The VideoLAN Forums

Hi, I was wondering why the smoothness of the movies I watch is better in PowerDVD than in VLC. I really like VLC and I use it in conjunction with programs I made, so I'd really like the same performance as PowerDVD in VLC. The movies aren't choppy or anything, it just lookes "better" on powerDVD. Any ideas?

Do you have the video output module within VLC set to DirectX? Here’s where you change it: Preferences > Video > Output modules (check the “Advanced options” box), choose “DirectX video output”, save and restart VLC.

And maybe turning the priority of VLC up might help: Preferences > Advanced, check the for “Increased the priority of the process”.

PowerDVD and WinDVD side step your Video Overlay function to do what they individually call enhancement. However it puts lots of weight on your CPU and to my eyes is nice in the demos and over saturated color in the files they play. I shut this off and use the overlay functions of my video card.

For the output modules, do you set it to DirectX or DirectX 3D?

DirectX is the better choice for picture quality. Remember to keep those DirectX drivers up-to-date though.

I'm using DirectX, In my opnion it just seems to look better with PowerDVD, I still don't want to use it though lol. I like VLC coz I can use it with my programs.

Yes, they use some filters to get everything better. But well, they only focus on DVDs...

So do VLC really... I know it supports loads of formats but I'm guessing most people will use it for DVDs.

So do VLC really... I know it supports loads of formats but I'm guessing most people will use it for DVDs.

Not sure about that statement! I think most people use VLC because of the wide variety of formats it supports and the confusion of codecs of other players namely Direct Show players. Those that have used codec packs will eventually discover that this is a good way to screw up Direct Show where VLC does not have this problem.

I do agree that VLC has fallen behind PowerDVD or WinDVD in quality and smoothness in playing DVDs and VLCs support of MPEG 1 or the VCD is so bad at this juncture that is is unusable (ref. 0.8.5, 0.8.6, a or b). However for most users video stability issues are dependent on your audio card as all digital video is follow audio for sync.

You could try shutting down "Skip frames" in Preferences, Video as this will generally help people with MPEG and newer video cards and CPUs.