CD Audio Stutter Problem

[dzd9fy]

Certain audio CD's stutter when played and I am wondering what to look to change as to settings to resolve the issue.

When running Resource Monitor, the CD's that stutter are showing that the "CPU", "Network", and "Memory" are all operating in the middle of the charts, but "Disk" is spiking at 100% and then dropping to lower values and then spiking again.

Only certain commercially recorded CD's demonstrate this behavior such as Trans Siberian Orchestra, while others like BIllboard and such do not stutter and do not spike on "Disk" and play normally.

My system details are as follows:
AMD A6-3650 APU
ASRock A55M-HVS
4GB GSKILL F3 Memory
SAMSUNG DVD BURNER
WIN 7 64 HOME PREMIUM

Thanks for the guidance.

 

[hedwar2011]

What type of program are you playing them from?

Try playing the Trans-Siberian Orchestra CD through VLC player and see if that helps.

 

[abbadon_34]

Are you playing off an actual disc ? You have a recent hi-speed-obserdly-fast-never-possible drive? Most drives have hardware issues at speeds under 8x, ironcally causing problems for the original continuous 1x CD playing, and typically will read fast, cache, then repeat when the cache runs out. It should be seemsly, but not always. Some drive actually stop spinning, some don't. If so, Rip it and play the mp3 from your hard drive.

 

[dzd9fy]

I am playing from the actual disc when I have the problem, there are not any issues when playing from an mp3 previously ripped and imported to this hard drive.

My hard drive is a Seagate Barracuda ST31000524AS 1TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive.

I do not have any issues with playing a DVD such as Transformers.

What type of program are you playing them from?

Try playing the Trans-Siberian Orchestra CD through VLC player and see if that helps.

I have been Win Media Player, and just tried VLC and have the same issue.

 

[abbadon_34]

For a DVD 1x = ~8x CD speed. See if what the lowest speed your drive supports with of the speed info tools out there. And for a last try there is alway Media Center Classic. I know understand the irony of all this.

 

[dzd9fy]

so it is actually an issue with the CD drive or the hard drive?

 

[hedwar2011]

so it is actually an issue with the CD drive or the hard drive?

How old is the CD/DVD drive in question?

 

[dzd9fy]

The whole system is less than a year old that is what makes this all odd...

 

[hedwar2011]

It could potentially be a bad laser in the CD/DVD drive. Have you tried to clean it using a CD/DVD drive cleaner?

 

[abbadon_34]

Actually that is why you might have issue with the CD-Audio on the drive. Originally CD-ROM drives were design with CD-Audio in mind, along with CD-ROMs. I'll bet there is no CD-Audio on your drive face. As time has progressed CD-Audio compatibility has moved to bottom of the list. It still technically there, just neglected. If you're not going to rip it, at least make it really clean so the drive doesn't have to re-read a section.

 

[hedwar2011]

Actually that is why you might have issue with the CD-Audio on the drive. Originally CD-ROM drives were design with CD-Audio in mind, along with CD-ROMs. I'll bet there is no CD-Audio on your drive face. As time has progressed CD-Audio compatibility has moved to bottom of the list. It still technically there, just neglected. If you're not going to rip it, at least make it really clean so the drive doesn't have to re-read a section.

I actually forgot all about that, but he did say that he tried the same things through VLC player and if it was the CD-Audio format plague, it would have picked up on it and compensated I bet.

 

[dzd9fy]

Thanks for the replies guys, been out ouf town and out of touch so sorry for not replying.

I have not tried cleaning the drive, and it is too bad to learn that the CR -Audio is a low priority now, but understandable I guess.

What is the recommended FREE program for ripping?

 

[abbadon_34]

The default Windows Media Player has a ripper built in. Nothing special, but works. I prefer Easy CD-DA Extrator but it's not free.

hedwar2011: I haven't used VLC in a few years, but yeah I would have expected it to buffer, correct, and playback without any issues, unless its doing a direct hardware passthru of the CD-Audio instead of digitally reading and playing back via software.

 

[dzd9fy]

Best answer selected by dzd9fy.