The VideoLAN Forums

Hello,
When I try to play sound with VLC with AC3 or DTS playback, I get this really choppy sound.
I use Vista, and SPDIF connected to my receiver, when I use regular stereo the playback is fine.
Is there any solution?

Use nightly builds and change audio output module to Waveout.
EDIT:
http://nightlies.videolan.org/

I have tried it but there was no sound at all.

Hi,

What means no Sound? - 100% silence or choppy? (silence would be a new problem)
(do you have more than one audio output device?)

If you could try a nightly again - with enabled WaveOut Module - and report that would be nice.

André

Okay, I know I'm resurrecting an old topic but I feel it must be done to answer some questions that were left unanswered.
I was having the same problems discussed above and in several other posts:
~stereo sound = fine
~A/52 through S/PDIF = horribly choppy with dsound and slightly choppy with waveOUT

I went ahead and followed the above poster's advice and tried the latest nightly build ( vlc-0.9.0-git-20080616-0003-win32 at this date)

The release came with waveOUT pre-activated, so all I had to do was change the audio output to A/52, and PRESTO! Working DD5.1. Unfortunately, I don't have any DTS5.1 movies to test this with.

My relevant specs are:
WinVISTA Ultimate 32bit
VLC build vlc-0.9.0-git-20080616-0003-win32 set to waveOUT
Chaintech AV710 with whatever driver windows gave it on reformat
TOSLINK (optical) cable to z5500 Logitech speakers.
I have the z5500 display set to show audio formats it is receiving, so I know for sure that 3/2 DD5.1 is being sent.

Hope this post helped you,
ciao.

So what doesn't work in NB ?

Nothing, j-b, i was simply saying that it does work

Nothing, j-b, i was simply saying that it does work

Good. What audio output works for you in NB ?
Please more details!

For AC3 and DTS sample files (in case you don't have test material), go to
http://www.diatonis.com/downloads_dts_ac3.html
http://www.kellyindustries.com/sounds.html

Okay, I guess I'll rehash everything and attempt to use those dts/dd5.1 test files.

For these tests I'm using the above nightly build with the following options:
enable audio checked(obviously)
use s/pdif when available checked
forced detection auto
output type: win32 waveOut extension

My physical setup is a chaintech AV710 card, using TOSLINK optical to a set of z5500 (5.1) speaker system. The z5500 is set up to show me incoming digital data.

And I'm using winvista ultimate, 32bit.

results:
4_currents.ac3 gives me correct 5.1 dolby digital output. (3/2 48^16)
any of the .wav files i tried, however, didn't deliver.
diatonis_invisible_order_anfos_ac3.wav gave me PCM 2/0 48 output, even with 5.1 mode enable in the audio>audio device toolbar menu.
diatonis_dts_secret-universe.wav didn't even play, nor did dts_diatonis_io_afos.wav

Oddly enough, other files I have (movies) with dts encoding will play, and my z5500's will even show the proper bitstream and identifier (dts 3/2 48^24)

Conclusion:
NB allow correct playback of .ac3 files and dts/dd5.1 imbedded movies, but I haven't had any luck with dd-encoded wav files or dts-encoded wav files.

<!---------------------------------------------EDIT------------------------!>
It may be important to note that I'm using a fairly fresh install of Vista, so I may not have the necessary codecs for imbedded .wav decoding... if you want to suggest something for me to try, i'm open for that.

VLC only uses build-in codecs. So codec packs or codecs that came with OS don't matter. And I forgot to mention that dts or ac3 inside WAV files might not work ATM.
viewtopic.php?f=14&t=47122&start=0&st=0 ... it=wav+dts

well i found a solution hope it works for u,

i have a spanish vlc version

Go to vlc > preferences > audio and choose waveout win32

it worked for me

DTS movie and DTS audio via SPDIF .

cya

1.5year necro ftw! LOLS

Hey all, thought I'd post the solution I just discovered for fixing choppy output on SP/DIF. My machine setup is:

WIndows 7 x64
Realtek drivers (latest as of 4/23/2011)
Hooked up to Onkyo TX-SR706 via SP/DIF

I was getting choppy audio on any settings both in VLC and WMP. Nothing I did fixed anything.

Choppiness occurred mostly in fullscreen. It was as if it was a bad CD... where several seconds of audio would be dropped and my Receiver would go into search mode trying to find a valid digital input.

I updated my NVidia drivers and noticed that NVidia in their Control Panel has a new setting under "Change Resolution" for "Connector Type".

Make SURE this is set to "HDMI - HDTV (audio disabled)" if you intend to use SP/DIF!

This fixed the choppy / cut-off audio in all modes.

Apparently the Receiver was getting confused as to whether to use the blank audio channel that was output over HDMI through the NVidia driver versus the incoming SP/DIF optical channel and would randomly switch between them trying to figure out which was the correct channel to use.

Hope this helps!