Solved VLC Media Player is slow to start these days, anyone else?

cheaterslick said:

VLC has been the standard alternative to that sh*tty built-in Windows Media Player that many people complain about. I've been using it for about 15 years or so, as far back as XP days. It usually plays anything and everything. That's why I like it. You don't have to install any extra codec packs. The codecs are built right in.

In fact, the hiccups I've been experiencing seem to have more to do with Windows Explorer stalling out for a few seconds than the VLC player itself. Once VLC kicks in and opens up, it plays the file smoothly.

Click to expand...

It's been more than 15 years since I ditched VLC. To date, the gold standard among Home Theater PC (HTPC) enthusiasts is still MPC-HC + madVR.

K-Lite Codec Pack is maintained by Clsid2. MPC-HC is also maintained by him (and by some others). MPC-HC has built-in LAV Filters (with LAV Splitter, LAV Video Decoder, LAV Audio Decoder, and LAV CUVID) by Nevcariel. The developer behind madVR is madshi. You can read all about these particular subjects on Doom9's Forum - Powered by vBulletin (but be warned, it's probably going to take many months for the average newcomer to even begin to understand the history of how these projects have evolved).

hdmi said:

It's been more than 15 years since I ditched VLC. To date, the gold standard among Home Theater PC (HTPC) enthusiasts is still MPC-HC + madVR.

K-Lite Codec Pack is maintained by Clsid2. MPC-HC is also maintained by him (and by some others). MPC-HC has built-in LAV Filters (with LAV Splitter, LAV Video Decoder, LAV Audio Decoder, and LAV CUVID) by Nevcariel. The developer behind madVR is madshi. You can read all about these particular subjects on Doom9's Forum - Powered by vBulletin (but be warned, it's probably going to take many months for the average newcomer to even begin to understand the history of how these projects have evolved).

Click to expand...

I appreciate all your information, but as I said before, I dumped the K-Lite codecs pack. It caused more problems than it was worth.


Besides, I don't need to play HD video on my laptop, and I use a separate media center for streaming subscription TV.

cheaterslick said:

It caused more problems than it was worth.

Click to expand...

An easy solution to the problem that you were experiencing with it can be found in the first two Q&A sections on this page. I would have told you this back then if it wasn't for the fact that I didn't see your thread, as I no longer go on TenForums except only every once in a blue moon. TBH not a lot has been going on over there anymore over the past two years or so that interests me at all, and having to skim through a very long list of thread titles most of which are fairly nondescript due to lacking relevant keywords (like, for example, "K-Lite"...) finally got me bored. As a matter of fact, I don't actually even read the vast majority of threads on here either.

A lot of problems boil down to things like people not knowing how to click on a link named F.A.Q. or not registering an account on the Codec Guide Forum website to ask for help if the answer that they are looking for cannot be found easily in the F.A.Q., but this kind of attitude (what I like to call millennial syndrome) is not in any way limited to learning how to reap the benefits of K-Lite Codec Pack. It's almost everywhere nowadays...

cheaterslick said:

https://www.tenforums.com/general-s...s-crashes-windows-explorer-3.html#post2603859

Besides, I don't need to play HD video on my laptop, and I use a separate media center for streaming subscription TV.

Click to expand...

Oftentimes when I play a non-HD video file on my laptop, I have other stuff running in the background, which may cause the video playback to stutter in VLC on System Two in my specs. Sometimes I want to upscale the video resolution on-the-fly during the playback to improve its picture quality. But what I don't want is to hear the cooling fan of my laptop ramp up so loudly that I have to wear noise cancelling headphones to still be able to understand what's being told in the video. YMMV

@hdmi Whatever works out for you. Thanks for your information.

I blocked VLC from the internet via firewall and it boots up right away now..

jrolson said:

I blocked VLC from the internet via firewall and it boots up right away now..

Click to expand...

That may be something I have to do, although you'd have to manually unblock it for any upgrades.

I have the same problem. Sometimes vlc starts instanlty, sometimes not. Also if I open video files one after another sometimes there is a delay. Sometimes this is happening also on Adobe Acrobat but not that often. Also I disabled Microsoft Defender real-time protection because I use another antivirus and this helped a bit. Someone also suggests to turn off tamper protection but I haven't done that.

stzan said:

I have the same problem. Sometimes vlc starts instanlty, sometimes not. Also if I open video files one after another sometimes there is a delay. Sometimes this is happening also on Adobe Acrobat but not that often. Also I disabled Microsoft Defender real-time protection because I use another antivirus and this helped a bit. Someone also suggests to turn off tamper protection but I haven't done that.

Click to expand...

for VLC I found downgrading to v3.0.20 from v3.0.21 fixed it for me for now.

Melchior said:

for VLC I found downgrading to v3.0.20 from v3.0.21 fixed it for me for now.

Click to expand...

I tried now but same thing. It hangs for seconds on 4th or 5th video file I open. I tried 32bit, 64 bit same thing.

edit: I am done with vlc. Testing KMPlayer until is fixed.

Some updates. I have the same problem with kmplayer. Every time this is happening I get this in event viewer:

Microsoft-Windows-Kernel-EventTracing/Admin
event id: 1
Write buffer

Click to expand...

I followed this guide to clear the event logs and now kmplayer and adobe acrobat that had the issue are loading super fast. I will test later vlc.

"PCA Registry tracing session" has reached its maximum size

edit: Also VLC is working fine now. I can't believe it.