why is VLC so unstable compare to others?

[muffinman123]

default settings doesn't seem to work very well on various different computers. on one computer I get greyed out blotches, on another I get lags and frame skips even though the player is playing a 360p video on a relatively fast computer. one time it even crashed my windows graphic dll and forced me to restart.

I haven't used smplayer or potplayer for very long, but mplayer on linux has never failed me. I just started using potplayer, and I am just amazed at the speed and compatibility on the videos that vlc have troubles with. my only complaint so far about potplayer is the complex adjustable options.

[hech54]

default settings doesn't seem to work very well on various different computers. on one computer I get greyed out blotches, on another I get lags and frame skips even though the player is playing a 360p video on a relatively fast computer. one time it even crashed my windows graphic dll and forced me to restart.

Never had any problems with VLC other than it displaying the wrong video length on MPEG2 files. I've never changed any settings in VLC, just install and use.
My guess would be user error or computer error is the problem.

[jman98]

VLC has issues but I've never had the kind of experiences you talk about, muffinman123. However, I will point out that the main developer on VLC thought it was a great way to spend his time to spend months battling with Apple over a free version of VLC that someone made available in the iTunes store. See the main developer has a problem with the way that Apple licenses software, so for months he fought with Apple and in the end forced them to remove the program. Now nobody can get it unless you can find an old version somewhere. VLC does make the source code for the iOS version available, but almost nobody has the development kit necessary to compile it. Yet he proudly puffed out his chest about how he "won" against Apple when he did this.

When your main developer's highest priority in life is preventing others from actually being able to download and use your program, that says all you need to know about the state of that program.

[ivan_hoe]

I have had trouble with VLC stability playing Raw DV files.

Also had video I had converted from VHS so was showing heavy interlacing and turning on the deinterlace settings in VLC made no difference.

[usually_quiet]

I have had lagging/skipping issues with VLC. My playback problems appear to have been the result of a problem with my system. A corrupt font cache had caused a process called "Presentation Font Cache" to hog the CPU, which made VLC play erratically.

That being said I do find VLC a bit unstable. I eventually decided to stick with and older version of VLC that works well for the things I want to play because every time a new version of VLC was released, it seems like some feature I used didn't work as well as it used to.

[Kerry56]

I rarely have issues with VLC. It doesn't seem to play blu ray m2ts files as smoothly as Arcsoft Total Media Theater however. So I use TMT 5 for those.

[Hoser Rob]

... My guess would be user error or computer error is the problem.

Me too.

Vlc is my #2 player after smplayer, in linux as it was in win7. I don't think vlc is flawless ... why they dropped local file stream cache setup is a mystery to me and smplayer has much better rendering performance ... but it's always been pretty reliable for me.

I tend to judge software to some extent by reading boards like this and seeing how many complaints & problems are reported. For vlc, very few. For smplayer, almost none.

For potplayer? Tons. It's the ultimate in perpetual beta. And its rendering performance isn't that great.

[mike20021969]

I installed VLC a while back and it took over all my file associations without an option to opt out of doing so. So I got rid of it.

I see people recommending it still on various forums. I wouldn't mind giving it another go - it's another tool in the box so to speak.

Does it give an option now to deselect/uncheck all before the installation progress begins?

Thanks.

[hech54]

http://www.ehow.com/how_5790155_change-vlc-file-associations.html

[jagabo]

Does it give an option now to deselect/uncheck all before the installation progress begins?

Download a portable version. No installation, no file associations (unless you set them in the config dialog).

[mike20021969]

http://www.ehow.com/how_5790155_change-vlc-file-associations.html

Edit - I went through the install via SandBoxie just in case, and it does allow to uncheck file associations during the install. So all's well.

[Ai Haibara]

VLC does give you an option to not change the file associations during install (or maybe pick what you want), as I recall. I don't remember at which step or what the option was, though (I'm not even at a system with VLC installed ).

After having a large array of file associations grabbed by VLC in the distant past, I made sure never to let the installer do that, again.

(If I was at one of my Windows systems, I'd go ahead and update VLC, then take a screenshot of the installer and post an example of the option.)

Edit: Too slow, I guess. That's what I get for talking too much.

[mike20021969]

After having a large array of file associations grabbed by VLC in the distant past, I made sure never to let the installer do that, again.

Very annoying, isn't it?

Thanks for taking the time to reply. (I was editing as you posted).

[hello_hello]

Vlc is my #2 player after smplayer, in linux as it was in win7. I don't think vlc is flawless ... why they dropped local file stream cache setup is a mystery...

Which local file stream cache did they drop?

[theewizard]

i have troubles with the latest version playing on win8

somewhere in an external drive i have an old 32 bit version that never gave me any problems
i thnk i will look for that and remove the current version