VLC goes black

[madman1980]

Just installed VLC, latest version, and all videos I play just show a black picture. The sound works, and the display area matches the resolution of the video but it is black. Once in a while there are sublte flashes of color covering the whole picture which soon fade to black again. I even updated to the latest dev version, but the same thing happened there. This is really weird, and happens regardless of which video type i try. Any ideas?

[unskinnyboy]

Try upgrading your video card drivers and DirectX. If that doesn't work, try disabling overlay (Settings -> Preferences -> Video -> uncheck Overlay video output).

If the picture shows up, but you experience jerky playback after this, try Settings -> Preferences -> Video -> Output modules -> DirectX -> check use video buffers in system memory. You will need to check Advanced Options to get this option displayed.

[madman1980]

No picture showed up by turning overlay on and off, exactly the same video symptooms, black with the occational color flash. I downgraded to the latest official nvidia driver (I had used a new beta driver) but that did nothing. I am using Windows XP x64 if that makes any difference.

[unskinnyboy]

Hmm, second try - try changing the video output module to OpenGL video output or Windows GDI video output since I feel your DirectX is b0rked. (Settings -> Preferences -> Video -> Output modules -> video output module). You need to have the Advanced Options checked for the options to show up.

If that doesn't work either, try asking in the Official VLC forums (http://forum.videolan.org/viewforum.php?f=14) where the devs hang out. Could be an x64 thing.

[madman1980]

OpenGL worked.

This is just weird... :confused:

I guess its not possible to reinstall DirectX either, not that I think its broken, but this is the version that came with the OS.

[unskinnyboy]

DirectX 9.0c base version should be the one pre-installed on your x64. But since then, there have been frequent updates especially to the Direct3D core of it, so probably an upgrade to the latest build from the DirectX homepage is what you need. Direct3D should be able to do what OpenGL can.

[bond]

i think directx 3d (the new default in vlc) isnt supported by old cards. you can also try to set it to directx output instead of opengl

[madman1980]

I used the MS webdownloader for DX, it said April 2006 when it was downloading (despite the file saying October on the download site). However, the same problem is still there.

Directx 3d mode doesn't work
Directx mode works
OpenGL works

[bond]

same on my pc...

[madman1980]

I have an NVidia 7900GT btw, so hardware shouldn't be a problem.