Linux Mint Forums

Any video player I try doesn't work. vlc freezes at the first frame while the sound continues normally. gnome movie player plays slow while the audio is normal. totem skips frames and then freezes. I like vlc. any ideas how to fix this?

I forgot to mention that the sound continues as if all was normal.

Probably a missing codec, but before speculating: what messages come up when you run vlc from a terminal and try to play a video?

Missing codex? I didn't install <?> any if I'm supposed too.
vlc 00005.MTS
VLC media player 2.0.3 Twoflower (revision 2.0.2-93-g77aa89e)
[0x8404908] main libvlc: Running vlc with the default interface. Use 'cvlc' to use vlc without interface.
libdvbpsi error (PSI decoder): TS discontinuity (received 1, expected 0) for PID 0
libdvbpsi error (PSI decoder): TS discontinuity (received 1, expected 0) for PID 256
"sni-qt/6075" WARN 17:02:39.121 void StatusNotifierItemFactory::connectToSnw() Invalid interface to SNW_SERVICE ]
libdvbpsi error (PSI decoder): TS discontinuity (received 1, expected 0) for PID 0
libdvbpsi error (PSI decoder): TS discontinuity (received 1, expected 0) for PID 256
[h264 @ 0xb7365ee0] illegal short term buffer state detected
[0xb730a740] avcodec decoder error: more than 5 seconds of late video -> dropping frame (computer too slow ?)
[h264 @ 0xb7365ee0] reference picture missing during reorder
[h264 @ 0xb7365ee0] Missing reference picture
[h264 @ 0xb7365ee0] reference picture missing during reorder
[h264 @ 0xb7365ee0] Missing reference picture
[h264 @ 0xb7365ee0] reference picture missing during reorder
[h264 @ 0xb7365ee0] Missing reference picture

The warning can be fixed by removing qt-at-spi from your system, then logging out and back in. I don't think it's related to the issue though.
One of the good things about mint is that it comes with the codecs you need by default, but even so it looks to me like a problem with libavcodec.
You should wait for someone more knowledgeable in the area. The best advice I can give is to (re?)install libavcodec53 and 54, maybe upgrade vlc (since they're up to 2.0.5)

well, I tried deleting the qt-at-spi package and installing libavcodec53 but neither of those suggestions helped (what a bummer). So I suppose I need to wait for more knowledge.

Are you currently up-to-date? There have been several VLC releases lately.
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well.... I thought everything was up to date but when I typed in to upgrade vlc- data was scheduled to update.... maybe this will fix it! I'll let you know when it is done.
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nope, that didn't help any.

Does it show any errors in /var/log/syslog or /var/log/syslog.1 ?

I started a video and there was nothing relevant. there wassomething with the proper time stamp but it didn't seem to be relevant. Here it is:
Jan 22 08:40:04 Michaels-Laptop wpa_supplicant[829]: WPA: Group rekeying completed with 00:24:7b:2c:e9:3c [GTK=TKIP]

Have you tried "Movie Player" that comes built into Linux Mint?

Yep... I tried it. 'Movie Player' is 'Totem'. It plays like a quarter second with movement and sound and then freezes and the sound doesn't continue as normal. Then it jumps ahead a little and freezes and then again, then freezes permanently.

gnome-mplayer seems to be the best. Everything plays and even sounds but the video is slow and the half way through the audio gets choppy. also, it needs to be deinterlaced.

well, I upgraded from mint 13 to 14 in the hopes that would fix the problem but that didn't help any. I also increased the cache for vlc but that was not a help as well. So I have to choose between vlc, totem, and mplayer; vlc freezes at the first frame while audio continues normally; totem plays slowly and the audio stops after saying, 'Hello Michael' (the first sound on the video) but it doesn't seem to have any interlacing associated with the video; mplayer needs deinterlacing and the video is slow but the audio plays normally. So vlc has the least wrong with it:D