Windows 8 Windows 8.1 video sound issue

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Pegger3D

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Joined
Oct 21, 2013
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Just did the upgrade and it went smoothly-I THOUGHT. Now strange issue. Some videos, the sound is distorted. Some all is OK.
Computer sound card is top of the line. All AVI videos and music files including WAV on my system are fine. It is only when I play SOME videos in a browser ( I use and tried all three-FireFox, Chrome, and Internet Explorer-same issue). It does not matter whether it is at YouTube or any of several news sites I have tried, the issue persists randomly.
I have a very high end desktop computer that I built myself, so proprietary software or hardware is very unlikely the issue.
This has to be some codec issue with 8.1 and could be a game changer if Microsoft doesn't fix this VERY annoying glitch. Its too bad, because 8.1 is faster and better than 8 on my system.
Anyone else experiencing this issue?
 
Solution
I experienced the same problem when I upgraded windows 8 to 8.1. The videos that I was watching online that used flash player had garbled or muffled speech. After some troubleshooting I found the problem and a simple solution. I went to the Realtek HD Manager and the Speaker Configuration was set to 7.1 Speaker, I changed it to Stereo, and that fixed the sound problem.

The update must have changed my default preference. I believe Speaker Configuration of 7.1 Speaker is for several speakers and a subwoofer. I supose the subwoofer setting must of produced the muffled sound.

On your desktop just go to the Realtek speaker icon, right click it, and choose Sound Manager. Then check your Speaker Configuration and make sure it is set to Stereo.
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No answers from me. Just a speculative suggestion.
Since you mentioned codec...
What media player do you use?
Have you tried VLC. It plays with almost all kinds of video/audio extensions.
 
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Are you certain you have the latest audio drivers directly from the audio card manufacturer? I would check that as well as trying VLC.
 
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Hey Pegger3D and welcome to the forum. You're not alone with this problem, there are others reporting the same issue on this forum and others. So far there's only a work around by downloading and using VLC. As for an actual fix, none has been reported yet but hopefully there will be soon.
 
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I thank you for trying to help but this has nothing to do with the media player on my system nor my sound card since saved video and music files all play fine. It is only the sound distorted on SOME embedded videos on all sites. I have the latest flash player so that should not be the issue. If ALL videos' sound did not work, I could see the possibility of some issue with my hardware/software, but that is not the case.
Also, it seems like once in a while, the same video is OK if I try it again later. That could mean a new system process running intermittently in the background could be the culprit. I will live with this glitch for a while and see if it somehow sorts itself out.
It is a possibility that an installed program or process is having an issue with 8.1
If it gets too annoying, I may spend the time to shut off software/processes one at a time. Having troubleshot sound issues in the past, I can tell you that one never knows what can cause the problem.
I do not want to go back since 8.1 is noticeably faster.

System Specs
Thermaltake Level 10 GT Snow Edition Computer Case
ASUS Rampage IV Extreme Motherboard
Intel Core i7 3930K 6 Core Unlocked Processor
ZIGMATEK Dark Knight II SD1283 Night Hawk Edition CPU Cooler
32GB (4X8GB DDR3-2400 CL10) Corsair Dominator Platinum Memory
1200W ATX Modular PC Power & Cooling Silencer Mk III Power Supply 80PLUS Platinum
XFX Radeon HD 7970 Double D 925MHZ 3GB Video Card
Creative Sound Blaster Recon3D Fatal1ty Professional - PCI-E (Retail) Sound Card
Dual Mushkin Chronos Deluxe 240GB SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Drive , Read 560MB/s, Write 515MB/s
In RAID 0 Configuration.
Backup HD=Seagate Momentus XT 750GB 7200RPM 32MB Cache 2.5" Solid State Hybrid Drive
LiteOn LightScribe Internal SATA DVD Writer
Accessories:
Sony 27” 3D Monitor
HP CP1025nw Color Laser Printer
Seagate 1TB External Hard Drive
Creative SB Fatality Headphones
Klipsch 2.0 Computer Speakers
Software: Windows 8 Pro 64Bit/Office 2010 Pro/Kaspersky Internet Security





 
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Hi Pegger:
Looks like you have a very nice system indeed. If you'd like to donate it to a guy with a 5-year old Dell, lemme know! Hah!

You might consider downloading some Utilities such as SPECCY and post your results here. There are some very fine analysts here on Windows Forums; and SPECCY gives a really good detail on ALL your running System Processes, driver specifics, and registry key information that might be worth looking at. I've helped solve a number of issues with other folks experiencing hard to track down problems like this in older systems; Win7 for example, both on this Forum and other Tech Forums I post to.

If you have a spare hard drive, you might consider loading up a Windows7 boot drive and go to the same websites and view streaming video that you have had these audio problems with and log them. Or of course if you have another older computer such as a lapop running Vista or Win7 try these same websites; do they also cause the same audio distortion problems? If you try this, or have already done so, and the distortions do not occur; it could very well be an issue with codec compatability and Win8.1 drivers. Since Bassfisher has heard of this (I have not), it's likely to be a widespread issue. If we could get some more data we can report the codec culprit(s) to Microsoft and ask them to fix in Win8.2? (or whatever is there next release; maybe Win8.1 SP1??).

I myself have surfed quite a few live Streaming websites including YouTube with my 8.1 RTM build on my 5 year old Dell, and have had no problems whatsoever with my audio. (Thanks Dell for making such a solid system! ). Perhaps your system is so powerful, the codecs on the website you are visiting are in awe of your system and just can't perform properly! <grin>. I'm so excited with the 8.1 release, I'm considering buying a legit copy!

Just finished doing a beginning Workshop today for Windows8; and we had a few students with brand new laptops who inadvertanly installed the 8.1 auto-update from Windows Store--with minimal problems, and no reported Audio distortions and that was like 3 more people reporting things were working fine. Of course these were also beginning computer Users so they really weren't exercising the systems fully.

Wish you luck with resolving this problem.

Cheers!
BIGBEARJEDI
 
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Hi

I had the same problem yesterday.
If was very weird, all my computer generated speech files were distorted, but music on the same file was not.

Speech in some of my computer games was not right, some characters talked really loud, other really soft.
It was very strange, but I'm afraid I didn't find an answer.

I reinstalled everything connected with sound, my sound card, all the software for it, SAPI4 and 5, etc. my speech software, voice files nothing helped.

I finally used my system image to go back to Windows 8.0.

It's interesting to see that I'm not alone in having sound issue after updating.
If it hits multiple people then someone will figure out a solution.

I'm running Sound Blaster, Recon3D PDIe sound card, so we are probably running the same sound software.
I wonder if there is a clue there?

I also found a slowing of performance that was noticeable in some areas, most notably in my boot times which went way up.

Mike
 
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Hi BBJ and Mike H,

Thks BB for the SPECCY tip. I will check it out some time.

I am not sure why, but the problem has now disappeared.
I changed some Kaspersky settings and reset my sound card settings. I also did a Recon driver update, but it said I had the latest.
Kaspersky has a URL scanner and I changed the settings on there to allow more types of sites, but I think it was the sound card that was the issue.

Yes, Mike I have the same card and maybe it does have to do with it because my symptoms were exactly the same. I would try the upgrade again, update the Recon3D drivers and reset other settings to Default and see if that works.
Why your boot times were slower I don't know, mine are faster and so is shutdown. Mind you, my system is super fast anyway.

All upgrades can have some glitches, but I am now recommending this one since now there are 0 issues.

And BBJ, I will put you second in line in my will for my super system, if my brother doesn't want it!
It was my 2013 Project.

I will see if my GT Snow Edition Light Show will embed.


Thks
 
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Double-check at your various hardware's download site's for Windows 8.1 driver's. Then run Windows Update, IE got a update the other day. Also, check Adobe for flash/shockwave player update's for Firefox and Chrome. Windows Update in 8 and 8.1 get's flash player updates for I.E. 10 & 11. One of those should solve the issue. Also, you can open a Administartive Command Prompt, by typing cmd in a search box and right-click on cmd.exe and click on Run As Administartator, then type in sfc /scannow, when that's done, type in chkdsk c: /r and type in y and then exit and restart your pc.
 
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I'm going to wait 6 months or so and try it again.
I and other people are having issues with our video editing software in Windows 8.1 as well.

I'm sure that they will get this stuff sorted out soon.

Mike
 
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I had issue's at first. I did a clean install of 8 9 days before 8.1 was released, as I upgraded from a 120gb. ssd to a 256gb. ssd. The Photo app kept crashing after the upgrade to 8.1. I spent 2 1/2 hour's in a online chat with Microsoft's support and she couldn't fix the 3 issue's I had. 1.Photo's app, 2.Outlook 2010 and 3. After 8.1 upgrade, if you try to boot from 8 dvd and do a clean install, it won't accept your good 8 product key. After 2 1/2 spent with the tech, only Outlook 2010 was working again. She ran my 8 product key and told me it was good. I already mew that. I needed to eat, as I'm a diabetic,, so I shut down my pc. I then tried the 8 clean install. It still wouldn't accept my 8 key. I then decided to clean install 7 Pro, upgrade install 8 Pro w/Media Center, get all 8 updates and then do the 8.1 upgrade. No issue's 2nd time around. (P.S. - 8 product key worked during 7 to 8 upgrade install).
 
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You are not alone, I know exactly what the problem is but i can't fix it.

In the Recon 3d software there is a post processing option that does something crazy with your sound (noticed it first when using 8.1 RC) but the 8 creative panel worked with 8.1 RC so you could actually click on things to disable the option.

In 8.1 the creative panel doesn't recognise the creative device so you can't access the darned options.

Took me a while to work out in the 8.1 RC but it was really messing with LEague of legends as the environment sound effects were louder than the actions.

So now i'm having the same problem only it affects VLC too. You tube is fine oddly enough music is fine and many games are fine just not league and not any movie playback.


Whilst i don't have the same soundcard it would appear there is a problem that needs bringing to creatives attention for a speedy resolution. I really don't want to have to rollback to 8 and reupdate to 8.1 and then not update the creative drivers at all just use the windows defaults which work. (stupid windows update caught me out this time grrr)
 
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Hi

I'll keep looking at what's going on, when they get it fixed I'll try again.
I had to backdate because I'm working on something right now where the sound is very important.

Mike
 
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its smart volume is the option you need to deselect for some reason it auto selects in windows 8.1 remove it and you'll get your sound back sadly the panel is broken in windows 8.1 so i am at an utter loss.

also it's started to effect youtube now ahhh xD

it couldn't have anything to do with secure boot could it? unsigned drivers or something? just trying an older driver and installing it in compatibility mode seeing if that will help also downloading other versions to see if i can patch an install of all of it together.
 
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quick update fully removing the drivers brings back my sound to bareable sure it's quieter than it would be with the drivers installed but its better than that horrible mess. I await Creative to release a fix. I have emailed Gigabyte (they make the sniper m3 which has the Recon3d device built in) and Creative about it.
 
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Thanks for the update. with me Text to Speech is important to what I do, and it really messed that up.
All voice files were really distorted.

I'll keep watching to see something happens.

Mike
 
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Yes I know the sound issue and can confirm comPlete removal . Of drivers fixed the problem but my recon 3d is on-board so works with default audio drivers not sure if it will work with pcie sound cards.
 
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Had the same problem as a lot of people. Sound garbled and static-like after installation of Win 8.1. I used msconfig.exe to allow all Microsoft Software and disable all of mine. Sound came back the way it used to be.

Started re-enabling all of my stuff one program at a time. Long story short -- when I had all of "my" software re-enabled and the three below disabled, my sound was back to normal. As soon as I re-enabled the three processes below the problem came back. Don't know why.

Google Update Service (gupdate)
Google Update Service (gupdatem)
Google Software Updater
 
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>>I had good luck with Driver Booster which has a restore point option.
 
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