This H.264 sample contains 344 slices in a frame. FFmpeg only decodes the first half of the pictures and fails to decode the last X slices. This is ffplay's output. Note that the revision number is _wrong_, it is in fact revision 15665 (latest). It appears the version.sh script doesn't work correctly when doing out of tree builds? Which is weird and thus kind of unlikely as I'd think everybody does out of tree builds? FFplay version SVN-r15417, Copyright (c) 2003-2008 Fabrice Bellard, et al. configuration: --enable-gpl --enable-nonfree --enable-swscale --enable-pthreads --enable-x11grab --enable-libx264 --enable-libfaad --enable-libfaac --enable-libamr-nb --enable-libamr-wb --enable-libmp3lame --enable-libgsm --enable-libvorbis --enable-avfilter --enable-avfilter-lavf --enable-libdirac --enable-libschroedinger --enable-libtheora --extra-libs=-lX11 libavutil 49.10. 0 / 49.10. 0 libavcodec 52. 0. 0 / 52. 0. 0 libavformat 52.22. 1 / 52.22. 1 libavdevice 52. 1. 0 / 52. 1. 0 libavfilter 0. 1. 0 / 0. 1. 0 libswscale 0. 6. 1 / 0. 6. 1 built on Oct 22 2008 15:52:00, gcc: 4.2.3 (Ubuntu 4.2.3-2ubuntu7) ALSA lib pcm_dmix.c:874:(snd_pcm_dmix_open) unable to open slave [h264 @ 0xef9770]left block unavailable for requested intra4x4 mode -1 at 71 31 [h264 @ 0xef9770]error while decoding MB 71 31 [h264 @ 0xef9770]left block unavailable for requested intra4x4 mode -1 at 1 32 [h264 @ 0xef9770]error while decoding MB 1 32 [h264 @ 0xef9770]left block unavailable for requested intra4x4 mode -1 at 11 32 [h264 @ 0xef9770]error while decoding MB 11 32 [h264 @ 0xef9770]left block unavailable for requested intra4x4 mode -1 at 21 32 [h264 @ 0xef9770]error while decoding MB 21 32 [h264 @ 0xef9770]left block unavailable for requested intra4x4 mode -1 at 32 32 [h264 @ 0xef9770]error while decoding MB 32 32 [h264 @ 0xef9770]left block unavailable for requested intra mode at 41 32 [h264 @ 0xef9770]error while decoding MB 41 32 [h264 @ 0xef9770]corrupted macroblock 52 32 (total_coeff=-1) [h264 @ 0xef9770]error while decoding MB 52 32 [h264 @ 0xef9770]left block unavailable for requested intra4x4 mode -1 at 61 32 [h264 @ 0xef9770]error while decoding MB 61 32 [h264 @ 0xef9770]left block unavailable for requested intra4x4 mode -1 at 72 32 [h264 @ 0xef9770]error while decoding MB 72 32 [h264 @ 0xef9770]left block unavailable for requested intra4x4 mode -1 at 1 33 [h264 @ 0xef9770]error while decoding MB 1 33 [h264 @ 0xef9770]top block unavailable for requested intra4x4 mode -1 at 12 33 [h264 @ 0xef9770]error while decoding MB 12 33 [h264 @ 0xef9770]left block unavailable for requested intra4x4 mode -1 at 21 33 [h264 @ 0xef9770]error while decoding MB 21 33 [h264 @ 0xef9770]left block unavailable for requested intra mode at 31 33 [h264 @ 0xef9770]error while decoding MB 31 33 ...