Please help an idiot

[Janaru]

First of all I'm an idiot about these things. I'm teachable, usually, but stupid, currently.

I've just started using VLC recently. I have downloaded the newest version. When I try to play MP3's and AVI files (the only ones I play on this program so far) it works fine for awhile, then begins to stutter for some reason.

I've gone into the preferences and reset, as suggested on the VLC site. This has helped in the past, but not currently. I've removed the program and re-downloaded three times. Which helps for awhile, but it starts to stutter again after a period of time. Sometimes, it will fix itself after a few seconds and all is well, but eventually it will stutter permanently.

I've fiddled a bit with streaming (haven't got the hang of this yet, so gave up for the time being), but this problem was occuring before that, and I've started from scratch since then.

I'm using Windows Vista on a laptop.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Also, if you know of an area for learning how to play streams, this would be helpful also (eventually, that is. One step at a time). I was pretty overwhelmed at all the information, and not knowing some of the terms has been pretty daunting. As I said before, I need to start from stupid.

Thanks for your patience!

[arbitrageur]

I've been using vlc for years and have never seen any stuttering on mp3 and avi files (I see that sometimes on wmv files but on those I switch to media player classic and the files usually play fine there).

I suggest you ctrl-alt-del and look at task manager to see if your CPU or one of its cores may be at 100% when the stuttering occurs, and if so, see what program is hogging the CPU, it's probably not VLC.
If that's not it I'd look for other bottlenecks on your PC (for example, is the amount of memory used above or below the physical memory installed...you might be able to add memory if that's the problem).

I don't really understand the streams question, I play streams all the time on firefox and didn't have to do any research to do it, but maybe you're talking about something else.

[Janaru]

That's a great suggestion. I'll try it. Although I don't have any other programs running, there's a possibility something is going on in the background (i.e. auto scheduler, etc...) that I hadn't thought of.

As for the streams...well, as I said, I am an idiot, and may be using an incorrect term. I would like to listen to BBC Radio through the VLC instead of Real Player. I assume that is a stream, but as I said, this may not be the correct term.

I don't know where, how, or if I'm even supposed to, put the URL for it to play the radio stations or their Listen Again service (which is recorded programs available for listening after air-date). These all have an "rtsp://" and I think, should be accessible to VLC.

Anyway, thanks again for the original suggestion, and hopefully I've explained the "stream" thing enough for you to understand what I'm talking about, even if it isn't the right term . Hopefully, you, or perhaps someone else can set me straight.

[arbitrageur]

OK, well that was a good guess that streaming can be interpreted more than one way. You can actually use VLC as a streaming server but that's not what you want, I think you want to install mozilla firefox here: http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/ if you don't already have it, and then use the the VLC firefox plugin:
==========================
VLC Plugin for Firefox (Mozilla)

The Mozilla plugin (Excerpted from the VLC User Guide)

Install

There are at least two ways to install the VLC Mozilla Plugin. One way is to to check the "Install Firefox Plugin" when you install VLC.

If the standard exe installation does not install the mozilla plugin directory then download zip version which includes the required data and continue with the next installation (2nd way of installing of the plugin)

The second way involves several steps:

1. Quit Firefox or Mozilla

2. Copy the two files in VLC_Installation_folder\mozilla (usually C:\Program Files\VideoLAN\VLC\mozilla) to your mozilla plugins directory (Usually C:\Program Files\Mozilla\plugins or C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\plugins).

3. Restart Firefox or Mozilla

Use the plugin

If you open a link to a video file handled by the VLC plugin (To get the list of handled types, browse to about:plugins) or a page with an embedded video, the plugin should open and read the video.

==========================================
from:
http://wiki.videolan.org/Windows

(of those 2 methods I would just uninstall and re-install VLC, it's seems easier to me)
==================================
Then you can just type the bbc hyperlink in the address bar for firefox and that should do it. There may be other ways to do it but that's how I use it and it works for me! Good luck, and hope it works for you too!

[Janaru]

Wow! Thanks, I'll give that a shot. I figured I got it wrong somewhere down the line.

I appreciate the help!

[arbitrageur]

You're welcome!

BTW here's a link I tried for BBC content and it works in firefox:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/

Interestingly the radio link said it would open in realplayer but it didn't (You can't believe everything you read, even on the internet, or should I say especially on the internet LOL), I don't have realplayer installed, it just plays a streaming flash file but works well. I think you can find about anything you want from bbc there.

Those rtsp links may not work in firefox but you don't need them, firefox with the vlc plugin is much better than realplayer, you're doing a smart thing to get away from that.

[Janaru]

My son has been trying to get me to download Opera. I wonder if you've had any experience with it, especially in relation to VLC?

[Arite]

My son has been trying to get me to download Opera. I wonder if you've had any experience with it, especially in relation to VLC?

This is more of a discussion for the Coffee Corner.

Arite.

[arbitrageur]

I run ie, firefox and opera all on the same pc, but I usually end up using firefox due to more and better add-ons.

Here's a link to a thread about how to use VLC with opera in this forum (I have used opera but not with VLC):

viewtopic.php?f=16&t=34776

That may answer your question.

[Janaru]

Oh, great! I'll check that out, too.

By the way, the stuttering problem seems to be happening, during video play, when the control panel is showing at the bottom, especially in fullscreen mode. Sometimes it doesn't disappear on it's own, and when it doesn't, it stutters horribly.

I still don't know why it does it during MP3 play.

Anyway, thanks again for all your help!