File intermittently skips forward several seconds

[vlanslaser]

I'm having a weird issue with a few video files (.mp4). Every few seconds, the audio/video will freeze, and then after a brief wait (sometimes a split second, sometimes up to 3 or so seconds), the audio/video will begin playing again. The interesting thing is that the player *timer* mirrors this behavior as well (when the audio/video freezes, so does the timer). When the freeze has ended and the audio/video resumes, the timer begins counting again, sometimes rapidly counting two seconds in a row (presumably because it unfroze toward the end of that specific second).

Troubleshooting that I've tried so far based on much searching for others with (somewhat) similar problems includes:
- Updating to the newest VLC version
- Backtracking to older VLC versions (that others who had stuttering or skipping problems said helped them)
- Increasing the file buffer time from 300ms to 600ms (as well as 6000ms just to test)
- Changing the audio output module to WaveOut

Unfortunately none of these had any effect. Any ideas what might be causing this and how one might fix it? It only happens with mp4s from a particular website, so it may well be a problem with the files themselves, but it would be great to know if VLC has a built-in solution, or otherwise if anyone has recommendations on repair programs that aren't virus-ridden.

Thanks!

[Lotesdelere]

Please open Tools -> Messages (set Verbosity to 2) before you start the playback, and then paste the full resulting log here or on Pastebin.com if it's too long.

Also upload a short sample of a problematic file to either Zippyshare.com (200 MB max) or to EmbedUpload.com, the latter will upload the file for you to several other hosts (use the default ones) and then post the link to the file here.

If needed cut it with DGsplit and read here about how to do it:
viewtopic.php?f=14&t=57724&p=193335#p193335
50 MB max should be enough.

[vlanslaser]

Thanks for the assistance Lotesdelere. Unfortunately I cannot provide a sample as the content is NDA'd, but I can provide the debug log from the first 20 or so seconds (which does exhibit the problem a lot), and this log seems to include some very pertinent information that can hopefully tell us what is going on.

https://pastebin.com/8XsMW12g

I don't know much about this stuff obviously, but the part that seems interesting to me is that it intermittently encounters an error (mpgatofixed32 error: libmad error: bad main_data_begin pointer), and frequently declares warnings about the "picture is too late" or "too early" over and over again and consequently "missing # ms". Short snippet of what seems the most important below if you don't want to dig into the whole thing:

Code: Select all

avcodec debug: enabling direct rendering core debug: Decoder wait done in 96 ms mpgatofixed32 error: libmad error: bad main_data_begin pointer core debug: End of video preroll core warning: buffer too late (-498000 us): dropped core debug: inserting 7438 zeroes core warning: picture is too late to be displayed (missing 582 ms) core warning: picture is too late to be displayed (missing 675 ms) core debug: picture might be displayed late (missing 18 ms) core warning: picture is too late to be displayed (missing 55 ms) core warning: picture is too late to be displayed (missing 24 ms) core debug: auto hiding mouse cursor core warning: picture is too late to be displayed (missing 562 ms) core warning: playback way too early (-386937): playing silence core debug: inserting 6190 zeroes

Anyone ever seen this before and know how to fix it?

[Rémi Denis-Courmont]

There are many reasons why that sort of things could happen. Without the original file, it's unlikely anybody can figure it out.