The VideoLAN Forums

Hey all...

I was just watching a DVD I'd ripped to hard drive, and noticed that the sound would occasionally drop out for a fraction of a second during playback. The video didn't have any of these "hiccups", but the sound would just either go off, or get significantly reduced, for a very short moment.

I didn't notice this in pre-1.0 versions.

I did some searching around here, but didn't find something mentioning this specific problem. Anyone have this issue? I'd thought maybe I should bump up the buffering somewhere, though not sure where, and I'm not sure if that's what's causing this, either.

UPDATE: I increased all the relevant buffer times from 300ms to 1000ms (1 second), but this didn't fix the problem.

- Tim

You use SPDIF output?

You use SPDIF output?

Yes, using the optical out on my box.
Is this the key? (i.e. if I search for this problem with 'spdif' in my search, I'll find the answer?).

UPDATE: I see others have pointed to "Use SPDIF if available" or something along those lines.
I'll try that and report back. If my default output on the computer is SPDIF anyway, and audio is
working mostly except for these hiccups, do you know what the technical reason for these
dropouts is?

- Tim

Ok, so I tried "use SPDIF when available", and things got way worse.
Playback of the sound from the DVD sounded like the stream being played twice, but 1/4 second out of sync with itself. Sounded pretty horrible.

Do you have suggestions given the symptoms I've mentioned?

UPDATE: I tried the various codec setting combinations mentioned here in discussions of this issue with SPDIF, and have found no joy. My sound card *is* an HT Omega Striker 7.1 - which is a very good card, but I've found some mention of that card, or possibly related hardware (eg. "Asus Striker") having issues with VLC. Tried all the recommended fixes for those, still the same issues.

- Tim

If waveout audio output doesn't help, then there really isn't anything that can be done. (VLC SPDIF is somewhat broken)
http://wiki.videolan.org/WindowsFAQ-1.0 ... _anomalies

Darn, just tried a few more things, read every posting I could on the subject, and there just seems no solution, due to the SPDIF problems you pointed to.

Is there any reason this is broken? Tons of folks use SPDIF, and this HT Omega Striker card I'm using is close to top-of-the-line, so I was hoping most things would play well with it.

I can always remove the SPDIF cable and go to stereo, since I only have 2 speakers anyway, but it's just nice to keep the cables as little as possible and keep the signal digital as long as possible, ya know.

- Tim

The audio processing has some timing issues under Win32 which cause problems with certain setups. So some cards work correctly, some cards must be use with waveout and some cards don't work correctly at all (audio dropouts and another issues).

The audio processing has some timing issues under Win32 which cause problems with certain setups. So some cards work correctly, some cards must be use with waveout and some cards don't work correctly at all (audio dropouts and another issues).

So if that's the case, why don't I see these issues with, for example, PowerDVD? I don't love PowerDVD particularly, but it doesn't produce these audio issues even though I'm using SPDIF.

Is it a problem with the card, or more knowledge of specific cards by the player app, in order for these sorts of issues not to happen, do you know?

- Tim

VLC doesn't use DirectShow for playback like PowerDVD does. So issues is mostly limited to VLC and other players that are based to VLC basecode.

VLC doesn't use DirectShow for playback like PowerDVD does. So issues is mostly limited to VLC and other players that are based to VLC basecode.

Hmmm.... *strokes chin* ... any plan for implementing use of DirectShow in VLC?

- Tim

implementing use of DirectShow in VLC?

Nope.

Why is that? I did a little searching, but couldn't find anywhere where someone said the reasoning behind that (tho' I HAVE read that the DirectShow API is too complex).

- Tim

Because with DirectShow playback chain one cannot really use any build in VLC codecs or other stuff. And there are good and open source DirectShow players (like Media Player Classic Home Cinema) already available.

Because with DirectShow playback chain one cannot really use any build in VLC codecs or other stuff. And there are good and open source DirectShow players (like Media Player Classic Home Cinema) already available.

Oh well - thanks for all the info, anyway!

I hope some day I can get S/PDIF working right. If not, I'll have to go to good old fashioned analog out. Bleh.

- Tim

I am using SPDIF output from my Dell Inspiron E1505. I had these same issue of intermittent hiccups when using spdif out.

But recently i found something, along with spdif output, take the output from the system through stereo jack also and give it to the A/V receiver. But in the receiver set the input source as digital audio.. Not sure what the funda is, but my digital audio is without hiccups with this setup.

Try this good luck.

If anyone knows the reason, on how this tweak works, will be happy to know

Thanks. Enjoy digital Audio

Valli

I am using SPDIF output from my Dell Inspiron E1505. I had these same issue of intermittent hiccups when using spdif out.

But recently i found something, along with spdif output, take the output from the system through stereo jack also and give it to the A/V receiver. But in the receiver set the input source as digital audio.. Not sure what the funda is, but my digital audio is without hiccups with this setup.

Try this good luck.

If anyone knows the reason, on how this tweak works, will be happy to know

Thanks. Enjoy digital Audio

Valli

Hmm, very strange. How can you be sure that your receiver is not playing the analog input source, even if it says it's playing the digital one? Perhaps your receiver has some setup to fall back to analog if there are problems in the digital, or if both exist? Just taking wild guesses.

- Tim

What about just using WaveOut output?

What about just using WaveOut output?

Hasn't helped, unfortunately.

- Tim