Does anybody know anything about VLC Media Player?

  I have Windows 7, 64-bit on my computer.  One of the programs I have on it is VLC Media Player.  I get my cable TV through a DVR that I rent from my cable company.  I use an HDMI splitter.  One HDMI cable goes to my TV to see what the DVR is putting out.  On the other HDMI cable I have an HDMI to USB capture card to view what my TV is showing on my computer.

  I have been messing around with it and other programs for at least a month.  Sometimes the VLC Media Player works and sometimes it doesn't.  The last time I messed with it was about a week ago.  Using VLC media player, I was able to view on my computer what my TV was showing.  Using Free Cam 8 screen capture software, I was able to record a small part of what I was watching.  I took that file and turned it into an MP4 file.  Which I was able to download onto a thumb drive.  Then I was able to watch what I recorded on my PS3 from my thumb drive.

  Then I attempted to do another recording.  All of the settings were exactly the same.  This time when the VLC media player showed what was playing on my TV, the audio had a loud buzzing sound on it.  Why it worked the first time and not the second is a real puzzler.  If any of the settings got changed in any way that caused this problem, it wasn't me who did it.  Has anybody else had this problem?

Glitch would think with old Hardware.  Try shutting VLC down then Restart for new recording.  Or the use of the other software. Or could be your Video Card as do not mention it.  Ancient software considering (I) went off Win7 in 2015.

Just a way to break it down to check......

Edited by Pkshadow, 29 September 2024 - 01:45 AM.

Glitch would think with old Hardware.  Try shutting VLC down then Restart for new recording.  Or the use of the other software. Or could be your Video Card as do not mention it.  Ancient software considering (I) went off Win7 in 2015.

 

Just a way to break it down to check......

I don't think hardware is the issue.  Because if hardware is the issue, it shouldn't have worked at all, ever.  But as I said, sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't.  When it comes to shutting down VLC and trying again, that didn't work.  I even went so far as to completely remove VLC from my computer.  I may or may not have restarted my computer after that.  I don't remember.  But I then reinstalled the Windows 7 version of VLC media player.  That didn't work.

  As far as using other software, I've found no free programs that work.  Such as OBS Studio.  It seems to me that it worked in the past.  But the last time I tried to use it, after I was having problems with VLC, I got no sound at all in the screen capture from OBS.  Also, if you're interested in what capture card I use, it is a dobestyou 4K Audio Video Capture Card.  It came with some instructions as to how to set it up with OBS Studio software.  But the screen shots they included to set it up didn't match the screens I was coming up with.  Maybe it is because I am using Windows 7.  So I had to try to figure it out for myself.  I got it to work in the past.  But I got no audio the last time I used it.  And the setting I made shouldn't have changed.

Sounds like it was some sort of hdcp protection.

  But wouldn't HDCP protection or DRM protection work all the time?  In the past, I got it to work plenty of times.  I got to the point where I said to myself, "OK, I finally got it figured out!"  But then when I tried to do the same thing a couple of days later, it didn't work any more.

Drivers get updated

  I tried updating my drivers.  But that wasn't the problem.  Also, as I said, sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't.  If it was a drivers issue, it shouldn't have worked at all, ever.

Find out what your issues are :

Please Post a "link" of Speccy Report.
Please install Speccy Free : https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/download/speccy/
Use Custom Install
  At the Top Left Corner of Speccy --> Click File and then Click Publish Snapshot Report, a window will popup and Click YES. --> Another popup will appear and then Click "Copy To Clipboard" then Paste that "link" to your next reply in your thread.

Download Minitoolbox from the below link :
http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/download/minitoolbox/
  Run the tool and only select the following tick boxes.
    -List last 10 Event viewer errors
    -List installed programs
    -List devices
    -List users, partition and memory size
Now click "Go" and Copy/Paste and post the output text in your next reply

Find out what your issues are :

Please Post a "link" of Speccy Report.
Please install Speccy Free : https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/download/speccy/
Use Custom Install
  At the Top Left Corner of Speccy --> Click File and then Click Publish Snapshot Report, a window will popup and Click YES. --> Another popup will appear and then Click "Copy To Clipboard" then Paste that "link" to your next reply in your thread.

 

Download Minitoolbox from the below link :
http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/download/minitoolbox/
  Run the tool and only select the following tick boxes.
    -List last 10 Event viewer errors
    -List installed programs
    -List devices
    -List users, partition and memory size
Now click "Go" and Copy/Paste and post the output text in your next reply

  That is all too complicated for what I am trying to do.  Either a program works right or it doesn't.  If it doesn't, screw it.  Too bad I'm not an actual pirate trying to record HDMC protected material from my DVR.  Then I would just buy the right kind of software that will do what I want.  But that could cost $200 or more.  There is an actual forum out there for the VLC media player.  It is called The videoLAN Forum.  I would bet that somebody there would know exactly what the problem is.  But unfortunately, they don't seem to be accepting new members.  At least not ones like me.  Who not only uses a VPN but also goes through an anonymous browser.

You using a VPN and an anonymous browser can introduce things like what you're experiencing.

What pkshadow is asking isn't advanced.

  Any time I download software off the internet, I do use a VPN and do so through an anonymous browser.  Though such a thing may not actually exist, I do like to try and gain as much cyber security as I can.  But when I am actually trying to do what i am trying to do, I don't do so through a VPN or privacy browser, obviously.  Because what I am trying to do I'm not trying to do over the internet.  So it shouldn't matter.  Neither would it explain why sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't.  Next, who is "pkshadow."  Could you be referring to "Me, Myself & I?"  What he was asking for may not have been overly complicated.  But it is more than I am interested in dealing with.  As I said, either a program works or it doesn't.  If it doesn't, screw it. 

Dear freethought,

On my Windows 7 systems, I find that attempting to play any mp4 file using VLC to be impossible.  VLC simply crashes when starting every single time, whether I have clicked on the mp4 file to open it, or I click on VLC with the intention of using it to open the mp4 file.  I've had better results by right clicking on the mp4 file, and selecting open-with, and selecting one of my web browsers.