vlc 0.9.4 slower than 0.8.6 - video freezes then resumes pixelated for a few seconds

[komputes]

I find that the new version on VLC takes more time to start up a video. On many videos I get a black screen for a few seconds before I get video. Then, while playing the video, I get momentary freezes where the video will freeze on one frame while the audio keeps on playing, then it will slowly catch up (showing a lot of pixelation between the frozen frame and the resuming video) and then continue playing video normally. This freeze/pixelation does not happen with the same video if I install VLC 0.8.6 or if I run it in mplayer. The video I am playing is encoded with xvid codec. I have uploaded a sample of what this freeze/resume-pixelated looks like.

[yarly (ih8junkmai1)]

I think this bug is related to the following threads.

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=972696
http://forum.videolan.org/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=53415

I've observed this behaviour under a fresh install of Ubuntu 8.10

I'm desperately looking for a solution. If I can't find one it's back to windows XP

Let me know if there's anything I need to provide to assist in tracing this bug.

[yarly (ih8junkmai1)]

I've also noticed that every time a freeze happens in vlc, that top shows a CPU spike in Xorg of approximately 10%.

[yarly (ih8junkmai1)]

I am experiencing the skipping/freeze in vlc 0.8.6h

I should probably open a different bug

[Robert Moerland (veel-mail)]

On a fresh install of Xubuntu 8.10, VLC's video output (DVD, avi) freezes as well, while the audio continues uninterrupted. Sometimes it catches on again (instantly), but usually there's no recovery but to restart VLC. I am not using Compiz, and have the free nVidia drivers installed. Other players (MPlayer, Totem) do not show this behavior. VLC version 0.9.4-1ubuntu3.

[yarly (ih8junkmai1)]

rjmoerland,

Your issue is basically the same as what I've been experiencing.

Frankly, I'm surprised that more Ubuntu users are not reporting this issue on launchpad. Maybe it's because they don't even know about launchpad.

I believe this problem is not caused by vlc 0.9.4 , but possibly from OS changes that occured between Ubuntu 8.04 to Ubuntu 8.10. Why do I believe this? I've observed random stalling/skipping while audio continues while troubleshooting this issue in both Ubuntu packages vlc 0.8.6h and 0.9.4

Usually what happens is a reboot or system change will make the random skipping go away for a short period of time only to return shortly after. Some changes like unchecking vlc's disable screensaver option improved the visibility of random skipping the problem, but it still resides if you look hard enough.

You can see in the forum threads below where I tried many different things hoping to find a workaround. I've tested the following configurations with no change.

VLC: 0.8.6h/0.9.4
Compiz: On/Off
Video Output Module: X11/XVideo
VLC Disable Screensaver: On/Off

Below are some threads of users reporting this issue (there may be more threads)

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1000393
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=972696

http://forum.videolan.org/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=53160
http://forum.videolan.org/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=53415

One observation I've noted in my posts is that this random frame skipping always coincides with a CPU spike in Xorg as well as gnome-screensaver (when VLC disable screensaver option is enabled). This can be seen by opening a terminal window, running the top command, then starting a video in vlc. Wait for random skipping to occur in vlc, when it happens, look at top output and there should be a 10% spike in xorg right as it happens.

I believe the observed effects of this bug may be related to a Xorg bug although I can not say if this is certain. All I know for sure is that this random frame skipping coincides with a CPU spike in Xorg.

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/xorg/+bug/294972

[Hew (hew)]

There have been a large number of bugfixes with the latest VLC release, 1.0.0~rc2-1ubuntu1. Can you reproduce your issue with this latest version? You can test this in Ubuntu Karmic, or Ubuntu Jaunty with the MOTU Media PPA at https://launchpad.net/~motumedia/+archive/ppa . Thanks in advance.

[komputes (komputes)]

1.0.0~rc2-1ubuntu1~ppa1 does not start up

komputes@jaunty:~$ vlc
VLC media player 1.0.0-rc2 Goldeneye
[0x9d2bfd0] main interface error: no interface module matched "globalhotkeys,none"
[0x9d2bfd0] main interface error: no suitable interface module
[0x9be5140] main libvlc error: interface "globalhotkeys,none" initialization failed
[0x9be5140] main libvlc: Running vlc with the default interface. Use 'cvlc' to use vlc without interface.
Segmentation fault

Hew, can you please test and confirm this happens to you. Marking as confirmed since yarly has the same issue.

[Reinhard Tartler (siretart)]

can you please try also with a fresh user profile? Or at least please remove your ~/.config/vlc

[komputes (komputes)]

Hi Reinhard,

I get to the download option screen but after selecting "Download Only" and clicking OK, it still segfaults.

komputes@jaunty:~$ rm -fr .config/vlc/
komputes@jaunty:~$ vlc
VLC media player 1.0.0-rc2 Goldeneye
[0x89b0f18] main interface error: no interface module matched "globalhotkeys,none"
[0x89b0f18] main interface error: no suitable interface module
[0x886a140] main libvlc error: interface "globalhotkeys,none" initialization failed
[0x886a140] main libvlc: Running vlc with the default interface. Use 'cvlc' to use vlc without interface.
Segmentation fault

[komputes (komputes)]

Please provide a gdb package for vlc 1.0.0~rc2-1ubuntu1~ppa1

[garijon (garijon)]

Hi,

I am having the same problem with ubuntu jaunty and vlc 0.9.9a

[rusivi2 (rusivi2-deactivatedaccount)]

Thank you for reporting this bug.

Have you noticed this in Lucid?

[komputes (komputes)]

I haven't had this issue with vlc 1.0.6 in Lucid. Marking as fixed.

There is also a workaround from http://forum.videolan.org/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=53415#p191217
I used to have this problem and solved it by disabling desktop effects.
If it doesn't solve, try "sudo renice +1 <vlc pid>"