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[lalittle]

I seem to be getting very tiny little hiccups and miniscule pops in mp3 playback with MC 305.  I should clarify that these are very, VERY small hiccups that most people almost certainly would not notice, or would just assume was part of the song.  When wearing headphones and just listenning to mp3's however, they are most certainly there.  Whether it's a hiccup or an actual tiny pop varies, but they aren't there when listenning to the same spot over again.

I've tried all the obvious things I can think of -- using the latest sound card drivers (I'm using an Audigy1 with the 11/6/03 drivers), making sure everything looks normal in the device manager, disabling visualizations, increasing the buffer time, etc.  I'm using an Ultra 100 drive on an Ultra 133 controller, and my tests on the hard drive speed show real fast transfer rates.

I searched these forums and found that some other people seem to be complaining about this very issue -- they claim that the newer builds introduced this issue a while back.  I unfortunately need some of the newer fixes, so I can't go back to an earlier build, but I wanted to report that I am also having this issue, and ask if anybody has confirmed this or found a way to prevent it.

Has anybody had any luck with this issue using the "Direct Sound" output mode instead of the "Wave Out"?  I'm currently trying this and my initial impression is that it actually "seems" to work a bit better so far.  I'll keep experimenting here, but any advice or experiences would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Larry

[lalittle]

After playing songs with "Direct Sound" mode for a little while (instead of "Wave Out") and the buffer set to 1 second, it seems like the hiccups are better -- I don't seem to hear these like I did earlier (at least they don't seem as obvious.)  However, the pops are definitely still there, which makes it difficult to tell just how much "better" it's working now.  It's possible that there is more than one issue at work here.  I'll need to do some more experimenting.

While on this subject, does it make sense that using Direct Sound mode would prevent hiccups?  I tried a 5 second buffer on the Wave Out setting, but I still had problems.  What is it about the Direct Sound setting that would explain it working better?

Thanks again,

Larry

[JimH]

Please try a google search for this problem.  Creative drivers have been a problem in the past.  So have via chipsets.  There are other sources of this type of problem.

[Absurrrd]

 
Regarding hiccups. I haven't tried this with a computer but XP does have a hibernation mode so maybe if you quietly sneakup while it's half asleep scare it the hiccups will go away. Makes sense to me.....

[lalittle]

I see what Jim is referring to as far as reports of this happenning with SB cards.  I'm just confused how such an issue can have gone on unchanged for so long.  Has anybody found any settings that alleviate this issue at all?

Thanks,

Larry

[lalittle]

Does anybody happen to know if the Audigy2 is any better than the Audigy1 with this issue?  I can get my hands on an Aud2 pretty cheap, so if this is something that would help, I could do it, but I don't want to bother if this issue happens just as much with the Aud2 as it does with the Aud1.

Thanks,

Larry

[JimH]

If it is a problem with the Audigy, it's probably in the driver, not in the hardware.  A different (probably newer, but maybe older) driver might behave better.

Did you try switching playback from Wav to DirectSound in MC options?

[shAf]

If it is a problem with the Audigy, it's probably in the driver, not in the hardware.  ...

Just to throw in a "non-audigy" perspective ... I experience the occasional cracks & pops much more frequently when I have my Revo analog outs rendered by ASIO.  When rendered by Directsound, the sound is better, but I still experience distortion getting worse after an hour (a garbling, as opposed to crackles & pops).  Right now, I am experiencing excellent rendering (including DirectX DSP, output gain, equalizer, etc) with output rendered with 'wave'.

[lalittle]

Did you try switching playback from Wav to DirectSound in MC options?

I already tried this -- see a couple posts up.  It seems like the hiccups go away, but it doesn't change the pops.

Larry

[BlueGlow]

I have been experiencing little hic-pops on the last few builds with the SB Live. It's very inconsistent and hard to pin down. I tried another MP3 player to see if it would happen again and I could blame the problem on my drivers. I didn't hear the same problem with brand X MP3 player but I didn't test for long. I prefer to use MC.

[lalittle]

I don't get the hiccups with Windows Media Player, but I do get the little pops.  As I mentioned, using the "Direct Sound" setting in MC (instead of "Wave Out") seems to have gotton rid of the "hiccup problem" in MC, but the pops are still there as much as they always were.

Larry

[escaflo]

If you are using audigy,try using the kxdriver instead of the creative one.

I used to encounter this problem on my sblive also. But after changing to kxdriver, the problem went away, and I could almost surely say that you can also hear quite a remarkable difference in sound quality between the default creative driver and the kxdriver.

Anyway, just my 2 cents.