0.9.8a crashes with H264

[sgrizzi]

I have been using VLC 0.8.6d to stream video/audio over my home wireless lan (also to my Nokia N95 8GB).
As input streams, I used both mpeg video clips as well as live video from a Pinnacle PCTV card, streaming via http, video using H264 @250Kbps and audio with mp3 @64Kbps.
All works great.
I recently decided to move to VLC 0.9.8a and, using the same configuration as before, VLC crashes badly.
Apparently the problem is with the H264 encoder. If I use Mpeg2 encoding it works fine. DIVx also works though the quality is very poor.
can anybody give me a suggestion on how to get H264 to work also with 9.8a?
Thanks

[sgrizzi]

Dear al, I tried to gather some more details on the problem I encounter.
First of all, when trying to stream with H264 VLC 0.9.8a aborts completely.
I get a Windows error saying:
"VLC media player has encountered a problem and needs to close.
We are sorry for the inconvenience."
And then the following error signature:
"AppName: vlc.exe AppVer: 0.9.8.1 ModName: libx264_plugin.dll
ModVer: 0.0.0.0 Offset: 000b0518"

The following parameters look irrelevant:
File input or capture card
local reproduction y/n
streaming protocol or address
audio encoding (enabled/disabled/any format)

Is it of any help to try and identify/solve the problem?
Thanks a lot.
GR

[aliamiri]

I have the same problem, and I seriously need to encode H264 using VLC. I hope someone can solve this problem.
Best,

[sgrizzi]

Reading a few of the posts in the forum, I have come to the conclusion that H264 encoder does not work in version 0.9, while it does work in 0.8.6d. I would just continue to use the latter.
Regards, GR

[cable007]

hello

same here, crash in trying to stream with capture card
impossible to use these 0.9 builds to encode in h264
0.8.6 is last good build

and no comments from vlc staff
would be cool to tell us where are you about this problem

regards

Niko

[Rémi Denis-Courmont]

Comments from the "VLC staff" is: Patch welcome.

[cable007]

"patch" from x264 project ? or you are talking about other things ?
hope to see "patch" very soon because right now it's a big problem for some of us

regards

Niko

[Rémi Denis-Courmont]

Patch from whoever cares for whichever of VLC, x264 and/or pthread-win32 is responsible for the crash.

[bates.wm]

I am no developer, so I don't know what I can contribute to the resolution of this issue, though I'd be glad to post any supporting data. I too have this issue with some machines, but not others. I have had 0.9.8a crash with a WindowsXP SP3 setup running on a P4 desktop. When performing the exact same task, taking the exact same steps to do it on a laptop (Dell D620 running WinXP SP3), I have no issues at all. Works great. I am willing to test and step back to 0.8.6d or another earlier version that doesn't have the same issue, but there are definitely some features in the later versions I was hoping to take advantage of.

If anyone has found a resolution, I'd be greatly appreciative if you could post it here. Otherwise, if someone with more experiencing debugging such issues would like me to post more output/debug info, please let me know what would help and I'll gladly post it.

Thanks.

[Jean-Baptiste Kempf]

This is fixed in 0.9.9 and 1.0.0, try the test versions.

[mflopez]

.
This script: (H.264 from x264)

vlc.exe C:\manu\streams\avi\2.avi --one-instance --playlist-enqueue -L --sout-keep --sout-transcode-hurry-up --ffmpeg-hurry-up --sout-ffmpeg-hurry-up --high-priority --sout-transcode-high-priority --sout-transcode-threads=2 --sout-deinterlace-mode=linear --sout-transcode-deinterlace --no-sout-ts-alignment --no-sout-ts-crypt-audio --no-sout-ts-crypt-video --sout=#transcode{vcodec=h264,venc=x264{level=1.1,qpmin=10,qpmax=51,qpstep=4,ratetol=1,vbv-bufsize=7894,qcomp=1,partitions=slow,direct=auto,direct-8x8=-1,merange=24,trellis=2,nr=20,me=umh,subme=4},vb=220,scale=0.5,acodec=mp4a,ab=16,channels=1,audio-sync}:duplicate{dst=std{access=http,mux=ts,dst=localhost:6677}}


Works with
0.8.6i in every PC Ive tested.

0.8.6i, 0.9.8a in Windows XP Media Center Edition (my laptop Intel T2300 @ 1.66 GHz)
in Windows Vista Intel Quad Core


Crashes with
1.0.0-pre1-20090405-2334 in every PC Ive tested
.

[grass]

I'm just curious if anyone tried to stream a .TS file without transcoding. Just take the ready made TS with h.264 and aac and stream it using VLC to whatever receiver (VLC sounds good too). Does that work?