VLC media player

[FrankenMech]

Anyone use VLC media player and upgraded lately to 3.0.12? When I upgraded from 3.0.8* now VLC will not play audio correctly for MP4 files. The sound has a sawtooth type of volume to it /|/|/|... DVD's play OK and windows media player works OK on MP4 files. I have even removed VLC completely and reinstalled 3.0.6 but the sound is still bad. Did VLC mess with some driver or decoder that does not get replaced with removal or downgrades? Anybody heard of this or know how to fix it? I really liked VLC before this upgrade to 3.0.12. I have had some bad upgrades with VLC before but downgrade and/or removal always fixed it.

I hate software upgrades, they almost always seem to cause problems.

I run W-7 Pro on an old 32bit dell computer.

Edit: even a system restore from 2/25/2021 did not fix the problem but it did take me back to VLC 3.0.8.

* correction, previous version was apparently 3.0.8 which worked OK but was very slow to load.

[dan50]

I use VLC 3.0.12 with Windows 10 and have no issues.
Did you try updating the driver for the audio device?
Open control panel - system - device manager. Find audio device, right click and click update driver.

[FrankenMech]

damn, lost an edit...

I fixed the problem. I deleted all the files and folder modified on the fateful day and removed VLC. Then I reinstalled VLC 3.0.6 and that fixed the audio problem with MP4 files. I will stay away from VLC 3.0.12. I usually avoid upgrades unless I have a problem. VLC 3.0.8 was giving me very slow load times. This downgrade fixed the load times also. I still run Windows 7 Pro and Firefox 60.5.2esr since I hate W10 and new updated Firefox versions that no longer support bookmark descriptions. I used to support Mozilla with monthly donations, but don't anymore. I have used Mozilla since back when it was Netscape back during the browser wars. I have been thinking about upgrading the slow integrated graphics on this machine but not anytime soon. I may also upgrade to a SSD from the old spinner also, -maybe. SSDs are fast but I have had more SSDs fail than I have ever had spinners fail.

I have not found any problems with deleting all those files... -Yet.

[dan50]

I think Windows 8.1 is the best, but I can't go back. I agree about Firefox. I've used Firefox since the early days of Windows XP (2003), but lately it is really messed up. The Android version of Firefox is so bad I had to uninstall it from my tablet. Looking for a new browser, I refuse to use Chrome. I think Google sabotaged Android because I've tried other browsers on my tablet and they all load extremely slow. Chrome is the only one that loads good on an Android device so I rarely use my tablet. I don't trust Chrome. Duckduckgo has a browser and there is one called Brave. My nephew swears by Brave but I have mixed feelings about it.
Instead of an SSD, look into a gaming hard drive, I had 2 gaming disc drives in my desktop that are faster than most hard drives. SSD's are faster, but not that noticeable from a gaming drive and gaming hard drives are much cheaper ($120 for a 1tb drive). I use a HP laptop with a 500gb SSD to increase battery life. No problem yet, but SSD's do degrade over time, bad sectors, etc.

[FrankenMech]

I use chrome for one thing, streaming amazon prime. Chrome works better than FF for streaming Prime. I stream Prime on two computers, FF on one and Chrome on the other. Long story why. I don't trust Chrome either. I have found the alternative browsers I looked at are just repackaged chrome.

The SSDs that failed for me failed completely, dead, roasted, junk. No recoverable data. I have had spinners fail but I was able to recover most of the data.

Windows XP sp2 is my favorite OS now but I loved old Windows 3.11 for workgroups. I could tweak W-XP for my shaky hands. W-7 didn't support Tweak UI and wasn't any good for handicapped people. None of the accommodation programs are worth a damn. In 2019 I had DBS surgery which helped.

I started out with PC-XT's running DOS 1.x, Commodore C-64's, Amiga 1000/500s, and old Z-100's running CPM. Programs that ran on DOS could be transferred with a serial cable to the Z-100 and would run and back the other way. IBM was able to copy CPM and rename it DOS because Gates had a personal license to use and modify CPM. I still have a few of those old machines.

[jbjhillbilly]

Brave is good, but it needs a lot of customizing to work right. Opera is good as well.

For SSDs make sure you have the trim function turned off, otherwise the drive will crew itself up doing rewrites of the data. And SDDs have to be backed up (you do back up don’t you?). There’s almost no way to recover SSD/Flash drives.

I agree though about the spinning disks. Almost nothing I couldn’t get off of them if I bagged them, packed ice around the bag, then worked in 30-45min increments.

[FrankenMech]

I have two backup systems, three if you count the one with a drive down at the moment. It always seems like there are a few files that don't get backed up. I never got to the point where I had to pack ice around a drive.

I just use SSD's stock out of the box. I think I have heard about a 'trim' function but memory fails me.

I don't even try to use thumb drives, they always fail and are useless. I think their only function are as advertising giveaways at micro center.

None of the browsers I have looked at except old FF versions have that bookmark description function. It was very useful until FF decided it wanted to be a chrome clone. I used to do some coding but after my strokes I had to quit. I just don't have the brain power anymore.

[jbjhillbilly]

The SSD trim function is set via terminal command in my Macs, which is Command Prompt on PCs. You have to run as Admin. It should be set as enabled automatically, but good to check. Pretty sure these are your commands -

fsutil behavior query DisableDeleteNotify

If DisableDeleteNotify returns 0, then trim is enabled, and all good. If it comes back 1, it’s disabled. In which case

fsutil behavior set DisableDeleteNotify 0

[woodini]

You guys are speakin Greece

[FrankenMech]

mine came back 0 so all is good.

Wood, those commands are like old-fashioned DOS commands. The operating system still understands them 'sometimes'. Windows was originally built on top of DOS but Microsoft had to stop doing that so they re-wrote windows. If anything had happened to mr Gates Microsoft would have ceased to be. The new 'windows' was rewritten but it still has a command prompt 'widow' that still responds to some DOS commands.

[jbjhillbilly]

Mar 4, 2021 23:56:23 GMT -5 woodini said:

You guys are speakin Greece

I just know how to phrase questions for search queries. And being a cheap bastard, I keep old machines going long past their prime. And 25+ years of non-linear editing for studios and tv shows taught me how to save my own bacon because “tech support” isn’t very supportive all the time.

[FrankenMech]

I always wondered about your avatar picture. Is it a film splicer?

I worked (work study) for the AV department at a small college back in the early 70's and had to splice films and tapes occasionally. We did not have much of an equipment budget. We had reel-reel black and white video recorders and equipment. It was hell keeping the equipment running with an idiot education dept professor with tenure that insisted upon using scissors and scotch tape to splice film and tape. He would not listen to anyone, not even the AV dept head. We just had to clean up his messes. We did eventually get a color camera and VCR with 3/4" tape. We wouldn't let him touch it...

[Deleted]

Mar 4, 2021 5:47:57 GMT -5 FrankenMech said:

I use chrome for one thing, streaming amazon prime. Chrome works better than FF for streaming Prime. I stream Prime on two computers, FF on one and Chrome on the other. Long story why. I don't trust Chrome either. I have found the alternative browsers I looked at are just repackaged chrome.

The SSDs that failed for me failed completely, dead, roasted, junk. No recoverable data. I have had spinners fail but I was able to recover most of the data.

Windows XP sp2 is my favorite OS now but I loved old Windows 3.11 for workgroups. I could tweak W-XP for my shaky hands. W-7 didn't support Tweak UI and wasn't any good for handicapped people. None of the accommodation programs are worth a damn. In 2019 I had DBS surgery which helped.

I started out with PC-XT's running DOS 1.x, Commodore C-64's, Amiga 1000/500s, and old Z-100's running CPM. Programs that ran on DOS could be transferred with a serial cable to the Z-100 and would run and back the other way. IBM was able to copy CPM and rename it DOS because Gates had a personal license to use and modify CPM. I still have a few of those old machines.

Man, I remember those old machines. Grandfather had a TV store before Walmart came to town. Anyway, he was a Magnavox dealer and sold some of their early computers. MS Dos then QDos and all by keyboard. I learned on those machines, and then when I went to school, the new computer - there really was 1 - had a mouse. I remember thinking "what the hell is that for?" Lol.

[woodini]

I switched hands when we got windows95

[jbjhillbilly]

Mar 5, 2021 4:41:12 GMT -5 FrankenMech said:

I always wondered about your avatar picture. Is it a film splicer?

I worked (work study) for the AV department at a small college back in the early 70's and had to splice films and tapes occasionally. We did not have much of an equipment budget. We had reel-reel black and white video recorders and equipment. It was hell keeping the equipment running with an idiot education dept professor with tenure that insisted upon using scissors and scotch tape to splice film and tape. He would not listen to anyone, not even the AV dept head. We just had to clean up his messes. We did eventually get a color camera and VCR with 3/4" tape. We wouldn't let him touch it...

It is a 35mm film splicer! Invented by Carlos Rivas in 1950. It made the guillotine splicer obsolete. That one is mine from back in the day as an assistant editor.

Just picked this up the other day -


It’s a Moviola upright film editing machine. It cut pretty much everything you ever saw on the big screen (and small screen) from the mid-1920s thru the mid-1990s. I think the last time I used one was 2004? You took picture and magnetic sound from individual takes and watched on the small viewing screen (left pedal is forward, right pedal is reverse), made a mark with a China marker grease pencil where you wanted to cut, then spliced it onto the previous cut. Wash, rinse, repeat! Pretty soon you had a scene, and eventually a whole movie. When you worked with the director on his cut, you normally used a flat-bed machine like a KEM or Steinbeck.

Right now I’m trying to find out what gear oil to use. 85-190 that’s bronze safe (gears are both steel and brass/bronze). But I’m pretty sure it’s mineral based. And I’m trying not to have to drill pins out of the gears to get farther into it, but a 6-ton press + heat isn’t drifting them so far. We shall see!