Audio crackles when fullscreen + streaming

[71chevellejohn]

I posted over on TweakTown in the Asrock forums, but haven't received a reply yet.

My thought is that it is some audio setting that isn't set correctly, but I don't know.

I have a AsRock Ion3D 152D that has an audio problem. Win7 x64, 4GB RAM

When watching streaming video (Hulu, Media Center internet TV, etc) in full screen(or even when the video is ~70% or more of the screen) mode the audio crackles/pops intermittently. If I shrink the video size down, the audio smooths out and plays normally.

When watching a DVD or playing music(CD or MP3) the audio is normal. Ripped movies are OK also.

It acts like a video/audio processing problem and the audio is taking the hit.

Before installing win7 x64 and the 4GB RAM, I had win7 x32 and the factory 2GB RAM-the crackling sound was present at that time also.

Nvidia ION driver 7.17.12.6081(dated 9/20/10)
Nvidia HD Audio Driver 1.1.9.0 (dated 9/7/2010)

I know I can use the analog or optical audio output also, but those are connected to my AV receiver and I don't always want to use full surround sound(especially for TV shows).

Thanks in advance

[GT Fanatic]

could the sound card be out dated? being that you had the problem before on another os, sounds like it could be a hardware isssue.

[mustang_revival]

If it plays 100% fine during small window play, but gets bad during the full size, it is a resource issue.

Look at your CPU usage and your memory (RAM) available. If those look OK, it may be your video card is getting taxed.

[71chevellejohn]

could the sound card be out dated? being that you had the problem before on another os, sounds like it could be a hardware isssue.

The computer is only a month old. I had Win7 32 bit installed to test

If it plays 100% fine during small window play, but gets bad during the full size, it is a resource issue.

Look at your CPU usage and your memory (RAM) available. If those look OK, it may be your video card is getting taxed.

RAM usage is pretty low ~1.5G out of 4 available. I haven't paid attention to CPU usage - I'll check that tonight.

The thing that gets me is that it only does it when using a streaming source. Ripped movies are fine - DVD and CD audio is fine. And streaming audio is fine(Pandora).

I've got 15Mbps cable broadband(that normally sits around 8-10 ), so I don't think that the conenction is the problem. Hulu's buffer stays full, so it really shouldn't be an issue.

[mustang_revival]

The only other thing I would try is a different Web Browser. Also make sure everything else that is not required for OS running or browser streaming is off or disabled.

I would imagine you are seeing these results on streaming vs. local file/DVD because of the caching that is done with local media. (Exceeds buffering in terms of performance)

[71chevellejohn]

When watching Hulu, it has been through their program(hulu desktop) and the internet tv has been through win7 media center.

[71chevellejohn]

CPU usage is ~25-30%
Ram sits at 1.5GB out of 4GB
SWAP is sitting at 1.7GB out of 8GB

I was talking to my Dad and he had problems with an Nvidia card when it had the hardware acceleration turned on. I went to turn the Hardware acceleration off, but the option is grayed out.

[71chevellejohn]

Well I found an answer, but not a solution.

Question
Choppy video or audio sync issues with full screen streaming video

Answer

When running a full screen video stream from YouTube, Hulu or NetFlix, the video may become choppy or the audio and video lose sync, even though the GPU may be at low utilization.

This is caused by a bandwidth limitation in the PCI-E 1X channel. While most desktop systems use a PCI-E X4 or X16 channel for the GPU, some laptops and systems with ION GPU's use a 1X channel. While this is typically sufficient for most videos, some streaming video content has multiple composited overlays for menu's, advertising and so on. This causes multiple trips through the bus, exceeding the available PCI-E 1X bandwidth.

Since the Asrock ION3D is a nettop, it's practically a laptop. And most likely runs on the PCI-E 1X framework.

I have an e-mail into Nvidia to see if there is anything that can be done to help it.

[Tx Redneck]

Well I found an answer, but not a solution.


Since the Asrock ION3D is a nettop, it's practically a laptop. And most likely runs on the PCI-E 1X framework.

I have an e-mail into Nvidia to see if there is anything that can be done to help it.

Because of the limited bandwidth available on anX1 lane, there isn't anything that can be done short of building a typical HTPC.

[71chevellejohn]

If I switched the audio off on the HDMI(Nvidia) and used the analog/optical side(realtekHD), Do you think it would be clear?
(I've got cables on the way already to connect the optical audio to my AV receiver - I just haven't received them to try yet.)

Also, for any content that is streaming, is there software out there to download/save the stream for playback later? That would be a suitable workaround for me.

Streaming content isn't my main concern, it's just annoying. I'm primarily using it for my movie library and music.

[Tx Redneck]

Taking that added stress off the PCI-E lane will likely fix the audio issue. To dl streaming stuff to play w/ VLC, I just found this freebie program called Stream Transport, tried and it works well.

http://www.freewaregenius.com/2010/03/13/streamtransport-download-videos-from-hulu-as-well-as-other-encrypted-or-unencrypted-media-sites/