None of my players can show an mp4 image and since I'm too lazy to go look for codecs and also weary that I might screw up my current ones I decided to open them with VLC.
However, whenever I run an mp4 with VLC it lags out tremendeously, image freezes for tens of seconds at a time, and on occasions the player even crashes.
I am using the player's default settings and even tried a little tweaking of my own but it didn't help. The player always lags at the exact same scenes, image freezing most of the time.
I am positive it is not a problem with the mp4s themselves since I've seen them play fine on other computers. However, I have not tried them out with VLC on those computers.
And I don't think it's a video rendering issue since I got the same lag when trying the ASCII art output, lol. XD
I am running Windows XP SP2, video card=GeForce FX5200, 768 RAM @ 1.7Ghz CPU.
.mp4 issue
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Please post only Windows specific questions in this forum category. If you don't know where to post, please read the different forums' rules. Thanks.
In this case having the last drivers built for the card may not be enough. The drivers must carry a date later than Oct 04 to be considered compatible with DirectX 9c and even then some newer nVidia card owners have had to step back in versions to find one that works.
The key is when DirectX is shut down in VLC the problems go away. Then you will know you need new drivers. This can be tried for both audio and or video related problems. But please keep in mind that all digital video is follow audio for sync. This means that if the audio is not or can not control the video properly or the video is not allowing audio control new drivers may resolve the problem. There are also a few audio cards that do not or can not use the float32 function causing noisy audio or in some cases no audio.
There is probably one other issue that should be mentioned. It is possible to place HD video (H.264) into a MP4 container that many slower machines will not play and it appears to lag and lock the machine. If MP4 is truly the only format causing these issues you may have a look at your Task Manager for CPU and memory usage. Messages within VLC will also show the nature of problems encountered.
The key is when DirectX is shut down in VLC the problems go away. Then you will know you need new drivers. This can be tried for both audio and or video related problems. But please keep in mind that all digital video is follow audio for sync. This means that if the audio is not or can not control the video properly or the video is not allowing audio control new drivers may resolve the problem. There are also a few audio cards that do not or can not use the float32 function causing noisy audio or in some cases no audio.
There is probably one other issue that should be mentioned. It is possible to place HD video (H.264) into a MP4 container that many slower machines will not play and it appears to lag and lock the machine. If MP4 is truly the only format causing these issues you may have a look at your Task Manager for CPU and memory usage. Messages within VLC will also show the nature of problems encountered.
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Oh they're latest allright.
And as I mentioned before same lockups occur with ASCII art output. I have switched sound to waveout and video to windows GDI and it's STILL doing it. >.=.<
Anyways clean reinstall and master reset didn't help. As for shutting down DX, you meant rendering audio and video through non-DX devices, right?
And yes, VLC eats up 80% of my CPU when running mp4, regardless of what audio/video rendering I use, instead of the usual 10%
And as I mentioned before same lockups occur with ASCII art output. I have switched sound to waveout and video to windows GDI and it's STILL doing it. >.=.<
Anyways clean reinstall and master reset didn't help. As for shutting down DX, you meant rendering audio and video through non-DX devices, right?
And yes, VLC eats up 80% of my CPU when running mp4, regardless of what audio/video rendering I use, instead of the usual 10%
Excuse me, apparently I was not logged in when I made that last post, so it was posted as a guest. Please merge into this one and delete if necessary. Sorry again.
EDIT: I have switched to an older video driver, but to no avail. The problem persists as beore. Btw my DX version is 9.0c. I have also tried setting my driver for best performance instead of best quality, again that solved nothing.
EDIT: I have switched to an older video driver, but to no avail. The problem persists as beore. Btw my DX version is 9.0c. I have also tried setting my driver for best performance instead of best quality, again that solved nothing.
If MP4 is the only container that is giving you problem the file format is most likely H.264 and DirectX does not offer much for this form in the way of help for CPU load. You can try a lower resolution file just to see where your machine is craping out. But more than likely the machine in question is to slow for this type of file IE resolution.
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You can install Haali Media Splitter
http://haali.cs.msu.ru/mkv/
and FFDshow and you can watch most MP4 videos wit WMP or with any other Directshow player and test if problem really is in VLC.
http://haali.cs.msu.ru/mkv/
and FFDshow and you can watch most MP4 videos wit WMP or with any other Directshow player and test if problem really is in VLC.
Thank you. At long last something other than VLC can play mp4s. Haali media splitter with options selected only for mp4 support has allowed me to view the movie better than anything so far. I am getting an image and only a few short freezes here and there. I'll see if I can fix them through haali tweaking, though I hope I am done with this at last.
ffdshow is more processor intensive than VLC and the source code is VLC that is being used for ffdshow. So what exactly do you hope to gain. Oh! yes the Haali splitter that causes a conflict with VLC's transcode functions and when it is removed does not put Windows back the way it was. Great suggestions all around!You can install Haali Media Splitter
http://haali.cs.msu.ru/mkv/
and FFDshow and you can watch most MP4 videos wit WMP or with any other Directshow player and test if problem really is in VLC.
Dunno about your concernes but so far it worked best for me. XP
I got a nice, smooth image and the only problem I have is that sometimes sound will become "fragmented" at certain parts of the mp4, and I have so far failed to figure that out.
I am using haali x coreavc to run mp4s at the moment, so far it's proven a much less sound-fragmenting option than ffdshow. Also, I noticed I can stop the fragmentation by setting haali's processing priority to normal instead of high, but then the image starts lagging behind the sound badly. I've also tried bsplayer and various other tweaks, doesn't help so my problem stays current.
And yet, another, less fussy mp4 played fine with only a bit of sound fragmenting at certain portions.
And DJ if you're that concerned as to why it doesn't play well in mp4 then maybe you can tell me how to tweak my comp to get it working. I do have to admit mp4 playing is the only issue I've ever had with vlc so far, otherwise behaving flawlessly with anything else it ever played. So far I've tried a few tweaks in its settings, reverting my video card driver, and even lowering sound hardware accelerration in DX and setting my nVidia for best performance, and disabling anisotropy, anti-aliasing, vsync, etc.. If you have any suggestions I'm open to them.
Btw, if it's of any help, my CPU is a 1.7Ghz Celeron. Norton could be bogging it down too, I have 46 processes running when I'm not doing anything and an average load of 13-25%. MPC takes it to about 90-100% when it's playing mp4... geez. @.=.@
And btw I looked H264 up on the internet. Sounds like a state-of-the-art, but CPU-consuming format...
I got a nice, smooth image and the only problem I have is that sometimes sound will become "fragmented" at certain parts of the mp4, and I have so far failed to figure that out.
I am using haali x coreavc to run mp4s at the moment, so far it's proven a much less sound-fragmenting option than ffdshow. Also, I noticed I can stop the fragmentation by setting haali's processing priority to normal instead of high, but then the image starts lagging behind the sound badly. I've also tried bsplayer and various other tweaks, doesn't help so my problem stays current.
And yet, another, less fussy mp4 played fine with only a bit of sound fragmenting at certain portions.
And DJ if you're that concerned as to why it doesn't play well in mp4 then maybe you can tell me how to tweak my comp to get it working. I do have to admit mp4 playing is the only issue I've ever had with vlc so far, otherwise behaving flawlessly with anything else it ever played. So far I've tried a few tweaks in its settings, reverting my video card driver, and even lowering sound hardware accelerration in DX and setting my nVidia for best performance, and disabling anisotropy, anti-aliasing, vsync, etc.. If you have any suggestions I'm open to them.
Btw, if it's of any help, my CPU is a 1.7Ghz Celeron. Norton could be bogging it down too, I have 46 processes running when I'm not doing anything and an average load of 13-25%. MPC takes it to about 90-100% when it's playing mp4... geez. @.=.@
And btw I looked H264 up on the internet. Sounds like a state-of-the-art, but CPU-consuming format...
CoreAVC is the least processor intensive h.264 decoder out there. You could try Gabest's mp4 front end (MP4Splitter) rather than the Haali that has known problems. But I doubt that this alone will help you. The real problems appears to be the resolution of the file which you continue to avoid posting here. Your machine appears to slow to handle the files you are trying to play. Try to download some HD QuickTime files in various resolutions and see where your machine craps out.
You could also try Microsofts website for WMP and have a look at their HD files and run some of their tests to see where your machine craps out.
You could also try Microsofts website for WMP and have a look at their HD files and run some of their tests to see where your machine craps out.
Resolution is 640x480.
I've tried QT for the mp4 but I keep getting unknown errors when trying to open them. o.=.O
Gabest didn't help. Image lags behind tremendously on every player, so it's back to haali for the moment.
It seems that unless a splitter can boost its own priority to cope with the amount of data that needs decoding image will just lag behind. So far I've only seen haali have an option for that.
I've tried QT for the mp4 but I keep getting unknown errors when trying to open them. o.=.O
Gabest didn't help. Image lags behind tremendously on every player, so it's back to haali for the moment.
It seems that unless a splitter can boost its own priority to cope with the amount of data that needs decoding image will just lag behind. So far I've only seen haali have an option for that.
I wouldn't think that 640x480 would be a problem for your machine, but you are running across some rather strange problems. Most likely conflicts of some sort. The Gabest filter just ran smother for me and was backward compatible to ASP rather than just doing AVC. There was no visible CPU difference. But then again my machine will do 720p in h.264 and 1080p as a HD MPEG 2
Have you tried some of Microsoft's tests for their HD format? I find the end result (tests) to be similar to h.264 in requirements for a machine.
Have you tried some of Microsoft's tests for their HD format? I find the end result (tests) to be similar to h.264 in requirements for a machine.
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