I used to love VLC player, but now......
whitebakecase
Posts: 4 Forum Member
I'm at my wits end.
I used to rate VLC player for its extended abilities over any other media player, for instance with file conversion and streaming, but it's really getting on my pickle at the moment.
Ive installed it on two machines recently, one of which is a very capable dualcore with 3GB of RAM (win8.1) and the other a P4 3.2GHz with 2GB of RAM (win7 ultimate).
On both machines, when I try to play even a basic MP3, I get stuttering, pausing, and this strange square wave effect, and the track becomes unplayable.
On both machines I've tried reinstalling audio drivers, using old versions of VLC, adjusting VLC's audio output through all options like wavesound and directx, but I just cant get rid of the issue. Neither machine is struggling with other applications, infact I've tried using task manager and switching everything off, and the CPU usage doesnt go above 10% on either machine while VLC is stuttering.
The machine I'm currently using is running old VLC version 2.0.5, but the problem is still there.
I've googled for this time and time over and theres lots of info and fixes (most of which I've tried) for video stuttering, but I'm getting this problem with just MP3's.
I know its not the machine specs that are inferior, and its not other apps or CPU usage thats holding VLC back, so what the hell is it?
I'd appreciate any help before I go back to the old faithful winamp...
I used to rate VLC player for its extended abilities over any other media player, for instance with file conversion and streaming, but it's really getting on my pickle at the moment.
Ive installed it on two machines recently, one of which is a very capable dualcore with 3GB of RAM (win8.1) and the other a P4 3.2GHz with 2GB of RAM (win7 ultimate).
On both machines, when I try to play even a basic MP3, I get stuttering, pausing, and this strange square wave effect, and the track becomes unplayable.
On both machines I've tried reinstalling audio drivers, using old versions of VLC, adjusting VLC's audio output through all options like wavesound and directx, but I just cant get rid of the issue. Neither machine is struggling with other applications, infact I've tried using task manager and switching everything off, and the CPU usage doesnt go above 10% on either machine while VLC is stuttering.
The machine I'm currently using is running old VLC version 2.0.5, but the problem is still there.
I've googled for this time and time over and theres lots of info and fixes (most of which I've tried) for video stuttering, but I'm getting this problem with just MP3's.
I know its not the machine specs that are inferior, and its not other apps or CPU usage thats holding VLC back, so what the hell is it?
I'd appreciate any help before I go back to the old faithful winamp...
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Comments
I would look to drivers (sound obviously, especially if you have let Win 8.1 install them) but it could be a video driver conflict (especially if you are using HDMI audio).
Also, if VLC is in background, all Win 8.1 stuff is rubbish at running smoothly when it doesn't have main focus (Silverlight, Flash, etc.) so if you have VLC playing audio when you are doing something else that's fairly CPU intensive, it doesn't do so well. But equally, this doesn't explain the Win 7 issue - maybe a software conflict common to both machines?
Now I find that Window Media Player 9 won't play MPG files since I installed VLC.
Has VLC deleted or overwritten the codecs or plug-ins that WMP9 was using or did I uninstall them when I got rid of Cyberlink?
If paid for, this guy's operating system cost 100X the 10 year old cpu's value on ebay. My various pc's average is OS = 10% of hardware cost.
when you say WMP9 wont play mpeg files are we talking about when you double click one it doesn't open in wmp? or that when you drag one in it refuses to play it?
VLC doesn't use 'codecs' as such. the libraries are kept internal. as opposed to WMP which uses the windows codec library.
If I double click on any .MPG file in Explorer, VLC will open and play it......no problem.
If I run WMP9 and attempt to open the same .MPG file I get the following message:
"Windows Media Player cannot play the file. The file may be formatted with an unsupported codec"
which makes me think that I deleted the necessary codecs along with Cyberlink PowerDVD.
No....I picked a dozen .mpg files at random....same response in each case. Some were created over the weekend and played ok then with WMP9.
it seems wmp may have been using cyberlink's mpeg 2 codec. and you may need to download another one.
Panic over....
Found the original Dell supplied system cds and re-installed an old version of PowerDVD. WMP9 playing .mpg files like they always did
Thanks!
I think his OS cost £0 - I don't think I've ever seen a legit Windows Ultimate.
It's a bit puzzling why you use WMP9, then I realised you must be running XP as Vista and 7 came with WMP11. I hope it is just for playing video.
You're so right....I'm still relying on XP for an operating system
However, I much prefer WMP9 for playing .mpg files (unlike VLC, the screen doesn't go blank at the end of the video) and ripping music and audio CDs (simple interface, no bells and no whistles).
Having now installed VLC, I'm going to use it to play commercial DVDs and the odd FLV, AVI and VOB file.
i only use WMP for playing MP3. one of the things that really jerks me off is if it detects an audio cd in the draw it jumps to that.
If you have a "non active" audio disc in your cd/dvd draw I cannot see how WMP would ignore your instruction to play an MP3 file whether it is on your hard drive or a connected USB stick?
No it doesn't. I mean if I'm watching a film or listening to music and I burn a disk amp jumps to it.