Problem - sound chopped off intermittently and randomly when playing movies

[hermancheng]

Hi all, hope someone can help me with this annoying problem.

The set up:
Windows 8.1, VLC or MPC-HC, Coaxial digital output (using S/PDIF) to Onkyo receiver, hdmi video output to TV, and if not sure if relevant, I am using an older computer with an ASUS P5B motherboard and on-board sound

The problem:
I have been playing music (mp3 and flac) and video (usually 1080p/720p x264 DTS mkv file ) without problems for a long time, receiver can detect DTS without problems.

But recently, when I play movies, I get these random and intermittent "clips" that last half a second and the sound will drop off. It can be in the middle of loud or soft volume setting, it doesn't occur at the same location of the movies, it's super annoying as you may be in the middle of a dialog or a song.

Playing music through the set up is ok and no problem, regardless of volume

Things I have tried:

• restart / reboot
• re-install MPC-HC to the latest stable, reinstall VLC
• deleted excessive codec (K－Lite) and just use the basic
• clean the cable connection
• check and make sure I have all the latest drivers
• move those movie files to different drives (local vs networked)

Nothing has helped. From as far as I can remember, the last major change was upgrading from windows 8.0 to 8.1. No other major changes was there.

Anyone who can point me to the right direction will be greatly appreciated.

Herman

 

[MrRiver]

S/PDIF can't carry all forms of multi-channel audio. You could read about "compressed" and "uncompressed" in this wikipedia topic:

S/PDIF - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[liamt]

have you tried using the HDMI to amp. then amp to TV. that is the logical way of doing it. also, hdmi can cope with uncompressed audio. some cant do HD audio but can send uncompressed PCM audio which is the same thing really. its just decoded at the PC rather than amp.

my gfx card can do 7.1 HD PCM but not bitstream HD audio. which is annoying but not the end of the world.