, but reguardless of the file I attempt to play, there is no playback whatsoever. The window does not even resize from the "minimized" screen size. I know it is loading the appropriate file because it does actually give the correct duration of the file (listed in the lower lefthand corner) but after pressing the play button (or after the initial "play" that occurs after loading a file - please don't think I'm simply accidentally pausing it) nothing happens. I did note that if I press stop after it has began "playing" (note: the progress meter remains at 0:00) for a brief second the window resizes as if it were trying to play back an image, but it vanishes immediatly.

It cannot be a hardware issue, as I have used these drivers and this hardware before with VLC and had no trouble. There must be a software conflict, because I've made no other changes to my PC, save for installing a large host of programs (games, mostly). I had thought that reinstalling VLC would fix any problem that this might have caused, but as I mentioned earlier, reinstalling VLC has had no effect. There were no programs running when I encountered this problem. Also, The files I tested VLC with work on any other media player without trouble.

1. Erase the preferences directory. C:\Documents and Settings\Owner (this is you)\Application Data\VLC Erase VLC. You can also erase the dvdcss directory in Application Data if you have watched lots of DVDs.

Application Data is a hidden directory so you will need to make it visible.
Then reboot your machine and try VLC again.

2. Some games store information by changing settings on your video card. Reset your video card to its defaults for Color, Direct3D, OpenGL and Overlay.

Hope this does the trick for you!

Just as a personal testimony, VLC can do unintended things to your system. E.g. when I tried to play a dvd, the sound output system got fragged and would not work for VLC or any other application afterwards. Any audio program (like winamp, games etc) would play a 1 second buffer and then stop. A reboot fixed this fortunately, and afterwards the dvd played ok... for the first 49 minutes, then unexplainedly stopped as if the dvd was over. It won't play anything past that 49 minute mark but I suspect that's a problem with dvd encryption or something unrelated. So don't make any assumptions about programs not interfering with each other, I guess that's what I'm saying. Incidentally, if anyone knows about this dvd stop issue please email dfpercush@mindspring.com. I'm searching these forums for a solution. Thank you.

-DFP

If a file or DVD is damaged, quite often there will be a some warning like blockish picture and or odd sounds and the player in use will stop as though it has reached the end of the file (EOF). It is also quite possible that some players will play through this and or the DVD or drive needs cleaning. Kids like peanut butter but DVDs and drives don't.

OK! A few hints to keep you from going threw this again.

VLC is a stand alone media player that uses its own libraries to decode media files. It does not use Direct Show nor does it install any DDLs or other helper files on your system. The additions to your registry are purely to support the file extensions so that you can double or right click within a menu and have the file call the player. So there is nothing special about the install. VLC will run on a system normally without the install version, the .zip or 7z file can be downloaded from VLC's website (IE no Installer).

In simple terms it is very unlikely that another program will interfere with VLC or that VLC will interfere with another program or player. I can site some very unusual circumstances but the all revolve around VLC's transcode functions and dshow codec packs. These are NOT recommended.

Now down to business. Erase the preferences directory. C:\Documents and Settings\Owner (this is you)\Application Data\VLC

Erase VLC, Application Data is a hidden directory so you will need to make it visible. Then reboot your machine and try VLC again.

Please remember that VLC does not support Real Media files. Though there shouldn't be problems like this in accidentally trying one.

if you have a compac computer there should be a system restore option as you turn on your computer.. use it and it will create another profile of you but you can access the old --please stay polite-- through your harddrive like as in C:/ then go to documents and settings then choose your old user name.

**RECOMMENDED**
but if you don't have that option than if you have a newer windows you should have a system restore option in . *click on these*
start/all programs/accessories/system tools/system restore
than restore it to a point before the vlc player stopped working

or you could reformat....

What Windows operating system are you using?
What is your CPU & GPU?

VLC creates this directory the first time it is opened. If you erase it VLC will create it again the next time it is opened.

If you are running Windows 9x - Me stores it in a different place, but then you shouldn't be finding it where I described it.

Considering you appear to be a new user, the problem here is probably very different.

Please describe in your own words what is happening. The file type(s) that you are having problem with and the formats in the container (file type is the container). Format info... can be found by pressing ctrl i and going to the Advanced Information tab while playing a media file.

If nothing shows up in this window you will need to post Messages instead. Press stop and open Messages, press clear at the bottom and then press play in VLC. Post this instead.

If you have sound and no video or video and no sound please say so as all of these things are helpful to us in providing suggestions.

Not new to VLC, but new to this board yes.

Abridged system specs:
Windows XP
Geforce XFX 7800
AMD 3700+

I have no video, sound, or any kind of playback at all when running VLC with any filetype or any including Avi, Mpeg, Mkv, ogm, or any file that I have tried to play. The player opens the file without an error message, but reguardless of the file I attempt to play, there is no playback whatsoever. The window does not even resize from the "minimized" screen size. I know it is loading the appropriate file because it does actually give the correct duration of the file (listed in the lower lefthand corner) but after pressing the play button (or after the initial "play" that occurs after loading a file - please don't think I'm simply accidentally pausing it) nothing happens. I did note that if I press stop after it has began "playing" (note: the progress meter remains at 0:00) for a brief second the window resizes as if it were trying to play back an image, but it vanishes immediatly.

It cannot be a hardware issue, as I have used these drivers and this hardware before with VLC and had no trouble. There must be a software conflict, because I've made no other changes to my PC, save for installing a large host of programs (games, mostly). I had thought that reinstalling VLC would fix any problem that this might have caused, but as I mentioned earlier, reinstalling VLC has had no effect. There were no programs running when I encountered this problem. Also, The files I tested VLC with work on any other media player without trouble.

I think I got distracted by another user on this one! Sorry!

If you upgraded from say 0.8.2 to 0.8.5 it very well may be drivers. As the DirectX module was rebuilt in 0.8.4 to be more compatible with 9c. It was recommended by Microsoft to upgrade both audio and video drivers just after SP2 which is when you received DirectX 9c and the runtime is updated every few months with the latest release dated 6/06, available from Microsoft. Search DirectX runtime, it's the first or second on the list.

I am assuming you have tried deleting the VLC Preferences folder, so here are a couple more things to try.

1. Some games store information by changing settings on your video card so it would be smart to reset your video card to its defaults for Color, Direct3D, OpenGL and Overlay. Also while you are there be sure the "Clone" and "VMR" modes are off on your nVidia card.

2. Try shutting off the video acceleration inside VLC. Settings, Preferences, Video, untick the "Overlay video output" box and save. Now close VLC and restart. Then try to call a file, within VLC.

3. As a last resort, try opening VLC Settings, Preferences, Video, Output Modules and using the pull down to select "Windows GDI video output". Then save, restart VLC and try to call a file.

Numbers 2 & 3 point to your video cards drivers. But it still doesn't hurt to update DirectX.

If for some reason you are still having problems with audio try an audio only file and come back here and describe what it does or doesn't do!