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H-E-L-P!!! VLC player audio hiccups - brief pauses

post #1 of 20
7/27/10 at 2:52am
Thread Starter 
Anyone else suffering from this? VLC apparently doesn't like my M1710 Sigmatel audio chip. This has been an ongoing problem for several versions of VLC including the current 1.1.1 and has been present since Windows XP, thru various Windows 7 installs including Betas, RC, and now Ultimate. I've not ever had audio problems with any other program or media player and I've tried several. I just downloaded SMPlayer and it works fine, but the video is just not up to the quality of VLC.

I stick with VLC because it is an excellent player otherwise. It plays about every a/v format and also gives you a gazillion preference/customization options. Luckily, the brief random audio blips are just annoying, but sure would like to find a fix. The Sigmatel audio chip is used in many different Dell laptops so would like to hear from anybody, not just M1710 owners.

Thanks in advance!
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post #2 of 20
7/27/10 at 5:15am
Try different audio output modules within VLC - accessible via Advanced Options. I fixed mine by changing it to "Win32WaveOut extension"

cheers ...
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post #3 of 20
7/27/10 at 9:54am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by qhn View Post
Try different audio output modules within VLC - accessible via Advanced Options. I fixed mine by changing it to "Win32WaveOut extension"
Thanks qhn. I tried it but no joy. It did seem to make the pauses shorter, but more frequent. I've even tried setting the services priority of VLC to "high", but that made no difference at all. Maybe there is just some glitch with my Sigmatel chip, although I don't have any other audio problems at all, just with VLC.

Anyway, thanks for the tip. I sure wish it had solved the problem.

Cheers,

Obmij
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post #4 of 20
7/27/10 at 12:30pm
Just a question, is the audio stuttering when you listen from CD or when you listen to audio files on the hard drive?

cheers ...
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post #5 of 20
7/27/10 at 1:38pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by qhn View Post
Just a question, is the audio stuttering when you listen from CD or when you listen to audio files on the hard drive?
Not at all. I have zero audio problems except in VLC. I was hoping that with version 1.1 the GPU acceleration they finally incorporated would solve the problem, but it didn't. The VLC hiccups were even present with generic drivers that auto-installed with Windows 7 Ultimate new install. When I loaded the correct Sigmatel drivers the problem didn't go away. I'm at a complete loss to explain why I'm having this problem. Others don't seem to be suffering from it.

Cheers!

Obmij
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post #6 of 20
7/27/10 at 6:58pm
Strange. Would you consider a re-install of the system? Only thing I can think of for now.

cheers ...
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post #7 of 20
7/27/10 at 9:37pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by qhn View Post
Strange. Would you consider a re-install of the system? Only thing I can think of for now.
I don't think that will help since I've had this problem from XP thru W7 variants to date like I mentioned before. I did read in the VLC forums that others have had the audio hiccups also. The solution was to change the output option like you suggested. At least it's not too serious; merely annoying.

Anyway, I appreciate your efforts.

Cheers!

Obmij
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post #8 of 20
7/28/10 at 3:44am
Too bad. Hopefully we can get more input from other Dell members here.

cheers ...
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post #9 of 20
7/28/10 at 3:40pm
Do you have your wireless card turned off? If so, turn it on and see if you still get the stuttering. I had that issue back with Windows XP with my E1705, though I don't think it happens in Win7 any more; for some reason, wifi off = audio stutter.

Also of course make sure you have the latest (and correct) driver from Dell, and the latest firmware for your system.
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post #10 of 20
7/28/10 at 9:17pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by ricky28269 View Post
Do you have your wireless card turned off? If so, turn it on and see if you still get the stuttering. I had that issue back with Windows XP with my E1705, though I don't think it happens in Win7 any more; for some reason, wifi off = audio stutter.

Also of course make sure you have the latest (and correct) driver from Dell, and the latest firmware for your system.
My wi-fi card is on, but disabled since I'm wired directly into my router. I will enable it and give it a try. Thanks for the tip!

Sorry, but I'm LOL at "latest drivers and firmware" since Dell is sadly lacking in that area. When I installed W7 Ult. it actually installed some generic audio drivers. They worked fine except didn't fix the VLC audio pauses so I went to Dell's website and grabbed Vista Sigmatel drivers, which were the latest I could find, but no difference, unfortunately.

I will say that VLC now has GPU acceleration that when enabled almost completely removes the pauses, but it runs my GPU temps up here in the tropics. Of course with the current heat wave back in the Tarheel state, it would be the same if I was back home.

Cheers!

Obmij
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post #11 of 20
7/28/10 at 9:53pm
Yeah, give it a try. I never used wired so I can't say whether mine would have stuttered with the wifi only disabled.

I know, Dell is really terrible with drivers. I have had more problems than benefits from trying to install the actual latest drivers though (except with bluetooth, where the Dell ones didn't support my wireless headphones) so I use and recommend the Dell ones, even if they're a little outdated. Though I'm sure the hardcore graphics guys will disagree with me.

Funny you mention the Tarheel state... I am here in Raleigh, NC with a 40-minute commute in a car without A/C. Yay heat wave! (I'm a student at NCSU)
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post #12 of 20
7/28/10 at 11:19pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by ricky28269 View Post
Funny you mention the Tarheel state... I am here in Raleigh, NC with a 40-minute commute in a car without A/C. Yay heat wave! (I'm a student at NCSU)
I mentioned it because I saw your location. I'm from Charlotte. I worked in the Raleigh area back in 1985~86 and lived in Cary. While I was there I took the Pascal - intro to programming course at NCSU. It was the course they used to weed out computer science major wannabes and it was one of the roughest courses I've ever taken. As if the programs we had to write weren't bad enough, our professor took sadistic delight in making the quizzes as perverted as possible. She would give us problems consisting of a few lines of code that had nothing even remotely obviously wrong. There was always some devishly hidden syntactic error that was extremely hard to find. I made A's on all the programs I turned in and B's on all the quizzes. I should have known we were in for it when, during the first class, she said "Look to your left, now look to your right. Chances are those students won't be here at the end of the term." And she was right. Only about 1/3 of us finished. I was damn happy to get a B.

Good luck at NCSU. Hopefully that sadistic perveyor of enigmatic Gordian Knot programming riddles has probably retired by now, so you may have missed her.

Cheers...
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post #13 of 20
7/29/10 at 1:09am
Ah, gotcha. I can't think of any courses being weed-out courses so far, at least in the sense of being unfairly difficult. I mean obviously the classes are going up in difficulty, but the first CSC classes (intro to computing, intro to Java) were cake for everyone. I'm not actually sure if Pascal is offered any more; the CSC curriculum mandates Java, C and ASM, and I know some other majors/minors take Fortran, but I'm pretty sure Pascal is basically dead.
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post #14 of 20
7/29/10 at 3:38am
Thread Starter 
Of course Pascal language is dead now, but way back then it was a vehicle to teach structured programming techniques. IMHO it really was a waste of time as it wasn't used in industry. Don't know why they just didn't teach C or C++ as those were used about everywhere and growing in popularity. C was a little more cryptic than Pascal, but conceptwise, not too dissimilar. I took a C++ course later and picked up the basics fairly easily. I'm really amazed that Fortran is around in any capacity, but it was extremely simplistic and easy to use.

Cheers...
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post #15 of 20
7/30/10 at 9:51am
VLC 1.1.2 just came out - want to give it a try Obmij?

cheers ...
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post #16 of 20
7/30/10 at 11:02am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by qhn View Post
VLC 1.1.2 just came out - want to give it a try Obmij?
Thanks so much qhn! I'll give it a try.

Cheers bro'!
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post #17 of 20
7/30/10 at 3:36pm
Good luck and have a great Friday

cheers ...
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post #18 of 20
9/6/10 at 2:09am
I have the SAME EXACT problem with my M1730 Sigmatel Audio chip.

Not only does the audio hiccup briefly, but I get a clicking sound from the far right side of the notebook which is sometimes accompanied by a single beep.

It only occurs when using VLC for video or also when trying to stream video with software such as ManyCam.
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post #19 of 20
9/7/10 at 1:07am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by romes View Post
I have the SAME EXACT problem with my M1730 Sigmatel Audio chip.

Not only does the audio hiccup briefly, but I get a clicking sound from the far right side of the notebook which is sometimes accompanied by a single beep.

It only occurs when using VLC for video or also when trying to stream video with software such as ManyCam.
Turning on Accelerated video output under tools/preferences/video and also turning on GPU acceleration under tools/preferences/Input and codecs helps. It hasn't completely cured the problem with mine but it does help. Give it a try if you haven't already.

Good luck...
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post #20 of 20
9/7/10 at 2:49am
I'm already using both of the accelerated options.

Think my video card is about to die, I think the hiccup was a warning.
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