Movie Playback Distortion

[niraj.patel]

Hi everyone!

I have quite a tough problem, which I've been unable to solve for some time now. The problem is that I get a distorted sound with DivX, Xvid etc and DVD movies. There is no problem with video, and although there is sound, it is distorted as in heavy crackles over the sound.

To solve this problem, a few people suggested that codecs were the problem, and that I should reinstall them. I found several DivX etc codecs (starting with the one from www.divx.com) and one by one installed them and checked after each installation to see if the distortion had disappeared, it hadn't.

I also tried formatting my hard drive and re-installing Windows XP Home and this had no effect. Immediately after the re-installation (i.e. before installing any codecs), I tried playing a DivX movie and then a DVD movie using the Windows Media Player bundled with XP Home and Power DVD respectively, but the distortion was still there.

I began to think that this might be a hardware problem, so I purchased a new sound card, and yet again, this did not solve the problem.

I must point out that I get absolutely NO distortion whatsoever playing MP3s using Winamp or Windows Media Player, or Music CDs, the distortion issue relates only to movies. Games, sounds from Windows, sounds from websites, all work fine, both with the old and new sound cards. I've reinstalled the old sound card now (Sound Blaster Live!).

After reinstalling Windows XP, I again tried to install codecs from www.divx.com and the like, but this still has not solved the problem. There is nothing wrong with the DivX files I am trying to play since they work perfectly in my other computer. The DVDs I have been testing are also perfect as they've been purchased from retail stores over the years.

I've even tried replacing the speakers, but to no avail! Although admitedly that was silly since MP3s and audio CDs work fine.

Currently I have Windows Media Player 10 and Power DVD version 4. I have tried several versions of Windows Media Player and also other players such as the DivX player from www.divx.com and Winamp. I find the least distortion is with Winamp - it plays DivX files better than Windows Media Player in terms of distortion. Although still, the distortion is very bad.

Other than throwing out the computer and starting from scratch, I'm at a loss as to what to try next. I wonder if anyone has any suggestions whatsoever. At this stage I'm willing to give anything a shot!

Thank you all for your help.

Niraj.

[niraj.patel]

Hi again!

I know this is a tough one, but any suggestions whatsoever? Or a recommendation of where else I could get some help, like a link to another forum?

Thanks once again,

Niraj.

[Hardcoreruss]

What happens when you open the file in virualdub. Do you still get the distorted noise then.

[yoda313]

Hello,
I know you said you got a new soundcard but do you have it's latest drivers? I had an old isa soundcard in my old pentium 1 and it was scratchy on every directx game. Turns out it was a known issue with the ess audio chip and the update solved it perfectly.

Though, if it happened on BOTH soundcards something is definitely up. Does it happen on all dvd/divx stuff? Did you try moving the sound card to a different pci slot? Maybe the slot is corrupted somehow.

Kevin

[niraj.patel]

Thanks Hardcoreruss and yoda313 for your posts. I've just tried a DivX movie in VirtualDub, it has the same distortion.

I've also just tried to move the sound card into another spare PCI port, that also made no difference.

In addition to those things, I went into Control Panel>Sounds and Audio Devices>Hardware>Audio Codecs and deleted all the codecs there other than Microsoft PCM Converter because XP would not let me delete it saying that it was essential. Obviously then when I tried to play back a DivX file, I only got the video, no sound at all.

Then I downloaded one audio codec, the common Fraunhofer IIS MPEG Layer-3 Codec and installed it. I got audio on the DivX movie back but it was again distorted! Could this mean that this issue is not a codec problem?

I did earlier mention that I bought a new sound card and had the same problem with that one, so I thought it was not the fault of the sound card. I returned that new sound card, and replaced it with my old one, Creative Sound Blaster Live! SB0060 (As quoted on the card itself). Under XP's System Info, it is listed as Creative EMU10K1 Audio Processor (WDM).

I'm pretty sure I have the latest driver for this sound card, although anyone would be welcome to guide me to a better one.

I should also mention that prior to today in the Device Manager>Other Devices, I used to get a question mark against "Multimedia Audio Controller". Earlier I had tried to disable it and let Windows find drivers for it (even though I have no idea what exactly it was). When disabling it, it had no effect, the sound on movies was still distorted. However this "Multimedia Audio Controller" from today no longer appears whatsoever in the Device Manager since I went into the BIOS and disabled the on-board sound. I would thus guess that it had something to do with the on-board sound.

Disabling on-board sound and thus making "Multimedia Audio Controller" under a question mark disapear from the Device Manager unfortunately again had no effect on sound distortion.

The last thing I can think of is that it is a problem with the motherboard, or more specifically the BIOS. The motherboard is the once-very-common Elite Group K7S5A. Maybe a BIOS upgrade?

This whole sound distortion problem started around a year ago, and I can't think why since I haven't done any hardware upgrades and everything was working fine for years before this with the same hardware.

Thanks very much for reading this somewhat long problem!

Niraj.

[niraj.patel]

I should also mention if anyone's wondering why I bought a new sound card to try when I could have plugged in the on-board sound - I could never get the on-board sound to work. Ever since I purchased the motherboard, have always had the Creative sound card (purchased both together). There appear to be three audio ports on the back of the motherboard, but someone once said that the reason why sound doesn't work on the motherboard is that the K7S5A doesn't have on-board sound! Any thoughts?

Cheers,

Niraj.

[Hardcoreruss]

Do you have the latest drivers for the motherboard ?

[niraj.patel]

The driver for the sound card was downloaded from http://uk.europe.creative.com/support/drivers/product.asp?prod=138 filename LiveDrvPack_Patch.exe. I'm pretty sure that's the latest driver, and besides, I doubt that this is a sound card problem due to trying out a new sound card earlier.

When I go into the BIOS, it says "Amibios Simple Setup Utility Version 1.21.10". The date that appears when I first switch on the computer is 02/06/2002. I'm sure there must be a later BIOS version, but where do I find it other than the Elite Group website?

Thanks,

Niraj.

[Hardcoreruss]

No the drivers for the motherboard not the soundcard.

[niraj.patel]

Not sure that I have the latest motherboard drivers to be honest. When I go to the ECS website (www.ecs.com.tw), they have several versions of the K7S5A, and I'm not sure which version I have, or how to tell which version of the K7S5A I have. Any ideas on how I could check this?

Thanks.

Niraj.

[Hardcoreruss]

I would install the latest versions

[niraj.patel]

Hi again,

I've now completely removed the sound card and reactivated the onboard sound in the BIOS. I've plugged in my speakers to the motherboard and downloaded the SiS 7012, that did the trick of making the onboard sound work. However again there still is distortion, although admitedly a lot less after installing and reinstalling several codecs to try them out.

Can anyone recommend a good set of codecs for generally all DivX and DVD movies? The best available if possible.

Thanks very much,

Niraj.