Arch Linux

bmf

Member

Registered: 2015-03-10

Posts: 4

Grey screen and artifacts in VLC playing h264

I have the problem that when I watch h264 encoded Videos in VLC I get a grey screen and alot of Artifacts every now and then.

I looked in the output and get sth like this when an error occurs

[h264 @ 0x7f3884cb08e0] reference picture missing during reorder
[h264 @ 0x7f3884cb08e0] reference picture missing during reorder
[h264 @ 0x7f3884cb08e0] reference picture missing during reorder
[h264 @ 0x7f3884cb08e0] Missing reference picture, default is 14
[h264 @ 0x7f3884cb08e0] Missing reference picture, default is 14
[h264 @ 0x7f3884cb08e0] Missing reference picture, default is 14
[h264 @ 0x7f3884cb08e0] reference picture missing during reorder
[h264 @ 0x7f3884cb08e0] reference picture missing during reorder
[h264 @ 0x7f3884cb08e0] reference picture missing during reorder
[h264 @ 0x7f3884cb08e0] Missing reference picture, default is 65600
[h264 @ 0x7f3884cb08e0] Missing reference picture, default is 65600
[h264 @ 0x7f3884cb08e0] Missing reference picture, default is 65600
[h264 @ 0x7f3884cb1260] reference picture missing during reorder
[h264 @ 0x7f3884cb1260] reference picture missing during reorder
[h264 @ 0x7f3884cb1260] reference picture missing during reorder
[h264 @ 0x7f3884cb1260] Missing reference picture, default is 14
[h264 @ 0x7f3884cb1260] Missing reference picture, default is 14
[h264 @ 0x7f3884cb1260] Missing reference picture, default is 14
[h264 @ 0x7f3884cb1be0] mmco: unref short failure
[h264 @ 0x7f3884cb1be0] number of reference frames (0+9) exceeds max (8; probably corrupt input), discarding one
[h264 @ 0x7f3884cb1260] reference picture missing during reorder
[h264 @ 0x7f3884cb1260] reference picture missing during reorder
[h264 @ 0x7f3884cb1260] reference picture missing during reorder
[h264 @ 0x7f3884cb1260] Missing reference picture, default is 65616
[h264 @ 0x7f3884cb1260] Missing reference picture, default is 65616
[h264 @ 0x7f3884cb1260] Missing reference picture, default is 65616
[h264 @ 0x7f3884cbff80] mmco: unref short failure

The Videos work fine in Smplayer and Kodi. The problem only occurs in VLC.

I dont really know how to fix this, any help is appreciated

ReiserFS

Member

Registered: 2014-02-01

Posts: 57

Re: Grey screen and artifacts in VLC playing h264

same here

Learning

Member

Registered: 2014-04-12

Posts: 22

Re: Grey screen and artifacts in VLC playing h264

did you solve this problem?

bytephunk

Member

Registered: 2016-05-02

Posts: 13

Re: Grey screen and artifacts in VLC playing h264

I solved this problem by downgrading to vlc-2.0.8.a-1 . Current version was 2.2.2-3 . You can find the package in the Arch archive https://archive.archlinux.org/packages/v/vlc/

This appears to be a vlc problem common to several distros. To me it happened only with MKV files.

I found the solution here related to a Slackware build https://www.linuxquestions.org/question … 828-print/

Potomac

Member

Registered: 2011-12-25

Posts: 528

Re: Grey screen and artifacts in VLC playing h264

another solution is to change the video output in VLC options ( video section ) :

- choose "Xvideo (XCB)" and check "accelerated video output (overlay)" option

the green artifacts will disapear

V1del

Forum Moderator

Registered: 2012-10-16

Posts: 21,657

Re: Grey screen and artifacts in VLC playing h264

Just disable Hardware Decoding (VDPAU, VAAPI), it tends to be buggy on certain systems, no point in downgrading to a release where hardware decoding wasn't even a thing

Potomac

Member

Registered: 2011-12-25

Posts: 528

Re: Grey screen and artifacts in VLC playing h264

it's not necessary to disable hardware decoding ( VDPAU, VAAPI ), there is a better solution,

in my case I can use VDPAU/VAAPI with my amd radeon HD4650 pcie, but I had to change the video output in vlc in order to fix the "green artifacts" problem,

I notice also that mplayer handles better VDPAU than VLC

bytephunk

Member

Registered: 2016-05-02

Posts: 13

Re: Grey screen and artifacts in VLC playing h264

another solution is to change the video output in VLC options ( video section ) :

- choose "Xvideo (XCB)" and check "accelerated video output (overlay)" option

the green artifacts will disapear

I just tried and it doesn't work. Artifacts are still there. I think there may be more than one reasons for the artifacts.

It appears to be a problem with the reference frames and I think this may  also be due to some poor encoding.  But somehow the older version can take a beating.