Question / Help Stuttering Audio from VLC Plugin [Solved]

[SirLarr]

I've been using OBS Studio and the VLC video plugin for a long time, but recently hit an issue where the audio is incredibly choppy / barely present at all.

Here's all the evidence I've been able to gather --
Stutter is present in media played through "Media Source" and "VLC Media Source."
Stutter is NOT present for other audio sources - mic, desktop audio, and my Elgato all deliver sound just fine.
The stutter is not visible in OBS' volume mixer. The audio stream looks normal from there.
The audio is almost entirely gone at 48KHz - there will be a little blip of audio every other second or so.
The audio is more present but extremely choppy at 41.1KHz.

The log shows no major errors that I can find: https://gist.github.com/e0c289af4f2979556a67768f9104d9c5

As near as I can tell this started happening a few weeks ago... maybe it has something to do with all the Windows 10 Anniversary problems?

I've tried it with 32 and 64 bit versions, using different encoders, and even uninstalled and reinstalled OBS with no change to the issue.

At this point I'm out of ideas. Does anyone have troubleshooting suggestions?

 

[SirLarr]

Further troubleshooting has turned up more information --

I'm mixing "Media Source" and "VLC Media Source" because Media Source can play an .mov with transparency (it's a layered series of videos).

The issue is only present when I have a "Media Source" in my scene that is not visible, or deactivated by clicking the eyeball next to the entry. If all layers are visible, the audio comes from the player just fine.

What is it about an inactive "Media Source" that causes the audio from "VLC Media Source" to distort so badly?

 

[SirLarr]

Well I found a solution.

The "Media Source" inputs weren't muted in the OBS mixer. The transparent .mov files played through "Media Source" had no audio, but muting their tracks in OBS caused the stuttering to go away.

I don't quite understand why it reacted the way it did, but it's working now.

 

[dash]

OMG ty for this I have been trying to fix this for a long time now thank you so much now.

 

[Zhanji]

I love you, savior, I can't believe this worked, so many hours spent trying to figure it out <3