AC3 sound problem - plz read and help!!

[Fox@Mulder]

I have had some problems with my sound since my last reinstall of Windows XP as I described in this thread here:

http://forum.digital-digest.com/showthread.php?threadid=42009

The sound stops for a splitsecond a random places when I try to play a movie with ac3 sound - everything works perfect and then suddenly the sound stops for a splitsecond and then continues as nothing had happend.

I then tried playing movies without ac3 sound and there is no problems with them, and therefore I concluded that I have some kind of codec problem.

I have installed SLD Codec pack 1.5.3. and that have worked perfectly before I reinstalled Win XP.

I have read many posts here and therefore today desided to install the ac3 filter - ac3filter_0_70b.exe to see if that could solve my problem.

that gave me another problem.....

When I play a xvid movie with ac3 sound the digital sound doesn´t work, but when I play a vob-file like a "movietrailer" dolby-canyon.vob my surround reciever instantly detects the digital sound signal. The player I use is WinDVD which I have allways used without any problems.

Is something configured wrong in the "AC3 filter" or what? - before I installed the filter and only had the SLD codec pack the sound worked perfectly besided the "stopping problem" I described in the other thread and above.

btw: Gspot says I have 2 compatible video codecs installed and 5 compatible audio codecs installed when I load a xvid movie with ac3 sound into Gspot.

Really hope someone can help me.

Update:
I have just rebooted and now AC3filter config now remembers my selection and I have selected "SPDIF". No my surround receiver also detects the digital sound signal when I play xvid movies with ac3 sound, but the sound STILL stops for a splitsecond every once and a while.... It´s driving me nuts - please help me.....

Regards
Fritz Hansen

[setarip]

"The player I use is WinDVD"

WinDVD already has its own .AC3 decoder/filter. Chances are, you're creating a conflict by installing the "AC3filter"...

[BoF]

I use both windvd 4 and ac3filter and it works like a charme...I vote for kicking those *#&%#* codec packs and voilà.

[bsr]

I've had the exact same problem happen on an hdtv download of an episode that used AC3, so I guess it happens with all AC3.. I was unable to figure out what was causing it so I reverted back to letting ffdshow handle my ac3 audio instead of AC3 filter (uninstalled).

[Fox@Mulder]

Thx for your answers - I have tried a lot of solutions today but haven´t solved my problem .

I have focused on the AC3 codec, because the picture is perfect at all times and only the sound causes problems - and only movies with AC3 sound.

First I removed all my installed codecs and then I installed:

ac3filter_0_70b.exe
XviD-1.0.2-29082004.exe
DivX521XP2K.exe

Then I tried playing movies with and without ac3 sound in Windows media player, BSplayer and WinDVD.

The outcome:
- no problems with movies without ac3 - sound and picture perfect.
- sound and picture perfect in movies with ac3 - but still stops for a split of a second a random points in the movies and then go back to perfect. Seems to happen lesser now than before and seems to happen more times in WinDVD than Windows Media Player.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Then I again uninstalled all codecs and installed:

ffdshow-20041012.exe
ac3filter_0_70b.exe

Same result as above.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I then noticed when loading a movie into Gspot that it said "3 compatible audio codecs installed" and took a closer look at those 3. One was the AC3Filter and the other two was one from WinDVD and one from Nero burning Rom ultra edition - therefore I uninstalled bort Nero and WinDVD.
Now Gspot tells me that i have "1 compatible audio codec installed" and "3 compatible video codecs installed".

Still it didn´t help and why should it - I used both Nero and WinDVD together with my SLD Codec pack 1.5.3 before the reinstall and there was no problems at all.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Finally I tried to uninstall all my codecs again and installed the "Codec Pack All in 1 6.0.2.2" from http://www.free-codecs.com/download/..._All_in_1.htm. You can select wich codecs to install and I have tried soo many combinations.


Still at the end of the day the sound stops for a split second a random points in my movies with ac3 sound.

My soundcard is a SB live 5.1, the cable is a special manifactured coax cable with gold heads and my surround reciever is a Sony highend model - all things worked perfect before I installed Windows XP with SP2.

Hope this detailed describtion of my efforts today can give you some idea of a solution.

Plz bring up all your ideas....its driving me mad

Best regards

[setarip]

Make CERTAIN to REinstall the WinDVD .AC3 audio filter...

(Try installing the FFDShow filter - and then playback using Windows Media Player)

[Fox@Mulder]

I just uninstalled all codecs and then reinstalled WinDVD and FFDshow as you sugested and it didn´t help

[setarip]

I'm afraid I have no further suggestions.

Hopefully, another poster will...

[Fox@Mulder]

I just watched a whole movie _without_ AC3 sound and both picture and sound was perfect for the whole movie as expected, confirming that only movies _with_ ac3 sound causes the problem.

The sound still stops for a split of second at random points but besides that both picture and sound works perfectly. Since I have tried almost every single solution regarding codecs I have come to the conslusion that maybe my sound driver is causing some kind of conflict with the new windows xp _with_ SP2.

Therefore I will now try to find another sound driver for my SB live 5.1 soundcard.

Thx for your help anyway - plz post if you come in mind of a possible solution.

[setarip]

"Thx for your help anyway"

My pleasure ;>}

[BoF]

Originally posted by Fox@Mulder
Therefore I will now try to find another sound driver for my SB live 5.1 soundcard.

kX Project is your friend:

http://kxproject.lugosoft.com/index.php?skip=1

I use it with both live! player and live 5.1 and never back to the 25Mo creative package. (25Mo! they could provide an OS )

[Fox@Mulder]

I tried the KX projekt driver today but it didn´t help.

Both KX3537 and the new KX3538 looked like it worked at first but when I select "digital out only" in the mixer and played a xvid movie with AC3 sound it only played from my front speakers. Same thing when I tryed the speaker test in the mixer... only front speakers played the test sound - and yes I had selected 5.1 in "speaker selection".

I tried the kx projekt drivers with both ffdshow, ac3filter+xvid codex, tried it with several codec packs ect. ect. nothing helped.

Then I went to the forum at driverheaven.com and saw that many others had the same problem with spdif and sb live when they use the drivers from kx projekt...... according to the people at driverheaven you just cant use spdif/"digital out only" with sb live and the kx drivers - it should be solved in a later version.

I still haven´t found a solution yet, and don´t know how much more I fell like trying to fix it. When I get my christmas bonus I have planed to by new cpu, motherboard, ram ect. anyway and I might as well buy an audigy 2 at the same time.

[Enc0der]

Hi !

I had & have and exact same problem.

I first had it on my old computer with SB Live! Value Digital.
I upgraded to Audigy 2, but it didn't help.
here
Then, some day it was suddenly fixed, I have no idea why.

My new pc, with the Audigy 2 sound card didn't have this problem at all, until today.

Today, for some odd reason, that annoying problem came back !
I have no idea what cause this.. the only thing I could think about is a new version of eMule I just installed, but that's have nothing to do with audio codecs etc, and beside, I already tried to uninstall it - didn't help.


Anyway,
my point is that there is no reason to get an Audigy 2, it'll probebly won't solve anything...

Also, if anyone have any suggestions, please let us know...

[Enc0der]

just wondering if someone found a solution to this problem....

P.S.
I use WinXP + SP1 (not 2) with the same problem.

P.S.S.
Playing a .VOB file WORKS PERFECTLY with the s/pdif passthrough. the problem is only with AVI(divx/xvid) files with ac3 sound..

[LT. Columbo]

these are some of the lovely dilemmas that sp2 may give you. i had some too with ac3 when i first got it. eventually what worked for me was to add ac3 acm decompressor to DEP list for windows(along with other things). if you insist on using codec packs you may try adding those set-up launchers to the DEP list. then installing them....basically you have some fiddling to do.