VLC freezes momentarily when opening video

[alex@alextaylor.org]

I'm running OS X 10.3.9 with VLC 0.8.2. I installed it a few days ago and ever since I installed if I've had trouble when opening video. I'll double-click on a file in the Finder to open VLC and start playing the file, and VLC will open. Then the program will freeze for about 3 - 5 seconds before it begins playing the video, at which point the video starts a few seconds late (sometimes giving me a message about late video). When it freezes I can move the mouse but can't do anything else, not even use other programs. It also gives me this problem when VLC is already open and I use file>open to play a video.

It seems to do this mainly with xvid or divx-encoded AVIs. I just tried a Quicktime and it works fine, although it could be because the Quicktime I tried was only about 4 megs and the AVIs that give it trouble are 100+.

Any suggestions? Thanks in advance!

[mguertin]

What speed is your machine, etc ... sounds like it's choking while trying to do some initial cacheing, but that's just a guess.

[Guest]

It's a Powerbook G4, 1.5GHz with 1GB of RAM. I used to use mplayer to play the same videos and it worked fine, with no delay.

[The DJ]

Sounds like the conflict with DVD studio pro (or some of the other Creation applications of Apple) and out CoreAudio module. Make sure you have VLC 0.8.2. Reset your preferences. The new audio module for VLC will then be the default, and this problem should no longer occur hopefully.

It might be something different of course, but this does sound a lot like that issue.

[alex@alextaylor.org]

That seems to be the problem, although it's not completely fixed.. I tried resetting the prefs but the problem remained, so I tried some of the other output modules for the audio. The 'file audio output' causes no delay when opening the video, but there is no sound at all.

[The DJ]

VLC should use the AUHAL audio output module. (default in 0.8.2). If the problem is still present, then it's not VLCs problem, because we use a normal standard api now that shouldn't be able to affect the OS X core. If the issue is still present, then it is a problem with the other application.

[sedination]

Hi,

I had the exact the same problem as you and found a solution somewhere else on the forums.

Do you have Final Cut Pro installed or did you a least have it installed at some time? Because it installs a file called DVCPROHDMuxer.component in your /library/quicktime folder. I deleted it from my computer and there is no more of that delay for VLC.

Of course the obvious side effect is that this would probably adversely affect FCP in some way. So if you use FCP extensively, perhaps this solution wouldn't be so helpful.

[alex@alextaylor.org]

That solved the problem! Thanks for your help.

It doesn't seem to adversely affect FCP upon first examination. The name of that file suggests it's only for HD playback and capture, which doesn't affect me at the moment.

Somebody should document this problem in the support files, as I'm sure it would apply to a great many people.

[Jason]

this has been bugging me for a LONG time. wow. i'm glad it's fixed now. we should really let the developers know about this issue! thanks guys!

[Mark L.]

I use OSX 10.4.4 and VLC 0.84 now, but I was experiencing this bug from when I was still running OSX 10.4.0 and VLC 0.83.

Indeed was this bothersome. It's fixed now it seems.

[Guest]

THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!