VLC can fail to read some streams

Using latest stable VLC (3.0.18-7) on ArchLinux with Gnome & Wayland, some streaming can end up having difficult to play.

See the joined screenshot, streams played from Twitch using https://streamlink.github.io/ and https://streamlink.github.io/streamlink-twitch-gui/ end up with no sound and the video being white/grey with a little bit of glitches when it starts playing. Also note that:

• The same environment and software on another computer plays it within VLC without any issues;
• The computer with the issue plays local files fine without issues in VLC;
• The computer with the issue plays those streams within MPV without any issues either.

Those points together makes me think the issue might be with the very recent GPU and the involved piece of software in-between VLC and it, an Intel Iris Xe (the other computer runs a much older Intel IGP)

Screenshot

Also note that journalctl contained those logs, if it may help:

Mar 08 12:10:23 x1-carbon-clement vlc.desktop[2453762]: [0000562a25d86550] main libvlc: Running vlc with the default interface. Use 'cvlc' to use vlc without interface.
Mar 08 12:10:23 x1-carbon-clement vlc[2453762]: Warning: Ignoring XDG_SESSION_TYPE=wayland on Gnome. Use QT_QPA_PLATFORM=wayland to run on Wayland anyway.
Mar 08 12:10:23 x1-carbon-clement vlc.desktop[2453762]: [ass] libass API version: 0x1701000
Mar 08 12:10:23 x1-carbon-clement vlc.desktop[2453762]: [ass] libass source: commit: 0.17.1-0-ge8ad72accd3a84268275a9385beb701c9284e5b3-dirty
Mar 08 12:10:23 x1-carbon-clement vlc.desktop[2453762]: [ass] Shaper: FriBidi 1.0.12 (SIMPLE) HarfBuzz-ng 7.1.0 (COMPLEX)
Mar 08 12:10:23 x1-carbon-clement vlc.desktop[2453762]: [ass] Using font provider fontconfig
Mar 08 12:10:23 x1-carbon-clement vlc.desktop[2453762]: [00007f7188007a40] gl gl: Initialized libplacebo v5.229.2 (API v229)
Mar 08 12:10:23 x1-carbon-clement vlc.desktop[2453762]: [00007f7188007a40] glconv_vaapi_x11 gl error: vaInitialize: unknown libva error
Mar 08 12:10:23 x1-carbon-clement vlc.desktop[2453762]: [00007f7188007a40] glconv_vaapi_drm gl error: vaInitialize: unknown libva error
Mar 08 12:10:23 x1-carbon-clement vlc.desktop[2453762]: Xlib:  extension "DRI2" missing on display ":0".
Mar 08 12:10:23 x1-carbon-clement vlc.desktop[2453762]: [00007f7188007a40] glconv_vaapi_drm gl error: vaInitialize: unknown libva error
Mar 08 12:10:23 x1-carbon-clement vlc.desktop[2453762]: [00007f7188007a40] gl gl: Initialized libplacebo v5.229.2 (API v229)
Mar 08 12:10:23 x1-carbon-clement vlc.desktop[2453762]: Failed to open VDPAU backend libvdpau_nvidia.so: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory
Mar 08 12:10:23 x1-carbon-clement vlc.desktop[2453762]: [00007f7188007a40] gl gl: Initialized libplacebo v5.229.2 (API v229)
Mar 08 12:10:24 x1-carbon-clement vlc.desktop[2453762]: [ass] fontselect: (Roboto Medium, 400, 0) -> Roboto-Medium, 0, Roboto-Medium

GPU issues should not affect audio. I'd rather suspect that streamlink is not handling audio and video tracks from different URLs well.

This needs the verbose VLC logs.

I'd rather suspect that streamlink is not handling audio and video tracks from different URLs well.

I wouldn't assume an issue on streamlink considering my other laptop plays fine without any issue using also streamlink & vlc.

This needs the verbose VLC logs.

Here is the (pretty big) log file adding --verbose=2 --file-logging --logfile=/tmp/vlc-logs.txt to the called command. Let me know if you need more specific parameters to check things.

vlc-logs.txt

added Component::Audio: Linux plugins Component::Input: network streams Platform::GNU/Linux Status::needs more info labels

assigned to @Porkepix

removed Component::Audio: Linux plugins label

More information :

• with VLC 3.0.18 on archlinux : if we set "VDPAU" as library for hardware decoding AND if we have a graphic card that doesn't support MPEG2 hardware decoding then vlc will crash when trying to play MPEG2 files (segfault error),

I have a radeon HD4650 Pcie graphic card that doesn't support MPEG2 hardware decoding.

The bug doesn't occur with other players (MPV for example) that can use VDPAU library, it seems that VLC doesn't handle correctly VDPAU API, especially if the graphic card doesn't support some hardware decoding features.