VLC video problems

Hi all!

I installed Ubuntu Mate on my Raspberry Pi 3 in order to use it to display video and musical accompaniments during my concerts. I need to use VLC because I never found any other media player that supports images as well as videos, that uses playlists, and that lets users define custom key controls.

However I can’t get it to play the videos I make with Kdenlive, although it is able to play videos of with similar file extensions i donwloaded from the web. I have found similar problems on this forum and tried all I could., with no luck.

So maybe there is a problem with VLC, but also maybe I am doing something wrong when exporting videos with Kdenlive. I hope you guys can help me.

Thanks!

  1. it may be the video formats used within the files - MediaInfo is a useful tool which can give you/us better info. The file extension is often that of a package within which all sorts of formats can be present (eg mkv).
  2. how would you categorise “can’t get it to play”?
  • gives an error message ,and doesn’t even start
  • starts to play, but either/or video/audio content is not played
  • any other data
    Derek

Thanks a lot for replying.

1 - Here is an example of a mp4 file that won’t play

General
Complete name :
/media/krapo/PI_ROOT/home/krapo/Vidéos/Splattack2s.mp4
Format : MPEG-4
Format profile : Base Media
Codec ID : isom (isom/iso2/avc1/mp41)
File size : 2.94 GiB
Duration : 3 min 21 s
Overall bit rate mode : Variable
Overall bit rate : 125 Mb/s
Encoded date : UTC 1904-01-01 00:00:00
Tagged date : UTC 1904-01-01 00:00:00
Writing application : Lavf57.56.101

Video
ID : 1
Format : AVC
Format/Info : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile : High 4:4:4 Predictive Intra@L4
Format settings, CABAC : Yes
Format settings, GOP : N=1
Codec ID : avc1
Codec ID/Info : Advanced Video Coding
Duration : 3 min 21 s
Bit rate mode : Variable
Bit rate : 125 Mb/s
Width : 1 920 pixels
Height : 1 080 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 16:9
Frame rate mode : Constant
Frame rate : 25.000 FPS
Color space : YUV
Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0
Bit depth : 8 bits
Scan type : Progressive
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 2.409
Stream size : 2.93 GiB (100%)
Writing library : x264 core 148 r2748 97eaef2
Encoding settings : cabac=1 / ref=1 / deblock=1:0:0
/ analyse=0x1:0x111 / me=hex / subme=7 / psy=0 / mixed_ref=0 / me_range=16
/ chroma_me=1 / trellis=0 / 8x8dct=1 / cqm=0 / deadzone=21,11 /
fast_pskip=0 / chroma_qp_offset=0 / threads=1 / lookahead_threads=1 /
sliced_threads=0 / nr=0 / decimate=1 / interlaced=0 / bluray_compat=0 /
constrained_intra=0 / bframes=0 / weightp=0 / keyint=1 / keyint_min=1 /
scenecut=40 / intra_refresh=0 / rc=cqp / mbtree=0 / qp=0
Encoded date : UTC 1904-01-01 00:00:00
Tagged date : UTC 1904-01-01 00:00:00
Color range : Limited
Transfer characteristics : BT.709
Matrix coefficients : BT.709

Audio
ID : 2
Format : AAC
Format/Info : Advanced Audio Codec
Format profile : LC
Codec ID : 40
Duration : 3 min 21 s
Bit rate mode : Variable
Bit rate : 371 kb/s
Maximum bit rate : 384 kb/s
Channel(s) : 2 channels
Channel positions : Front: L R
Sampling rate : 48.0 kHz
Frame rate : 46.875 FPS (1024 spf)
Compression mode : Lossy
Stream size : 8.90 MiB (0%)
Default : Yes
Alternate group : 1
Encoded date : UTC 1904-01-01 00:00:00
Tagged date : UTC 1904-01-01 00:00:00

And a mp4 file that plays correctly:

General
Complete name :
/media/krapo/PI_ROOT/home/krapo/Vidéos/star_trails.mp4
Format : MPEG-4
Format profile : Base Media / Version 2
Codec ID : mp42 (mp42/mp41)
File size : 37.8 MiB
Duration : 21 s 240 ms
Overall bit rate : 14.9 Mb/s
Encoded date : UTC 2014-07-18 06:00:15
Tagged date : UTC 2014-07-18 06:00:18
©TIM : 00:00:00:00
©TSC : 25
©TSZ : 1

Video
ID : 1
Format : AVC
Format/Info : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile : [email protected]
Format settings, CABAC : Yes
Format settings, ReFrames : 3 frames
Format settings, GOP : M=3, N=25
Codec ID : avc1
Codec ID/Info : Advanced Video Coding
Duration : 21 s 240 ms
Bit rate : 14.5 Mb/s
Width : 1 280 pixels
Height : 720 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 16:9
Frame rate mode : Constant
Frame rate : 25.000 FPS
Standard : PAL
Color space : YUV
Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0
Bit depth : 8 bits
Scan type : Progressive
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.630
Stream size : 36.8 MiB (97%)
Language : English
Encoded date : UTC 2014-07-18 06:00:15
Tagged date : UTC 2014-07-18 06:00:15
Color range : Limited
Color primaries : BT.709
Transfer characteristics : BT.709
Matrix coefficients : BT.709

Audio
ID : 2
Format : AAC
Format/Info : Advanced Audio Codec
Format profile : LC
Codec ID : 40
Duration : 21 s 240 ms
Source duration : 21 s 291 ms
Bit rate mode : Constant
Bit rate : 192 kb/s
Channel(s) : 2 channels
Channel positions : Front: L R
Sampling rate : 48.0 kHz
Frame rate : 46.875 FPS (1024 spf)
Compression mode : Lossy
Stream size : 491 KiB (1%)
Source stream size : 492 KiB (1%)
Language : English
Encoded date : UTC 2014-07-18 06:00:15
Tagged date : UTC 2014-07-18 06:00:15
mdhd_Duration : 21291

2 - Each time I tried, the audio played. The video was either replaced by a
black background, or even not even played (VLC icon in a small VLC window).

Thanks Derek!

Have you purchased the pi vc1 codec?
Derek

I haven’t, I wasn’t aware I should. But then maybe can I generate my videos
without using this codec? I will look into it.

Thanks again for your help.