VLC always looks interlaced no matter the content

Whatever i watch, even if the content isn't interlaced, the output always looks interlaced. Attached are 2 examples, a movie and a youtube video, both having the same issue.

I tried resetting my preferences (in menu and by deleting ~/.config/vlc), and I tried disabling hardware acceleration.

This defect has appeared about a month ago.

I'm on arch linux, latest updates for everything etc.

Added attachment:

• vlc-issue-1.png

Added attachment:

• vlc-issue-2.png

Hi,

Your captures don't exhibit interlacing artifacts, so it makes your ticket quite incomplete. It would instead look like bad filtering.

Can you display the same frame with different player to exhibit the issue you're trying to describe? And add the verbose playback logs for those files.

Same moment and same video as example 1, but with a different player

Added attachment:

• Example-1-good.png

Same video as Example 2, but with a different player

Added attachment:

• Example-2-Good_2.png

debug log of example 1 video

Added attachment:

• vlc-dark-knight.log

debug log of example 2 video

Added attachment:

• vlc-fireplace.log

Replying to [comment:1 Alexandre Janniaux]:

Hi,

Your captures don't exhibit interlacing artifacts, so it makes your ticket quite incomplete. It would instead look like bad filtering.

Can you display the same frame with different player to exhibit the issue you're trying to describe? And add the verbose playback logs for those files.

Attachments added as requested. I can't speak on whether it's interlacing or something else, I just know it doesn't look like it's supposed to. The reason I thought it was interlacing is due to the obvious horizontal lines present.

If there's any other info you need, let me know! thanks for the help :)

I took some more time testing things out, and it seems changing my hardware acceleration from automatic to VDPAU changes this. I think VDPAU isn't working though looking at the CPU usage compared to VAAPI.

If there's anything else I can do/try, please let me know! this issue is very annoying

Log when using VAAPI

Added attachment:

• vaapi.txt

log when using VDPAU

Added attachment:

• vdpau.txt

I don't see the issue in the screenshots.

added Component::Video: X11 label

I see them, after knowing what to look for. I only noticed I had this bug because I was recording with OBS, and these horizontal lines are very apparent when looking at a UI: . Trying to get a snapshot from VLC itself results in .

• Note that this happens with x264 videos (not VP8) created by VLC itself, too (that's how I found out it wasn't an OBS bug, I tried capturing my screen with vlc, and while I was at it, playing them with mpv, which worked fine. Then I played the OBS files in mpv, which worked fine, too).

• Only happens when hw acceleration is set to Auto or VAAPI. Log output:

[0000561d259fe5b0] main libvlc: VLC wird mit dem Standard-Interface ausgeführt. Benutzen Sie 'cvlc', um VLC ohne Interface zu verwenden.
libva info: VA-API version 1.10.0
libva info: Trying to open /usr/lib64/va/drivers/radeonsi_drv_video.so
libva info: Found init function __vaDriverInit_1_10
libva info: va_openDriver() returns 0
[00007f2e00c07700] avcodec decoder: Using Mesa Gallium driver 20.3.4 for AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT (NAVI10, DRM 3.40.0, 5.10.22, LLVM 11.0.1) for hardware decoding
[h264 @ 0x7f2e00c98e80] get_buffer() failed
[h264 @ 0x7f2e00c98e80] thread_get_buffer() failed
[h264 @ 0x7f2e00c98e80] decode_slice_header error
[h264 @ 0x7f2e00c98e80] no frame!
[h264 @ 0x7f2e00c53a40] get_buffer() failed
[h264 @ 0x7f2e00c53a40] thread_get_buffer() failed
[h264 @ 0x7f2e00c53a40] decode_slice_header error
[h264 @ 0x7f2e00c53a40] no frame!

• Doesn't happen when hw accel is set to None or VAAPI via DRM (log from the latter):

VLC media player 3.0.12.1 Vetinari (revision )
[0000562847ea25b0] main libvlc: VLC wird mit dem Standard-Interface ausgeführt. Benutzen Sie 'cvlc', um VLC ohne Interface zu verwenden.
libva info: VA-API version 1.10.0
libva info: Trying to open /usr/lib64/va/drivers/radeonsi_drv_video.so
libva info: Found init function __vaDriverInit_1_10
libva info: va_openDriver() returns 0
[h264 @ 0x7f630cc7c5c0] get_buffer() failed
[h264 @ 0x7f630cc7c5c0] thread_get_buffer() failed
[h264 @ 0x7f630cc7c5c0] decode_slice_header error
[h264 @ 0x7f630cc7c5c0] no frame!
[h264 @ 0x7f630cc95780] get_buffer() failed
[h264 @ 0x7f630cc95780] thread_get_buffer() failed
[h264 @ 0x7f630cc95780] decode_slice_header error
[h264 @ 0x7f630cc95780] no frame!

Extremely weird. Thanks for the info.

@jbk Re: the label, I have the issue on both X11 and wayland.

Also for the future: is this a better place to create issues than trac.videolan.org?

This was my comment, some account confusion

trac is dead. We use this, now.

I have exactly the same problem (Pop_OS 20.04, VLC 3.0.9.2). Whatever the settings in "deinterlacing" (yes or no, whatever the mode), the video is interlaced (with flickering lines). It's been doing this ever since I've been using this computer/OS.

Here's a capture from the same video in VLC and Gnome video (detail of full screen mode):

image

I tried changing the video output mode, only "X11" mode seems not to displays this artefact (however it's unusably slow), XVideo is OK (but burns CPU and battery). So accelerated modes are displaying the problem.

Here is VLC's console output while playing this video:

VLC media player 3.0.9.2 Vetinari (revision 3.0.9.2-0-gd4c1aefe4d)
[000055a8a17005b0] main libvlc: Lancement de vlc avec l'interface par défaut. Utiliser « cvlc » pour démarrer VLC sans interface.
libva info: VA-API version 1.7.0
libva info: Trying to open /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/dri/radeonsi_drv_video.so
libva info: Found init function __vaDriverInit_1_7
mesa: for the --simplifycfg-sink-common option: may only occur zero or one times!
mesa: for the --global-isel-abort option: may only occur zero or one times!
mesa: for the --amdgpu-atomic-optimizations option: may only occur zero or one times!
mesa: for the --structurizecfg-skip-uniform-regions option: may only occur zero or one times!
libva info: va_openDriver() returns 0
[00007f567a7cc1b0] avcodec decoder: Using Mesa Gallium driver 21.0.0 for AMD RAVEN (DRM 3.40.0, 5.11.0-7612-generic, LLVM 11.0.0) for hardware decoding

I'm currently running kernel 5.11, but it behaved the same with 4.19, 5.4, 5.8. Could it be related to the Gallium driver?

The debug log when playing this same video is attached.vlc.log

Does not look interlaced, looks like video driver bug.

You can clearly see the characteristic flicker of horizontal lines. For me, as an old broadcast video fart, that definitely looks interlaced. See the video capture:out

That may be a driver bug, or maybe some incorrect hardware decoder setting?

Please share the logs.

Posted already, here it is again :) vlc.log

And try disabling VAAPI (you can still use VAAPI via DRM as per my comment). My guess is that somewhere between VAAPI and VLC there are lines flipped (which looks like interlacing gone wrong).

Using VDPAU video output looks the same. So far only X11 and Xvideo are free from this artefact.

main debug: using hw decoder module "vaapi"

avcodec info: Using Mesa Gallium driver 21.0.0 for AMD RAVEN (DRM 3.40.0, 5.11.0-7612-generic, LLVM 11.0.0) for hardware decoding

VDPAU on AMD?

Yes, AMD Ryzen5 3500U APU (Radeon Vega). As I mentioned, it behaved the same since I've had this computer (running kernel 5.4, 5.8 and now 5.11). Is there a way to turn VAAPI other than turning off HW acceleration entirely?

added Component::Decoders Hw Platform::GNU/Linux labels and removed Component::Video: X11 label