Cfrgtkky

VLC does not play any kind of video file. It will start and stop correctly as open without any order to play anything. It used to work great before Ubuntu 12.04 reinstall, but now I have this strange problem.

Symptoms:
- VLC does not play any kind of video. Just opens it and stays frozen on first second of file.
- VLC opens an icon in notification bar just as it does regularly, but this time there is not an option to close it. Menu over there opens but do not respond.
- At any attempt to play a video file VLC will open another "dead" icon in notification bar.

Attempted solutions:

1. At first I thought it is lack of codecs, so I installed Ubuntu Restricted Extras - no improvement


2. I removed VLC .config folder and reinstalled VLC through apt-get install VLC - no improvement


3. I removed VLC through apt-get remove --purge VLC followed by apt-get autoremove, and reinstalled it using terminal - no improvement

I had a similar issue with VLC media player on my 32bit laptop with Xubuntu 14.04 LTS. So I have tried different approaches, here's what solved it:

First put in terminal:

sudo apt-get install ubuntu-restricted-extras

sudo apt-get install libdvdcss2 libdvdnav4 libdvdread4

sudo /usr/share/doc/libdvdread4/install-css.sh

sudo apt-get install libav-tools

sudo apt-get autoremove

Then restart your pc. Don't know if necessary but I did it.

Then remove mplayer (if you don't need it) and install the player "gxine".

Try out a video file in VLC. If still not working, open VLC and go to

Tools > Preferences > Video

Make sure "Accelerated video output (Overlay)" and "Windows decorations" are checked. Look at "Output" and test all available options with a video that isn't working. See if you find an option that plays the video accurately. For me, it was "XVideoOutput (XCB)" but it could be a different one for your needs. You can leave the "Preferences" window open while testing. Videos should then also be working in gxine (don't ask me why, could be packages or removal of mplayer?).

To play encrypted DVDs look at this official site. Necessary packages are already included in code above.

Hope this works for you, too!

the first thing you could try is to add the VLC repository to get the latest version from:
https://launchpad.net/~videolan/+archive/stable-daily

sudo apt-add-repository ppa:videolan/stable-daily

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade

(If this does not update to the lastest version. Do sudo apt-get purge and install again.)

Then you can try to install some additional codecs, see for instance this answer (about playing DVDs, but it might help):
VLC won't run DVDs

sudo apt-get install ubuntu-restricted-extras

sudo apt-get install libdvdcss2 libdvdnav4 libdvdread4

sudo apt-get install libavformat-extra-53 libavcodec-extra-53 libdvdread4

sudo /usr/share/doc/libdvdread4/install-css.sh

Then restart and see.

My video was not being played, but the audio was okay. I selected Tools > Preferences > Video > Output > XVideo output (XCB)
and the video reappeared with the synchronized audio.