MPC-HC : audio does not pause when video pauses for H264 video

[kswartz]

Hi all,

This is my first post, so apologies if I'm being far too naive even for a newbie. I did some searching, and I was unable to find anyone reporting this specific problem before, so I'm trying my luck here.

I use MPC HC for most of my video playback; I'm currently using version 1.5.2.3236 (from K-Lite Codec Pack 7.20). Something over the past few weeks caused a change in behavior. Currently, when I try to pause the playback of any video using H264 -- regardless of the file type -- it won't pause properly. That is, the video will stop, but the audio keeps going.

I have confirmed that this is specific to H264 video only, and MPC (but see below). It doesn't happen with VLC, and it doesn't happen with other video formats. It appears to be independent of the audio codec used, too, although I may not have enough evidence to support that.

I've tried toggling all the options in ffdshow for H264 video and AAC or AC3 audio, and I've tried enabling/disabling the H264/AVC filter in MPC HC, and none of those changes have had an effect.

I've also passed the files through the GSpot Codec tool, and confirmed that both audio and video are going through the Gabest FLV splitter, and ffdshow -- nothing else. So I'm thinking I can rule out some third party filter that may have interfered with things.

One more piece of information: I have an old copy of Media Player Classic 6.4.8.4 on my system, and even that shows the same behavior. So even after doing a complete uninstall/reinstall of K-Lite and MPC, I feel fairly confident that I can rule out the latest version of MPC HC as the offender, and look instead to some codec configuration on which it relies.

Can anyone offer some suggestions on what other configuration changes I might want to try to get this working properly again?

Thanks in advance,
Keith

PS: In case it comes up: this is happening on Windows XP SP3 (32-bit), on a Dell Latitude E6410 -- reasonably new hardware. I could list all my video specs and driver versions, but none of that has changed for months, and the problems only started occurring in the last couple of weeks. But I'll gladly provide it if anyone wants it.

[fritzi93]

Easier if you just fill in your computer details in your profile. Then folks can see them by hovering the mouse. They won't have to guess whether your processor and/or GPU is up to the job.

Anyway, in regard to your question, a codec pack isn't necessary and often causes trouble. Some folks don't have problems, but they're just getting away with doing something they shouldn't. All most people will ever need is ffdshow and Haali, and disable the internal splitter in MPCHC. And get rid of that Gabest splitter too, I suspect that's the main cause of your problem.

[kswartz]

I've uncovered some more information that is pretty crucial here. It seems I may have been going down the wrong path.

I found that the problem is NOT limited to H264 video. I found an .mpg that was encoded with DivX 5 and MP3 audio -- it also suffered the same problem. So then I tried just a plain mp3 audio file -- and even it wouldn't pause.

So the problem seems to be more with the audio than the video. But even there, it's not just one type. AAC, AC3, and MP3 all appear to be affected. I've reconfigured ffdshow for each possible option, and even disabled it, and in every case, MPCHC failed to stop the audio.

And, because MP3 files play fine on at least half a dozen other programs, I"m more convinced the issue has something to do with MPCHC and/or the codecs it's relying on. (Still, the fact that this happens even with an ancient version of MPC has me a little more stumped.)

I was suspicious of the Gabest splitter, too. But I've managed to rule that out, too, not only based on the above, but also because:

1) On a backup of my system (from a time when this did work), I see the same file.
2) I tried just removing it, on a whim, but then my video wouldn't display, AND the audio continued to play after I tried to pause.

I'm continuing to experiment with the settings in MPCHC, but I think I've toggled just about every setting that has to do with audio with no change. Arrgh!

[kswartz]

For those who may search on this in the future...the problem has been solved, although the exact cause remains unknown.

On further research, I began to discover that several other problems were arising on my machine, none having to do with MPC or media playback. I suspected either a file corruption or malware, so I restored a backup, reinstalled/upgraded everything to the same level, and everything is working again.