Sound lag / stutter

[SepeJon]

I recently noticed that when I play movies as higher quality (eg. not .avi) like dvdr (.vob), and 720p mkv, mp4 the audio stutter/lag (I don't know the correct word, but the sound crackle like its bad and old quality for 10ms very short and the sound just goes silent for 10 ms) every 10-20 second. Not all of the dvdr videos have this problem but most. It depends from time to time how bad it is even when playing same movie. sometimes it can be very frequent and sometimes it's less.

I dont have any codecs installed. I tried CCCP and with media player classic everything went fine. But when a had CCCP installed VLC still had the same problem.
I've tried on a laptop with lower performance than mine and it worked fine on that one.

I've tried to change both audio and video output in VLC to all the alternatives.
tried to set FFmpeg skip loop filter for H.264 to all.
no problem with avi or audio files.

I have upgraded my sound, video and chipset drivers.
My CPU usage is very low <20%.

System:
Windows 7 32bit ultimate
motherboard - Gigabyte EP45C-DS3R (I only use the integrated sound card)
CPU - Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550 2.83GHz
2Gb RAM
Radeon HD 4870 1Gb

My guess is that it have something to do with my integrated sound card but then it should be the same problem with CCCP + media player classic?

Thanks for helping me!

[dumbo4711]

hi
your soundcard is ok

u r not the first one with this problem

the audio problem is (for me) a known bug introduced in vlc since 1.1.0
some people have stutters in mp3 playback some with dvd and movies
i have exactly the ame problem myself
(sound crackle and about 10ms silent, happens mainly with some dvds but only random)

because the bug occurs random its hard to reproduce it

sometimes everything plays ok
and suddenly after 15 minutes when u start vlc again the bug is there
and rebooting or reinstalling and deleting all vlc folders manually won't help
u r right it can be very frequent and sometimes it's more sometimes less


i found a solution for it
(at least it works for me)

the bug seems to have something to do with the volume settings in vlc
since 1.1.0 there is a bug
vlc doesn't save/reset/remember the volume settings correct
which seems to cause the audio problems

i am not sure if this is fixed in 1.1.4 or not


normally vlc starts with 100% audio volume
but when u change it in vlc for e.g. to 200%
and exit vlc
next time u start vlc it isn't at 100% (even when u set in options that vlc should start with 100% volume)


there seems to be a bug when vlc is starting not at 100% audio volume
the audio playback is getting corrupt
why ? well good question
when vlc starts with 100% u an change the volume during playback to 200% without problems

may be this has something to do how vlc renders the audio
changing the audio output makes no difference

in vlc 1.0.5 everything was ok
seems in audio output of vlc 1.1.x something has changed



oki but here the SOLUTION which is working for me


first set "always reset audio start level to" to 100% in options
then save settings and quit vlc
now change attribute of
vlcrc and vlc-qt-interface.ini
files to read only, so vlc cannot change options on its own

now vlc will start ALWAYS with 100% audio volume
the bug with sound crackle and 10ms silent during plyyback should be gone


setting the audio volume with the bar back to 100% each time before u exit vlc
DOESN't work
(next time u start vlc it is at 150% or 200% again)


it seems only vista and w7 users have this problem....

hmm may be starting and installing vlc as administrator even when u r loged on as admin helps....
just an idea because some progs which are not designed for vista/w7 can cause strange behaviour
may be caused by rights to access files in user folder....
and starting (and installing) these as admin will fix some problems

for e.g. native instruments bandstand must be run as admin under w7 + xp compatibility mode
or gtr2 must be installed and run as admin to run proberly
may be vlc needs this too

[dumbo4711]

i tried 1.1.4 now and it seems it remembers the volume correct

until now i have no audio problems
hope it stays that way

[SepeJon]

I don't have any problems with the volume not setting to 100% so your solution didn't work for me

[SepeJon]

Does anyone know anything else about this? maybe someone from videolan has anything to say?
Thanks for help

[saab99cc]

setting volume to 100% does not help, sound is terrible!

mpeg files, .ts files, .vob files, stereo sound, spdif sound....

all stop'n'go stutters!

114 ver is playing well with my old comp. amd 64 3700+, but new one (amd 64, 6xcore, xp-sp3 and realtek HD audio) is impossible.

any real ideas?

MPC plays OK with ffdshow-audio - how can I get ffdshow into vlc?

???

[saab99cc]

update...

some strange phenomenon...

I cleared the vlc-cache-file away, once again, stopped using rthdcpl.exe (realtek hdmi sounds manager ?), started vlc - it worked OK!

then, dvbviewer (digital tv rec prog) started recording, and vlc-sounds went sour, again...

well, I thought that maybe this dvbviewer is interfering (because it is using ffdshow, maybe) , but but ....

later I tried this:
1. started mpc (using ffdshow) with one .ts file
2. started vlc playing .ts file
3. started dvbviewer recording a tv-prog.

and amazing, vlc sounds now OK, again --- ?? very very strange indeed...

[erutan]

Hi,
I'm using 1.1.4 and I get audio hiccups playing any file of almost any kind/size (DIVX, XVID, MPG, MP3 etc.), every 5-10 seconds, throughout the play. It also happened with the previous version I had before the update (I don't remember which one, I guess 1.1.0).
Statistics show that a couple of audio buffers and video frames are lost, but it happens only at the beginning and it's not consistent with the hiccups.
I tried configuring different audio/video output methods and combinations but none of them worked this out.
In addition, during x264 720p/1080p MKV plays I sometimes get video freezes/artifacts (while audio continues normally, except for the hiccups) - buffers issue?

This is what [Tools]->

To help you, we need messages, to completely understand what your problems is.
To fix this, please be sure before you start the playback to:

1. Open: Tools -> Messages.
2. Set Verbosity to 2
3. Start playback to reproduce your issue
4. Save text in a file or copy into clipboard
5. Then paste the full resulting log here between [​code]and[​/code] (or use Pastebin.com if it's too long)

Also don't forget to name your Operating System and provide the VLC media player version.

showed:

main warning: output date isn't PTS date, requesting resampling (-40251)
main warning: buffer is 40071 in advance, triggering downsampling
main warning: output date isn't PTS date, requesting resampling (-40710)
main warning: timing screwed, stopping resampling
main warning: buffer is 71120 in advance, triggering downsampling
main warning: output date isn't PTS date, requesting resampling (-41306)
main warning: output date isn't PTS date, requesting resampling (-42349)
main warning: output date isn't PTS date, requesting resampling (-40050)
main warning: output date isn't PTS date, requesting resampling (-41798)
main warning: output date isn't PTS date, requesting resampling (-42944)
main warning: output date isn't PTS date, requesting resampling (-41780)
main warning: resampling stopped after 23324000 usec (drift: 81551)
main warning: buffer is 81370 in advance, triggering downsampling
main warning: output date isn't PTS date, requesting resampling (-40147)
main warning: output date isn't PTS date, requesting resampling (-40125)
main warning: audio drift is too big (-120985), clearing out
main warning: timing screwed, stopping resampling
main warning: mixer start isn't output start (-58403)
main debug: audio output is starving (165773), playing silence

Hiccups occur when "audio output is starving" of course.

I'm using Lenovo T400 - WinXP, Core2Duo 2.4Ghz with 2GB RAM.
CPU load is 90% idle while playing a file.
VLC CPU Load - 3-7%
Mem Usage - ~60MB (Peak mem around that value)
Page Faults - 357,000 after 22 minutes and rising.
VM Size - ~54MB.

I believe that VLC player is the best player that exists out there, and it's very frustrating that since the new version I encounter this issue.
If I can do anything to help debug this issue please contact me directly through email.

Thanks for your hard work on this player,

I hope you can solve this issue... It's irritating...

[mcvane]

I can play big AVI and MKV files, but for a lousy 4 MB mp3 file, VLC CANNOT perform and gets the audio all choppy.

I will have to agree with previous posters, and say VLC is great, but I will have to depend on good old Winamp...

[soulchas3r]

I am having this problem when streaming across wireless network.

Streaming small mp3's or capture device.

I think maybe it is an encapsultion/codec issue?

On one laptop everything is ok, but two other have real problems with stuttering.

All win 7.

[davros99]

Found a tip that worked for me, I had Sound stutter in video, but audio files OK. (XP) ever since the upgrade to the "Luggage" Tried all different settings w/o success - and of course winamp, WMP, players inside dumb programs, web video.. all OK. Grr.. but i don't like them i like VLC!

It was the output module that wasn't working right.

Settings --> All settings --> Video --> Output module --> DirectX (direct draw)
ALSO --- ~Output modules -->DirectX --> USE VIDEO BUFFERS IN SYSTEM MEMORY. (this is the crucial part)

This is the ONLY way it will play without stuttering since the last few versions.

[Newrone]

Found a tip that worked for me, I had Sound stutter in video, but audio files OK. (XP) ever since the upgrade to the "Luggage" Tried all different settings w/o success - and of course winamp, WMP, players inside dumb programs, web video.. all OK. Grr.. but i don't like them i like VLC!

It was the output module that wasn't working right.

Settings --> All settings --> Video --> Output module --> DirectX (direct draw)
ALSO --- ~Output modules -->DirectX --> USE VIDEO BUFFERS IN SYSTEM MEMORY. (this is the crucial part)

This is the ONLY way it will play without stuttering since the last few versions.

THANK YOU!!!
And just to add: Shut down VLC & restart it for the changes to take effect.

[vnicolici]

I have the same problem. MKV 1080p x264 video file, DTS audio codec, crap VLC audio rendering, windows media player plays file perfectly after installing MKV and AC3 support. I wouldn't use VLC at all, but it has the best integration with uTorrent, suporting torrent video streaming.

[VLC_help]

vnicolici: what does Tools -> Messages (set Verbosity to 2) say when you playback that problematic file?

[dvnamis]

Ok, this works for me:

- Go to Tools - Preferences - Video
- I'm using default output (probly using Direct3D, since this is the default interface for Win 7)
- Clear "Use hardware YUV->RGB conversions"
- Restart VLC

Not sure why this matter because only the audio stutter not the video.
Hope this helps someone, this stutter is really bugging me.

[VLC_help]

Not sure why this matter because only the audio stutter not the video.

If VOUT takes too much CPU time, the AOUT will starve and that will cause shuttering.

[dvnamis]

If VOUT takes too much CPU time, the AOUT will starve and that will cause shuttering.

Just out of curiosity, do you mean CPU time as in CPU load/usage?
if so then with that option checked, the cpu usage is only about 11% (9% when unchecked) and I have fairly fast processor (Phenom X6 @ 3.5GHz).

Either case, I wonder if it has anything to do with the graphics driver; I'm pretty sure I didn't have this problem before and if I remember correctly there is no new release of VLC lately.
Maybe I'll try to install an older driver. Will post here if that makes a difference.

[evasive]

I am seeing improvements after changing audio out to waveout and back to default and I am seeing improvement after disabling power management and enable it back. So somewhere, somehow the settings (registry), VLC, power management, timing, audio drivers are interacting in the wrong way after a default install.

newrone, davros99,, vnicoli, dvnamis, soulchas3r, mcvane:

please list operating system, patch level
audio hardware, driver version
VLC version
what you exactly did to migitate/workaround the issue.