Just asking for context. Did you try rolling back to an older version? 2.2.4's not given me any issues unless I try to play a broken ass file with it.

VLC 2.2.2 was quite buggy, but 2.2.4 seems perfectly fine to me..

Uninstall, run a registry cleaner/repair (ccleaner or equivalent), double check your audio related drivers, and then reinstall current version?

Ciomalau is one of the usual trolls here.
He even called you "kaka man" while you were trying to help him. XD
I don't know why you bother :P

Another recommendation for the here. It's from the same guy who did the [url=http://www.kmplayer.com]KMPlayer. On Windows I really preferred the PotPlayer over VLC, but don't ask me why.

There are lots of options (most stated above), but IMHO, the best ones are:

PotPlayer: A very good player with lots of features. I would say this is the best player in Windows overall (lots of features, ease of use, good UI and excellent performance). Even if nowadays I am trying to use Linux-available player even on Windows, it's usually a must install for me. It certainly is the player I install on my gf's laptop.

Media Player Classic: A simple yet powerful player. I too have some issues with VLC, so I have this as a back-up. It has a simple and old-fashioned ui, but I like the simplicity. Despite its raw look, I wouldn't discard it.

I recommend to try both and keep the one you prefer (I usually have them both installed). There are many other valid options (like GOM and SMplayer), but I think these two cover everything normally needed.

i googled "vlc slow start" and it seems lots of people had this problem before me but i couldn't find any fix to my problem. there was a guy who said he uninstalled microsoft silverlight and that solved problem - i first look on wikipedia to find out what silverlight does, i saw that i don't need it, so i uninstalled too but problem still exist

meh, nothing compared to trying to do tech support on Steam forums

Another vote for PotPlayer.

And will check out MPC-HC, cheers.

I had this with an older version, but the latest version 2.2.4 doesn't have the problem anymore, and you may want to try installing the 64bit version if your computer CPU is 64bit.

First, you want to uninstall the old version and make sure to select the option to delete the preferences.

You could try uninstalling it and then re-installing it. But before you do that, I suggest you do a complete uninstall using something like IOBitUninstaller instead of just the standard Add/Remove programs, that way when you re-install it, it will be like you never installed VLC in the first place.

Here are some alternative uninstallers. These programs are great, because they will completely uninstall everything instead of just partially like Add/Remove Programs of Windows.

I´m also using PotPlayer, tried many but most satisfied with it.

MPC-HC

I know, but for me that is a problem. I want to be able to hover over it with my mouse cursor and click on those buttons without having them cover any part of the movie.