Topic: Wasapi Exclusive mode Sample Rate Max - Lower Than My Hardware Limits (Read 95979 times)

Johnny B · « **Reply #100 on:** April 22, 2009, 09:45:11 am »

I tried Google pretty thoroughly however I did not manage to find anything relevant.

I tried official "Gigabyte HDMI AudioDriver" downloaded from Gigabyte website which is in-fact Realtek driver 1.97.
I also tried "ATI HDMI Audio Device" version 2.13 and 2.18 (downloaded from Realtek website).
In all 3 cases MC13 behaves the same way:

Crossfade (on Next) works fine
Fade out (on Stop) does not work = once I hit Stop button playback still goes on for a while (this "while" is determined by Fadeout settings Fast / Normal / Slow) and then playback stops instantly
On Pause I get cca 1 second stuttering loop no matter if I check / uncheck the "Flush device buffers" checkbox

I also did want to try the integrated Catalyst HDMI audio drivers (9.4) however I am simply unable to try them at all. Once I uninstall Realtek drivers Vista automatically installs those crappy Microsoft drivers. I managed to prevent Vista from doing this by moving hdaudio INF files from Windows\Inf folder -> then I had "Unknown devices" in Device Manager. I reinstalled Catalyst 9.4 = still "unknown devices". I even uninstalled / install Catalyst = still the same. This is weird because I am unable to find any relevant ATI *.INF files anywhere in my system (I tried to update drivers manually by pointing Vista to specific location however there is no place to go). Nevertheless even if I would be able to make it work (Catalyst) at least that "Silent stream" bug is something that DOES bother me (I did "enjoy" it a lot with NVIDIA). I also read lots of comments on Internet that these Catalyst HDMI audio drivers suck and that the Realtek is much better...

jmone · « **Reply #101 on:** April 22, 2009, 03:13:21 pm »

No idea why the CAT HDMI Drivers will not install. All I did was uninstall the Realtek ones and upgraded to Cat 9.4 and they were installed correctly. The CAT HDMI Drivers IMHO don't suck "more", they just suck "differently" to the Realtek ones. I'd rather have the silent stream than the stutter....

Johnny B · « **Reply #102 on:** April 22, 2009, 05:07:48 pm »

I will try to contact AMD support - maybe they will have some explanation / hint.
Have you contacted them regarding the "silent stream" bug?

JRiver, is there anything I can do for you in order to solve this? Like sending some logs, doing some tests - whatever?

Johnny B · « **Reply #103 on:** April 30, 2009, 09:50:26 am »

So I've been in contact with AMD for several days already. After some misunderstandings from their side we finally got to the core of the problem (=ATI HDMI audio driver in Catalyst) and it seems that the driver is included in their "Option 1" installation package ONLY (Display Driver & Catalyst Control Center together) whereas in the "Option 2" (separate DD and CCC) it is missing. And because I always go the "Option 2" way (being non-English native) that was the reason why I was unable to install it.
So I tried the Option 1 "all-in-1" package and this way I managed to install the ATI driver over Realtek (BTW it is not necessary to uninstall Realtek driver first). Nevertheless I am disappointed with it because the only improvement over Realtek 2.18 driver in MC13 is that Pause works as it should (=no stutter) however fade-out on Stop does not work and the "silent stream bug" is really unacceptable because it does affect playback of ANY file with sound in ANY application...

Regarding the "silent stream bug" in ATI audio driver I mentioned this to AMD and apparently they were not aware of this bug. So I sent them all reports they asked for and recently I got message from them that my request "has been escalated to one of our experts who can better address your questions". So hopefully they will try to do something about it.
I think it would be reasonable if anybody affected by this bug would contact AMD - the more they get from users the better they could possibly solve this issue.

Johnny B · « **Reply #104 on:** May 10, 2009, 06:18:52 am »

So again JRiver guys: is there anything I can do for you in order to solve these? Like sending some logs, doing some tests - whatever?

I encountered another weird issue: while playing back music using WASAPI output the recognition of inserted discs is corrupted (e.g. MC says it cannot recognise it and advice to Open / Close the drive) however once the output is changed from WASAPI to something else the disk is recognised with no problem at all! Weird...
Should be easy to reproduce (when output is changed Closing / reOpening MC is necessary)

JimH · « **Reply #105 on:** May 10, 2009, 07:33:38 am »

Someone else recently reported a problem with WASAPI that was solved by updating the driver. Search for "sigmatel" here.

Johnny B · « **Reply #106 on:** May 11, 2009, 07:11:29 am »

I installed the latest Realtek driver 2.23 and also the latest MC13 build 167 nevertheless all the issues still persist:
> stuttering loop on Pause
> fade-out on Stop does not work
> inserted disc is not recognised

These all happen with Exclusive mode enabled. When Exclusive is disabled none from the list happen.

Johnny B · « **Reply #107 on:** May 15, 2009, 01:47:37 pm »

No reaction? $:-\$

FYI I am still in contact with AMD. I reported them the "silent stream bug" which does occur with the Catalyst HDMI audio driver. I told them that when the Realtek driver is used (2.13, 2.18) then no silent stream bug happens. To my surprise they told me that the driver included in Catalyst actually IS a Realtek driver!!! So I responded that it's strange that the Realtek driver available for download from Realtek website is OK and I asked AMD what version of the driver is actually used in Catalyst. I finally received an "answer" from some unknown support person who cannot even sign his / her name:

"I have spoken with people that communicate with the driver people and they did not want to disclose that info. The people I spoke with speculated that it may be one that Realtek may have made specially for us."

So again JRiver - could you please do something about the WASAPI or is this the best we can / will get??

jmone · « **Reply #108 on:** May 15, 2009, 04:43:49 pm »

Mmmmm that is interesting if the ATI supplied dirver is from Realtek as the bugs are quite unique between them:

1) ATI Supplier Driver (CAT): Silent Stream Issue - Some Instability (I think! - I'll occasional get a MC13 freeze on bigplaylists with the stutter going one - need to reboot) and No 32-Bit Debth Support (but workaround in FFDSHOW is fine for this....). Note: One reason we don't see to much stutter with these drivers may be due to the Silent Stream Issue where it turns off the driver in these instaces hence clearing the buffer?
2) Reltek Supplier Driver: MC13 buffer clearing issue eg you get the stuttering on pause and if there is an inelegant ending to an audio stream (eg I terminate the TMT process to return to MC13 after playing Blu-ray disks). I've only noticed that Pause/Stutter issue with MC13 so I think the devs could improve this a bit!

Thanks
Nathan

jmone · « **Reply #109 on:** May 15, 2009, 04:52:32 pm »

Also I see that there are newer Realtek ATI R2.23 out - will test later and report back.

jmone · « **Reply #110 on:** May 15, 2009, 06:40:46 pm »

Quote from: jmone on May 15, 2009, 04:52:32 pm

Also I see that there are newer Realtek ATI R2.23 out - will test later and report back.

Same issues:
1) Stutter on Pause
2) If you repeat Pause --> Play then the sound output will stop alltogether untill a "Stop" is issued.

I have logs if Matt (others?) need / want them....

Thanks
Nathan

Johnny B · « **Reply #111 on:** May 16, 2009, 05:43:30 am »

Could you also check the "inserted disc is not recognised" issue I reported here? This on is really weird...

jmone · « **Reply #112 on:** May 21, 2009, 10:10:21 pm »

FYI - Cat 9.5 is out with slightly later ATI HDMI Drivers but no change I can see (hear).

Johnny B · « **Reply #113 on:** May 23, 2009, 05:25:25 am »

Are you sure that by installing Catalyst 9.5 you also updated the HDMI audio driver?? I doubt that...
I downloaded Cat 9.5 for Vista 64-bit (both Options) and the HDMI audio driver is NOT included in any of them!! And if you check the "release notes" you will discover that there is no single mention of that driver neither!! Therefore I assume you are actually still using the HDMI audio driver from Cat 9.4...

BTW I got another response from AMD support asking me whether the new Cat 9.5 "have any affect on the issue" (silent stream bug). So I told them that I tried however the audio driver is missing in Cat 9.5 completely this time (e.g. not only in the Option 2 as it was with Cat 9.4) - how absurd!! Now I'm waiting for their response again...

jmone · « **Reply #114 on:** May 24, 2009, 12:22:44 am »

It's there and the driver is upgraded from Version xxxx.46 to xxxx.48, However I had to uninstall the Realtek driver first else it is not installed (just skipped).

Johnny B · « **Reply #115 on:** May 24, 2009, 03:12:24 am »

I really doubt that...
In Cat 9.4 (Option 1) when "Custom" installation is selected then it's possible to check / uncheck what should be installed and what not. If you do the same with 9.5 there - contrary to Cat 9.4 - the HDMI audio driver is NOT in the list of checkboxes thus it cannot be checked / installed (this applies to both Option 1 and Option 2). And as I wrote before even the "release notes" document does not mention this driver at all neither...

Anyway I switched back to (at least for me) issue free Cat 9.2 because I suddenly could not change the refresh rates (neither with shortcuts nor CCC) and reinstalling of 9.5 / 9.4 did not help (it actually said something like "driver could not be installed because it does not match your hardware"?!?!) -> back to Cat 9.2 and Realtek 2.23 and again everything works as it should - well of course EXCEPT the WASAPI in MC13... $:-\$

jmone · « **Reply #116 on:** May 24, 2009, 03:22:08 am »

You right, the option did not appear on my first install attempt....however the HDMI Audio Install Option in Cat 9.5 appeared once I uninstalled the Realtek driver. Check your driver rev, mine was xxxx.46 in Cat 9.4 and is now xxxx.48 after the Cat 9.5 install.

jmone · « **Reply #117 on:** May 30, 2009, 09:01:27 pm »

FYI - Reltek 2.25 HDMI Drivers are out....I can see/hear to difference..still tutters on a pause (also upgraded to Vista/SP2)

Johnny B · « **Reply #118 on:** May 31, 2009, 05:03:50 am »

Hmm how about some "good" news??

(anyway thanks for the info)

JRiver apparently does not care...

JimH · « **Reply #119 on:** May 31, 2009, 06:47:27 am »

Quote from: Johnny B on May 31, 2009, 05:03:50 am

JRiver apparently does not care...

It's not clear that this is a JRiver problem.

jmone · « **Reply #120 on:** May 31, 2009, 04:02:55 pm »

Hi Jim,
There are definatly issues with the drivers but also with JR's implemenation, here is an example using different drivers and different WASAPI implemenations using:

ATI's CAT HDMI Driver: Stutter on Pause happens with both JR's and Reclock's WASAPI Implementation
Relteck HDMI Driver: Stutter on Pause ONLY happens with JR's Implementation

Thanks
Nathan

jmone · « **Reply #121 on:** June 16, 2009, 05:57:54 am »

New Cat 9.6 is out (nothing in the release notes about HDMI Audio changes) and 2.25 (and soon 2.26) of the Realtek ATI driver...will have to give them a go and see if there are any fixes....

jmone · « **Reply #122 on:** June 18, 2009, 06:07:05 pm »

As expected no change

still stutters on botht the Realtek 2.25 and the Cat 9.6 (HDMI Driver Rev xxxx.49) HDMI Drivers.

jmone · « **Reply #123 on:** June 18, 2009, 06:41:26 pm »

Any WASAPI issues should now be reported in the following thread http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=52554.0

INTERACT FORUM

Author Topic: Wasapi Exclusive mode Sample Rate Max - Lower Than My Hardware Limits (Read 95979 times)