desertpogona
New Member
Media Source + VLC Player with Audio Monitoring will produce really aggressive pops and crackles. This is 100% reproducible, on multiple systems.
You do not need to be live or recording for this to occur.
Simply load a media source into a scene (Try one that has sound from the first second onwards with no fade-in) and enable audio monitoring (muted output or +output doesnt matter), so that the audio can be heard through OBS. Have the file not play when it is not visible. Do not have it loop, however that really doesn't matter.
Make sure its visibility is off.
Then, simply switch the visibility on.
You may hear the crackle then.
Switch it off, then back on again. Listen.
Whenever I do this, as well as several other streamers I know, we hear terrible crackles every single time, randomly throughout the video until its finished. It's not our CPUs, because this can happen even at the lowest possible <5% CPU usage.
This has also been happening to several others including myself, and nothing in the logs really shows what's wrong or even acknowledges the issue. I have tried many solutions, from reinstalling drivers, reinstalling OBS, down to changing and upgrading hardware.Nothing helps. As stated, even entirely different computers from my own get this glitch.
I have some ideas why this is happening, but as I have no means of looking under the hood of OBS I cannot confirm that I'm even close, but here they are:
a) Audio Monitoring has a buffer that is simply too low and is producing crackles.
b) There is a buffering mismatch somewhere between the sources and audio monitoring
c) Media Source + VLC Player have buffer issues (when files are loaded too quickly? slow hooking?)
d) Media Source + VLC Player possibly are altering the format of the file (speculation based off how Media Source used to work with Forced Format Conversion)
From what I understand, Media Source was recently rewritten completely. Ever since that happened, I've been trying to figure out this issue because I have been plagued by it with no hope for a solution.
I have a hypothesis this is heavily linked to just Audio Monitoring and however it is buffering audio, because I have also noticed bizarre crackles and pops of a similar type in any capture devices that make use of that feature. My Avermedia LGHD uses the Audio Monitoring function and occasionally will produce crackles that I cannot explain. Basically, anything that makes use of the Audio Monitor seems to struggle with realtime audio. DPC Latency Checker shows no issues. These files and captures do not have these issues in any other program. This is very much so unique to OBS.
It is reported over Mantis that this was an issue that was previously fixable in older versions because you could disable Force Format Conversion or manipulate the buffer. These were removed from the new version in the Media Source rewrite.
However, it should be noted that playing the file over Browser Source works flawlessly. No crackles at all. I would do that, but unfortunately you also get a media bar inserted into the source.
Attached is a log.
I don't think it will be of any help, but feel free to look through it. I hope someone can find something in it that I am not seeing.
Thanks for the help!
You do not need to be live or recording for this to occur.
Simply load a media source into a scene (Try one that has sound from the first second onwards with no fade-in) and enable audio monitoring (muted output or +output doesnt matter), so that the audio can be heard through OBS. Have the file not play when it is not visible. Do not have it loop, however that really doesn't matter.
Make sure its visibility is off.
Then, simply switch the visibility on.
You may hear the crackle then.
Switch it off, then back on again. Listen.
Whenever I do this, as well as several other streamers I know, we hear terrible crackles every single time, randomly throughout the video until its finished. It's not our CPUs, because this can happen even at the lowest possible <5% CPU usage.
This has also been happening to several others including myself, and nothing in the logs really shows what's wrong or even acknowledges the issue. I have tried many solutions, from reinstalling drivers, reinstalling OBS, down to changing and upgrading hardware.Nothing helps. As stated, even entirely different computers from my own get this glitch.
I have some ideas why this is happening, but as I have no means of looking under the hood of OBS I cannot confirm that I'm even close, but here they are:
a) Audio Monitoring has a buffer that is simply too low and is producing crackles.
b) There is a buffering mismatch somewhere between the sources and audio monitoring
c) Media Source + VLC Player have buffer issues (when files are loaded too quickly? slow hooking?)
d) Media Source + VLC Player possibly are altering the format of the file (speculation based off how Media Source used to work with Forced Format Conversion)
From what I understand, Media Source was recently rewritten completely. Ever since that happened, I've been trying to figure out this issue because I have been plagued by it with no hope for a solution.
I have a hypothesis this is heavily linked to just Audio Monitoring and however it is buffering audio, because I have also noticed bizarre crackles and pops of a similar type in any capture devices that make use of that feature. My Avermedia LGHD uses the Audio Monitoring function and occasionally will produce crackles that I cannot explain. Basically, anything that makes use of the Audio Monitor seems to struggle with realtime audio. DPC Latency Checker shows no issues. These files and captures do not have these issues in any other program. This is very much so unique to OBS.
It is reported over Mantis that this was an issue that was previously fixable in older versions because you could disable Force Format Conversion or manipulate the buffer. These were removed from the new version in the Media Source rewrite.
However, it should be noted that playing the file over Browser Source works flawlessly. No crackles at all. I would do that, but unfortunately you also get a media bar inserted into the source.
Attached is a log.
I don't think it will be of any help, but feel free to look through it. I hope someone can find something in it that I am not seeing.
Thanks for the help!