Need Help. VLC shows no video only sound

[Riwam]

Hello to everyone reading this post.

First I must explain that my Mavericks is not a "normal" one.
Using MCPF, a tool discussed in several threads in this forum and to be found in OS X.net (although presently that site is almost always down because the owner Isiah Johnson aka TMRJIJ is making great efforts to provide new and improved tools for "unsupported" Macs) I managed to install Mavericks in an "unsupported" MacBook 4.1 early 2008.
(For you info according to Apple OSX 10.7 Lion should be the last "supported" OSX for that Mac).

Thanks to that wonderful tool MCPF 1.0.1 mentioned above I however succeeded after some effort to have a Mavericks with almost everything working...except VLC to see videos.
I can hear in VLC the sound track of any video... but not see the image.

Any hint how to solve this problem will be very appreciated.
Thank you very much in advance!
Ed

 

[komatsu]

Why not just try Handbrake?

https://handbrake.fr/

 

[Riwam]

Why not just try Handbrake?

https://handbrake.fr/

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Thank you very much komatsu for trying to help me.
I will see if handbrake can replace my not working VLC.
Thank you again very much!
Ed

 

[chrfr]

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Thank you very much komatsu for trying to help me.
I will see if handbrake can replace my not working VLC.
Thank you again very much!
Ed

Handbrake isn't a video player but rather an application that converts videos from one format to another. It may be that a different format of video will actually play, but it's more likely that the graphics drivers in your hacked together OS either aren't accelerating video, or aren't compatible with VLC.

 

[Riwam]

Handbrake isn't a video player but rather an application that converts videos from one format to another. It may be that a different format of video will actually play, but it's more likely that the graphics drivers in your hacked together OS either aren't accelerating video, or aren't compatible with VLC.

*****
Thank you very much chrfr for your post.
I saw by myself, as you say, that Handbrake is not a replacement for VLC.

Your remark about the hacked graphic video drivers points probably to the true problem.
The MacBook 4.1 early 2008 has no video acceleration.
Some movie formats and sizes of the MP4 generic type can however be shown in other players like Quicktime but depending on the file type or codecs used, some movies jump from picture to picture, due to that lacking video acceleration, instead of the desired smooth viewing.

By hacking, which was the only way to get in that aged MacBook a newer OSX than Lion, there is a price to pay.
As long as it doesn't get worse I must accept it.
I prefer Mavericks to Lion (the choice of applications is much larger) and video acceleration won't be available in the original Lion either...although VLC will probably work.

Thank you again very much chrfr for sharing your knowledge

 

[chrfr]

I prefer Mavericks to Lion (the choice of applications is much larger) and video acceleration won't be available in the original Lion either...although VLC will probably work.

Although the graphics processor in the early 2008 MacBook is slow, it does indeed provide accelerated graphics in Lion, and that's why VLC works there. Because there are no drivers for Mavericks for that GPU, there is no acceleration at all in Mavericks.

 

[Riwam]

Although the graphics processor in the early 2008 MacBook is slow, it does indeed provide accelerated graphics in Lion, and that's why VLC works there. Because there are no drivers for Mavericks for that GPU, there is no acceleration at all in Mavericks.

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Thank you again for sharing your knowledge with people like me who haven't so much.
Somehow Quicktime or for instance Miro manage to show both video and sound.
VLC doesn't.
However it depends on the movie file.
Avis don't work but some MP4 do.
Some huge movie files seem to require the missing graphic acceleration and therefore stutter terribly even if Miro shows them.
By converting those movie files to less demanding file types it is however possible to see those movies in a fluent and acceptable way.

It's certainly not ideal and any conversion with such week CPU takes very much time and patience but it is certainly better than no movie view at all.

I happen to like that aged all-black MacBook early 2008, I bought a new battery, the maximum of 6GB RAM for it, and installed a SSD HD, since that is the last MacBook allowing easy access to the HD and the RAM by simply removing the battery.

I find it still works reasonably well for its old age (while my old Windows Notebooks rarely work at all), and decided that upgrading the OS two OSX steps by hacking it (the only possibility) made sense.

Wonders can't be expected and I don't expect them, but I don't like to throw away nice things as long as they still work.
That's the whole story.
Thank you very much again!
Ed