Intermittent garbled sound on OTA (live and recordings) Windows 10

Discussion of getting WMC to work on Windows 10 (unsupported)
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Edgar_in_Indy

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Intermittent garbled sound on OTA (live and recordings) Windows 10

#1

Post by Edgar_in_Indy » Sun Aug 29, 2021 6:40 pm

I recently updated my living room HTPC from Windows 7 to Windows 10 (fresh install). Everything went pretty well, except that now I get intermittent, but frequent and sometimes persistent, garbled sound on OTA content.

I've searched online several times, and haven't been able to find a solution, or even anybody else with the same problem. Drivers are all updated, and I never had any audio problems with Windows 7. I installed the Shark007 codec pack after I noticed the problem, but it did not make any difference.

Audio is provided by an nVidia 1050ti hooked up to the TV with HDMI.

The only clue I've been able to find is that when the audio is garbled, and I pause it, and then play again, it sounds normal. At least until it starts again. That makes me wonder if maybe there is some kind of timing issue...as if the audio is getting out of sync with the video, and then starts stuttering. And then pausing it gives it a chance to get in sync again?

The sound is a little bit hard to describe...kind of robotic, and kind of like autotune is out of control, so I've posted a video clip of it here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hDUSXCt01lE

Any help would be soooo appreciated as football season is about to start!
Last edited by Edgar_in_Indy on Sun Aug 29, 2021 7:06 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Edgar_in_Indy

Posts: 21
Joined: Tue Jul 28, 2015 3:01 pm
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#2

Post by Edgar_in_Indy » Sun Aug 29, 2021 7:01 pm

Oh, and BTW, it exhibits the same problem with old recordings, even from years ago when I still had Win 7. So it's not just with new content since the upgrade to Win 10. And if I go back and play the same content again, it garbles at different, random spots.

Edgar_in_Indy

Posts: 21
Joined: Tue Jul 28, 2015 3:01 pm
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#3

Post by Edgar_in_Indy » Tue Feb 08, 2022 3:18 am

Well, apparently this isn't a common issue since it's been six months since I originally posted. I think I figured it out, so I'll share in case anybody else has the same problem.

My OTA signal wasn't the strongest, and I was using very old versions of HDHomerun devices, so I thought I'd tackle that situation first, to eliminate it as a possible cause. I added a quality amplifier on my attic antenna, and replaced my two old dual-tuner boxes with a 4-tuner HDHomerun Connect Quatro. In addition to saving space and reducing a lot of cable clutter in my media cabinet, my signal was improved and I noticed that the tuners change channels quicker than my old ones. Unfortunately the intermittent garbled audio continued.

I finally uninstalled the recommended Shark codec pack and installed the basic K-Lite instead. Fingers crossed, but so far it seems to have fixed the problem. I'm not sure why Shark would have caused problems for me when it seems to work for everybody else, but I've always used K-Lite in the past and never had a problem with it.

I'm just glad I got it fixed in time for the Super Bowl since I'm having people over!

Edgar_in_Indy

Posts: 21
Joined: Tue Jul 28, 2015 3:01 pm
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#4

Post by Edgar_in_Indy » Mon Feb 13, 2023 4:47 am

The problem came back and I never figured it out until just now. I finally fixed it by replacing my old nvidia 1050ti video card with an AMD RX 580. The 1050 ti worked fine in every other situation, so I guess it must have just been some strange interaction between WMC and my specific video card.

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