Video image freezes, audio rewinds 3 to 4 seconds and gets stuck in a loop.
A similar problem has been documented here: https://trac.videolan.org/vlc/ticket/6600.
Unfortunately there seems to be no solution. It even happens in recent VLC distributions, like VLC Rincewind 2.1.3.
I have tried using Windows Media Player Classic (MPC), without any effect. At random intervals, with any kind of video format, video playback stops.
Quite out of the blue I found this behaviour tracing back to Intel Optimus Technology. I have two video cards: HD Graphics 4600 and NVIDIA Quadro K2100M controlled by Optimus. Optimus technology switches between these two GPU’s to ensure maximum battery autonomy.
When disabling Optimus in your BIOS settings, the video problem should belong to the past. This, however, isn’t an optimal solution when you rely on Optimus to get maximum battery autonomy. At this time, with the latest BIOS and Graphic drivers video playback keeps freezing with Optimus enabled. Hopefully, a driver update will fix this in the near future.
Feedback appreciated