[chum_2000_uk]

Hi there,

I have a bit of annoying problem using my HTPC as a music source. I am using onboard sound from Asus P5k Premium Wi-fi, and every so often sound from the SPDIF and Coax becomes quite crackley and slightly distorted. Turning the PC off completely seems to cure this, but it can be annoying when listening to music or watching TV and the sound becomes noticeably bad quality.

I have the HTPC connected to two different pieces of equipment like this:
SPDIF -> Compass -> HD650's
Coax -> Pioneer 5.1 receiver -> B&W 602

I am currently using iTunes as my media player, but first noticed this when using Foobar2k. When I was using foobar (and WASAPI) I could just stop the music and restart and the sound was fine again. Now using iTunes (for music) or Windows media center (for TV) if the sound goes bad I generally have to reset the PC for the sound to be ok again. I really can't work out if this is a hardware or a software issue.

Just as a side note I stopped using Foobar 2k because I could not get bit perfect playback using WASAPI and the onboard soundcard on the P5k. I think either I'd need to fiddle with drivers or the P5k isn't capable to bit perfect playback. So I decided to use iTunes instead because I can use my iPod Touch as a remote.

I have ordered an Airport Express for bit perfect playback from iTunes anyway. Although I believe this will cure the problem for music playback, I will still have the same problem when watching TV - so if anyone has some suggestions I am all ears.

Cheers guys

 

[iriverdude]

No problem here from HTPC coaxial output. Make sure you are outputting bit for bit- 44.1khz is 44.1khz not 48khz, and you're not using something like ac-3 to upscale audio, let your pioneer do that. itunes will upsample to 48khz afaik.

Try using winamp with asio plugin, possibly asio4all but only if asio plugin doesn't work, and WMP with ffdshow for video. Tick the ac-3 & dts boxes in ffdshow audio settings

 

[chum_2000_uk]

Hi, and thanks for the quick reply! Forgot to mention I was running Vista.

At the moment 44.1khz is the only option selected for the SPDIF/Coax out properties, everything else is turned off. I tried ASIO4all with foobar and couldn't get it to work. As I say, I have now ordered a AE to get bit perfect with iTunes now anyway, and I would rather use iTunes due to the remote via iPod touch.

So that just leaves WMC, you mentioned ffdshow... I have heard that mentioned, but don't know much about it. Can you run me quickly through what ffdshow does and if it can be used in conjunction with windows media center when playing TV shows (either recorded or live)?

Many thanks!

 

[iriverdude]

FFDSHOW is a stanadlone multi-codec filter. Also if you want bit perfect for Media Centre I would ditch Microsoft Media Centre and use Media Portal, as that has ASIO support wheras Microsoft doesn't.

 

[chum_2000_uk]

Quote:

Originally Posted by iriverdude /img/forum/go_quote.gif FFDSHOW is a stanadlone multi-codec filter. Also if you want bit perfect for Media Centre I would ditch Microsoft Media Centre and use Media Portal, as that has ASIO support wheras Microsoft doesn't.

Na, bit perfect from media center isn't a big issue for me, not really worth the fuss for TV purposes - just want to get rid of this annoying problem really. Thinking about it, it has also been doing the same when watching movies stored on the HDD (thought my surround amp was faulty at one point!). I watch movies via PowerDVD ultra.

So do you think my problem is more likely to be hardware related, considering I seem to be getting it with all these different media players?