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Author Topic: MC11.1: odd volume changes  (Read 2459 times)

Jay Levitt

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MC11.1: odd volume changes
« on: March 18, 2006, 09:26:32 am »
I'm trying out Media Center 11.1, and I'm having two problems - one may just be "no such feature", but the other's clearly an odd bug.

1. When I double-click a video directly from Windows Explorer, it launches both Media Center's main/explorer window AND an MC player window. So if I then close the player window, the audio FROM that video is still playing in the main window, and I have to click stop again!  Is there some way to prevent that?

2. I know this makes no sense and can't possibly be happening.  Nonetheless, once I installed MC, audio played through it would intermittently get much louder and softer at random intervals.  It did not sound like an overeager compressor/levellor - that is, it didn't suddenly get softer after loud sounds or louder after silence.  It seemed totally random. I watched the volume sliders in the default Windows Volume applet, and they weren't moving.  It seems to have gone away now that MC is uninstalled.  Is this some trial-time nag, a weird bug, never heard of before?

My setup:

Windows XP SP2, all hotfixes
Asus A8N-SLI mobo
Athlon X2 4600+ CPU
2GB RAM
Two striped drives Serial ATA whose vintage I currently can't remember
EVGA GeForce 7800GTX graphics card
on-board sound (Realtek AC97)
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JimH

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Re: MC11.1: too many windows, odd sound
« Reply #1 on: March 18, 2006, 09:33:41 am »
For #1, I'm not sure.  Take a look at settings for playback and under general.

#2 -- weird.  Some other application may be manipulating the sound.  Try switching playback between Direct Show and Wave Out.
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marko

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Re: MC11.1: too many windows, odd sound
« Reply #2 on: March 18, 2006, 11:50:56 am »
Quote
1. When I double-click a video directly from Windows Explorer, it launches both Media Center's main/explorer window AND an MC player window. So if I then close the player window, the audio FROM that video is still playing in the main window, and I have to click stop again!  Is there some way to prevent that?

Sounds like MC is opening in 'windowed' view.

When you close that window, MC switches to 'standard' view and continues to play the file. Click on the "playing now" node of the tree to check.

Check the 'View' menu item in the top toolbar for more options. Play with them for a bit to get a feel for what's going on.
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enervation

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Re: MC11.1: too many windows, odd sound
« Reply #3 on: March 18, 2006, 12:03:52 pm »
Quote
2. I know this makes no sense and can't possibly be happening.  Nonetheless, once I installed MC, audio played through it would intermittently get much louder and softer at random intervals.  It did not sound like an overeager compressor/levellor - that is, it didn't suddenly get softer after loud sounds or louder after silence.  It seemed totally random. I watched the volume sliders in the default Windows Volume applet, and they weren't moving.  It seems to have gone away now that MC is uninstalled.  Is this some trial-time nag, a weird bug, never heard of before?

I've started noticing this a couple of times in the last week or so. Very rare, happens maybe 2 times in 3 days. Carefully checked for anything else manipulating volume, and watched the volume control, but it was just MC. Have noticed this using the most up to date builds.
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Jay Levitt

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Re: MC11.1: odd volume changes
« Reply #4 on: March 23, 2006, 03:46:37 pm »
Just had this happen today with MC11.1 uninstalled.  Which means either (a) it's not MC that's causing it, or (b) it IS MC that's causing it but whatever it changed is still changed even after an uninstall.

I'm not really sure how to troubleshoot.  It's not repeatable for any particular clip; I just watched Will Ferrell's funny Bush impersonation of global warming, which has plenty of pauses and loud speech.  The loudness went up and down twice during the first playback, but not at all during the second and third playback.  (I say "loudness" but my listening environment is too poor to tell if it's compression or actual gain changing.)

I'm really stumped on this.  Nothing's knowingly changed WRT my media playback setup other than the installation and removal of MC11.
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JimH

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Re: MC11.1: odd volume changes
« Reply #5 on: March 23, 2006, 03:49:12 pm »
Quote from: Jay Levitt on March 23, 2006, 03:46:37 pm
Just had this happen today with MC11.1 uninstalled.  Which means either (a) it's not MC that's causing it, or (b) it IS MC that's causing it but whatever it changed is still changed even after an uninstall.
That's a bit of a stretch.  MC's still causing the problem, even though it isn't installed?   ;D

Are you playing through an amp?  Is the amp going bad?
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Jay Levitt

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Re: MC11.1: odd volume changes
« Reply #6 on: March 23, 2006, 04:06:37 pm »
Well, it's not THAT much of a stretch, if (a) MC didn't completely uninstall itself, or (b) during the install, MC changed some defaults in the way the underlying media player played back.  Neither seems all that improbable; I can count on one hand the number of programs I've ever seen that don't leave SOME trace of themselves, whether in the registry, "shared" DLLs that they were the only user of, etc.  In fact, I just checked, and JRiver does leave at least a small piece of itself behind: HKLM\SOFTWARE\JRiver\Media Jukebox\Plugins\Help File.  Obviously that's not affecting playback, but it's not unreasonable to wonder whether there are other uninstall bugs. 

I did double-check that WMP doesn't have automatic levelling enabled, at least visibly, but I do wonder if there's something like that that's causing this.  It seems to happen more on playback of material with pauses in it, which supports that theory.  Whether that's happening in WMP, or the driver, or wherever, and whether MC caused it or was just coincidentally installed around the time it started happening, it's hard to say.

It certainly could be a hardware problem, but I'd be hard-pressed to imagine what could go wrong with a cheapie 2.1 PC speaker set (Cambridge Soundworks) that would result in random, stereo, smooth one-second fade-ups and fade-downs.  If the hardware volume knob were at fault, I'd expect crackling and jitteriness when I turn it, and I don't get that.  I've also tried pounding on the outside of the knob and it's not affecting the volume at all.   If an amp component were failing, I'd expect it to affect one speaker or the other, not both, and again I'd expect to hear crackling or bandpass limiting or clipping or SOMEthing other than a smooth, slow stereo fade.

This is a weird one.

Jay
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Matt

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Re: MC11.1: odd volume changes
« Reply #7 on: March 23, 2006, 04:24:04 pm »
MC installs no drivers, system hooks, or services. (like iTunes, etc.)  It can't change your system when it's not running.

We consider this something to be proud of.
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Matt Ashland, JRiver Media Center

glynor

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Re: MC11.1: odd volume changes
« Reply #8 on: March 23, 2006, 04:24:27 pm »
I bet it's AC3Filter or FFDSHOW (or another DirectShow filter).  I've had older versions of AC3Filter cause exactly what you describe with some video files.  Try updating to the newest version of FFDSHOW (the one from 20041012) and let it handle AC3 decoding.  If that doesn't fix it, and you're using AC3Filter for playback, open up the filter properties (by opening the little AC3Filter Notification Area icon that appears while you are playing the files back), switch to the Mixer tab, and Uncheck:

* Auto Gain Control
* Auto Matrix
* Bass Redirection

See this screen-shot:



Because of this exact problem though I stopped using AC3Filter for video playback.  The 20041012 alpha of FFDSHOW works perfectly.  The AC3Filter seems to really like those options to be turned on, and they kept re-enabling themselves for me.  Quite irritating...

If none of that works...

What kind of soundcard is it?  I've also had similar weirdness with Creative's older drivers and their CMSS feature turned on.  I would make sure that your sound card drivers aren't "filtering", "expanding", or otherwise applying any DSP effects to the stream.
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Jay Levitt

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OT: odd volume changes
« Reply #9 on: March 23, 2006, 04:52:22 pm »
Matt - thanks, that's good to know.  So the MC thing must just be a coincidence.  I'll change the topic title, and you can move this to one of the other folders if you think that's appropriate.

Glynor: Interesting, and I do suspect something like that.  I'm normally an ASIO guy, so I don't know anything about DirectShow filter chains... I downloaded "DSFMgr" from Softella and it's not listing AC3Filter or FFDShow.  How can I see what filters are being invoked on a given file?

I'm using an Asus A8N-SLI motherboard with the onboard Realtek '97 audio.  I've looked a bunch of times through the nVidia and Asus sound control panels, and nothing's enabled - flat EQ, no fanciness, no stupid reverbs, etc.  I don't think I have any actual physical sound cards around anymore, but if this keeps up, maybe I'll get a cheap one at CompUSA and see if it happens with that. My pro hardware is RME, which only likes to work at 44.1 and above, so I can't use it on this PC.
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JONCAT

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Re: MC11.1: odd volume changes
« Reply #10 on: March 23, 2006, 05:02:08 pm »
Why the 20041012 alpha of FFDSHOW? Curious because I had some problems with the newest version which turned out not to be the newest, and I am now using the ffdshow-20051120-gcc4.0.2-sse2-x264.nl.exe. I was experiencing avi files with no sound and even tweaking the settings couldn't get things working properly unless I uninstalled FFDshow. I need to try the last version again or the one you mentioned.

Are there known issues with the new one?
Dr. C
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JimH

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Re: MC11.1: odd volume changes
« Reply #11 on: March 23, 2006, 05:47:46 pm »
Jay,
If your speakers are amplified, it might be worth trying another set.
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