Windows 7: Audio Buzz in WMC and WMP but not VLC

Hi



I have been using WMC7 for a number of months now with no real dramas. I tried to watch a movie (avi) that I have previously been able to watch. There is a loud buzz/crackle noise when I try to play it now. When I first noticed this I tried to play it with WMP and it worked fine... A little later on when I tried with WMP again it was doing the same buzzing noise (I hadn't changed any settings or drivers or anything)... VLC still plays the file correctly with no buzz. I have tried a few other movies and so far have only found one other avi that this also happens with.

I have tried to update the sound card drivers to latest version but this has had no effect.

Any ideas???

What type of audio is it?
Download MediaInfo if you don't have it and feed it with the video file, then post back the information about the audio streams.
Please post the info from both files with which you experienced the buzzing sound.

Both the files are AC3 audio... went looking for any others that have the same audio codec... they also have the buzzing... so it would seem to be an issue with the codec?

And even worse:
Nandub is ancient and quite awful in my opinion. It was written as an alternative to VirtualDubMod, which is an alternative to VirtualDub...
Both Nandub and VirtualDubMod always had a lot of problems with AC3: Nandub not being able to correctly set the number of channels, adding tons of junk into the file; it cuts the stream right in the middle of a frame, adding junk to the end of one part and the beginning of the next, as well as at the beginning of the stream if there is a A/V delay that needs to be calculated. And besides, AC3 audio gets split across interleaves, no matter what interleave parameters you use.
I don't think that this is a problem with your version of AC3 installed, but just in case you didn't update recently, go to the AC3 website and download and install the latest version of AC3 filter... Just in case, you might also download AC3file.

If the buzzing sound appears again, you can still play them correctly with VLC, or, if you own these movies, consider updating your rip settings to H264 instead of the crude XviD. Handbrake is the best tool for this, if you decide on this approach but can't get the hang of it, I'd be happy to share a few tips

Thanks for the info... I'll try updating the filter etc and see how that goes... The files are ones that were downloaded so didn't have any choice about the codecs but thanks for the info.... I might have a closer look at H264 for when i'm converting dvds.

Great!!! Thanks alot... those filters fixed the problem..

Glad you sorted it out

I haven't used handbrake before and thought I'd try and give it a go... any suggestions on settings or presets etc? thanks

It all depends on the type of quality you want the resulting file to have. Handbrake has a ToolTip for the most important setting you can tweak, read it and you should be okay (mouseover any option)

Cool thanks!