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ZERO <ibis> · (This post was last modified: 2013-05-17, 06:38 by ZERO <ibis>.)

I noticed that there is a constant chop sound in my audio in MPC-HC even when video is paused. The issue does not occur when you launch MPC-HC normally but only when launched from within xmbc. I have also found that changing the audio device in xbmc wil effect MPC-HC for example without adjusting any MPC-HC settings I can change the audio device in xmbc and cause MPC-HC to no longer have sound. Is there a way to play videos in MPC-HC without xbmc fucking with it?

They key is that xbmc is doing something while the external player is running that is causing bad sound to be introduced to the player even when the player is paused. If you mute xmbc before running the xternal player it works fine. If you mute xbmc while already having the player running the sound does not go away.

It is very strange behavior.

sialivi · 2013-05-17, 06:38

Not sure what you mean by "chop sound", but while XBMC is in WASAPI exclusive mode no other program can output any audio. When launching an external player XBMC will exit exclusive mode to make it possible for the external program to output audio. Do you mean there's a brief interruption?

ZERO <ibis> · (This post was last modified: 2013-05-17, 06:45 by ZERO <ibis>.)

Note that I have also found that disabling all gui sounds resolves the problem as well. Any setting for gui sounds other than disable does not resolve the problem.

No, most users will likely not be able to hear this distortion due to the sound of their computer you will either need a perfectly quiet room or to jack up the volume all the way.

I have tested this on two separate systems with different installs to verify. In both when running MPC-HC normally there is no distortion but with xbmc even if you pause video and turn up volume you hear this chopping sound (think like roter blades) when running MPC-HC normally you can turn up audio as far as the amps will allow and hear nothing.

The issue is clearly caused by xbmc as doing any of the following currently resolved it (not real solutions b.c they break functionality)
A) disable gui sounds
B) Mute xbmc before starting the external player

ZERO <ibis> · (This post was last modified: 2013-05-17, 07:15 by ZERO <ibis>.)

ok I think I have figured the issue out. When you select an item xbmc wants to play a sound but it appears that when the external player starts the sound gets caught in a loop until the player is exited. The solution is that xbmc needs to ensure that the sound completes or that there is an option to delay the start of the external player by 1 sec or something. I am going to run some more tests to pin this shit down.

confirmed, when I change to the default skin which uses a different select sound you can hear the shit looping as soon as the external player starts. The issue was much less noticeable in back row and with my custom sounds. However the issue does clearly exist for all skins and configurations.

ZERO <ibis> · 2013-05-17, 07:23

The problem is worse and more noticeable if using for example:
<hidexbmc>true</hidexbmc>

It is there with true or false but it is much louder when set to true for some reason.

ZERO <ibis> · (This post was last modified: 2013-05-17, 07:42 by ZERO <ibis>.)

I can also verify that the following change to sounds.xml fixes the issue:

Code:
<action>

            <name>select</name>

            <file></file>

        </action>

If you totally disable the select sound currently that is the only solution.

I tried adding 1 second blank audio before and after the sound to see if I could get it to loop or something on blank audio and that did not help. I will not try to feed it a blank audio file for select to see what it does.

confirmed! Even with blank audio being used for the file you can still hear a problem! Only with the select option disabled completely is your sound in MPC-HC not messed up as a result of xbmc.

ZERO <ibis> · 2013-05-17, 09:03

I can also verify that muting xbmc in windows when mpc-hc is running resolves the problem. Is there any way to automatically mute xbmc in windows when mpc-hc runs and unmute it afterword?

ZERO <ibis> · 2013-05-17, 09:23

So far the only valid work around I have found to this problem that does not remove functionality is the following:
1) install reclock
2) use reclock as audio render in mpc-hc
3) disable PCM in ffdshow
4) set reclock to use WASAPI Exclusive

Hopefully reclock does not mess with my video b/c I just want it for the WASAPI Exclusive output to basically mute xbmc so it does not mess with my audio.

baijuxavior · 2013-05-17, 15:57

I have experienced this looping sound when external player is launched. Setting both Audio output and passthrough output devices to WASAPI solved my issue. Also enable the option 'Use a fullscreen window rather than true full screen'.

ZERO <ibis> · 2013-05-17, 23:15

The real issue though is that xbmc should not have sound looping when using external players in the first place. This is clearly a glitch in the code that needs to be added to the tracker and patched in future versions. Or the instructions for external players needs to tell users that they are required to use WASAPI to block out interference from xbmc when using an external player.

Imiron · 2013-06-06, 20:34

I'm also having the clicking sound when launching MPC-HC. I tried switching to WASAPI, but lost all my sound that way.