Choppy Audio/Video

[aTalkingWalnut]

I have spent the last twenty minutes reading articles, trying to find someone with the same problem that I do. I was able to find similar posts, but I could not be sure that their issues were the same as mine. I apologize in advance if this has been posted in the past, but I am not an experienced user and some of the possible matches were hard to understand at times.

THE PROBLEM:

Several times during VLC's playback of an .avi file (this has occurred in versions 0.98, 0.99 & 1.0), the audio and video will pause for a fraction of a second, then the audio will continue and the video will stick for about 2-4 seconds. After that time, the video becomes boxy and eventually changes into what it should be. It does not catch up if I pause it, but if I rewind the video, it does not happen in the same spot. This happens when I am merely playing back an .avi file and nothing else, and it also happens when I open files or applications.

I am using a 17" MacBook Pro 2.67 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo w/ 4GB 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM. I have a GeForce 8600M GT with 512 MB of VRAM.

[Jean-Baptiste Kempf]

Video is HD?
Video is on your Hard Drive?

[HansFredrik]

I have the exact same problem, maybe a bit longer lag, but exact same problem. I haven´t tried with HD, but it happens with SD, all videos stored on local HDD.

MacBook Pro 13" 4GB RAM

[videodrone]

Yeah...me too. I've had this problem for over a year now. i was hoping to find some fix if i open the same video in quicktime or another player they work fine.

Macbook Pro 17" 2gb RAM OS X Leopard 10.5.7

[andrewhaji]

I think this thread might be related...

viewtopic.php?f=12&t=61848

[aTalkingWalnut]

Video is HD?
Video is on your Hard Drive?

No, the video is SD and yes, it is on my HD.

[aTalkingWalnut]

I think this thread might be related...

viewtopic.php?f=12&t=61848

...No real solution except rolling back to 0.98, but if it works for anyone, it should work for everyone (who meet the requirements). I am getting the same limbad error though.

I get things in my log like:
"avcodec error: more than 5 seconds of late video -> dropping frame (computer too slow ?)"
and
"mpgatofixed32 debug: libmad error: bad main_data_begin pointer
main warning: late picture skipped (-2760 > -3264)
macosx debug: chosen screen isn't present, using current screen for fullscreen mode
main warning: late picture skipped (55801 > -971)
main warning: PTS is out of range (-17762), dropping buffer
main warning: output PTS is out of range (22267), clearing out"


I hope this doesnt sound arrogant, my computer is not too slow.

[HansFredrik]

I think it started with 1.0 for me too, where can I find 0.98 download?

[aTalkingWalnut]

I think it started with 1.0 for me too, where can I find 0.98 download?

http://downloads.videolan.org/pub/vlc/0.9.8a/

[bdr529]

This has also been happening to me, doesn't matter what type of file or where it is located. Video halts while sound still plays. A second later the video comes back all blocky and "recovers". This will happen several times throughout playback.

I am on a late 2008 uMBP so i wouldnt say its the fault of my machines power. I upgraded the ram and hdd since i got it, but this has been happening long before the upgrade.

[Atreides]

Same problem here. My log is filled with "PTS is out of range" and "late picture skipped". I've tried all the suggestions so far such as increasing cache, priority, and setting the "skip the loop filter" to all. Tried 1.0, 0.99, 0.98, 0.96. All produced the same results. The closest I got to some form of success was using a combination of the above, but this only worked accessing a file locally stored. All of my media is on 4TB NAS with 1Gb connections throughout. This is running on a Quad 2.93Ghz Mac Pro (i7) 8GB with Radeon HD 4870. My CPU never exceeded 50% while playing. My reference media are MTS (AVCHD) files recorded from a Sony SR11 camcorder.

[bc1323]

Try changing the cache settings. Worked for me.

Settings -> Preferences and choose Input/Codecs. tick the All option to display advanced settings. Goto Access modules -> File and increase Caching value from 100ms to something like 800ms.

[essami]

Try changing the cache settings. Worked for me.

Settings -> Preferences and choose Input/Codecs. tick the All option to display advanced settings. Goto Access modules -> File and increase Caching value from 100ms to something like 800ms.

This helped me!