VLC + mpeg-1 = black screen?

[davecc]

Trying to get an .mpg video file (mpeg-1 format) to play in VLC. I get a black video window. The audio does play.

What am I doing wrong?

PowerBook G3 / OS X 10.4.11 / Perian 1.1.3 component / VLC Player 0.9.9a (the last PPC version)

Ideas?

Thanks.

[Baldrick]

Is it just mpeg1 video that is black in VLC?

[davecc]

Yes. mpg videos play sound but no video.

Also: avi videos crash VLC. Audio plays for a few seconds, but inevitably VLC crashes quickly.

I don't have other formats to test VLC.

Thanks.

[jman98]

I have an old MacBook through work that is pretty similar to what you have. It definitely plays VCD using VLC and VCD uses MPEG-1. However, it does not play it well. I had so many issues trying to play VCD under VLC on the MacBook that I gave up and used QuickTime as it was a lot more reliable. I remember using VLC that it would play, but it would often crash. I remember reading some reports at the time (almost 2 years ago) that said that VLC just didn't handle VCD very well on Macs at that time. Maybe they never fixed the issues on the PPC platform. VLC works fine on Intel based Macs, which is little comfort to you now but might be worthwhile for you to know for the future.

[davecc]

Yeah, I see that QT Player is more stable with mpeg-1. And I can watch these videos all day long with QTP. But I can't see how to get subtitles (.srt files) to display.

Can anyone suggest how to display .avi files in QT Player with subtitles? I have VisualHub. Can that convert .avi and .srt files into a format that QT Player will play and display subtitles?

Thanks.

[tomlee59]

Versions later than 0.8.6 seem to have more severe problems with VCD playback so one thing to try is simply to install 0.8.6 and see if life gets any better for you.

A totally black screen is unusual, though; for me, VCD playback problems usually involved stuttering and/or crashing. You may have more serious problems, given that you are also having difficulty with avi playback. Are you low on ram? Are you running several apps concurrently? Start with the simplest configuration (if not already there) and see what happens. Fewer variables means fewer things to troubleshoot...

[davecc]

Versions later than 0.8.6 seem to have more severe problems with VCD playback so one thing to try is simply to install 0.8.6 and see if life gets any better for you.

Well 0.8.6i doesn't crash. For now that's OK.

Thanks for your suggestion. It made my day.

dcc

[Baldrick]

One similar topic is enough. COntinue in https://forum.videohelp.com/topic369804.html