VLC will not play certain mp4 h264 files

pheonix991 · 2013-09-04 00:53:07

VLC will not play certain mp4 h264 files. Some h264 files work, others don't. I don't know why.

I opened vlc in a console, then tried to play the file. Here is the output.

VLC is version 2.0.8. x64 build of arch.

[0x1e64798] lirc interface error: lirc initialisation failed
[0x1e64798] main interface error: no suitable interface module
[0x1d72488] main libvlc: Running vlc with the default interface. Use 'cvlc' to use vlc without interface.
libva info: VA-API version 0.34.0
libva info: va_getDriverName() returns 0
libva info: Trying to open /usr/lib/dri/nvidia_drv_video.so
libva info: Found init function __vaDriverInit_0_33
libva info: va_openDriver() returns 0
[0x7fb634c3deb8] avcodec decoder: Using VA API version 0.34 for hardware decoding.
*** Error in `vlc': free(): invalid next size (fast): 0x00007fb63c415ca0 ***

I'm extremely new to arch, detailed help would be extremely nice please!

Thanks guys.

rufus · 2013-09-04 04:41:31

try @pacman -Sy gst-libav

edit: are you intent on using vlc? because I use smplayer installed by #pacman -Sy smplayer
and then youll need all the codecs particularly the mpeg ones...
you also can try renaming the vlc config ala; mv ~/.config/vlc ~/.config/vlc.old
otherwise its a vlc specific problem https://wiki.videolan.org/Documentation … /Playback/

Last edited by rufus (2013-09-04 04:56:47)

rufus · 2013-09-04 04:59:17

try playing them in smplayer with codecs installed maybe your mpegs are corrupt....good luck

Rhubarb · 2013-09-04 14:05:14

Try disabling hardware video acceleration in VLC.
You can find it in Tools --> Preferences. Then in the lower left tell it to show all settings.
Now navigate to "Input / Codecs" --> "Video Codecs" --> "FFmpeg", in there you'll want to uncheck the box that relates to "Hardware decoding".
Then close vlc and open it up again, load up your video as see if that works.

This has happened to me a few times when I want to watch videos with a low cpu usage, then load up a video that my video card doesn't like to accelerate (which in my case would be nvidia's VDPAU hardware acceleration.

Note there is also an option to accelerate video output (overlay).
That shouldn't be an issue, but it might be, try turning it off:
Tools --> Preferences. Then in the lower left tell it to show simple settings.
Go to the Video button, and try unchecking "Accelerated video output (overlay)", then restart vlc and try to load up a video.

pheonix991 · 2013-09-04 21:29:21

Rhubarb wrote:

Try disabling hardware video acceleration in VLC.
You can find it in Tools --> Preferences. Then in the lower left tell it to show all settings.
Now navigate to "Input / Codecs" --> "Video Codecs" --> "FFmpeg", in there you'll want to uncheck the box that relates to "Hardware decoding".
Then close vlc and open it up again, load up your video as see if that works.
This has happened to me a few times when I want to watch videos with a low cpu usage, then load up a video that my video card doesn't like to accelerate (which in my case would be nvidia's VDPAU hardware acceleration.
Note there is also an option to accelerate video output (overlay).
That shouldn't be an issue, but it might be, try turning it off:
Tools --> Preferences. Then in the lower left tell it to show simple settings.
Go to the Video button, and try unchecking "Accelerated video output (overlay)", then restart vlc and try to load up a video.

This works.

HOWEVER... Since I'm using this computer as an htpc, it is a dual core intel Atom/nvidia Ion rig, the video is too choppy to play smoothly due to high cpu usage.

SMplayer does not play the file either.

I assume switching to phonon-gstreamer won't fix the issue of nvidia's VDPAU issues. Or am I wrong, and should give it a try?

kaszak696 · 2013-09-04 21:41:16

10bit H264 does not work on any hardware accelerator, are your h264 files encoded like this? You can check by using mediainfo, if you see output like this:

-snip-
Format profile                           : High 10@L5.1
-snip-
Bit depth                                : 10 bits
-snip-

Then you are out of luck, these files will blow up on hardware accel until you reencode them into 8bit profile.

pheonix991 · 2013-09-04 22:46:22

General
Complete name                            : S.mp4
Format                                   : MPEG-4
Format profile                           : Base Media
Codec ID                                 : isom
File size                                : 502 MiB
Duration                                 : 56mn 37s
Overall bit rate mode                    : Variable
Overall bit rate                         : 1 239 Kbps
Encoded date                             : UTC 2011-09-08 11:43:25
Tagged date                              : UTC 2011-09-08 11:43:25

Video
ID                                       : 1
Format                                   : AVC
Format/Info                              : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile                           : High@L3.1
Format settings, CABAC                   : Yes
Format settings, ReFrames                : 5 frames
Codec ID                                 : avc1
Codec ID/Info                            : Advanced Video Coding
Duration                                 : 56mn 37s
Bit rate                                 : 1 101 Kbps
Width                                    : 720 pixels
Height                                   : 402 pixels
Display aspect ratio                     : 16:9
Frame rate mode                          : Constant
Frame rate                               : 23.976 fps
Color space                              : YUV
Chroma subsampling                       : 4:2:0
Bit depth                                : 8 bits
Scan type                                : Progressive
Bits/(Pixel*Frame)                       : 0.159
Stream size                              : 446 MiB (89%)
Writing library                          : x264 core 130 r2273 b3065e6
Encoding settings                        : cabac=1 / ref=5 / deblock=1:0:0 / analyse=0x3:0x113 / me=umh / subme=8 / psy=1 / psy_rd=1.00:0.00 / mixed_ref=1 / me_range=16 / chroma_me=1 / trellis=1 / 8x8dct=1 / cqm=0 / deadzone=21,11 / fast_pskip=1 / chroma_qp_offset=-2 / threads=18 / lookahead_threads=3 / sliced_threads=0 / nr=0 / decimate=1 / interlaced=0 / bluray_compat=0 / constrained_intra=0 / bframes=3 / b_pyramid=2 / b_adapt=2 / b_bias=0 / direct=3 / weightb=1 / open_gop=0 / weightp=2 / keyint=250 / keyint_min=23 / scenecut=40 / intra_refresh=0 / rc_lookahead=50 / rc=crf / mbtree=1 / crf=19.0 / qcomp=0.60 / qpmin=0 / qpmax=69 / qpstep=4 / ip_ratio=1.40 / aq=1:1.00
Encoded date                             : UTC 2011-09-08 11:43:25
Tagged date                              : UTC 2011-09-08 11:43:25
Matrix coefficients                      : BT.709

Audio
ID                                       : 2
Format                                   : AAC
Format/Info                              : Advanced Audio Codec
Format profile                           : LC
Codec ID                                 : 40
Duration                                 : 56mn 37s
Bit rate mode                            : Variable
Bit rate                                 : 132 Kbps
Maximum bit rate                         : 218 Kbps
Channel(s)                               : 2 channels
Channel positions                        : Front: L R
Sampling rate                            : 48.0 KHz
Compression mode                         : Lossy
Delay relative to video                  : 83ms
Stream size                              : 53.3 MiB (11%)
Encoded date                             : UTC 2011-09-08 11:43:25
Tagged date                              : UTC 2011-09-08 11:43:25

I guess I'll have to figure out how to remux them.

kaszak696 · 2013-09-05 05:23:03

That file looks ok, there shouldn't be any problem in accelerating it. Since you are using nVidia gizmo, how about skipping VA-API and setup vlc to use vdpau directly? Maybe libva is causing this.

appishaiq · 2014-09-26 01:49:25

VLC does play MP4 files, but it has strict limitations: VLC Media Player is only compatible with MPEG-4 ASP, DivX 4/5/6, XviD, 3ivX D4 and H.264 / MPEG-4 AVC. However, MP4 is a multimedia container format with many kinds of video and audio codecs. If your MP4 file contains a VLC unsupported audio or video codec, VLC won't play it.

Here is a step by step guide on how to successfully solve "VLC not playing MP4" issue with ease at: <link redacted - Trilby>

Hope it will help you more or less.

Last edited by Trilby (2014-10-29 21:12:47)

R00KIE · 2014-09-26 13:33:54

It could be because of the codec id, that is something you might be able to change without much problem.
Here is what I have with a random h264 video:

Video
ID                                            : 1
Format                                    : AVC
Format/Info                             : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile                         : High@L3.1
Format settings, CABAC         : Yes
Format settings, ReFrames     : 4 frames
Codec ID                                 : V_MPEG4/ISO/AVC

Arch Linux

#1 2013-09-04 00:53:07

VLC will not play certain mp4 h264 files

#2 2013-09-04 04:41:31

Re: VLC will not play certain mp4 h264 files

#3 2013-09-04 04:59:17

Re: VLC will not play certain mp4 h264 files

#4 2013-09-04 14:05:14

Re: VLC will not play certain mp4 h264 files

#5 2013-09-04 21:29:21

Re: VLC will not play certain mp4 h264 files

#6 2013-09-04 21:41:16

Re: VLC will not play certain mp4 h264 files

#7 2013-09-04 22:46:22

Re: VLC will not play certain mp4 h264 files

#8 2013-09-05 05:23:03

Re: VLC will not play certain mp4 h264 files

#9 2014-09-26 01:49:25

Re: VLC will not play certain mp4 h264 files

#10 2014-09-26 13:33:54

Re: VLC will not play certain mp4 h264 files

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