This problem goes beyond video, it is a general sync problem of some sort.
In short, VLC keeps thinking playback is drifting behind and will drop buffers or skip ahead.
This happens with both video and audio files alike, regardless of any obvious factors such as CPU usage or stream/file formats. Something is completely erroneous about the apparent real-time syncing VLC is relying on.
[original post]
Though it varies wildly, after perhaps 20 seconds a large amount of frame dropping will occurr. [EDIT: this is not a one-time occurrence, it will consistently dump frames at regular intervals]
Disabling late frame dropping doesn't help, it just causes the video to suddenly speed up when trying to re-sync, nor does it matter what the video format is, if it has an audio track or not, how fast the playback frame rate is, or the CPU usage.
Here are some of the things i've tried, with no change in behavior:
- disabling audio
using the dummy audio output
using the windows GDI video output
using the dummy video output
enabling 'minimize number of threads'
enabling 'increase the priority ...'
defaulting the config
installing different versions of VLC
The only major change my system went through that appears to coincide with this problem is the installation of a CardDeluxe audio card and the re-installation of my video drivers (latest version).
To me it appears VLC is getting erroneous real-time sync info, causing it to think playback is late when it's obviously not the case.
If VLC uses the video hardware to determine playback sync, perhaps my video driver is to blame?
No other video players have been affected by this, just VLC.
Any advice?
The following message log was for a 8 FPS, uncompressed video file with no audio. The dummy video output was used. CPU usage was low (1-5%).
Code: Select all
main debug: selecting program id=0
avi debug: stream[0] created 1492 index entries
avi debug: stream[0] length:298 (based on index)
main debug: using demux2 module "avi"
main debug: looking for a subtitle file in C:\video\
main debug: looking for decoder module: 27 candidates
main debug: using decoder module "rawvideo"
main debug: thread 3948 (decoder) created at priority 0 (input/decoder.c:159)
main debug: meta information:
main debug: - 'Setting' = ' HAS_INDEX IS_INTERLEAVED'
main debug: `C:\video\vlc_test.avi' successfully opened
avi debug: old:0 < new 0
main debug: no usable vout present, spawning one
main debug: Registering subpicture channel, ID: 2
main debug: Registering subpicture channel, ID: 3
main debug: Registering subpicture channel, ID: 4
main debug: Registering subpicture channel, ID: 5
main debug: window size: 320x240
main debug: looking for video output module: 5 candidates
main debug: using video output module "dummy"
main debug: got 8 direct buffer(s)
main debug: picture in 320x240 (0,0,320x240), chroma RV24, ar 4:3, sar 1:1
main debug: picture user 320x240 (0,0,320x240), chroma RV24, ar 4:3, sar 1:1
main debug: picture out 320x240 (0,0,320x240), chroma RV24, ar 4:3, sar 1:1
main debug: direct render, mapping render pictures 0-6 to system pictures 1-7
main debug: waiting for thread completion
main debug: thread 4040 (video output) created at priority 1 (video_output/video_output.c:421)
main warning: late picture skipped (18196)
main warning: late picture skipped (4470882)
main warning: late picture skipped (4306114)
main warning: late picture skipped (4116032)
main warning: late picture skipped (3933175)
main warning: late picture skipped (3737582)
main warning: late picture skipped (3538343)
main warning: late picture skipped (3339020)
main warning: late picture skipped (3139678)
main warning: late picture skipped (2940553)
main warning: late picture skipped (2741285)
main warning: late picture skipped (2561002)
main warning: late picture skipped (2361914)
main warning: late picture skipped (2162606)
main warning: late picture skipped (1963267)
main warning: late picture skipped (1763939)
main warning: late picture skipped (1581086)
main warning: late picture skipped (1381944)
main warning: late picture skipped (1182631)
main warning: late picture skipped (983287)
main warning: late picture skipped (783956)
main warning: late picture skipped (584608)
main warning: late picture skipped (385274)
main warning: late picture skipped (201093)
main warning: late picture skipped (1993)
main warning: late picture skipped (4531385)
main warning: late picture skipped (4412087)
main warning: late picture skipped (4224739)
- motherboard/cpu: ASUS K7M, AMD Athlon 600MHz
RAM: 384MB
video hardware: NVIDIA GeForce4 MX 4000
audio hardware: D.A.L. CardDeluxe