The VideoLAN Forums

for some reason, with all media players, even VLC, when i try to open videos sometimes, the video loads perfectly and the audio is fine, BUT THE VIDEO IS SO MESSED UP!

it gets really dark, and the lighter parts of the video you can see, but theyre red. everything is really pixelated. if i turn the brightness up all the way, its extremely pixelated and the colors are distorted, and its really dark.

its only fixed after i restart my computer, and then it does it again after the computer has been on for a little while.

i have no idea what triggers this, if anything.

any ideas? thanks

I hear your frustration and I would be just as frustrated as well. Hang in there though. You might be able to fix it.

If this is happening with other media players then it sounds like your computer is having the trouble, and not the players which is unfortunate. Have you tried updating your drivers? That would be my first step and it may just fix it.

thanks for the help.

i'll definitely try that. i just don't understand why it'd do that though. im not experiencing any artifacting in games at all, so it doesn't really make sense. no distortion on my desktop or anything.

And may I also suggest changing the video output: Preferences > Video > Output modules (Check the “Advanced options” box). The dropdown box will appear and for each one that you choose, save and restart VLC media player.

Considering you play games. Try resetting the video card to its defaults for Color, Direct3D, OpenGL and Overlay using the video cards utilities. Do this before trying to play a video. Also try decreasing the video resolution and or color depth for you monitor may do the trick if you are light on video memory.

And may I also suggest changing the video output: Preferences > Video > Output modules (Check the “Advanced options” box). The dropdown box will appear and for each one that you choose, save and restart VLC media player.

which output would you suggest? on a side note, would you suggest a different sound output?

It really depends on you’re video card, and in actuality you can try any one of the video outputs and see which ones work for you. Some have had success when changing to the “Windows GDI video output” but this puts the load of decoding the video on the processor, and again, may not be the solution for you…try them all.

As for an audio output, that depends, are you having troubles the sound?