VLC taking forever to boot after FFmpeg installation

[torakoishi]

Hi,

I recently installed ffmpeg to compress some videos I had, but after finally running the ffmpeg string on PowerShell to reduce a file's size, VLC started taking ~15/30 seconds to actually open any video file I try opening. Before the ffmpeg installation, it used to take < 1 second.

Furthermore, it started to open every video on a different window with the heading saying 'Direct3D11 output' at the top, additionally, I was unable to change the preferences of the app without closing the video via the task manager, and opening VLC without any file in it (which still took a very long time to open). I reinstalled and cleared all the cache and preferences from VLC, but the issue persists.

I have managed to change the default video display output from 'Automatic' to other options that were not 'Direct3D11 output,' the issue regarding the loading times persisted, although I now had access to the VLC toolbar.

Could anyone guide me through a solution?

[torakoishi]

A quick update:

Removing ffmpeg from the Path folder on Windows and restarting my computer has fixed the issue; But I wouldn't call this a solution, just a rollback. I would still appreciate an alternative solution or at least an explanation as to what is happening here.

Cheers.

[Lotesdelere]

On Windows you don't "install" FFmpeg because it's made of standalone executables.
On Windows still, there is absolutely no interaction between any FFmpeg executable and VLC, VLC is using its own internal codecs and libraries.
So I don't know what you have "installed", apart from VLC, but it might be the culprit.

[torakoishi]

Right,

What started causing the issue, adding ffmpeg to path since powershell wasn't recognizing ffmpeg commands, and what fixed the issue was removing it.