The VideoLAN Forums

I'm doing all sorts of awesome stuff with VLC over here in this thread: viewtopic.php?f=4&t=60947&p=203460#p203460

However, I just upgraded my windows clients to VLC1.0.2 and my h264 real time encoding is not working as well. The video looks good, but the video will just freeze, then catch up later.

I've changed the following settings in vlc 1.0.2

1. Get into VLC
2. Click on Tools.
3. Click on Preferences
4. Bottom right of the screen click on "All" Under the show Settings Box.
5. Click on the + next to Input / Codecs
6. Click on the + next to Video Codecs
7. Click on x264
8. Change setting "B-Frames between I and P" from 3 to 0
9. Change setting "Number of reference frames" from 3 to 1
10. Change setting "Quality Based VBR" from 23 to 0
11. Change setting "Set QP" From -1 to 40
12. Change setting "How AQ distributes bits" from 2 to 1.
13. Change Setting "Strenght of AQ" from 1.00 to .50
14. Click Save

In the generated stream box, I paste this command:

:sout=#transcode{vcodec=h264,vb=160,height=250,width=300,fps=15,acodec=mp3,ab=96,channels=2,samplerate=44100,audio-sync,venc=x264{keyinit=15,vbv-maxrate=80k,vbv-bufsize=128k,qcomp=0.8,qpmin=10,qpmax=41}}:display

just to make sure things work and view the stream.

i set the verbosity level to 2 and see a lot of these messages:
It gets worse when lots of action is going on in the webcam. By worse, I mean the video will just freeze, but the audio will continue to sound fine.

does anyone have any suggestions?

Doing this with VLC 1.0.1 and things work flawlessly.

For got to include examples.

This was done today: http://radio.everydayjunglist.org/recor ... 7.2009.flv

You'll see what im talking about around the 20 minute mark or so.

Here is my friend using VLC 1.0.1

http://radio.everydayjunglist.org/recor ... 9.2009.flv

and his does not do any freezing.

sorry for the giant files.. but these are live shows we do.

Hi,

Could you try encoding with littlebit saner (imo) values and see if it makes a difference, for example: As now you define vbv-maxrate/buffsize something totally different what you tell you want the bitrate to be. Also playing with qcomp is not really good thing to do (told me by x264-dev, so he should know . Also why do you set QP if you want bitrate-limited encode?

I set those settings based on some settings i read on another forum. i don't have the information on this machine, but when i get home i'll post it.

did a quick test and the quality is better, but still some video studder.
Any idea?

Did you also reverted those preference-changes you made earlier?

Hi,
I have the same problem. When I try to stream or only view from some DirectShow devices, the video display correct for about 4 or 5 secondes. Then I receive the same errors. In VLC 0.9.9 and older there was no problem.

Here is the messages log:

stream_out_transcode debug: late picture skipped (86784)
stream_out_transcode debug: late picture skipped (20117)
stream_out_transcode debug: drift is too high, resetting master sync
main warning: late picture skipped (4636 > -2407)
stream_out_transcode debug: late picture skipped (234101)
stream_out_transcode debug: late picture skipped (167434)
stream_out_transcode debug: late picture skipped (101768)
stream_out_transcode debug: late picture skipped (35101)
stream_out_transcode debug: drift is too high, resetting master sync
main warning: late picture skipped (153449 > -2407)
stream_out_transcode debug: late picture skipped (153482)
stream_out_transcode debug: late picture skipped (87815)
stream_out_transcode debug: late picture skipped (21149)
stream_out_transcode debug: drift is too high, resetting master sync
main warning: late picture skipped (84433 > -2407)
stream_out_transcode debug: late picture skipped (120241)
stream_out_transcode debug: late picture skipped (54575)
stream_out_transcode debug: drift is too high, resetting master sync
main warning: late picture skipped (40481 > -2407)
stream_out_transcode debug: late picture skipped (147823)
stream_out_transcode debug: late picture skipped (81156)
stream_out_transcode debug: late picture skipped (15489)
stream_out_transcode debug: drift is too high, resetting master sync
stream_out_transcode debug: late picture skipped (93769)
stream_out_transcode debug: late picture skipped (28103)
stream_out_transcode debug: drift is too high, resetting master sync
stream_out_transcode debug: late picture skipped (108012)
stream_out_transcode debug: late picture skipped (41346)
stream_out_transcode debug: drift is too high, resetting master sync
stream_out_transcode debug: late picture skipped (146931)
stream_out_transcode debug: late picture skipped (81264)
stream_out_transcode debug: late picture skipped (14597)
stream_out_transcode debug: drift is too high, resetting master sync

Thanks in advance

Usually just too slow cpu/pc compared to encoding settings.

mmmh...it's an core 2 duo 2.26 ghz. with vlc 0.9.9 cpu usage is about 20%. i think there must be another problem.

Did you also reverted those preference-changes you made earlier?

I'm using this currently: :sout=#transcode{vcodec=h264,vb=160,height=250,width=300,fps=15,acodec=mp3,ab=96,channels=2,samplerate=44100,audio-sync,venc=x264{keyinit=15,vbv-maxrate=160,vbv-bufsize=160,qcomp=0.8,qpmin=10,qpmax=41}}:display

I know you said using the cqomp, qmcin and qpmax was bad.. but my video quality is waaaay better with it.

Do you have a wiki page I can read that details what each setting means and pros and cons?

I've had all my DJs switch back to vlc 1.0.1 and it looks great. I will post another example of vlc 1.0.1 later today. We are doing a live broadcast, and if you tune in this second (5pm CEN time 9/29/2009 you can see it in action.. we will be doing another live broadcast today around 10pm cen time.

here is the live link. http://www.everydayjunglist.org/edjtv.v2.html

mmmh...it's an core 2 duo 2.26 ghz. with vlc 0.9.9 cpu usage is about 20%. i think there must be another problem.

I'm using an amd x2 6400 w/ 4 gigs of ram. and my cpu time is less then that.. maybe 15%.. just like you, it'll play for 4 or 5 seconds.. hang. then about 10 seconds later catch up for a few seconds and hang.

Is there any extra debugging output I can give you guys other then verbrosity 2?

Is there any extra debugging output I can give you guys other then verbrosity 2?

You can run debug version in gdb, but it will be much slower.

Is there any extra debugging output I can give you guys other then verbrosity 2?

You can run debug version in gdb, but it will be much slower.

I'm more than happy to help out and test. Can you send me the link to it so I can do it?

Honestly the video itself on 1.0.2 looks really good other then the freezing thing. 1.0.1 looks good but stays stable. So i'd like to help out anyway I can.

http://wiki.videolan.org/Win32CompileCy ... ebugger.29
and you need debug builds.

i upgraded the webcam driver yesterday and now i can stream the video.

one strange problem appeared:

videostreaming is no problem when my laptop runs on battery. if i connect the powerplug, i can't receive any video (i use rtp). i compared the message log and there are only two differences:

main warning: clock gap, unexpected stream discontinuity
main warning: feeding synchro with a new reference point trying to recover from clock gap

http://wiki.videolan.org/Win32CompileCy ... ebugger.29
and you need debug builds.

k.. im all over it, will test with a nightly build when i get home today from work.

I haven't tested with the cygwin debugger yet..

but i did test with the lastest 1.0.3 branch and and the 1.1.0 trunk.

1.0.3 seemed a lot better, but while the video looks nice and smooth with some studder, the audio was droppping frames.

1.1.0 was better by 1.0.3 as there was almost no video studder, but there was some audio studder from time to time.

i upgraded the webcam driver yesterday and now i can stream the video.

one strange problem appeared:

videostreaming is no problem when my laptop runs on battery. if i connect the powerplug, i can't receive any video (i use rtp). i compared the message log and there are only two differences:

main warning: clock gap, unexpected stream discontinuity
main warning: feeding synchro with a new reference point trying to recover from clock gap

my first thought when I read this was, this is completely irrelevant, but then I realized that some laptops will slow down the cpu speed to increase battery life. Im guessing that when you plug your laptop into the powerplug the laptop speeds the cpu back up. It might be whats causing your above warning? Maybe rebooting your laptop while plugged into the wall and then starting vlc it might be fine?

It makes me wonder if the power saving drivers on my desktop are some how causing an issue with real time encoding.

It makes me wonder if the power saving drivers on my desktop are some how causing an issue with real time encoding.

VLC has known issue with AMD Cool and Quiet at least. VLC doesn't use enough CPU, so CPU frequency stays too low.

while testing different settings on 1.0.2, 1.0.3 and the 1.1.0 builds I noticed something strange.

I made sure everything was working fine in 1.0.1. No issues and things were great! But if loaded 1.0.2 did testing, closed 1.0.2 and went back into 1.0.1 i noticed 1.0.1 would exhibit the same studdering behavior in 1.0.2 until I rebooted my machine.

any idea?

Driver issues if vlc.exe is not running in task manager after you have closed it.

Driver issues if vlc.exe is not running in task manager after you have closed it.

OK.. Fair enough.

Here is what I'll do.

Uninstall 1.0.1 Reboot.
Install 1.0.2 Test

repeat the above steps for 1.0.3. and 1.1.0.

Sorry for the delay. I uninstalled and deleted my VLC 1.0.1 install, rebooted and then installed VLC 1.0.2. Once the install was done, did a 2nd reboot.

VLC 1.0.2 is still completely unusable for me. Uninstalling, rebooting, and installing vlc 1.0.1 with the same exact settings as 1.0.2 and it works flawlessly.

Will do the above steps again with beta 1.0.3 and 1.1.0. In a day or so.

tested with the latest vlc 1.0.3

Quality is terrible. Again, uninstalled vlc 1.0.1, deleted the folder rebooted.

Installed 1.0.3 and rebooted.

here are the logs.

hope this helps.

Quality is terrible.

Could you share some screenshots? And is there a reason why you want to change video aspect ratio?

Sure, when I stream it up to my website, my flash player displays at 250x300. This is not set in stone so I can adjust to your recommended settings.

I'll retest tomorrow with a short video.

And by terrible I mean, the picture looks good, but the video and audio will studder.

When I start to see these messages:
the audio either just stops, distorts very badly, and the picture will either freeze or distort.

We do live shows and our users will tolerate the freezing video or video distortion, but studdering audio, or audio distortion? they log right out.

We did a live show last night using vlc 1.0.1 for 5 non-stop hours. The audio is clear with no distortions, and video looks great. A little blury but thats the web cam we used. At one point we had 13 people streaming from us in the video stream. I'll provide the link if you want, but the file is roughtly 550megs in size.