Weird Sync Issue - Still no Solution

[jamesmcuk]

Hi Guys, here is a weird problem I am beginning to suspect is a hardware failure. Anyway thought I would ask here for ideas first.

My computer is Win 7 Dual Screen (one TV) It has always been capable of playing movies in sync no problem. Recently however it has started to slip. When I turn on everything is in sync but as I play different things it slips further and further out. The strange thing is though is that it is system wide. Once the video is ahead of the sound every video is the same and ALL software players are affected including web browser stuff like youtube and live TV through my DVB Card. All goes back fine after a restart.

I have performed a complete wipe of the system
I have updated to all the latest drivers
I have no AV installed and have no Viruses or Spyware

It never used to do this and no hardware has changed

One interesting point that has also started to happen is that I used to put a film on for the wife on one screen and play WOW on the other and they both displayed and played perfect. Now though if WOW has focus the film will slow right down (audio plays normal speed) and when you click the movie window the film will speed through like on fast forward until it catches up.

All ideas welcome. Especially any that may help find faulty soundcard or graphics card.

Thanks

James

 

[jamesmcuk]

Bump

 

[jamesmcuk]

One more bump in vague hope

 

[MidnightDistort]

I never experienced this problem with Win 7 and with VLC media player although i have never done a split screen before.

What is your system specs? Something is being bottlenecked here. Obvious signs would be that your CPU usage is maxed out (in task manager), Physical Memory is around 80-90% (resorting to page file/HDD usage) and this would be most noticeable when your HDD is constant. If you were using VLC media player and having the 'dropped frame' checkmarked that would drop any frames out that were lagging causing the video/audio to be mismatched. Instead you would most likely hear the audio but the video would be frozen or jittery.

I don't know whether installing VLC would fix the youtube sync problems but when i did have sync problems with my oldest PC everything was pretty much maxed out. I don't know how you would be able to monitor GPU activity but maybe someone has some software that might be able to. If you were having hard drive issues i would imagine loading times would be a bit excessive. I'd run scandisk just in case, get CCleaner to delete junk files and check for defragmentation (Defraggler works great) on that end.

Edit: also check the stickies at the top of the Win 7 forum for a guide on viruses & malware.

 

[jamesmcuk]

Hi there thanks for taking the time to reply.

Just to clarify its not a virus or malware it does this from a clean Win 7 install. Could be a driver I guess

It used to work fine and I could tax the system really hard and it may slow the playback but would always catch up or just closing the video app and playing it would fix any issues (not that I remember any happening). I have been using the setup for years in the same way and have re-installed many times and never had issues with sync which is why i am suspecting hardware failure.

System is a 3Ghz Core2Duo with 4GB Ram and SSD main boot disk.

Anyway the Hard disks are in low usage and the slip will get bigger even with just the PC on and not doing anything.

Memory is never more than 50% commit of 4GB and the processor only ever blips to 100% when loading things as would be expected.

VLC is installed and something I use often as well as MPC and Windows Media Player itself. The slip starts and gets worse despite the program you use but is very gradual. It takes at least a few hours before you can even notice it and its only after a day that its out by two seconds or more.

Once the slip is there you can load any video from any source using any program and its all out of sync by the same amount. Only rebooting the PC clears the slip.

Thanks again
James

 

[MidnightDistort]

Strange that VLC is even having this issue. Maybe increasing the priority of that program might help, by checking that in the program preferences it'll increase the program to 'above normal'. Even with that i usually will increase VLC to high in the task manager & usually i don't have any issues with one exception i had WMP open with VLC and while i had to reload my music library on WMP it caused massive freezing so there's always the chance something like that could happen during multitasking, although i think it was mostly because my processor was bottlenecked. Again with Win 7 i never had much of any issues with videos.

Here's another question, what videos are you trying to play? Standard format or High Definition? HD could possibly be the reason if your GPU is not capable of HD.

 

[jamesmcuk]

All the videos are SD not HD and it used to play HD ones too with no problems. Prioritising the apps that are playing may help but it would be masking over the problem as like I say this is not a new system thats not performing as expected its an older tried and tested system that is now not performing as it once did.

I am wondering if it could be a problem with the sounds cards clock but not sure if there is a way to test it. Its a strange one for sure but I am kind of certain its either:

Drivers: since these do get updated by the manufacturers
The Soundcard
THe GPU
or a Hard disk that is being used by windows that I am unaware of as this is something I swap in and out quite often and have about 8 drive connected.

 

[jamesmcuk]

Just as an Update I have found that changing the Default Format under the Advanced Tab of the properties for my Playback Device - in this case SPDIF - resets the sync issue just like a reboot does but it still gradually slips.

 

[hang-the-9]

Where are you playing the video and sound at? There are some TVs that have this issue. Does this happen to every movie, even regular DVDs?