Inconsistent sound

[RogerBear]

In the last 24 hours, I have been getting intermittent interruptions/distortions in sound. It is not web-related, but applies to videos I play from my own files and CDs. It started as occasional distortion or cut-outs. Now the situation is that a video I play on VLC plays with perfect picture, but no sound, whereas playing the same video on Windows Media  gives me a brief burst of sound and then freezes. I have already tried the following, to no avail:

      • installed a new sound card (Asus Xonar SE)

      • updated all drivers

      • confirmed I have the latest updates on Windows and BIOS

I am running Windows 10 Home 21H1, on and HP ENVY desktop

[BeemerBiker]

You mention "last 24 hours".  Were the same videos working fine previously?  

The spec for your system is here

https://support.hp.com/us-en/document/c06441496

Unless you added a graphics processor like a GTX card, your system is limited to Intel HD graphics 630 acceleration.

The following assume you have only Intel 630

Two years ago that option was not available but was being worked on by intel as described here

https://community.intel.com/t5/Graphics/Intel-UHD-graphics-630-WDDM-2-7-No-hardware-accelerated-gpu/...

Intel releases new drivers as described in that article but it could be the driver from HP is older and does not have the hardware acceleration that VLC  can use.

https://wiki.videolan.org/VLC_GPU_Decoding/#:~:text=4.1.3%20Intel-,Introduction,rendering%20of%20the....

I suspect your CPU is overloaded trying to handle both the video and sound.  If hardware assisted VLC is disabled then enable it.  Or try disable it as I read their support was "experimental".

I had this problem with my Surface Pro 4,  The Intel driver was newer and had features missing from the MIcrosoft downloaded drivers and Microsoft had not updated to include the new features.

Even a really cheap GPU that has minimal CUDA support can handle video codeing / decoding  better than a multicore CPU.

[edit]  Another thought.  If the video has 7.1 audio that can eat up bandwidth on the buss placing a strain on the system.  If the video was ripped you might consider removing the HD audio when ripping if you do not have 5.1 or 7.1 speakers.

[RogerBear · Accepted solution]

Thanks BeemerBiker,

I have marked that as helpful because you suggest several specifics though I have yet to check them. A few notes:

• Sound began mild occasional deterioration several weeks ago; the crippling problem is only in the last 48 hours. Everything played fine before that.

• The problem occurs in all videos, most of which I have made myself by adding images to YouTube audio; I very much doubt it is an issue with HD sound.

• The same thing happens when playing a DVD from my disc drive: VLC plays smoothly without sound; everything else makes noises but hangs up.

• I used Auslogics Driver Updater this morning to check my drivers. It found 29 problems and—it says—fixed them. I hope the application is trustworthy, though, and not part of the problem!

In short, I suspect you are right about overloading the CPU. But it is not exclusively a VLC issue. Indeed, I suspect there may be an important clue in the fact that VLC plays everything perfectly (albeit without sound) while everything else I can find (by right-clicking and going to "open with") hiccoughs or stalls.

Thank you for your interest and efforts. If anything in what I've just said gives you any further clues, then please do write back. RB.

[Prométhée]

https://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Desktop-Video-Display-and-Touch/Audio-Video-problems/m-p/8319956#M1214...