Problem with DVD playing

[saganth]

When I use VLC media player to play commercial movie DVDs, very often I have the following problem: the play will reach a certain point, just as there is about to be a scene change. All of a sudden the picture freezes but the audio continues for a second, then the audio stops and then the play jumps the start of the next scene, playing normally after that. And (here's the really weird part) it always does this at the exact same point in the movie every time I try to watch it. For example, when I am watching Marvel's Ant-Man, and it gets to the scene change at 44 minutes and 30-ish seconds, this malfunction happens, and it ALWAYS happens at that point in the movie when I play the DVD. So it means whatever bit of dialogue is said or whatever action happens on screen when the error strikes I do not get to hear/see.

Anyone got an idea how to fix this? I am using a brand new ASUS Notebook PC running Windows 10. I cannot find any software that will also play DVDS (the programs from the Microsoft Store won't play them). I had the exact same problem, however, playing DVDs on my previous laptop - and old Toshiba running OS 7.

Also, for clarification, my old laptop did have a dvd playing program, and this error NEVER happened when I used it, it was always only when using VLC.

[jayR]

Does this happen with other DVDs?
It could be DVD problem. Your DVD may be damaged.

[saganth]

It does indeed have the same problem with other DVDs. Not every DVD, but many, and it's always at a scene transition, as I described.

[kmf31]

I have the strong impression that this is the classic small glitch/delay when you switch from the 1st to 2nd layer on the DVD (of a commercial DVD which is typically double layer). This type of small problem appears also at certain consumer DVD players (at least the older models) and is a pure mechanical delay to change of the layer. I have noticed it already 15 years ago on typical DVD players of the time. See also here:
http://www.dvddemystified.com/dvdfaq.html#1.18
in particular:

When the laser pickup head reaches the end of the first layer it changes focus to the second layer and starts moving back toward the center of the disc. The layer change can occur anywhere in the video; it doesn't have to be at a chapter point. There's no guarantee that the switch between layers will be seamless. The layer change is invisible on some players, but it can cause the video to freeze for a fraction of a second or as long as 4 seconds on other players. The "seamlessness" depends as much on the way the disc is prepared as on the design of the player. The advantage of two layers is that long movies can use higher data rates for better quality than with a single layer.

Apparently it also depends on the design of the disc if for example the change of layer only requires to refocuse the lens or if in addition one has to move the head from the outside to the inside or similar.

Apart from this a different program other than vlc may have a work around such as a better disc caching by default.


By the way you could try to increase in vlc the disc-caching value to 1000 or even more milli-seconds (either in the preferences => input/codecs or with the command line parameter "--disc-caching=1000"). However, such an increase of disc-caching may also produce a longer delay when changing audio/subtitle tracks or jumping elsewhere on the dvd etc.

[saganth]

Thanks kmf31... Can you be more specific about how to increase the cache? I do not see a clear option for it in Input/Codecs....nor do I know where to find any "command line parameter.

[kmf31]

You have to select "all settings" (instead of only "simple settings") in the preferences and to look in "Input/Codecs" quite below where there is a box "Advanced" containing different caching entries among them you find: "Disc caching (ms)" with a default value of 300. Here you can increase this value, save the settings and then restart vlc afterwards !

In any case the preference page of "Input/Codecs" is very large with many settings (once you have activated "all settings") and you have to scroll down to find the caching values.

---------------
The command line parameter is simply used directly when you start vlc from command line:

vlc --disc-caching=2000

(eventually with other vlc options behind this). I am not sure how exactly to start vlc in commandline if you are in Windows (you would need a kind of shell, an ancient "dos" window where you can type command lines or something like this, or create a small bat-script which you might start by clicking on its icon ...).

--------------
Other method when you start dvds from the menu: Media => open disc. Here select the box "more options" and you also see a box called "caching" which allows to change the disc-caching for once (i.e. you have to do it again the next time if you do not modify the general preferences).

[FAWTS]

Hello,

I have a kind of the same problem. With a recent DVD (2016) with VLC on Windows (10 64bit) and Linux (Ubuntu 16.04 64 bit). After few minutes, it stops playing as if the movie was finished (even if it sees all the chapters and I can move into the movie, it will stop few minutes later). I made an ISO copy, same problem when I read it. Anf if I RIP it, it stops as well.

But it works fine with Power DVD. It looks like a new kind of protection.

The DVD is new, I bought it last week. It's Let us Prey FYI.

If you have any idea of what I can do to find the root cause and then fix it!

P.S. The disk cache modification doesn't change anything.

[cgas]

I'm running into a problem similar to FAWTS. On certain DVDs, the playback stops midway. One to reference is The Ren & Stimpy Show Disc 1. On the season 1 DVD, there is a "Ren & Stimpy: In The Beginning" featurette that plays fine in my Oppo BD player. The playback stops at the 4:12 mark in the featurette and I get this message output:

Code: Select all

core error: ES_OUT_SET_(GROUP_)PCR is called too late (pts_delay increased to 100 ms) core error: ES_OUT_RESET_PCR called

I have the same problem at the same time with Xine, it gives this output.

Code: Select all

(Error reading NAV packet.)

This makes me think it's an issue with libdvdcss since it's the common link between the two, based on the xine output.

[jayR]

This problem can happen if you have acutely bad DVDs and acutely bad DVD drive. In the past, my Vaio laptop had trouble with some of DVDs although they were brand new. I returned such DVDs to the shop. But later I rebought them and played on new Toshiba laptop. New laptop plays them without any problem. That means my Vaio DVD drive was faulty.

So your DVD disks are not in perfect print and your DVD drive also not perfect. That's why you are getting this problem.

[FAWTS]

I made the test on another computer, same problem. It stop always at 7 minutes 20 seconds (at the first time). But no issue with Power DVD. It is definitly not a DVD or DVD drive issue.

Here VLC logs :

[0000000001dbf6a8] core audio output warning: playback way too early (-126828): playing silence
[0000000001dbf6a8] core audio output warning: playback way too early (-224022): playing silence
[0000000001dbf6a8] core audio output warning: playback way too early (-128004): playing silence
libdvdnav: demux error! 00 00 00 (should be 0x000001)
[00007f8ef8017748] dvdnav demux warning: cannot get next block (Expected NAV packet but none found.)
[00007f8ed0001268] core vout display warning: VoutDisplayEvent 'pictures invalid'
[00007f8ed0001268] core vout display warning: VoutDisplayEvent 'pictures invalid'
[00007f8ef80069f8] avcodec decoder: Using NVIDIA VDPAU Driver Shared Library 361.42 Tue Mar 22 17:29:16 PDT 2016 for hardware decoding.
[00007f8ed0001268] core vout display warning: VoutDisplayEvent 'pictures invalid'
[00007f8ed0001268] core vout display warning: VoutDisplayEvent 'pictures invalid'

And VLC goes back to DVD menu as if it was the end of the movie.

[Rémi Denis-Courmont]

Looks like an issue with your version of libdvdnav. Possibly deliberate error in the DVD disk.

Make sure you have the latest libdvdnav.

[FAWTS]

I reinstalled it, same issue.

libdvdnav4 is already the newest version (5.0.3-1).

[Jean-Baptiste Kempf]

Then, we need the disk or the ISO.

[cgas]

Using the latest versions of libdvdcss and libdvdnav resolved my issue, for what it's worth. I hope this helps future searchers with the same problem.

[NoCap]

This problem still happens on the newer versions of VLC media player. DVD's that caused this problem were: "A Bugs Life", "The Incredible's" and "Mater's Tall Tales". THE WAY I FIXED THIS WAS opening "file explorer" and clicked on the "VIDEO_TS" folder and playing THE FIRST "VIDEO_TS" file using VLC. Hopefully that helps.
Peace out.
P.S for mac users just open up the DVD's file in your version of file explorer or just right click on the DVD and just open it.

[Didicau]

Hi, i have buy I bought an external dvd/cd player on Amazon (External CD/DVD Player, Cocopa USB 3.0 Burner Recorder Portable RW/ROM Slim Fast Transmission Integrated USB Cable Windows/Mac OS Apple/iMac/Macbook/Laptop/Desktops/PC Black )
I tried to pass my cache to 1000ms no change and start the dvd by file>dvd rw player>video ts and choose the first file but it doesn't change anything still the same freeze image and sound... help me please (dvd is cars 2)