Stutters in DVD playback

[dsreyn]

I'm having a peculiar problem with DVD playback with some (but not all) DVD's. About every 30 seconds, there's brief (maybe half a second) pause in the playback - then it continues along fine until it happens again in 30 seconds. It looks like these pauses are always in the same place. I have tried this playing the DVD's directly, as well as DVD images ripped to my hard drive, and the behavior is the same either way. I don't have this problem if I play the DVD's with mPlayer or Media Player Classic - but of course, I prefer VLC, so I'd like to find a solution to the problem.

I have already tried adjusting the cache under Input / Codes -> Access Modules (I tried under DVD with menus, DVD without menus, and File) - increasing the caching value from the default of 300 actually makes the problem worse (the pauses last longer). I also tried choosing "Win32 waveOut extension output" under Audio => Output modules, and that did not seem to make a difference.

In the messages window (verbosity set to 2), I see the following when the pause occurs (I've included the messages from two consecutive pauses):

dvdnav debug: DVDNAV_NOP
dvdnav debug: DVDNAV_CELL_CHANGE
dvdnav debug: - cellN=12
dvdnav debug: - pgN=2
dvdnav debug: - cell_length=2880000
dvdnav debug: - pg_length=25425000
dvdnav debug: - pgc_length=609795000
dvdnav debug: - cell_start=30600000
dvdnav debug: - pg_start=24975000
dvdnav debug: DVDNAV_SPU_CLUT_CHANGE
dvdnav debug: DVDNAV_SPU_STREAM_CHANGE
dvdnav debug: - physical_wide=-1
dvdnav debug: - physical_letterbox=-1
dvdnav debug: - physical_pan_scan=-1
dvdnav debug: buttonUpdate not done b=1 t=1
dvdnav debug: DVDNAV_AUDIO_STREAM_CHANGE
dvdnav debug: - physical=0
main warning: clock gap, unexpected stream discontinuity
main warning: feeding synchro with a new reference point trying to recover from clock gap
dvdnav debug: buttonUpdate not done b=1 t=1
main warning: early picture skipped
main warning: early picture skipped
main warning: early picture skipped
main warning: received buffer in the future
main warning: buffer is 68890 late, triggering upsampling
main warning: early picture skipped
main warning: early picture skipped
main warning: early picture skipped
main warning: early picture skipped
main warning: early picture skipped
main warning: early picture skipped
main warning: early picture skipped
main warning: early picture skipped
main warning: early picture skipped
main warning: early picture skipped
main warning: early picture skipped
main warning: backward_pts != dts (-32386034)
main warning: early picture skipped
main warning: decoder synchro warning: pts != current_date (32386033)
main warning: resampling stopped after 14504000 usec (drift: 756)

dvdnav debug: DVDNAV_NOP
dvdnav debug: DVDNAV_CELL_CHANGE
dvdnav debug: - cellN=13
dvdnav debug: - pgN=2
dvdnav debug: - cell_length=2880000
dvdnav debug: - pg_length=25425000
dvdnav debug: - pgc_length=609795000
dvdnav debug: - cell_start=33480000
dvdnav debug: - pg_start=24975000
dvdnav debug: DVDNAV_SPU_CLUT_CHANGE
dvdnav debug: DVDNAV_SPU_STREAM_CHANGE
dvdnav debug: - physical_wide=-1
dvdnav debug: - physical_letterbox=-1
dvdnav debug: - physical_pan_scan=-1
dvdnav debug: buttonUpdate not done b=1 t=1
dvdnav debug: DVDNAV_AUDIO_STREAM_CHANGE
dvdnav debug: - physical=0
main warning: clock gap, unexpected stream discontinuity
main warning: feeding synchro with a new reference point trying to recover from clock gap
dvdnav debug: buttonUpdate not done b=1 t=1
main warning: early picture skipped
main warning: early picture skipped
main warning: early picture skipped
main warning: received buffer in the future
main warning: buffer is 69032 late, triggering upsampling
main warning: early picture skipped
main warning: early picture skipped
main warning: early picture skipped
main warning: early picture skipped
main warning: early picture skipped
main warning: early picture skipped
main warning: early picture skipped
main warning: early picture skipped
main warning: early picture skipped
main warning: early picture skipped
main warning: early picture skipped
main warning: backward_pts != dts (-32033622)
main warning: early picture skipped
main warning: decoder synchro warning: pts != current_date (32033621)
dvdnav debug: buttonUpdate not done b=1 t=1
main debug: control type=1

I'm using VLC 1.0.5, running under Windows 7. Any ideas?

Thanks,
Doug

[VLC_help]

It helps if you remove %appdata%\vlc and %appdata%\dvdcss folders?

[dsreyn]

No, I just removed both of those folders and tried again, and I still have the same problem.

Doug

[VLC_help]

The issues comes prolly from

clock gap, unexpected stream discontinuity

but if ripping the movie to hard drive doesn't help, then I don't know what will. Is there any small VOB file you could share to us, that shows the issue?

[dsreyn]

The issues comes prolly from

clock gap, unexpected stream discontinuity

but if ripping the movie to hard drive doesn't help, then I don't know what will. Is there any small VOB file you could share to us, that shows the issue?

Try http://alum.wpi.edu/~dreynolds/samp.vob - the problem should appear a few seconds after the beginning.

Doug

[VLC_help]

Thanks.

[Scale]

I have the same problem, DVD and also a WMV file (haven't tested other formats).
This is since i updated to the newer version and it's really bugging me.
I am currently downloading 0.8.6 to see if the problem disappears to test.

Then i remember that i reinstalled windows and that ATI F's up the openGL driver.
Fixing openGL driver and reinstalling VLC ill report back

(typing as i go)

Didn't fix the problem however after switching to openGL output it did fix,
Haven't tried the older version i am currently in china and the connection here is BAD.

[dsreyn]

I have the same problem, DVD and also a WMV file (haven't tested other formats).
This is since i updated to the newer version and it's really bugging me.
I am currently downloading 0.8.6 to see if the problem disappears to test.

Then i remember that i reinstalled windows and that ATI F's up the openGL driver.
Fixing openGL driver and reinstalling VLC ill report back

(typing as i go)

Didn't fix the problem however after switching to openGL output it did fix,
Haven't tried the older version i am currently in china and the connection here is BAD.

I just tried switching video drivers. It was originally set to "default". I tried openGL and DirectX 3D - the problem persisted with both. I also tried DirectX, and that hung Windows 7.

Doug

[lambjon]

I am having the same issues, and I just don't seem to be able to clear the problem.
My problems also occur on DVD's. I tend mainly to play back DVD's that I have recorded myself on my standalone player, even if I play the content back from the hard drive though, I get this stuttering problem. My log also reports the same sort of things, such as "early picture skipped" and "received buffer in the future".
When I experiment with the video by rewinding it at the points where the problem occurs, the stuttering does always appear to occur in the same parts of the video which does suggest something in the stream, however, every other application that I use to play it back, plays it back perfectly smoothly. If I also look at the stats whilst the video is playing, it shows dropped frames on the video, there are no dropped frames in the audio.

VLC is my preferred program for anything AV related generally, but this is an irritating problem. If anyone knows of a setting that needs tweaking to fix it, that would be great!

[rogerdpack]

Just had same problem. Seemed to go away after choosing "Reset VLC media player preferences and cache"

updating video drivers could help

[captainsolo]

I get this issue on Windows 7 with any version of VLC. It only happens with DVDs and not if I rip that same DVD and then play it as an ISO. HD, avi, mov and everything else plays fine. Some discs are worse than others, but without fail at several points VLC will freeze and the time will tick a few seconds then resume play where the slider is.
Playing the DVD in WMP seems to work fine, but I miss VLC.

[captainsolo]

WMP plays fine, so it's a VLC error specifically.