Intermittent hiccups with DVD playback

[sunbird]

Firstly, let me congratulate the developers on a great product - I have used many players out there and KMP is way out front, IMHO.

Can anyone can give me some advice on troubleshooting a very annoying dvd playback problem....

when playing a dvd (using various players - including, now, KMP) I get occasional (random, not repeatable) audio "hiccups" - very short discontinuities, but enough to be noticeable and annoying. My system consists of a dedicated 2.4GHz, 512MB P4, Geoforce FX5200 AGP with NEC3520A DVD drive (DMA mode), on-board AC'97 sound hardware used in SPDIF pass-through mode via optical output to AV receiver. I am using the KMP default settings, h/w overlay mode, internal filters, no SP's enabled.

I suspect some process is interrrupting KMP long enough to cause the blip even though XP Task Manager shows max CPU usage <35%.

One very interesting observation - when I enable the video signal processing and load the CPU to 100%, the problem seems to disappear! I would have expected it to get worse, but it doesn't.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

[z]

As dvd playback depends on mpeg2 decoders, just try to switch to commercial mpeg2 decoder. It seems to be system dependent problem. Some has a trouble in spdif, others not. SPDIF output through commercial decoder like intervideo is generally known to remove audio "hiccup".

[sunbird]

thanks, I'll try that - though I've used PowerDVD, Winamp, nero etc. without success in the past. I used their Mpeg2 decoders with Media Player Classic too - same result.

BTW, what do you make of the fact that the problem seemds to go away when I load the CPU?

[z]

In general, the problem of dvd playback, especially in case of audio hiccups, is attributed to the pathway of spdif output. If not the case, it's hard to guess what the problem is exactly. What I've said is mostly a normal case in point.

Anyway, hope your problem to be solved.

[sunbird]

I tried the Cyberlink Mpeg2 decoder - same problem. Could buffering the audio data from the decoder solve the problem and if so, how can I do it? Do you have any other suggestions to try?

Help please!

[z]

If you have the same problem with other players like Powerdvd using commercial mped2 decoders, it is certain that SPDIF output has nothing to do with the audio hiccups. There seems to be a problem in your system configuration. It could be a DVD itself or device driver problem which does not work in the proper mode when transfering data. You'd better compare other system with yours, if you can. If not, what's about calling the expert around you? Just to guess without seeing the system is almost useless.

[sunbird]

Does KMP provide a buffering mechanism? If so, can I adjust the buffer size?

[z]

I don't think it is a buffering problem but if you want to try, there is an option in preferences > source filter.

[sunbird]

Do you mean the CD (disk) cache? I am looking for a memory buffer.

[z]

It includes memory buffer as well as cd buffer.

[sunbird]

In case anyone has been following this thread I have solved my problem - by raising the priority of KMP to realtime, making sure that no applications ( and I mean NO apps) are running at the same time and shutting down ALL but the essential XP services.

[z]

Ooooooooooops!

It's really weird. I wish you try other palyers whether there is a same audio hiccups or not. If it is a only solution to raise the priority, you'd better not use kmp as a frontend for dvd playback.