VLC no longer starts playing

[Dhaiwon]

Just for the sake of adding information i dont own anything realplayer related

As of deleting all the stuff from the directories and editing the register, will that remove it from the Add/Remove software menu or would i need to get a separate utility for that?

[Akhilla]

I got the exact same problem just two hours ago. I finished watching a movie, closed VLC and started up a different movie. The difference being that VLC no longer displayed a picture at all. It resized the size of the video but it was all black. The sound still came out just fine.

I read a bit through this thread(skimming through the first with the people quarreling) and decided to try out changing the output module. To my surprise, it worked! Sort of. The two output modules that work for me now are the OpenGL output module and Windows GDI video output module. The latter is rather blocky and unsightly-looking so I use the OpenGL one.

Some bits of info on that may or my not be of interest to anyone looking into the issue:

VLC 0.84a
Radeon X800XT with Catalyst 6.3 driver version
Windows XP Professional Service Pack 2
DirectX 9.0c(From Service Pack 2 install-cd)

If you haven't tried what I said, then do so. It may just solve the problem. To you developers that might be reading this, I wish you luck finding out what's causing it.

[drizzle]

on two differant systems, one running w2k, the other xp
(completely differant hardware configs)
tried with both 0.8.2 and 0.8.4

Things go along fine, then one day pffttt... vlc won't play any movies.

I have poked and prodded it every which way, and the ONLY thing I've found which will clear the problem is a REBOOT (which is a real pain in the a**). On one occasion I spent several hours on the w2k machine trying to get it working again, to no avail. I don't recall why, but I became suspicious it had something to do with the sound subsystem (note, however, that I was still able to play music and watch movies with other players) but that may be a red herring... However, after I rebooted, it worked again.

As it just happened again (this time on my XP box with 0.8.2) here's the messages log. Don't know whether it is relevant or not, but last night I was watching a movie, paused it, and later exited vlc via the Window Close 'X' button (ie I didn't hit Stop first, just exited while Paused). Next time I'm in a position to reboot (which may be a while) I'll see if I can replicate the problem with that sequence.

Here's the log; I inserted a line of equal signs - above it are the messages that were output at 'startup', after it are the messages that were output after I hit the stop button. If you look at the thread times at the end, you will note that even though I let it sit there for 21 minutes, zero kernel or user cpu time was used.

Code: Select all

main debug: adding playlist item `\\Wrtsl54gs\imdb250\Duck.Soup.1933\Duck Soup.avi' ( \\Wrtsl54gs\imdb250\Duck.Soup.1933\Duck Soup.avi ) main debug: creating new input thread main debug: waiting for thread completion main debug: thread 3548 (input) created at priority 1 (src/input/input.c:230) main debug: `\\Wrtsl54gs\imdb250\Duck.Soup.1933\Duck Soup.avi' gives access `' demux `' path `\\Wrtsl54gs\imdb250\Duck.Soup.1933\Duck Soup.avi' main debug: creating demux: access='' demux='' path='\\Wrtsl54gs\imdb250\Duck.Soup.1933\Duck Soup.avi' main debug: looking for access_demux module: 1 candidate main debug: creating access '' path='\\Wrtsl54gs\imdb250\Duck.Soup.1933\Duck Soup.avi' main debug: looking for access2 module: 4 candidates vcd debug: trying .cue file: \\Wrtsl54gs\imdb250\Duck.Soup.1933\Duck Soup.cue access_file debug: opening file `\\Wrtsl54gs\imdb250\Duck.Soup.1933\Duck Soup.avi' main debug: using access2 module "access_file" main debug: pre buffering main debug: received first data for our buffer main debug: prebuffering done 1408981 bytes in 0s - 3090 kbytes/s main debug: creating demux: access='' demux='' path='\\Wrtsl54gs\imdb250\Duck.Soup.1933\Duck Soup.avi' main debug: looking for demux2 module: 38 candidates avi debug: found Chunk fourcc:46464952 (RIFF) size:733012840 pos:0 avi debug: found LIST chunk: 'AVI ' avi debug: <list 'AVI '> avi debug: found Chunk fourcc:5453494c (LIST) size:8830 pos:12 avi debug: found LIST chunk: 'hdrl' avi debug: <list 'hdrl'> avi debug: found Chunk fourcc:68697661 (avih) size:56 pos:24 avi debug: avih: streams:2 flags: HAS_INDEX IS_INTERLEAVED 560x400 avi debug: found Chunk fourcc:5453494c (LIST) size:4244 pos:88 avi debug: found LIST chunk: 'strl' avi debug: <list 'strl'> avi debug: found Chunk fourcc:68727473 (strh) size:56 pos:100 avi debug: strh: type:vids handler:0x64697678 samplesize:0 29.97fps avi debug: found Chunk fourcc:66727473 (strf) size:40 pos:164 avi debug: strf: video:XVID 560x400 planes:1 12bpp avi debug: found Chunk fourcc:4b4e554a (JUNK) size:4120 pos:212 avi debug: </list 'strl'> avi debug: found Chunk fourcc:5453494c (LIST) size:4234 pos:4340 avi debug: found LIST chunk: 'strl' avi debug: <list 'strl'> avi debug: found Chunk fourcc:68727473 (strh) size:56 pos:4352 avi debug: strh: type:auds handler:0x00000000 samplesize:576 41.67fps avi debug: found Chunk fourcc:66727473 (strf) size:30 pos:4416 avi debug: strf: audio:0x0055 channels:2 48000Hz 0bits/sample 187kb/s avi debug: found Chunk fourcc:4b4e554a (JUNK) size:4120 pos:4454 avi debug: </list 'strl'> avi debug: found Chunk fourcc:5453494c (LIST) size:260 pos:8582 avi debug: found LIST chunk: 'odml' avi debug: <list 'odml'> avi debug: found Chunk fourcc:686c6d64 (dmlh) size:248 pos:8594 avi warning: unknown chunk (not loaded) avi debug: </list 'odml'> avi debug: </list 'hdrl'> avi debug: found Chunk fourcc:5453494c (LIST) size:54 pos:8850 avi debug: found LIST chunk: 'INFO' avi debug: <list 'INFO'> avi debug: found Chunk fourcc:54465349 (ISFT) size:42 pos:8862 avi debug: ISFT: software : FairUse Wizard - http://fairusewizard.com avi debug: </list 'INFO'> avi debug: found Chunk fourcc:4b4e554a (JUNK) size:1320 pos:8912 avi debug: found Chunk fourcc:5453494c (LIST) size:729044112 pos:10240 avi debug: skipping movi chunk avi debug: found Chunk fourcc:31786469 (idx1) size:3958480 pos:729054360 avi debug: idx1: index entry:247405 avi debug: </list 'AVI '> avi debug: found Chunk fourcc:4b4e554a (JUNK) size:1160 pos:733012848 avi debug: * LIST-root size:733014016 pos:0 avi debug: + RIFF-AVI size:733012840 pos:0 avi debug: | + LIST-hdrl size:8830 pos:12 avi debug: | | + avih size:56 pos:24 avi debug: | | + LIST-strl size:4244 pos:88 avi debug: | | | + strh size:56 pos:100 avi debug: | | | + strf size:40 pos:164 avi debug: | | | + JUNK size:4120 pos:212 avi debug: | | + LIST-strl size:4234 pos:4340 avi debug: | | | + strh size:56 pos:4352 avi debug: | | | + strf size:30 pos:4416 avi debug: | | | + JUNK size:4120 pos:4454 avi debug: | | + LIST-odml size:260 pos:8582 avi debug: | | | + dmlh size:248 pos:8594 avi debug: | + LIST-INFO size:54 pos:8850 avi debug: | | + ISFT size:42 pos:8862 avi debug: | + JUNK size:1320 pos:8912 avi debug: | + LIST-movi size:729044112 pos:10240 avi debug: | + idx1 size:3958480 pos:729054360 avi debug: + JUNK size:1160 pos:733012848 avi debug: AVIH: 2 stream, flags HAS_INDEX IS_INTERLEAVED avi debug: stream[0] rate:30000 scale:1001 samplesize:0 avi debug: stream[0] video(XVID) 560x400 12bpp 29.970030fps main debug: selecting program id=0 avi debug: stream[1] rate:24000 scale:576 samplesize:576 avi debug: stream[1] audio(0x55) 2 channels 48000Hz 0bits avi debug: stream[0] created 123710 index entries avi debug: stream[1] created 123695 index entries avi debug: stream[0] length:4127 (based on index) avi debug: stream[1] length:4127 (based on index) main debug: using demux2 module "avi" main debug: looking for a subtitle file in \\Wrtsl54gs\imdb250\Duck.Soup.1933\ main debug: looking for decoder module: 24 candidates ffmpeg debug: libavcodec initialized (interface 4756 ) ffmpeg debug: postprocessing disabled ffmpeg debug: ffmpeg codec (MPEG-4 Video) started main debug: using decoder module "ffmpeg" main debug: thread 3620 (decoder) created at priority 0 (src/input/decoder.c:159) main debug: looking for decoder module: 24 candidates main debug: using decoder module "mpeg_audio" main debug: thread 3640 (decoder) created at priority 2 (src/input/decoder.c:159) main debug: meta information: main debug: - 'Setting' = ' HAS_INDEX IS_INTERLEAVED' main debug: `\\Wrtsl54gs\imdb250\Duck.Soup.1933\Duck Soup.avi' successfully opened avi debug: old:0 < new 0 ========================================= main debug: control type=0 main debug: control: stopping input main debug: closing input avi debug: free chunk avih avi debug: free chunk strh avi debug: free chunk strf avi debug: free chunk JUNK avi debug: free chunk LIST avi debug: free chunk strh avi debug: free chunk strf avi debug: free chunk JUNK avi debug: free chunk LIST avi warning: unknown chunk (not unloaded) avi debug: free chunk LIST avi debug: free chunk LIST avi debug: free chunk ISFT avi debug: free chunk LIST avi debug: free chunk JUNK avi debug: free chunk LIST avi debug: free chunk idx1 avi debug: free chunk RIFF avi debug: free chunk JUNK avi debug: free chunk LIST main debug: unlocking module "avi" main debug: unlocking module "access_file" ffmpeg debug: ffmpeg codec (MPEG-4 Video) stopped main debug: unlocking module "ffmpeg" main debug: thread times: real 21m39.969264s, kernel 0m0.000000s, user 0m0.000000s main debug: thread 3620 joined (src/input/decoder.c:191) main debug: killing decoder fourcc `XVID', 1 PES in FIFO main debug: unlocking module "mpeg_audio" main debug: thread times: real 21m39.979278s, kernel 0m0.000000s, user 0m0.000000s main debug: thread 3640 joined (src/input/decoder.c:191) main debug: killing decoder fourcc `mpga', 0 PES in FIFO main debug: thread times: real 21m42.402763s, kernel 0m0.070100s, user 0m0.100144s main debug: thread 3548 joined (src/input/input.c:386)

[Saribro]

At last, someone with the same problem ! So it's not just my system.
Another thing that may be worth mentioning: Both times this situation occured on me, I had 4 week+ uptimes. I don't know if that matters at all, but any similarities in the situation are better than none at all.

[Saribro]

Application Data is a hidden directory so you will need to make it visible.

Start -> Run -> %appdata%
Will also open the directory without the need to show hidden files and folders.

[DJ]

Just for the sake of adding information i dont own anything realplayer related

As of deleting all the stuff from the directories and editing the register, will that remove it from the Add/Remove software menu or would i need to get a separate utility for that?

It is always best to use the add/remove programs. However. using regedit and searching VLC.EXE, then removing all instances will make the program disappear from the add/remove menu.

[DJ]

I got the exact same problem just two hours ago. I finished watching a movie, closed VLC and started up a different movie. The difference being that VLC no longer displayed a picture at all. It resized the size of the video but it was all black. The sound still came out just fine.

I read a bit through this thread(skimming through the first with the people quarreling) and decided to try out changing the output module. To my surprise, it worked! Sort of. The two output modules that work for me now are the OpenGL output module and Windows GDI video output module. The latter is rather blocky and unsightly-looking so I use the OpenGL one.

Some bits of info on that may or my not be of interest to anyone looking into the issue:

VLC 0.84a
Radeon X800XT with Catalyst 6.3 driver version
Windows XP Professional Service Pack 2
DirectX 9.0c(From Service Pack 2 install-cd)

If you haven't tried what I said, then do so. It may just solve the problem. To you developers that might be reading this, I wish you luck finding out what's causing it.

Try updating your video drivers or if you havn't updated DirectX since SP2 the last runtime update was Feb 06 it is not automatic nor does the version change from 9c

Shutting down DirecX as you have done is the best indication of this and is not a VLC problem.

[vlcillin]

Everytime VLC or some other video player hangs on me, I check if there's a zombie VLC task (VLC instance that didn't terminate properly). In most cases there is. These VLC zombies also disable the Windows screensaver. They're a real pest.

I drive a stake through its heart and everything's fine again.

[DJ]

Everytime VLC or some other video player hangs on me, I check if there's a zombie VLC task (VLC instance that didn't terminate properly). In most cases there is. These VLC zombies also disable the Windows screensaver. They're a real pest.

I drive a stake through its heart and everything's fine again.

I used to see this one randomly, where the program would close but Task Manager would still list it IE the program was not released properly. I'm not quite sure if it was a Microsoft update or a newer version of VLC, but the only time I have had this happen in recent months is when the file I'm trying to play is corrupted and or the processor utilazation has gone to 100% and even then most of the time it will clear itself.

[Guest]

Just for the sake of adding information i dont own anything realplayer related

As of deleting all the stuff from the directories and editing the register, will that remove it from the Add/Remove software menu or would i need to get a separate utility for that?

It is always best to use the add/remove programs. However. using regedit and searching VLC.EXE, then removing all instances will make the program disappear from the add/remove menu.

Thx, although the reason i asked in the first place is cuz i cannot use add/remove programs to remove it so i will be forced to use a different method when i need to get rid of/replace it

[Dhaiwon]

That previous post was me btw

And i've written down the regedit part to use when the time comes

[Chronophaser]

At last, someone with the same problem ! So it's not just my system.
Another thing that may be worth mentioning: Both times this situation occured on me, I had 4 week+ uptimes. I don't know if that matters at all, but any similarities in the situation are better than none at all.

I've gotten this exact same problem, and also only after uptime goes over a month. The first time it happened, it first occurred when I tried to open a video from within eMule (which normally just opens files with the OS default), so I suspected that. But now it seems the problem is VLC itself. All other media players I have seem to work fine (if somewhat laggy). And while VLC is "trying" to play things, some other screen elements (the cursor while typing this, for example) flicker, indicating *something* is happening. I've tried uninstalling, clearing registry of references to VLC, and reinstalling... even tried the standalone .zip of an older version, all to no avail. It seems VLC just won't work after a certain uptime.

Of interesting note: when I tried to play a video, then tried to play an audio file from the same VLC instance, a "VLC (Hardware YUV overlay DirectX output)" window appears, and stays open.

and for the record, my system stats:
OS:(WinXP Professional 5.1 Service Pack 2 (Build #2600)) ¤ Up:(1m 3d 9h 22m 17s) ¤ CPU:(1 CPU - AMD Athlon XP 2800+ (Barton), 2.08 GHz, L1: 64KB L2: 512KB (5% Load)) ¤ Mem:(Usage: 865/1536MB (56.32%) ¤ (||||||----)) ¤ HD:(Total/Free: 757.28/129.04GB)
Video Card: (DIAMOND S120 256MB) ¤ Sound Card: (Philips Sound Agent 2)
(taken from a mIRC system info script, because I'm lazy )

Best of luck to the developers in isolating this bug.

[DJ]

I have a friend that is equally lazy! In fact if it weren't for the automatic scans for virus and spy-ware this would not get done either. So he never clears the caches, in fact even though I have showed him, he still doesn't know where they all are. He never turns off the machine and never defragments the hard drive and doesn't know how to run chkdsk with the /f option. The only reason he is current with updates is because I did it, he refuses to realize that there is more to automatic updates than turning it on. After about a month the machine becomes a slug and things begin NOT to work. It seems that DirectX related programs are the first to go. But everything is more than just a little laggy, but instead of doing anything about it he will wait until I come over or will pay $50 to have someone else (in his words) fix it.

I don't see how this is a VLC related issue. VLC is very system dependent. If there are problems with the system, there is a very good chance there will be problems with VLC. Plus what you are suggesting is for the developers to find a machine that does this and wait a month to experience the problem then try to fix something that could very easily is out of the realm of the program.

My suggestion is to donate the machine to the VLC team in its present condition, but don't be surprised if the fix shows up here in this forum and is not a programing issue or bug within VLC.

[Dhaiwon]

Well it doesnt really matter what causes it. Since the error is experienced on VLC anyone who gets it will come here looking for a solution, so even if the solution is within the realm the system, it would still be highly useful to know what part of the system and how to solve it, in this forum

Admittedly, it might take a while, or forever(that is never) until such a definiton of error is found

[plugh]

I wonder if the other people seeing this also recover after a reboot.

btw, a hibernate/wake cycle does NOT restore vlc for me - it takes a full reboot.

[Chronophaser]

Oh, it wouldn't surprise me at all if the problem is something not in VLC. In fact, I'm quite certain the actual cause of the problem is something in the system that causes DirectX to go wonky after enough uptime.
The thing, though, is that VLC is the only player I know of that's affected by this issue. Thus, I'd assume other media players have ways to deal with the problem, or use DirectX in such a way that the problem is not apparent. Therefore, even if VLC itself isn't the problem, it's still a todo task for developers to make it not be affected by the problem.

And with that, I noticed something else. Around the time VLC stopped working, the mouseover popup text for taskbar buttons started appearing incorrectly, showing up *under* the taskbar. I don't know if that is something handled by DirectX, or if it has any relation to the problem whatsoever, but it seemed worth mentioning.

[DJ]

Oh, it wouldn't surprise me at all if the problem is something not in VLC. In fact, I'm quite certain the actual cause of the problem is something in the system that causes DirectX to go wonky after enough uptime.
The thing, though, is that VLC is the only player I know of that's affected by this issue. Thus, I'd assume other media players have ways to deal with the problem, or use DirectX in such a way that the problem is not apparent. Therefore, even if VLC itself isn't the problem, it's still a todo task for developers to make it not be affected by the problem.

And with that, I noticed something else. Around the time VLC stopped working, the mouseover popup text for taskbar buttons started appearing incorrectly, showing up *under* the taskbar. I don't know if that is something handled by DirectX, or if it has any relation to the problem whatsoever, but it seemed worth mentioning.

Intresting! I first ran across the problem noted above, but VLC was not installed on that system. All media players were effected. Perhaps VLC more so because it is very system dependent and the fact that it is a packet player unlike any other player in existence. I suppose it is also possible that different hardware is posing a bit different end result, however I believe the underling problem is the same.

I believe that it was mentioned that it is recommended to be current with DirectX. The last runtime update was in Feb 06 and is not automatic nor will the version change from 9c.

I realize that Microsoft claims that you never need to shut down your machine using XP. But they sure do it allot when you update and that wasn't supposed to be necessary. I don't think I have run across anyone that has made it beyond the month mark without some kind of major problem. Personally I consider this a mute issue given that (in my opinion) the NTFS file system is not stable enough for any operating system to be run indefinitely. Running XP from the days of early NT shows clearly that the self repair of the NTFS file system does not work and while form time to time Microsoft will acknowledge it, they have never fixed it.

[drizzle]

My W2K machine was last rebooted 1/25/06, when I did a disk image backup. My XP box was last rebooted 3/14/06, when I upgraded a hard drive. Note that I have a UPS (got tired of losing my work on power glitches), and that I 'hibernate' the systems (rather than 'shutdown') when I want to power them down. Things do occasionally get a little bonkers, particularly with the Windows shell, but that is easy to fix via the task manager (ie kill and restart the Explorer process).

This vlc hang problem should be easy to track down, given sufficient debug/trace info. I mean, some critical thread is apparently waiting for some resource (a mutex, a lock, a handle, ...) that the system can't grant vlc any more; something that only vlc uses, or that vlc uses in some unique fashion.

As I haven't rebooted my xp box since vlc went south, is there anything the devos would like checked? There should be a way to find out what threads are active and the program counter addresses at which they are stalled. Assuming there was a windows build with debug symbol table info, it shouldn't be that hard to find out what is going on...

[DJ]

This still may be a problem as I know Killing Explorer in the Task Manager and then reloading it does NOT restore all of the functions. However, Logging out and back in (I believe) does, provided that the settings for logging are not using "fast user switching" which is the default.

Using hibernate is the same as not shutting down the machine except for wear and tear on the machine. IE many functions are not renewed or reset. Microsoft recommends shutting down servers one a month and running chkdsk with the /f option, clearing the caches and defraging the hard disk. This corrects the NTFS problem mentioned earlier and everything is renewed. But most ITs have found problems before the month period has expired. Requiring more frequent maintenance.

So what is it that you would like the developers to look for when others have looked and failed to come up with a resolve??

[drizzle]

re: uptime/hibernates/etc - basically, my point is I don't reboot unless/until I HAVE to, and I seldom am forced to by OS issues.

It sort of slipped my mind, but I just realized that actually BOTH my systems are currently experiencing this problem. I had forgotten that vlc had glitched on my w2k box a couple months ago (I don't watch videos on that one much), and as I haven't rebooted that one since january...

So what is it that you would like the developers to look for when others have looked and failed to come up with a resolve??

I am OFFERING to run debug versions / do whatever they might want that would assist them in tracking down why vlc decides to just stop working when other players on the same systems continue to do so. IMHO, a key step is to identify where in the code it is sitting when it gets into this 'I'm just going to sit here and do nothing' state.

This is a problem that doesn't occur frequently, but I have at hand two systems, with differant hardware and OSes, that are experiencing the problem, and given my "work habits" they will probably remain in this state for a while.

By the way, the w2k system has MS Visual Studio 6 C++ installed with the various debugging tools, if that is of any help. IIRC it also has most of the resource kit tools installed as well.

I can understand why fixing a problem like this, where there isn't any apparent way to MAKE it occur, can be difficult. But as I have two systems in this state, here's their chance collect info on the problem.

Are they interested?

[Chronophaser]

And with that, I noticed something else. Around the time VLC stopped working, the mouseover popup text for taskbar buttons started appearing incorrectly, showing up *under* the taskbar. I don't know if that is something handled by DirectX, or if it has any relation to the problem whatsoever, but it seemed worth mentioning.

I still haven't restarted, and VLC still doesn't work, but the taskbar mouseover popups now appear correctly o_O;;... so... yeah, I don't think that has anything to do with it... back to square one.

I'm installing the latest DirectX now... and will probably restart in a couple days. If VLC works fine in another month or so, we can probably assume outdated DirectX is the problem. If this thread is still around then, I'll let you all know how it turns out.

[Guest]

Same problem here w/ Win2k SP4 on AMD A64. Problem started at ~30d Uptime. VLC shows neither video nor audio, sometimes just a grey box came, sometimes nothing happens. Time is shown correct, but no progress as well as no progress bar.
Any other solution available than reboot? Tried 082, 084 and latest beta Version, deleted all vlc-dirs.
>kq

[DJ]

I'm still not sure I quite understand the problem here??

When you do program updates or get an automatic update that presents a box on screen that tells you that in order for these updates to take effect your machine needs to be rebooted, do you ignore these and say it's OK! I will do it when I get around to it and then wonder why it doesn't work properly?

What is the big deal about rebooting? Is this some kind of weird contest to see who can stay up the longest with out catastrophic failure? Or is this just some sort of defiance against the recommendations of most sane people that know?

[drizzle]

The problem is that for some as yet unknown reason vlc stops working.

And as far as your other questions go (not that I see the relevance to the vlc problem), I infrequently do program updates, and I NEVER do "automatic" updates. When I do decide to apply upgrades/updates, I either (a) try them out in a virtual machine first (I run VMware) or (b) take an image backup first, apply the changes, and then go through a testing period (which has on occasion resulted in rollback).

And no, it isn't some sort of contest, it is a way of working that you apparently do not appreciate, but it should also be apparent that I and a number of other people do.

In any event, the number of people here who have said "me too" should make it clear that vlc has an obscure problem, and I have offered to work with the devos to track it down.

Are they interested?

[DJ]

Well, I think the key word here is "Obscure" and against all recommendations, but then again (I guess) this is why it's called a personal computer IE freedom of choice.

I have asked one of the developers to make comment here so that you have some kind of official answer regarding this matter. He is a nice guy and approaches things in a straight up manner. He is one of the driving forces behind VLC and always is looking for ways to improve it.