VLC Looses the Game in Seconds

VLC sign

VLC, the »Videolan« player, is my favorite! It plays all sorts of videos, even ISO-packaged files as needed for real DVDs (video discs). It’s my standard player. (I dislike Microsoft’s Media Player: big and pompous and unpractical to use for someone like me who still knows where his files and directories are, and not within some hidden video and music libraries, established and visited by Microsoft only.) VLC even lets you select a piece of video and cut it out (View, Ansicht; Advanced Controls, erweiterte Steuerung; description here for example, result here for example).
   So far, so good, and full of praise.
   (Just remember: Never get VLC from VLC.de, always reach for the original at VLC.org!)
   Anyway, yesterday, I wanted to watch a video. I went through the prelimiaries, selected the language, started the film. Seconds later VLC gave up:   

Microsoft Visual C++ Runtime Library
This application has requested the Runtime to terminate in an
unusual way.
Please contact the application’s support team for more
information.

I tried on another PC, same crash. And the crash was a bad one, as VLC would not leave memory but had to be brutally killed via task manager. No error report to Microsoft. Just death.
   It took me hours and various useless detours to finally get my film on screen. I even installed Windows’ Media Player. It immediately took over as standard player, messed my setup, only to finally tell me that it coudn’t play ISO files. Enforced my prejudices.
   The »Media Player Classic«, a fine little player, my second choice, blew up with the same message. Said something like »cannot render«. This should have raised my attention.
   Then I googled around, found the same Visual C error message with many a program, with variing and unsuccessful »solutions«. Apparently programs written in the usual universal C++ programming language can make requests to the C++ runtime library that it cannot interpret. Why this happens, the library cannot find out; only the caller knows. The C++ routines just give up. So I tried to install a new runtime library, directly from Microsoft, but it wouldn’t, telling me that I already had one and even a newer. No harm done, but no solution either.
   Finally I took another route into my film. I just selected the language at a later stage, while the film was already running. Thus I miracously avoided this particular unhappy call by VLC to the C++ library. -- In any case I judge it to be a programming error by VLC that forgets to give a diagnostic after this unsuccessful call. The same, when other programs crash with this cryptic message. They just don’t do their duty in exceptions.
   Then I could see the video.
   (Incidentally, to select another sound track with VLC click the right mouse button within the picture, go to sound, and use another track. You can do that at any time during the show. Never mind the sound track descriptions, they proved to be utterly wrong, just try them. Works.)

Permalink: http://blogabissl.blogspot.com/2014/08/vlc-looses-game-in-seconds.html
My operating system Windows 7 Professional Service Pack 1 64 Bit
My VLC 2.1.3 Rincewind