The VideoLAN Forums

Downloaded vlc several times and have this same problem.
When I select a video from an external hard drive, vlc displays the video in an erratic (not smooth)
motion and still pictures appear (like a slide show) either pixelated or very distorted. There is
something I am not doing right...perhaps some kind soul can help me.

So if you copy the same file to local hard drive, and playback it from there, it works correctly?

No, when I copy to the local hard drive all I get is the VLC cone and the
progress bar runs erratic, not smooth, and all computer action seems to
slow down......Thank you for your concern.

If you open Tools -> Messages (set Verbosity to 2), what kind of messages you get?