VLC Keeps Muting/Unmuting In Two Intervals

[SquiddyKat]

I've had this problems for quite some time, I'm not sure how long.
If I'm watching a video, it will randomly mute for a second, and unmute and do it again a second later; it always happens twice. Each mute last about a second, with a second of sound in between.

It doesn't seem to matter the file format.The video I'm watching now is .avi
Before, I was watching a film in MKV. Sometimes it'll do it much more frequently, like the other night.

This has happened on multiple computers. Probably every computer I've ever used since this has started.

Is anyone else experiencing the same thing?
How do I fix it?

[Rémi Denis-Courmont]

Do you mean that VLC pauses and resumes, or that VLC loses one second of audio?

[SquiddyKat]

It's just the audio. It looses a second of audio, and again a second later.

[Rémi Denis-Courmont]

Could be many things. Check your logs.

[SquiddyKat]

How do I do that? I made it to Advance tab, but I don't know how to check them.

[AnyHog]

+1 This has been going on for several years and acording to reports it seems to affect VLC only.

Neither playing with cache nor disabling acceleration makes and difference.

In my latest search I notice no mention of this being connected to the streaming bitrate. I now have a collection of streaming links that includes the same stream at 2 different bitrates.

E.g.
http://stream.lesonparisien.com:80/hi 192k is flawless.
http://stream.lesonparisien.com/lo.aac 32k mutes with a rythm faster than twice /sec.

The whole stream is not affected, music stays in sync on both streams, only the low bitrate one suffers from rythmic muting.

PsyStation Goa 64k stutters...
http://hestia2.cdnstream.com:80/1458_64

so does PsyStation Full On 64k...
http://hestia2.cdnstream.com:80/1455_64

but their Dark Trance at 192 stream do not.
http://thassos.cdnstream.com:5018/stream2_autodj

This is on a Linux desktop. None of the above stutter on Celluloid (backend = MPV) or via browser, or on Android.

I hope this helps isolate what the matter is.

I find it conceptually fascinating.

[Rémi Denis-Courmont]

Those URLs play just fine here (Debian desktop), so no, this does not help.

The problem is ostensibly dependent on something else than VLC. There is most likely some other difference with the other "working" apps such as not exposing MPRIS, using ALSA instead of PA, different sample rates, etc.

Personally, I've seen similar symptoms that were caused by a buggy version of the KDE multimedia tray icon (now fixed).

[SquiddyKat]

I apologise for the delay in response. I forgot about it and I was The Walking Dead tonight and it did it a few times, it seems to be only high-res videos, 720P, 1080p, etc. that are affected. I don't remembering this happening on lower resolution.It also seems to be for long videos, at least 10-15 minutes in, it does it. I don't remembering it happening for short videos.