Sound on QuickTime player sounds bad....!?

petal · Post by **petal** » Mon Jun 07, 2004 1:26 pm

Why is it that the sound gets chopped up everytime I use the quicktime-player on my pc?
I have had this problem on different machines and I can't fihure out why - Does anybody knows how to solve it?

My system:
GigaByte ? VIA KT-400 (Can't remember the exact type of motherboard)
AMD 2000 XP
512 MB Ram
Windows XP

Plato · Post by **Plato** » Mon Jun 07, 2004 2:26 pm

What bit-depth files are you trying to play.....maybe it's not 24 or 32 bit compatible?
Also check the preload settings in device manager for Scope, or any other settings relating to wave drivers & buffer sizes.....basically increase them????

samplaire · Post by **samplaire** » Mon Jun 07, 2004 3:51 pm

I've heard once that windows is designed to make unexpected things with quicktime. They say it's a part of windows media player vs quicktime war. They are only rumours but who knows?

petal · Post by **petal** » Mon Jun 07, 2004 3:54 pm

It's an Mpeg4 44.100, 16-bit stereo video-file, so it's not the bit-depth thats wrong.

I don't quite understand the solutions you are suggesting, could you please elaborate.

The audio don't seem quite in sync, and the chopped pieces I'm talking about is like 5-10 pieces a sec. And sometimes it sounds fine....!?

petal · Post by **petal** » Mon Jun 07, 2004 3:57 pm

Oh, maybe just an alternative windows video-player that can play Quicktime files. That would be of great help.

Plato · Post by **Plato** » Tue Jun 08, 2004 3:44 am

I don't use Quicktime, but I imagine it uses Wave drivers......go to Cntrl Panel/System/Hardware/Device Mngr/Sound, Video + Game Cntrlrs - double click on Pulsar/Settings.....you'll see Output Preload:
try raising it. Also make sure your number of Wave & Midi devices = number of Wave & Midi Source modules in Scope.

petal · Post by **petal** » Tue Jun 08, 2004 6:27 am

Yup, looks like raising the preload settings did the trick - thank you very much!

I have been saying not so nice things about QuickTime out loud lately - I guess it wasn't deserved.....

Cheers!
Thomas

valis · Post by **valis** » Tue Jun 08, 2004 7:06 pm

Actually Quicktime on windows is rather slow & bloated, and its been this way for many years. The video & audio codecs are fine, its just the playback app that is slow. Can't really fault Apple for not supporting Win very well, but it should be notes that MS products are often BETTER on Mac than on PCeee.

Also note that you can change what wav driver quicktime uses inside the quicktime control panel (look inside your windows control panels).

petal · Post by **petal** » Wed Jun 16, 2004 9:58 am

Just tried to play the damn file again today, and the problem is back... I guess the problem wasn't cured after all....

Spirit · Post by **Spirit** » Wed Jun 16, 2004 10:35 am

I have nothing but problems with Quicktime. It's a pig - much worse imho than Realplayer in terms of compatibility and stability.

valis · Post by **valis** » Wed Jun 16, 2004 1:33 pm

petal, try using 24bit wav source/dest pair for your quicktime viewing and see if it improves at all.

I do a lot of broadcasting of live mixsets and music and I've found that when I have 24bit audio modules in my project (asio etc) 16bit wav drivers have horrible problems, especially with recording. Using 24bit drivers for 16bit playback should be completely safe imo. When I have to record 16bit I just make sure I eliminate any 24bit stuff from the mixing path (remove asio/gsif etc) and my success rate goes up substantially, but it does sometimes require a reboot to get it working completely.

Shayne White · Post by **Shayne White** » Thu Jun 17, 2004 12:26 am

Take a look at Quicktime's audio prefrences and change DirectSound, which I believe is the default, to Wave Out. That fixed problems I was having.

Shayne

samplaire · Post by **samplaire** » Thu Jun 17, 2004 5:15 am

On 2004-06-08 20:06, valis wrote:
Actually Quicktime on windows is rather slow & bloated, and its been this way for many years.

As I said, I've heard M$ sabotages QT.

As for the problem: if chopped means bad quality (constantly, not ocassionaly) then you have to change (somewhere in prefs or other menus) to "high quality". I don't really know where to find it on windows - I use QT on a Mac and I like it.

valis · Post by **valis** » Thu Jun 17, 2004 5:51 pm

MS doesn't sabotage quicktime (although if it makes you happier to think so by all means...). It simply isn't a well written port.

Obviously quicktime on a Mac works great, especially since the libraries it uses are built into the OS (something people complain about with MS a lot).

Incidentally I've no interest in raising a mac vs. pc debate here please, having used both (up through G4 osX on mac) they have their upsides & downsides.

samplaire · Post by **samplaire** » Fri Jun 18, 2004 8:01 am

Me, either. I'm peaceful

spoimala · Post by **spoimala** » Mon Apr 04, 2005 1:20 pm

Anyone solved this reliably?

I've tried different ouput drivers in quicktime, tried different drivers in SFP, raised output preload.. and still videos sound horrible.

The problems are only with CW cards, it works great on my laptop, but not on my desktop with Scope card. Also, my friend with Pulsar is having the same problem (he has totally different computer setup, so I guess it's not my cpu or mobo that sucks)

valis · Post by **valis** » Tue Apr 05, 2005 12:20 am

Open device manager (right click on MyComputer, choose 'manage' then find the DeviceManager in the left column).
Look under "Sound video and game controllers" in device manager, find your Creamware card (Luna/Pulsar/Pulsar2) right click and choose properties.
Go to the 'Settings' dialogue and find the "Wave Setup" page, use the Output Preload slider to increase the wav buffers.

Move it high enough and the problems with Quicktime should stop.

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: valis on 2005-04-05 01:21 ]</font>

spoimala · Post by **spoimala** » Tue Apr 05, 2005 11:53 am

Okay, it needed reboot also.