Asus TUF GAMING CAPTURE BOX-CU4K30 Audio Issue

spooker

New Member
I am using OBS Studio 29.1.1 and OBS certified hdmi capture card Asus TUF GAMING CAPTURE BOX-CU4K30
I am having a weird problem with sound when capturing HDMI content.
When audio monitoring is turned on the sound is like a robot talking .
Turning the audio monitoring to off and then back on seems to be fixing the issue temporarily until next time.
I am fully up to date, from firmware to drivers.
I am attaching a full hardware info from HWinfo64.
I am also attaching a log from OBS
Any idea what might be causing this?
 

Attachments

  • pc.LOG
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  • 2023-05-29 17-42-19.txt
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AaronD

Active Member
like a robot talking
Can you post a sample? Long enough to transition from "okay" to "bad" and then fix?

Make it Unlisted on YouTube and post a link, or keep the video information to an absolute minimum - large blocks of solid color only, no cameras, and minimal motion - so it compresses very well into a zip file, and then post the zip file here.

I wonder if you have two copies of the same audio going to the same place, and one of them is drifting out of sync with the other. OBS's Monitor is known to drift, depending on which device you connect it to (effectively random; some devices work, others don't), so if you run it through that, *and* you have Windows monitoring that input also (which doesn't drift), then that could do it.
If that's the problem though, then a recording from OBS might not show it...unless you got creative with audio routing just for the recording.
 

spooker

New Member
here is the sample

note that although the audio monitoring was fixed after I changed the audio monitoring to off and then back on
it was not fixed on the recording. Instead echo was introduced in the recording which was not present during monitoring.
I am also attaching the corresponding log file.

I wonder if you have two copies of the same audio going to the same place
How can I tell that this is the case? Is this a setting from within OBS?
I don't do any hacks with audio routing.
 

Attachments

  • 2023-05-31 13-25-59.txt
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AaronD

Active Member
here is the sample
Wow! That's a lot of latency at the end! Way more than what would make a "robot voice".

I am also attaching the corresponding log file.
You have this in the global audio section:
13:26:01.948: [win-wasapi: 'Desktop Audio'] update settings:
13:26:01.948: device id: default
13:26:01.948: use device timing: 1
13:26:01.950: [Loaded global audio device]: 'Desktop Audio'
13:26:01.950: [win-wasapi: 'Mic/Aux'] update settings:
13:26:01.950: device id: default
13:26:01.950: use device timing: 0
13:26:01.950: [Loaded global audio device]: 'Mic/Aux'
and this during the recording:
13:26:04.215: ==== Recording Start ===============================================
13:26:13.158: User changed audio monitoring for source 'Video Capture Device' to: none
13:26:17.187: User changed audio monitoring for source 'Video Capture Device' to: monitor and output
13:26:24.671: Output 'simple_ffmpeg_output': stopping
13:26:24.671: Output 'simple_ffmpeg_output': Total frames output: 1022
13:26:24.671: Output 'simple_ffmpeg_output': Total drawn frames: 1023
13:26:24.671: ==== Recording Stop ================================================
and I don't see any other audio.

My guess now, is that you're sending the Monitor to the same device that the Desktop Audio picks up. That creates a feedback loop. If you would also Monitor the Desktop source, it would repeat forever, but since you don't, you only get a second copy and it ends there. That would also explain why the Monitor doesn't echo, while the recording does.

If you don't need the Desktop source, just Disable it. If you do, then you need to use different devices for the Desktop source and the Monitor. Your only indication then, of what the Desktop audio is doing, comes through OBS and not directly. Or you could send the Monitor to something you don't use, or not Monitor anything at all; that works too.

I wonder if you have two copies of the same audio going to the same place
How can I tell that this is the case? Is this a setting from within OBS?
I don't do any hacks with audio routing.
OBS is not the entire system. It doesn't take over from Windows, it only adds to what Windows already does. The second copy as I was thinking then, would be entirely within Windows, and OBS would not see it at all. If the above doesn't fix it, I'd go back to looking at that possibility...in Windows' settings, not OBS.
 

spooker

New Member
If you don't need the Desktop source, just Disable it.

I just disabled everything. Is this what you suggested? I had some progress with this. The recording seems flawless.
The monitor however still has issues that are fixed only by setting it to off and on again.
Starting obs with monitoring set to off and then setting it to one afterwards seems to work by the way.
1685564521707.png
 
Last edited:

AaronD

Active Member
I just disabled everything. Is this what you suggested? I had some progress with this. The recording seems flawless.
The monitor however still has issues that are fixed only by setting it to off and on again.
Starting obs with monitoring set to off and then setting it to one afterwards seems to work by the way.
View attachment 94637
Yep. Keep everything disabled that you don't use, and do everything on purpose. Don't just use what happens to work now and may not later because you don't understand what's available and might still be active somewhere. Explore the settings, in everything that you have: Windows itself, OBS, other apps, everything. Draw a diagram if it helps, including how each signal flows through all of that, and be agonizingly detailed with it. My more complicated rigs all have one.



OBS's Monitor has had a known issue for a long time. Lots of complaints, but still nothing has been done about it. The problem is that it drifts out of sync with everything else, and instead of getting back on sync before you notice, it expands the buffer...and expands the buffer...and expands the buffer...and... Pretty soon, it's completely worthless. The reason it gets out of sync in the first place is because it locks itself to the device's clock instead of OBS's master clock. If those clocks come from different sources, then the same nominal setting will drift like that.

The workaround is to disrupt the Monitor somehow, so the buffer resets, or send it to a device - physical or virtual - that uses the same clock as OBS so it doesn't drift. Physical devices are practically random as to where they get their clocks from, but virtual ones are usually the same as where OBS gets it. Then you can send that virtual device through some other software that has its own chance to get it right, and then to the hardware.

Disrupting the Monitor could be as simple as blinking the mute button, or changing the routing to not use the Monitor and changing it back, or completely removing and re-adding the source, though that last one is pretty drastic compared to what's really needed. If you have enough spare resources, you could have a separate copy of everything for each destination, and only blink the mute button for the Monitor copy.

For example, on one of my rigs, its only audio at all (except for a video file that is played directly in OBS) comes from a physical console via a USB line input. So I can afford to have 3 global sources all set to that same line-in. One goes to the stream and recording only (Output, Track 1), and the other two only go to the Monitor. One is mono, the other stereo. Then I have a pair of hotkeys to mute one and unmute the other, which gives me a convenient way to check the mix both ways without affecting the audience......and it also resets the Monitor as a side-effect.
 

R@de

Member
I have a perfect working setup with the CU4K30 / PS5 by muting the video capture device, and then selecting it as a mic/aux input.

OBSfix1.jpg


Mute this and then do the following,

OBSfix2.jpg


This is what you should be left with,

OBSfix5.jpg


Give it a go, hopefully it will work for you.
 
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