Video Stuttering with VLC 2.0

[andydufreyne]

VLV_Help, for God's sake, just revert to the 1.x source code responsible for rendering (D3D? FFMgeg? etc), we all would be just happy

[USPnet]

I've reverted back to 1.1.11 for now. The biggest issue may be common with what the others are posting combined with my ancient system: Dell Inspiron XPS (Gen 1) laptop - P4 3.4GHz, 2GB RAM, ATI Radeon 9800 256MB RAM Mobile video, Windows 7 Home Premium 32 bit.

David in Tucson

I don't think this matters. My system - which is as bad as anything described here - is a "f*%k off* 16G Ram 8 core tower that is fast as they come, with W764 ultimate.

There are clearly fundamental coding issues that one day the developers will be able to replicate, and then they can find the one line of code that needs a stray comma removing.

WSP+++

[tittbit]

No idea what's causing the stuttering? Ive been using vlc for years but now I'm about to switch to something else.

i always keep an alternative, any file which vlc fails can be easily handled by media playe classic thats klmegacodec pack

[Princess_Frosty]

I have the same problem, I've tried ALL fixes posted in this thread to no avail.

I have a very fast machine running Win7 x64. Intel 2600k @ 4.7Ghz and a GTX580 with 16Gb RAM, I'm running a 120hz primary monitor @ 1080p with a 1080p projector @ 60hz as my 2nd monitor, when I play .MKV videos full screen I get stutter, although when I play them in windowed mode they run just fine, in fact if I stretch windowed mode to basically be full screen + the menu and controls, it still runs smoothly.

I've tried changing file caching up to about 5000ms with no luck, I've enabled and disabled GPU acceleration, I've monitored CPU and GPU usage in both scenarios to confirm that VLC is at best using a few percent of the system resources, this is NOT hardware related! I've tried changing the number of threads from 0,1,2,4 with no luck, I've basically been though the entire thread and tried everything.

The only real help I can give is to say that it's strange that in a window it works fine even when that window is damn near the same size as full screen playback, so something about it being full screen specifically is causing the issue, at least for me.

Welcome to try further changes if anyone has any suggestions?

[andydufreyne]

I believe the problem is in the integrated MKV decoder, which is a pain
the decoder from the klmegacodec pack runs just fine

I will try using the nightly vlc build, maybe it will help

[JeffG]

For anyone who still runs on analog monitors, if you're having inexplicable stuttering problems double-check the Help/More Help/Override box in DXDIAG.EXE. I was switching between two resolutions (at different refresh rates) and forgot to update this entry, it caused bad stuttering no matter what else I tried.

[Jean-Francois]

I also had stutter when playing file in VLC 2.0 but they were fine in VLC 1.X. I change the demuxer module to Avformat demuxer and it fixed it.

[andydufreyne]

Jean-Francois, can you please tell where can I find this setting?

[Lotesdelere]

can you please tell where can I find this setting?

Menu Tools -> Preferences (Show Settings = ALL) -> Input/Codecs -> Demuxers
Then on the right panel, at the very bottom of the drop down list select Avformat Demuxer.
Save, exit and restart VLC.

[Leopardi]

can you please tell where can I find this setting?

Menu Tools -> Preferences (Show Settings = ALL) -> Input/Codecs -> Demuxers
Then on the right panel, at the very bottom of the drop down list select Avformat Demuxer.
Save, exit and restart VLC.

Nope no help at all. Horrible stuttering with 60fps videos.

[Lotesdelere]

Try another video output module:
http://wiki.videolan.org/WindowsFAQ-2.0 ... _output.3F

And/or disable/enable GPU acceleration:
http://wiki.videolan.org/WindowsFAQ-2.0 ... age_errors

And/or adjust FFmpeg threads:
http://wiki.videolan.org/WindowsFAQ-2.0 ... r_laggy.29

You can also try to enable or disable some video options such as Overlay and/or Hardware YUV -> RGB conversions.

[Leopardi]

Try another video output module:
http://wiki.videolan.org/WindowsFAQ-2.0 ... _output.3F

And/or disable/enable GPU acceleration:
http://wiki.videolan.org/WindowsFAQ-2.0 ... age_errors

And/or adjust FFmpeg threads:
http://wiki.videolan.org/WindowsFAQ-2.0 ... r_laggy.29

You can also try to enable or disable some video options such as Overlay and/or Hardware YUV -> RGB conversions.

Disabling GPU acceration makes it 60fps, but there is like a millisecond stutter every 0,5 seconds.

[burningbush]

Problem Solved

After nothing but stuttering and slow repsonse after upgrading to ver 2 and trying all the suggestions on this thread I solved the problem....how?

I downgraded back to v 1.1.11 and it's perfect, not a single problem.

I've also turned off automatic updates!

Ditto.

Add me to the list of "tried everything from multiple threads on this issue, nothing worked, going back to 1.1.11" crowd.

With any mp4 or avi: plays fine in WMP; plays fine in RealPlayer; plays fine in VLC 1.1.11; video stutters in VLC Twoflower, with tons of "picture is too late to be displayed" errors.

DO NOT give me any suggestions; I've spent many, many hours trying every damn suggestion from this and other threads; none worked! VLC needs to reproduce the problem, and VLC needs to fix the problem.

Sign me: Long-time VLC champion and advocate, who would like to be able to once again recommend the current release!

[Gasgeber]

Same here. 1.1.11 in a 720p mkv video works seamless, while any later version and most current version 2.04 stutters and is not nice to watch.

First I thought this is my hardware, its a Windows 7 Radeon 5670 i3 system, but obviously now it's not.

On my Mac Book Air VLC 2.04 runs good. So this seems to be a Windows implementation problem.

I hope for a fix...

[TVEng]

SOLVED! (At least for me..)

Like many of you on this thread, I was trying everything suggested and nothing was working. VLC 1.1.19 worked just fine while 2.x would studder on ALL video. I was running a Dell Optiplex 780 which has an Intel Core2Duo cpu. Previously at the brodcast facility where I work we had an issue where video playback in this one application was slow no matter what and the CPU was not maxed out. We disabled SpeedStep and CStates in the BIOS to fix it. So I just did exactly that and my VLC 2.x immediately sprang to life.

-Ryan

[Jean-Baptiste Kempf]

And you can try 2.1.0 and it will help.

[hardcorerobot]

I post this as a response to this very issue and to present a solution which fixed my problem.

(I have a Core2 Duo system, Win7 - 32 bit, 3GB of RAM).

I too had stuttering issues with all versions of VLC 2.x.x with videos under Windows 7. Tried going back to vlc 1.x.x and still the same problems. No problems with MPC or Tiger Player with these videos - only vlc presented the stuttering issues (to the point of where videos froze momentarily and you'd get large blocky pixels in the video stream).

Reinstalled/deleted all vlc versions and preferences with no success.

Removed/reinstalled K-Lite, CCCP, without any success.

Tried all the supposed fixes in this thread with no success (even forcing the computer to run on a single core thinking it was a problem with thread management).

At no time did the CPU load with these videos ever reach more than 10%.

This is also a computer where games run flawlessly and other large HD videos would play fine.

For some reason only vlc affected.

What was my solution?

Replace the hard drive. For some reason I decided to install some benchmarking software to watch the hard drive while vlc was playing and for some reason the read speed of the hard drive was bouncing up and down like a seesaw - from a peak of 60MB/sec down to as low as 2-3MB/sec. Only with vlc - the other players did not do this.

By replacing the hard drive (cloning everything to another one) the problem has gone away completely. Thus, it had nothing to do with any software but the fact that the HD just wasn't keeping up with vlc's demands (it was a Seagate 1TB/SATA III so it should have been plenty fast enough - the new one is an identical one).

Really odd and frustrating - I cannot imagine what is so different about vlc that it was saturating the HD with so much data while videos were playing compared to the other videos players but replacing the drive fixed the problem (nothing else ever misbehaved - only vlc for some reason).

Perhaps this might help others if they have problems - look at your I/O of your hard drive while vlc is playing.

[burningbush]

Problem Solved

After nothing but stuttering and slow repsonse after upgrading to ver 2 and trying all the suggestions on this thread I solved the problem....how?

I downgraded back to v 1.1.11 and it's perfect, not a single problem.

I've also turned off automatic updates!

Ditto.

Add me to the list of "tried everything from multiple threads on this issue, nothing worked, going back to 1.1.11" crowd.

With any mp4 or avi: plays fine in WMP; plays fine in RealPlayer; plays fine in VLC 1.1.11; video stutters in VLC Twoflower, with tons of "picture is too late to be displayed" errors.

DO NOT give me any suggestions; I've spent many, many hours trying every damn suggestion from this and other threads; none worked! VLC needs to reproduce the problem, and VLC needs to fix the problem.

Sign me: Long-time VLC champion and advocate, who would like to be able to once again recommend the current release!

I am THRILLED to report that with 2.1 -- Rincewind -- the video stuttering problems for me are finally over. It's great to finally be running the current release (even if it has a new, already-reported bug re: recognizing the "always reset volume to x%" setting). For me, Twoflower was a nightmare that I'm glad is finally over! Thanks for the fix, VLC Team!!

[jpavic019]

I still have problems with stuttering in VLC 2.1 if i'm not using GPU enconding (km, mpc,gom,smplayer,bs player,potplayer....play the videos without sttutering)
will ever this problem be fixed?
my pc: CPU- Intel Core i3 2120 @ 3.30GHz
Motherboard: Asus P8H61-MX R2.0
Gpu: MSI Radeon Hd 7750 1GB DDR 5
Ram : 8 gb

[SpreadsheetPete]

I've been having the stuttering problem for a few days and it was driving me crazy until I finally googled it last night as the Maples game I downloaded (as I live in the UK) was becoming unwatchable. The game was a .mkv 720p file and the last 2 games I watched had the same problem as well as my .mkv 720p breaking bad episodes. But I can withstand the stuttering on slow moving shows.

I'm running a pretty sweet system with 16GB HyperX 1600MHz ram, water cooled 8 core bulldozer AMD processor, MSI 7870 graphics card all strapped to a sabertooth 990fx motherboard. I tried it on multiple hard drives, a 1TB Hitachi and a 2TB Seagate all on SATA III. I also have a OCZ 120SSD Agility 3 but never tried it on that. This is running two displays, a 47" LG LED 1080p TV and a Acer T230H Multitouch 23" 1080p display which it does it on either. I originally thought it was the graphics card as it has given me some trouble in the past so I flipped back to my XFX 5770 XXX edition Graphics card and was still having the same issue.

Tried all the stuff listed on here until the early hours of this morning with no success. Even dabbled in a little roulette setting adjustment and just made things worse.

I tried reinstalling VLC (obviously as I had messed it up with fiddling with everything including registry) and it installed the latest 2.1, still with issues.

Think I'll have to go back to the 1st version. Hope this is fixed soon as VLC had changed the game of playing video on computers by including all the relevant codecs. If any of the VLC team are reading this just know am thankful for you bringing out such an awesome product and I have faith you'll sort this out but I'll be sticking with the old one for the next few months.

[Holztransistor]

Upgrading to VLC 2.10 did it for me. No idea what the reason was. Normally I have no problems at all with mkv files. This version is even playing my DTS Audio CD flawlessly. That was also stuttering before. Did not change any settings but removed cache and preferences when installing the new version.

My machine is running Win 7 64-bit. CPU is a i7 3770 (on a z77 mainboard) with 16GB RAM and a HD 7870.