choppy ac3 playback

[Mustachio]

dont get all mad at me if this has been answered before... but i looked through the forum and couldnt find anything like it.. so here goes. i ripped kiss of the dragon, i have the video all done, its about 1 gig, going for a 2 cd rip, and i want to use the ac3 directly off the dvd. ive followed all the guides and muxed it with the video using all different interleaving settings, 64, 96, 160.... does preload do anything? or is the default 500 fine? anyways heres my real problem, i have an sblive 5.1 hooked up to a sony reciever.. using the digital spdif out, when i play back the avi i created the audio is very choppy, it will play fine for a few seconds then just mute and pick up again, the video continues to play... i dont think it could be my computer, i have a tbird 1ghz and 256 megs of ram so i should... should be fine, anyone got any ideas?

[MaTTeR]

I swear we just had a thread exactly like this about a week or so maybe. I could be wrong. Unfortunately I don't remember what the solution was though:( I think it had something to do with the filters.

Did you do a search on all the forums?

[Mustachio]

yea i did look through it but the problem was different and the guy solved it, my file isnt nearly as big as his, and there was no solution to the problem..... but sorry either way

[Mustachio]

i think it has something to do with the intervideo audio decoder and spdif out.... i have power dvd 4 on my computer, and the only cyberlink audio decoder filter i can find doesnt have spdif out

[MaTTeR]

You should uninstall the the AC3 filters you have and then install the Tsunami filter pack. That may fix the issue for you

[Mustachio]

i tried that.... dunno same thing, on the reciever it shows the lfe channel dropping out momentarily, then coming back on... but the whole audio like drops out... maybe i should get a new sound card?

[MaTTeR]

Don't get me started down the Creative SB road. Hate the cards and the software is even worse.

[Mustachio]

yea ive heard tons of bad stuff about sb cards..... you think you could suggest a good card? hopefully one that is good for hometheater and gaming... and preferably not too expensive...

[MaTTeR]

If your in the states...a mere $41 will get you a Zoltrix Nightingale Pro 6 with 5.1 digital output. The card is absolutely loaded and a dream to install and configure. No I don't work for the company, it's just refreshing for a sound card to provide so much quality and features for a small price.

BTW- The card has Digital SPDIF In and Out and I think it has a coax hookup as well. Not to mention gold plated analog inputs if you have to go that route. Is it good for games? I have no idea as I don't play them. I just use the card for playing movies in my home theater system.

inpax.com is where I bought mine. Good luck

[Mustachio]

looks like this only happens when a dolby digital track is being sent to the reciever for decoding.... but the sound will just momentarily drop out then come back, this bites? nobody has any ideas how to fix it??

[Mustachio]

also it only seems to chop it up like that when its playing with a video stream.... when the ac3 plays by itself it seems a lot better, a lot less chopping if any

[Trick McKaha]

My system developed the same problem, although it worked fine for a while. I do agree with thr general opinion that the SB 5.1 card is quirky.
If anyone ever does find the cause and solution to choppy spdif output when playing avi files, please post it here.

[BaRRoS]

Mustachio, the output is choppy only with intervideo set to spdif or even if is set to Dolby surrond downmix??

[Mustachio]

the output is only choppy with the intervideo codec set to spdif... otherwise, it plays fine... but of course i lose most of the channels..

[MaTTeR]

@Mustachio

Did you ever try installing the Tsunami filter pack? It typically fixes most peoples problems. You can do a custom install and turn off the stuff you dont need.

[Mustachio]

yea i installed tsunami.... its wierd its like my system rejects dolby digital 5.1..... even actually playing it in windvd same thing... playing dvds encoded with dolby digital i get the same audio drop outs in windvd and powerdvd.... dts passthrough works a lot better... even those it does have some clicks and pops every now and then.... not even to make me really care tho.... i think im gonna try a format of my primary harddrive and do a fresh install of windows xp, see if that clears up some things... if not i guess im not just gonna drop this sound card... unless anyone else has any ideas....

[MaTTeR]

How about your system specs?

[Mustachio]

ok.... lets see
amd tbird 1.0ghz
256 megs pc133 ram
wd 20 gig hd
maxtor 40 gig hd
hercules 3d prophet 2 pro using 27.10 drivers
hauppage wintv go
linksys 10/100 card
sblive 5.1 mp3
10 dvd
windows xp
i dunno guess that should cover it
oh yea for audio im using the sony ht-ddw830 home theater system hooked up with a coax cable with a converter to the sb

[MaTTeR]

Well it certainly looks like your machine should have enough CPU to play the AC3. I'm wondering if the stuttering is caused by the SB sharing it's IRQ. I've seen reports of this in WinXP. Possible to change PCI slots? If that's not it I'm not sure I can help you anymore. It could be the driver as I've heard there are some hacks to get the SPDIF going. I might have already pointed you this direction but do checkout the home theater forums (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/forumdisplay.php?s=&forumid=26)

These guys know all the hacks and tricks to make the SB sing. You should make sure your card isn't the one that has the out of spec voltage to the SPDIF. If it is, you have the potential the burn up your nice Sony amp. Just do a search and you'll find the answers;)

[Mustachio]

thanks for all the help... ive been to the other forums and looked around there, nothing seems to help... about the sb sharing an irq... it definately is... but all my pci devices are on the same irq which leadds me to believe that moving it to a different slot wont do anything... unless i disable acpi.... but that might cause more harm than good.... anyways sometime over the next week or so, i will probably just format my harddrive and start from scratch and see if i have any better results, if not, i will probably just shell out the 50 bucks and take your suggestion and go with the zoltrix card, thanks again for all your help

[kalin]

Have you tried copying your movie to the hardrive and play it from there?

-Kalin

[Mustachio]

i havent burned it yet because i havent been able to get it to play right.... so yea, the whole time its been on my harddrive, thanks for the suggestion tho

[CdinT]

I believe this is the thread that Matter remembers:
http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?postid=72659

You will see there that against all logic and suggestions of TheWef I succesfully used on a similar system like yours a setting of 64ms interlieve with 250ms preload.
Since then I changed my preload setting to 256 (there is no difference but it's more simmetric as 256 is a multiple of 64 :D)

[Mustachio]

ive tried tons of interleave values, all the same problem, ive come to believe that there is nothing wrong with the rip i created in any way... i get the same skips as this in a lesser frequency when playing a dvd with dolby digital audio... in windvd or powerdvd, so im guessing it has something to do with my hardware configuration or something, and as of now it seems a nice good format of the harddrive and reinstallation of my OS will do some good... unless anyone has some ideas about that?

[ChristianHJW]

Could you try to
- play the movie on another PC ( friend , neighbour, etc. ), in best case on a machine where other AC3/DIVX movies work
- Download PowerDivX3.12 from Doom9 ( or powerdivx.com to save Doom9 bandwidth ), install it, and set AC3 audio device to 'default WAVe out' instead of 'DirectSound'
- Play the movie in a DVD software like WinDVD or PowerDVD. Both work on AVI as well.

Regards Christian

[Mustachio]

ok, well ive downloaded powerdivx with ac3 audio set to wave out.. i still get skips.... sometimes less frequently than other media players, but they are still there and quite annoying... i cant play the avi in powerdvd with spdif out, it converts it to analog and sends a scrambled signal.... and in windvd it plays, but it skips just as much as any other player... i would try it on a friends computer, but at the moment, none of my friends or anyone i know has a somewhat similar setup... im the only one using spdif out sound to an external decoder, however i am going to borrow my friends audigy and see if it has something to do with the soundcard.... so i dunno, maybe my configuration is just really sucky and im the only one this seems to happen to, but its quite unbearable, sound skips every 10 or 15 seconds when playing dolby digital from an avi... and every 20-30 or so off of a dvd... could my reciever be the problem possibly?

thanks

[Mustachio]

oh by the way, my computer defaults to waveout anyways, and ive also tried using directsound to play it, but no use...

[MaTTeR]

Well at this point I gotta think your amp doesnt like the SB. My Sony 675 amp didn't like my Live! value card and skipped. Dropped the SB in the garbage faster than a bag of dirt;) Especially after reading that the SPDIF out of spec voltage could damage my amp:devil:

[Mustachio]

well guys thanks for all your help... yours especially matter... i ordered my nightingale pro 6 today... so hopefully itll be here by the end of the week and if not by next week, ill poast again after i get it and see what the deal is... thanks

[MaTTeR]

Your welcome.

I think you'll find the Nightingale is a bit easier to work with and especially easy on the ears;)

[Sherlock Holmes]

hey hey hey don't start with that f... card. (I mean zoltrix)

I had that card and a lot of problems. For example , sometime it drops some frams of sound. And another thing that it decodes the AC3 with software. Not with hardware.

So I highly suggest u don't buy it.

[MaTTeR]

@Sherlock
Please explain to me how this card decodes AC3 with software in realtime? I'd love to hear this one:D Also because your system dropped frames while playing AC3 this is the fault of the card?

Please visit the HTPC forums link I've posted above and search to see if anyone else has problems like this. The guys on that board are the most anal people about there Hi-Fi and Video equipment. They aren't going to tell you to buy a Nightingale 6 if the card can't perform.

[Mustachio]

well i just got my nightingale card today and installed it... but im having some problems getting it playing right and i think its just the set up.... i have a coax cable coming from the spdif out to my reciever.... it says that to use coax i can only have it set to 2 speaker mode? also how do i get ac3 passthrough when i play my avi movies with ac3 sound? the intervideo decoder wont let me set it to spdif

[MaTTeR]

Yep, I'm not using the coax but I'm using the optical port. Just set the software for two speaker mode and then enable SPDIF out. I also use the 48khz setting.

In regards to your filter it sounds like you have a demo version installed or something like that. Download the latest Tsunami pack which includes the latest filters. Should fix the problem for you.

EDIT- Optical or Coax port doesn't really matter which one you use. Just set it for 2 speaker mode and SPDIF.

[Mustachio]

thanks... i know we are way off the original topic now... but, i did set it to 2 speaker mode, and will probably be going to optical anyways, and i figured out why i couldnt use spdif with the filter..... directsound... i corrected that... now some general questions... on my reciever, the reciever only registers a signal if there is some sound coming from the computer... is that normal? also some stuff doesnt play... like the line in (so no tv on computer without) do you know how to get that playing again?

[Mustachio]

also im thinking of using multi channel analog out for gaming and all my other needs and just using the spdif for movies and the like... you think that would be a good idea?

[MaTTeR]

Originally posted by Mustachio
also im thinking of using multi channel analog out for gaming and all my other needs and just using the spdif for movies and the like... you think that would be a good idea?

I'm not a gamer but if you look through the HTPC forums you'll notice that other people are using the analog outs for gaming as well. Should work fine. I used the analog outs for all my DivX movies before I finally bought an optical cable.

[Mustachio]

alright well thanks again, guess im gonna go buy some cables

[MaTTeR]

Originally posted by Mustachio
the reciever only registers a signal if there is some sound coming from the computer... is that normal? also some stuff doesnt play... like the line in (so no tv on computer without) do you know how to get that playing again?

I'm not sure I understand your question exactly. Reciver only plays sound from the computer and not your VCR or DVD player? Is this what your talking about? I had to read the Sony manual no less than 4 times before I could make my amp do everything I wanted it to do (e.g. switch between TV,VCR,DVD & HTPC). AFAIK the Sony amp can't play audio from 2 sources at the same time. You have to switch from to another. Hope I'm on the right track here;)

EDIT- Mustachio I'm not sure Doom9 or the mods wants this sort of hi-fi talk in the forums. You might be better served posting in the HTPC forums or emailing me.

[Mustachio]

yea your probably right, ima move it over to the avs forum.... to the admins of this board, sorry that i got off topic.. ill try to keep from it in the future if its a problem