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Dutch_Master

Member

Registered: 2018-05-31

Posts: 305  

VLC playback issues

I've been using yt-dlp to grab various YT video's but lately VLC is having trouble playing them back. Sound works just fine, but the screen remains black, which kinda defeats the purpose of video. It's not the source material, playback on different tools like mpv and smplayer works as it should. Oddly enough, video files I grabbed earlier this year work just fine, also on VLC.

VLC: 3.0.21
YT-DLP is current stable, but earlier versions also affected.

Examples:
long: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c8gswrUDh_s
short: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o_QTaUuU8F4

YT_DLP downloads in the highest resolution offered (by default), which is the setting I use.

Is this known or an upstream issue?

TIA!

rbit

Member

Registered: 2018-06-12

Posts: 74  

Re: VLC playback issues

Every once in a while, I encounter the same issue.  When it did happen, I had to go to tools -> preferences -> video -- and change the "Output" dropbox to a different option.  Sometimes vlc will immediately close (crash?) if you pick the wrong one.  Try all the different options until one works.  However, I've found it easier now, when do I come across such a video, to use a different media player (mpv) instead.

Andre4freedom

Member

Registered: 2017-11-15

Posts: 218  

Re: VLC playback issues

I had the problem. Specifically, my VLC showed ugly video-artifacts. Green stripes etc.
I resolved that problem by using handbrake to re-synchronise the video/audio stream.
Just make sure the options
"Align A/V Start"
and
"Passtrhu Common Metadata"
are selected.
The process takes time.
If you use ffmpeg to cut away starting and trailing parts ot the downloaded mp4 files, use handbrake afterwards!
I hope this helps.
Devuan Daedalus, OpenRC, Cinnamon