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Known Issue: Big Box Freezing due to playback engine compatibility

Bug ReportKnown Issue

Description:

Multiple users have reported that Big Box freezes after a a period of time, requiring the application to be force-quit. The issue appears inconsistent and difficult to reproduce, but several reports suggest a potential link to video playback settings (WMP vs. VLC).

Observations from Reports:

• The time before freezing varies wildly, ranging from 10–15 minutes, to hours, to days.

• Some users report that WMP (Windows Media Player) does not freeze, while VLC seems more prone to freezing.

• Some users report no crashes at all, even after extensive testing.

Steps to Reproduce (Inconsistent):

1. Launch Big Box

2. Navigate through games, leave idle, or turn on attract mode

3. Monitor for freezing behavior

4. If using VLC, try switching to Windows Media Player (WMP) and compare behavior

Expected Behavior:

Big Box should remain responsive, regardless of the time elapsed or the number of videos played.

Actual Behavior:

• Big Box freezes and becomes unresponsive.

• Requires force-quitting the application to recover.

Workarounds & Potential Fixes:

• Switch from VLC to WMP:

  1. Go to Big Box’s System Settings > Options > Videos.

  1. Change the Video Playback Engine from VLC to Windows Media Player.

  1. Make sure to restart Big Box for the changes to take effect

    • Monitor if the issue persists across different video players.

🚨 Please note: The settings to control the playback engine in Big Box and LaunchBox are different. Changing this setting in LaunchBox, will have no effect in Big Box

Status:

✅ Resolved.

With the release of 13.21, we’re considering this issue resolved. To close the loop, WMP is now the default video playback engine, and our installer has been updated to include the necessary codecs (K-Lite) to ensure everything works properly.We understand there are some concerns about moving away from VLC. We’ve provided a detailed explanation of the issue and why we made this decision in our article, which you can check out below:

Understanding Video Playback for LaunchBox & Big Box in 13.21 and Beyond

Now that WMP is the default playback engine, if you’re still experiencing freezing issues, we’ll assume you’re no longer using VLC. Please open a new report so we can diagnose the problem further.

Thanks for bearing with us while we got this sorted out!

Affected Product
OS Version
Windows 11
LaunchBox Version
Plugins
None
Posted by AstroBob ·
Status: Completed23 comments

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Comments23

  • AstroBob changed status to Completed
    Team•

    Apr 29, 2025

    Pinned

    Hi folks,

    With the release of 13.21, we’re considering this issue resolved. To close the loop, WMP is now the default video playback engine, and our installer has been updated to include the necessary codecs (K-Lite) to ensure everything works properly.

    We understand there are some concerns about moving away from VLC. We’ve provided a detailed explanation of the issue and why we made this decision in our article, which you can check out below:

    Understanding Video Playback for LaunchBox & Big Box in 13.21 and Beyond

    Now that WMP is the default playback engine, if you’re still experiencing freezing issues, we’ll assume you’re no longer using VLC. Please open a new report so we can diagnose the problem further.

    Thanks for bearing with us while we got this sorted out!

    Cheers,

  • Brian Faeran

    Team•

    Feb 21, 2025

    Pinned

    For people posting here, please answer the following questions so we can track this down better:

    • Which version of LaunchBox are you running.

    • Is it Crashing or Freezing?

    • Whether it is happening on WMP and/or VLC?

    • Theme you are using?

    • View you are using?

    • Which section of Big Box you are in (eg. All Games, Platforms, Platform Categories... etc)

    • Which plugins you have installed

    • What you were doing in Big Box at that exact moment (eg. was it in Attract Mode, did you return after a while and press a navigation button and then it froze)

    • Do you know which game it was on when you ran into the issue?

    • Do you have 3D Models turned on or off?

    • List of transitions used

    • Do you have background music playing

    • Do you have game music playing

    • Do you use videos and source of the videos (eg. Steam videos, EmuMovies videos... etc)

    • Screenshot of the freeze could be helpful

    Maybe with enough answers we can deduce a pattern here.

    We’ve been running tests 24/7 for a good week or so, and for the most part, we have Big Box running on multiple machines with no crashes or freezing. Good for us, but not great to actually deduce what you guys are seeing.

    • Drybonz

      •

      Mar 7, 2025

      I don’t run Big Box, but with LB I have been getting the same freezing lately. Probably started on 13.19. I also am not using videos so WMP etc is not relevant. I’m using the default theme. No 3D models. Also… recently, when I close LB it will not completely close and has to be task killed.

  • DragonRyu68

    •

    Feb 18, 2025

    I test with WMP and 4 hours without crash ^^

  • celcius

    •

    Feb 20, 2025

    I switched to WMP and have not had a crash since.

  • Byoyoyo

    •

    Feb 28, 2025

    I have tested both version 13.19 and the 13.20 beta, and I am experiencing crashes and freezes in BigBox, regardless of whether I use VLC or Windows Media Player as the video playback option.

    Upon checking the log files, I found the following errors:

    • 2025-02-27 09:33:03 PM FIRST CHANCE EXCEPTION: Impossible de trouver la ressource 'views/launchbox_theme_folder/fonts/redhatdisplay-black.ttf'.

    • 2025-02-27 09:33:03 PM FIRST CHANCE EXCEPTION: Operation is not valid due to the current state of the object.

    • 2025-02-27 09:33:06 PM VlcPlayer.Dispose: Calling Stop method...

    I attempted to troubleshoot and fix these issues, but nothing has changed.

    To confirm whether this is version-related, I rolled back to version 13.18, and everything is working flawlessly again.

    This strongly suggests that the issue was introduced in version 13.19.


    Possible Causes & Areas to Investigate

    1. Missing Font Resource

      • The error mentions a missing font: 'views/launchbox_theme_folder/fonts/redhatdisplay-black.ttf'.

      • Could this be causing UI rendering issues leading to crashes?

      • Manually placing the missing font in the correct folder did not resolve the issue.

    2. Object State Issue

      • The log states: "Operation is not valid due to the current state of the object."

      • This suggests that something in the code is being called at an invalid time or after being disposed.

    3. Video Playback Issue with VLC/Media Player

      • The crash happens regardless of whether VLC or Windows Media Player is selected.

      • The log also shows "VlcPlayer.Dispose: Calling Stop method..." just before the crash.

      • Could there be an issue with the way BigBox handles media disposal in this update?

    Steps I Tried Without Success:

    • Changing video player settings in BigBox.

    • Reinstalling VLC.

    • Resetting BigBox settings.

    • Manually adding the missing font.

    • Rolling back to 13.18 (which fixed the issue).

  • DaveDW

    •

    Mar 5, 2025

    I came here to report this bug, saw the note about WMP, and found that switching to WMP seems to have solved the issue for me.

    Some details in case it helps the investigation. Thank you for your support!

    • Which version of LaunchBox are you running.

      • 13.20

    • Is it Crashing or Freezing?

      • freezing, requiring force close

    • Whether it is happening on WMP and/or VLC?

      • VLC

    • Theme you are using?

      • I tried several, critical zone, unified redux, default

    • View you are using?

      • I tried several per theme

    • Which section of Big Box you are in (eg. All Games, Platforms, Platform Categories... etc)

      • It always froze on navigation to a game in the games list

    • Which plugins you have installed

      • none

    • What you were doing in Big Box at that exact moment (eg. was it in Attract Mode, did you return after a while and press a navigation button and then it froze)

      • it happened once when scrolling games manually

      • Attract mode will always trigger it on its own. within 20 minutes with all attract settings set to “fastest”. A couple of hours with all settings on “slowest”

    • Do you know which game it was on when you ran into the issue?

      • Always different. Usually MAME games, but that is the majority of the build and I saw it freeze elsewhere at least once.

    • Do you have 3D Models turned on or off?

      • on

    • List of transitions used

      • all defaults every time

    • Do you have background music playing

      • default, so no?

    • Do you have game music playing

      • default, no?

    • Do you use videos and source of the videos (eg. Steam videos, EmuMovies videos... etc)

      • all emumovies for games

      • a few custom mp4s for platform and platform categories. i used a view that didn’t show plat cat videos and this bug still happened.

    • Screenshot of the freeze could be helpful

      • its always when the scroll wheel shows a new game after selection, the title of the new game pops up. but it freezes at this point without a video showing and with the background art still on the previous game. Its easy for me to reproduce so if you want screenshot i can get one.

    • xX-Delirium-Xx

      •

      Mar 7, 2025

      this is exactly the same for me

  • xX-Delirium-Xx

    •

    Mar 7, 2025

    bigbox been freezing up on me but not from being idle it happens randomly while I’m actively scrolling through my games. had it just happend to me again after just booting up and scrolling for 10 seconds im on latest build of lanchbox

  • AlabasterSlim

    •

    Feb 20, 2025

    I have the same issue. I rolled back to 13.18 and no more locking up.

  • SatorSquare

    •

    Feb 20, 2025

    Is it possible the issue is limited to a specific media encoding? Maybe VLC hits the issue because it plays everything and WMP only has the problem for users with the correct codec installed. The time discrepancy could also be explained by the roulette wheel of hitting a video with the bad type.

  • MavisBeacon

    •

    Feb 21, 2025

    Switched to WMP and that did not stop the crashes for me.

    Requested info -

    Which version of LaunchBox are you running.

    13.19

    Is it Crashing or Freezing?

    Freezing

    Whether it is happening on WMP and/or VLC?

    Observed with both

    Theme you are using?

    Aeon MQ7

    View you are using?

    N/A

    Which section of Big Box you are in (eg. All Games, Platforms, Platform Categories... etc)

    Game discovery center/options

    Which plugins you have installed

    Default+PS2 configurator next

    What you were doing in Big Box at that exact moment (eg. was it in Attract Mode, did you return after a while and press a navigation button and then it froze)

    Returned after a while to no music, clicked on bigbox and got a pop up saying the program was not responsive

    Do you know which game it was on when you ran into the issue?

    No game mostly, I leave it idle on the options screen

    Do you have 3D Models turned on or off?

    On

    List of transitions used

    Do you have background music playing

    Yes

    Do you have game music playing

    No

    Do you use videos and source of the videos (eg. Steam videos, EmuMovies videos...

    Yes videos, some steam some self clipped

    Screenshot of

    the freeze could be helpful

    • MavisBeacon

      •

      Mar 2, 2025

      Still occuring on 13.20 for me

    • Brian Faeran

      Team•

      Mar 21, 2025

      Thanks for the report. This actually sounds like a different issue that’s not related to this one, which is why switching to WMP wasn’t working for you. We MAY have a fix for the next release for this. When 13.21 beta 1 drops you can check it out and see if it helps your situation. If it doesn’t, I’d open a separate ticket with this information + any more scenario details/screenshots you could add.

      • MavisBeacon

        •

        May 3, 2025

        Thanks for your work on this. 13.21 made the crashes less frequent, but they were still happening. I did a refresh of my image cache after that and now I'm 2 days crash free! Fingers crossed I'm in the clear