Video Playback is Broken Across all Applications (M1)

[TigerMSTR]

Very bizarre bug here: Video playback will intermittently break across on applications on the system. This means that across Safari, Chrome, Firefox, VLC, QuickTime, iMovie, etc..., all videos will be unable to play. If you attempt to play a video in QuickTime, the player will crash. If you attempt to watch a video in VLC, it's permanently stuck on a black screen. With YouTube across all browsers, you'll see the video thumbnail with a spinning loading icon. I haven't found any applications that are immune to this bug.

I've seen this issue pop up three or four times over the last week. Logging out of the user account does not resolve the issue. Only resolution I've found it so completely reboot the system.

Can anyone report similar experiences? Surprised I haven't seen it reported elsewhere. I do wonder if it could be a hardware issue with my M1.

 

[BLUEDOG314]

Can you copy and paste some of what's going on in the console when say QuickTime or VLC crashes playing a local file and also when you try to play a YouTube video? It would be helpful to find a common thread. Also when did you notice this start, and have you tried reproducing in a different user or guest user?

 

[MandiMac]

I don't have that problem. Multiple formats work well for me across all apps, be it Preview, Safari, QuickTime or VLC.

Very bizarre bug here: Video playback will intermittently break across on applications on the system. This means that across Safari, Chrome, Firefox, VLC, QuickTime, iMovie, etc..., all videos will be unable to play. If you attempt to play a video in QuickTime, the player will crash. If you attempt to watch a video in VLC, it's permanently stuck on a black screen. With YouTube across all browsers, you'll see the video thumbnail with a spinning loading icon. I haven't found any applications that are immune to this bug.

I've seen this issue pop up three or four times over the last week. Logging out of the user account does not resolve the issue. Only resolution I've found it so completely reboot the system.

Can anyone report similar experiences? Surprised I haven't seen it reported elsewhere. I do wonder if it could be a hardware issue with my M1.

 

[Freeangel1]

I have heard of people having problems with dropped frames in Final Cut Pro using the 8GB Ram M1
When they upgraded to the 16GB model all was fine.
I have read lots of bad reports of the M1 8GB ram model getting maxed out easily
Just glance at your activity process monitor when doing something.

I got the 8GB M1 Mac mini.
I returned it.
I'm waiting for the M1x or M2 model.
8GB ram only scares me. Even 16GB seems close.
Why cant we get 32GB of ram in a Mac without paying a fortune?

 

[MandiMac]

I have heard of people having problems with dropped frames in Final Cut Pro using the 8GB Ram M1
When they upgraded to the 16GB model all was fine.
I have read lots of bad reports of the M1 8GB ram model getting maxed out easily
Just glance at your activity process monitor when doing something.

I got the 8GB M1 Mac mini.
I returned it.
I'm waiting for the M1x or M2 model.
8GB ram only scares me. Even 16GB seems close.
Why cant we get 32GB of ram in a Mac without paying a fortune?

I have a 8 GB Mac mini and a 16 GB MacBook Air. No problem on either machine, regardless of what I'm doing.

 

[Freeangel1]

I still returned the 8GB Mac mini. M1. I don't have hundreds of dollars to throw away on a paper weight.
I believe the guy in the video. you can just look at the activity monitor and see that the machine is really pushing it on memory.

I'm waiting for the M1x or M2 model with 32GB memory 4 USB C ports. possibly 8 hi performance CPU cores instead of 4. 16 GPU cores instead of just 8.

 

[MandiMac]

I still returned the 8GB Mac mini. M1. I don't have hundreds of dollars to throw away on a paper weight.
I believe the guy in the video. you can just look at the activity monitor and see that the machine is really pushing it on memory.

I'm waiting for the M1x or M2 model with 32GB memory 4 USB C ports. possibly 8 hi performance CPU cores instead of 4. 16 GPU cores instead of just 8.

You can certainly wait. But to quote you: "Why cant we get 32GB of ram in a Mac without paying a fortune?"
You better brace yourself to pay some big $$$ to get that dream machine of yours. If you really need it for your work, you wouldn't complain about the price, but focus on the gains you'll have with the better machine IMO as you're making more money when your machine is working faster and will pay for itself in the long run

 

[TigerMSTR]

Can you copy and paste some of what's going on in the console when say QuickTime or VLC crashes playing a local file and also when you try to play a YouTube video? It would be helpful to find a common thread. Also when did you notice this start, and have you tried reproducing in a different user or guest user?

Good idea. I will keep an eye on the console and try running as a guest user and report back whenever I experience this problem again (probably within a few days)

 

[TigerMSTR]

I have heard of people having problems with dropped frames in Final Cut Pro using the 8GB Ram M1
When they upgraded to the 16GB model all was fine.
I have read lots of bad reports of the M1 8GB ram model getting maxed out easily
Just glance at your activity process monitor when doing something.

I got the 8GB M1 Mac mini.
I returned it.
I'm waiting for the M1x or M2 model.
8GB ram only scares me. Even 16GB seems close.
Why cant we get 32GB of ram in a Mac without paying a fortune?

Thanks for the suggestion, but this wouldn't be it. I have the 16 GB M1. And my symptoms are a lot more severe than a few dropped frames.

Given the lack of similar bug reports, I'm thinking this might be a hardware or driver defect, likely related to the M1 GPU. This would not be the first time I've seen a GPU intermittently misbehave as a symptom of a broader issue. Going to wait to read the console logs next time this happens though, before asking Apple to RMA the device.

 

[Cozmosis]

Thanks for the suggestion, but this wouldn't be it. I have the 16 GB M1. And my symptoms are a lot more severe than a few dropped frames.

Given the lack of similar bug reports, I'm thinking this might be a hardware or driver defect, likely related to the M1 GPU. This would not be the first time I've seen a GPU intermittently misbehave as a symptom of a broader issue. Going to wait to read the console logs next time this happens though, before asking Apple to RMA the device.

Hey there,

Have you found a fix? My M1 MBA started having same symptoms - but for me noticed after I upgraded to 11.4 (could be coincidental). Works fine for a while but then everything stops - Youtube, audio apps, VLC, anything.

 

[TigerMSTR]

Hey there,

Have you found a fix? My M1 MBA started having same symptoms - but for me noticed after I upgraded to 11.4 (could be coincidental). Works fine for a while but then everything stops - Youtube, audio apps, VLC, anything.

No resolution yet, unfortunately. I'm on 11.4

 

[MarkOfWA]

I'm experiencing the same problem on a 16GB MacBookPro when playing back 4K video that Adobe Premier Pro has just exported in full 4K resolution, full screen, on an external 4K monitor. Audio drops out, distorts, and disappears entirely in Quicktime. After shrinking the playback window to 1/8 of the screen, playback is good again with audio intact. M1 Mac performance driving external 4K monitors has been so awful, and the limitation to a single external monitor so disruptive to the three-screen workflow I was using on my 2020 Core i9 MacBookPro, that I have considered an external GPU for the M1 Mac. Add to that other Premier Pro problems on the M1 MacBookPro, and I'm regretting that purchase.

 

[MarkOfWA]

Ironically, most of the time, 4K video played full screen in a browser window from YouTube or Amazon plays fine, but those are encoded at a much lower bit rate than the 4k video that I'm trying to play back locally. Locally stored video is on PCIe SSD in the M1 MBP, or on PCIe SSD attached via Thunderbolt 3. The likely cause for video playback problems for M1 Macs would be memory management in MacOS, which should be clearing enough of the shared memory architecture for its GPU functions for video decode to operate properly. I've not encountered similar problems on higher-end Intel MBP's with their dedicated GPU and its dedicated RAM.

 

[funwithstuff]

Try avoiding Chrome. Some people have reported issues with Chrome messing up video playback system-wide, so maybe restart, don't launch Chrome, use Safari instead, and see if the issue recurs?

 

[TigerMSTR]

I'm experiencing the same problem on a 16GB MacBookPro when playing back 4K video that Adobe Premier Pro has just exported in full 4K resolution, full screen, on an external 4K monitor. Audio drops out, distorts, and disappears entirely in Quicktime. After shrinking the playback window to 1/8 of the screen, playback is good again with audio intact. M1 Mac performance driving external 4K monitors has been so awful, and the limitation to a single external monitor so disruptive to the three-screen workflow I was using on my 2020 Core i9 MacBookPro, that I have considered an external GPU for the M1 Mac. Add to that other Premier Pro problems on the M1 MacBookPro, and I'm regretting that purchase.

I'd consider making a warranty request. I haven't had any issues with 4K playback on the M1.

No fixing the single-monitor restriction, though. Your best bet would be to sell the M1 Air and upgrade to the new Apple Silicon MacBook Pros, whenever those are announced.

 

[Depoude.scu]

Very bizarre bug here: Video playback will intermittently break across on applications on the system. This means that across Safari, Chrome, Firefox, VLC, QuickTime, iMovie, etc..., all videos will be unable to play. If you attempt to play a video in QuickTime, the player will crash. If you attempt to watch a video in VLC, it's permanently stuck on a black screen. With YouTube across all browsers, you'll see the video thumbnail with a spinning loading icon. I haven't found any applications that are immune to this bug.

I've seen this issue pop up three or four times over the last week. Logging out of the user account does not resolve the issue. Only resolution I've found it so completely reboot the system.

Can anyone report similar experiences? Surprised I haven't seen it reported elsewhere. I do wonder if it could be a hardware issue with my M1.

I experienced the exact same issue on OS 11.5.2. By disabling the app 'Background Music' (by Github user kyleneideck), playback returned to normal.

 

[kejolo]

Disconnect and reconnect your dock/external monitors.

Started happening to me once I connected two external monitors. I've always used the mac (the new macbook pros) with a dock. Initially with one monitor and the laptop in clamshell. Just started using it with two external + the laptop screen a couple of days ago. Seems like that's what is causing this issue for me.

I would be playing youtube videos and suddenly it would stop and I'd get the loading symbol. And from then on no videos would play anywhere on the system. It happened three times. First two times I had to restart to get it solved. And then the third time happened literally within a couple of hours of the last incident and it was infuriating.

After usless googling and coming across those scam sites of how to solve your computer problems, had an inspiration to disconnect my dock (dell wd19tb) and it started working. Plugged it back in and it's still working. Not sure if that would solve the issue for others but hopefully it will for some.

GL

 

[matt_and_187_like_this]

Same issue here. I also suspect it's related to devices plugged into the USB C port. Every other time I disconnect the Macbook from my external monitor in clamshell and open it up this bug occurs. Usually the screen is black at first with keyboard lit up, then I hacve to click the on/off button and the screen wakes. However, with said bug. Only a full restart helps to resolve it.

Additionally to not playing any music or video pressing volume up/down is super laggy. Takes multiple seconds until input is recognised and shows on screen.

I am still on Intel btw, so it isn't exclusive to M1.

 

[hiteshgodhajain]

Very bizarre bug here: Video playback will intermittently break across on applications on the system. This means that across Safari, Chrome, Firefox, VLC, QuickTime, iMovie, etc..., all videos will be unable to play. If you attempt to play a video in QuickTime, the player will crash. If you attempt to watch a video in VLC, it's permanently stuck on a black screen. With YouTube across all browsers, you'll see the video thumbnail with a spinning loading icon. I haven't found any applications that are immune to this bug.

I've seen this issue pop up three or four times over the last week. Logging out of the user account does not resolve the issue. Only resolution I've found it so completely reboot the system.

Can anyone report similar experiences? Surprised I haven't seen it reported elsewhere. I do wonder if it could be a hardware issue with my M1.

Hey, did you ever get a permanent fix for this?

I'm still getting this error on my M1 MBA, my machine is fully updated.
It fixes after restarting the system but I don't want to restart every time it happens.