The VideoLAN Forums

Please help, I used up all my monthly bandwitdh to download a TV series in .avi format, and when I play it back on VLC, it has a horrible crackling, clipping, and hissing at various points in the video (using Windows 7 here). The crackling is so loud the series is unwatchable. I tried to play with the audio settings in "Effects and Filters" with no success. It is the same for all episodes. When I use other programs such as Windows Media Player, the audio does not play at all. When I used DivX, it gave me the following info:

"This file contains a track in a unknown format (code 28781). You may need to install a DirectShow decoder to hear the soundtrack of this file"

So what do I do? I'm not that familiar with downloading audio codecs, I'm confused as to which DirectShow codec I should download as it seems like there's hundreds. Could somebody please help me, and tell me which codec (if any) can fix this, or anything else that might work so I can watch the bloody tv show! Thanks heaps in advance.

Here is some more info on the crackling: It is layered on top of the soundtrack, so I can still hear the original audio, there is just cracking on top of it. It comes in intervals of 1-2 mins, I think when music is played in the show that's what causes the hissing and crackling. It also makes some of those clipping noises that you get on real low quality MP3s. Could it just be the way this show was recorded? If so, why would somebody go to all the effort of uploading it when the sound is so dodgy?

Also, I have not installed any audio codecs manually on this computer, so I doubt it would be a codec that's already installed that is causing the problem.

Jenn x

So what do I do?

VLC has all the codecs build-in. No need to install anything.

File is either corrupted or there is bug in VLC.

If so, why would somebody go to all the effort of uploading it when the sound is so dodgy?

Because world is full of idiot wannabe sceners and MPAA agents.

I've just upgraded from 1.0.5 to 1.1.0. I now hear a similar crackling as described by the OP when listening to MP3s. The files are not corrupt, because they played just fine using 1.0.5. I hear the crackling every at random times, and it does not occur at the same point during playback. This is on a WinXP machine with SP3.

BakerBug: Wave or SDL audio output works any better?
http://wiki.videolan.org/WindowsFAQ-1.0 ... _anomalies

BakerBug: Wave or SDL audio output works any better?
http://wiki.videolan.org/WindowsFAQ-1.0 ... _anomalies

I set it for Win32 waveOut and it works perfectly! Thanks for the quick help.

I have that crackling sound too, when watching podcast mp3s.
I don't have the crackling when using windows media player.
And they occur at the same time. e.g. at 2:44 and 3:08
And I set output to win32 wave out but still cracks at 2:44 and 3:08

I'm actually still hearing some crackling since I changed to Win32 waveOut. It is not nearly as bad as before, but the sound quality still isn't as good as it was with 1.0.5.

I'm having the same problem. VLC 1.1, Win 7. It seems to get better with Win32 or SDL, but it's not eliminated. Could it be a driver issue? My audio driver is from 2007 (thanks Dell) SigmaTel HD audio codec 6.10.0.5614.

I don' think it is a driver issue.
Because I didn't have the problem with VLC 1.0.x

Ah, good point. This is just weird. On some files it's really bad. An old Real Media Simpsons episode was unwatchable, but some of the new files are just a little bit crackly.

After doing some further troubleshooting I discovered that all the audio on my machine would have the same crackles (windows sounds, itunes, etc.). I rolled back my VLC version to 1.0.3 and restarted the machine. So far it's testing good. I'll keep you apprised. I would love to have the 1.1 version, but not if I have to deal with the crackles.

If you can hear audio problems only in video files, you could try OpenGL video output.
http://wiki.videolan.org/WindowsFAQ-1.0 ... _output.3F

NO, for me it is only in mp3s

I too am experiencing this issue, became very frustrating and unfortunately have had to change my default player back to Win Media Player ( yuk! ) so I can listen to my mp3 podcasts.

Running Win7 64-bit

Is there a patch coming for this ? PLEASE!

I can confirm this was an issue for me as well. I even replaced my speaker wires thinking that was the problem.

The fix is to leave the volume at 100% (not 200%-400%) and use your speaker volume control instead of VLC's. I also use VLC's normalizer at 2.0 and that works fine with it as well (optional).

I normally don't use VLC volume control and leave it at 100% all the time.
And I have the crackling, too.

Your solution doesn't help.

I normally don't use VLC volume control and leave it at 100% all the time.
And I have the crackling, too.

Your solution doesn't help.

Then I should also note that I use Win32 waveOut, if that applies here.

I have to add that I use win32 wave out too.
But still experience crackling, as posted before.

Well at the very least we can all agree that this bug exists in 1.1.0 and requires a fix

Fully agreed

There is definitely a problem with VLC playing AVI files that have certain auidio bit encoding. I have a Sony DV handycam that can record audio as either 12 bit or as 16 bit. If I play anything that has been recorded with 12 bit audio, the right channel plays a loud buzzing noise in VLC. The AVI file is fine as it plays perfectly on every other media player out there (Windows Media, Media Player Classic, and any others that I try). Only VLC will not play the audio correctly.

Changing the recording mode to 16 bit on my video camera solves the problem with VLC not being able to play the files correctly. This issue has been around for many versions of VLC, and seems to still be there on the current builds.

Cheers,
Brent

Could you share us short sample file that shows this issue?

I can confirm that I have the same issue, with VLC, on FC13 (Linux). However, VLC is
reporting that my audio stream is 16 bits. The identical problem occurs when playing
back the same file in Kino, [used to capture the file (via firewire)]. So I don't
believe this is limited to a VLC issue. [I realize this is a windows specific forum, so
I'll repost on the Linux forum for solutions, but wanted to add this info here if it could help]
File is fine on other media players [SonyVegas and QuickTime] on a Win7 virtual machine
on same host computer] I can provide sample file as soon as I figure out how to do that!.

Remember... I'm on Linux (I know this is a windows fourm) but here's some more info on this issue:
[The fact that I'm on Linux makes this issue even more strange... because linux isn't supposed to use file extensions to ID a file type]
If I take the file in the last post, which is named dvgrab-001.dv and linux reports as a "DIF (DV) movie file (NTSC)"
and copy it to a file named dvgrab-001.avi which linux also reports as a "DIF (DV) movie file (NTSC)"
VLC will play the new file perfectly fine. The audio codec information reported by VLC differs for the 2 files, however:
The .dv file that does NOT playback correctly:
Stream 1
Type: Audio
Codec: PCM S16 LE (s16l)
Channels: Stereo
Sample rate" 32000 Hz
Bits per Sample: 16

For the .avi file extension that VLC DOES play back correctly (there are 2 sets of audio streams reported!)

Stream 1
Type: Audio
Codec: PCM S16 LE (s16l)
Channels: Stereo
Sample rate" 32000 Hz
Bits per Sample: 16

Stream 2
Type: Audio
Codec: PCM S16 LE (s16l)
Channels: 2
Sample rate" 32000 Hz
Bits per Sample: 16
Bitrate: 1024 kb/s

Interesting...