[SOLVED] vlc: sometimes no sound after jump

bdantas · 2015-03-12 03:55:32

When jumping to random places during video playback in vlc (e.g., to look for a particular scene), I notice that sometimes sound playback quits. Jumping around some more often restores sound playback, but sometimes it takes several jumps to get the sound back. How many jumps it takes to reproduce the problem or make it go away seems to be random. This is happening on all video files I've tried.

I never had this problem before I upgraded my system on 3/1/15. My current vlc version is 2.2.0-1. I tried downgrading just vlc to the version I had before the upgrade (2.1.5-5) and the problem is still there. I also tried installing phonon-qt5-vlc (since during the upgrade pacman asked me whether to install phonon-qt5-gstreamer or phonon-qt5-vlc and I chose pacman's recommendation, which was phonon-qt5-gstreamer) and that did not solve the problem, either.

I'm not sure where to go from here. Can someone please help me troubleshoot further?

Last edited by bdantas (2015-03-12 21:22:50)

graysky · 2015-03-12 08:39:19

I've seen this too.

dice · 2015-03-12 10:51:09

I don't use vlc very often so I didn't notice this before. But I just tried it out as I saw this post and can confirm this behaviour.
It happens rarely for me but it happens and it appearss to be totally random. Maybe a bug within vlc itself?
Found a post on the arch-general mailing list (https://lists.archlinux.org/pipermail/a … 37296.html). No one answered though

bdantas · 2015-03-12 12:44:43

Thanks for the replies. At least it's good to know that this behavior is not unique to my machine because of something I did wrong.

If this problem bothers me enough, I may consider using a different media player for the time being.

Radioactiveman · 2015-03-12 14:16:47

I had the same problem with 2.2.0 but setting "Output module" (under Audio Settings) in the preferences fixed it apparently.

bdantas · 2015-03-12 15:28:13

Which output module worked for you? I did try different settings for output module (Automatic, Pulseaudio, ALSA) and it didn't make any difference for me.

I read somewhere that resetting vlc's preferences might help, so I tried that as well--both via the GUI as well as by deleting ~/.config/vlc--and that had no effect, either.

Last edited by bdantas (2015-03-12 15:39:57)

Radioactiveman · 2015-03-12 15:54:18

Hmm, the problem is still there. It seems as the file type makes a difference here. I reproduced it with a MP4 video but a Flash video worked fine.

dice · 2015-03-12 16:21:42

Might be a problem with specific codecs then

bdantas · 2015-03-12 19:47:48

This is a little off-topic, but I did a little research on vlc alternatives and found that mplayer and vlc are very similar projects (both are extremely versatile, fairly self-contained, licensed under GPL). Main difference between the two seems to be that vlc is bundled with its own gui, while mplayer is just the backend--gui frontends include GNOME Mplayer, KMplayer, and SMplayer (the latter is written in qt and seems to be more DE-independent).

I'll give SMplayer a try to see if it has the same problem, then I'll report back.

So much great free (as in freedom) software, so little time...

Last edited by bdantas (2015-03-12 19:48:32)

graysky · 2015-03-12 19:49:24

Yes, mplayer is the classic cli interface and plays everything. Check out mplayer-resumer in the AUR.

Last edited by graysky (2015-03-12 19:49:53)

bdantas · 2015-03-12 19:53:33

I see you first submitted that package in 2010. Seems I'm very late to the party. Well, better late than never.

graysky · 2015-03-12 19:56:51

Ha, mplayer is much older than 2010... been using it since 2003 myself and it predates that by a few years I think.

bdantas · 2015-03-12 21:21:33

I tried smplayer and am happy to report that it is a drop-in replacement for vlc. The issue that prompted me to open this thread does not affect smplayer at all.

graysky, I found that the functionality of your mplayer-resumer wrapper script is built into smplayer. It is a very nice feature.

I think the issue I reported is a bug in vlc and not arch-related. Also, smplayer is a very satisfying workaround. I will mark thread as solved.

Last edited by bdantas (2015-03-12 21:23:18)

Arch Linux

#1 2015-03-12 03:55:32

[SOLVED] vlc: sometimes no sound after jump

#2 2015-03-12 08:39:19

Re: [SOLVED] vlc: sometimes no sound after jump

#3 2015-03-12 10:51:09

Re: [SOLVED] vlc: sometimes no sound after jump

#4 2015-03-12 12:44:43

Re: [SOLVED] vlc: sometimes no sound after jump

#5 2015-03-12 14:16:47

Re: [SOLVED] vlc: sometimes no sound after jump

#6 2015-03-12 15:28:13

Re: [SOLVED] vlc: sometimes no sound after jump

#7 2015-03-12 15:54:18

Re: [SOLVED] vlc: sometimes no sound after jump

#8 2015-03-12 16:21:42

Re: [SOLVED] vlc: sometimes no sound after jump

#9 2015-03-12 19:47:48

Re: [SOLVED] vlc: sometimes no sound after jump

#10 2015-03-12 19:49:24

Re: [SOLVED] vlc: sometimes no sound after jump

#11 2015-03-12 19:53:33

Re: [SOLVED] vlc: sometimes no sound after jump

#12 2015-03-12 19:56:51

Re: [SOLVED] vlc: sometimes no sound after jump

#13 2015-03-12 21:21:33

Re: [SOLVED] vlc: sometimes no sound after jump

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