[roland6543]

So for the longest time I thought I had a hardware limitation, giving choppy sound only when I played 1080p video with 5.1 digital sound through optical to my receiver. I was surprised to find it also occurred with a couple of 720p files, and then even more surprised to find a 1080p file which worked without any problems. So, I now think there may be a soft setting that is not optimal. Except I don't know where to look, and searches have not been rewarding.

The same problem occurs when playing the file with VLC, leading me to believe that it has something to do with my soundcard and/or AV receiver settings.

I'm not sure if there are certain audio characteristics in the files which cause problems. If I knew what to look for I could avoid them.

My Setup:
Athlon X2 64 3800+, 2GB RAM, ASUS A8N-E with onboard Realtek AC97 sound chip, GT520 video card, Windows 7 32-bit (fresh install). Optical out to my AV receiver, HDMI out to TV, XBMC 10.1

The Problem:
When playing certain files with 5.1 the video plays smoothly, but the audio is very choppy, cutting in/out a couple of times per second. This only happens when I use optical digital sound settings. Setting it to stereo or something else, its smooth, but obviously inferior.

Advice, or pointing me in the right direction would be sincerely appreciated. Thanks.

[roland6543]

No replies yet.

This may mean nothing, but I have been looking at some of the metadata details. The problem files all seem to have an audio bitrate of 640kbps. Could that be the problem? Is there a way of getting my system hardware/software to overcome this issue?

If you have any ideas they would be appreciated.

[roland6543]

Here is my XBMC Debug Log:
http://pastebin.com/PdPqUQ41

Here is info from the video file:
http://pastebin.com/qVgdrtia

My System:
Windows 7, SP1, 32-bit
2GB RAM, Asus A8N-E Mobo, nVidia GT520, Onboard Realtek AC-97 Sound, AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+ 2.21GHz
XBMC Dharma 10.1

[roland6543]

Solved!! With help from Sony support (for my Sony AV Receiver).

After driving me cray for so long, the solution was very simple. On my A/V receiver, the are sound field settings which I leave on Cinema Studio mode. Changing that to Normal Surround gets everything to work perfectly.

Seems like an obvious thing with hindsight, but I NEVER change those settings, so I didn't think of testing them.

I hope my frustrating experience will help others.