| ActiveMac | Anonymous | Create a User | Reviews | News | Forums | Advertise |
|
|
|
User Controls |
|
New User |
|
Login |
|
Edit/View My Profile |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
ActiveMac |
|
Articles |
|
Forums |
|
Links |
|
News |
|
News Search |
|
Reviews |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
News Centers |
|
Windows/Microsoft |
|
DVD |
|
ActiveHardware |
|
Xbox |
|
MaINTosh |
|
News Search |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
ANet Chats |
|
The Lobby |
|
Special Events Room |
|
Developer's Lounge |
|
XBox Chat |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
FAQ's |
|
Windows 98/98 SE |
|
Windows 2000 |
|
Windows Me |
|
Windows "Whistler" XP |
|
Windows CE |
|
Internet Explorer 6 |
|
Internet Explorer 5 |
|
Xbox |
|
DirectX |
|
DVD's |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
TopTechTips |
|
Registry Tips |
|
Windows 95/98 |
|
Windows 2000 |
|
Internet Explorer 4 |
|
Internet Explorer 5 |
|
Windows NT Tips |
|
Program Tips |
|
Easter Eggs |
|
Hardware |
|
DVD |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Latest Reviews |
|
Applications |
|
Microsoft Windows XP Professional |
|
Norton SystemWorks 2002 |
|
|
|
Hardware |
|
Intel Personal Audio Player 3000 |
|
Microsoft Wireless IntelliMouse Explorer |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Site News/Info |
|
About This Site |
|
Affiliates |
|
ANet Forums |
|
Contact Us |
|
Default Home Page |
|
Link To Us |
|
Links |
|
Member Pages |
|
Site Search |
|
Awards |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Credits |
 |
An Overview of Windows Sound and Music "Glitching" Issues | |
|
||
| Time: 01:00 EST/06:00 GMT | News Source: Windows Vista Blog | Posted By: Kenneth van Surksum | ||
|
Windows is a rich and complex OS designed for multi-tasking users whose tasks must share access to scarce system hardware and resources. Unfortunately, despite multiple decades of incredible advances in PC and CPU architectures, there are non-trivial, complex interactions between applications, processes, and devices in even the most advanced personal computers that make a supposedly "easy" task -- like playing back music without occasional glitches -- much more difficult than it may seem at first glance. Another way of thinking about this: it seems odd that a modern >$2000 PC may sometimes have trouble seamlessly playing back music when $20 CD players can effortlessly playback music without glitches. So why do many $2000 PCs occasionally glitch while playing back music? The quick answer is this: Windows is not a single-function device like a CD player. | ||
|
Write Comment
Return to News |
Displaying 1 through 25 of 316 Last | Next |
The time now is
2:32:34 PM
ET.
Any comment problems? E-mail us |
| #1 By 1169 (62.25.109.195) at 10/30/2007 3:45:04 AM |
| OSX does not 'glitch' a song when playing my sister's music, nor does my Linux box......this sounds like a lame excuse for bad programming. With the computing power we have today, Core 2 duos and the such, several gigs of fast memory, ample cache on the CPU and great cache on hard drives......why can't Windows play a song without occasional glitches (which are far more frequent than they would like to admit even on Vista with WMP11) |
| #2 By 3653 (65.80.181.153) at 10/30/2007 4:53:42 AM |
|
a couple of google searches seems to indicate your osx and linux experiences are not necessarily a widely held vieww.
For example, w/ osX - http://www.macobserver.com/article/2007/06/26.9.shtml This post was edited by mooresa56 on Tuesday, October 30, 2007 at 04:54. |
| #3 By 12071 (203.158.55.20) at 10/30/2007 8:07:01 AM |
| This comment has been removed due to a violation of the Active Network Terms of Use. |
| #4 By 32132 (142.32.208.232) at 10/30/2007 10:38:20 AM |
| This comment has been removed due to a violation of the Active Network Terms of Use. |
| #5 By 15406 (216.191.227.68) at 10/30/2007 10:42:12 AM |
|
It's a crap excuse. The only time I experience any audio glitches with Winamp (default settings) under XP is during extended high disk load, and that's on my crap P3-500. On my dual-core AMD box, I've never had an audio glitch even during heavy compiles. It's either WMP issue or a Vista issue, or a combination therein.
#4: The irony is comical. This post was edited by Latch on Tuesday, October 30, 2007 at 10:43. |
| #6 By 37047 (216.191.227.68) at 10/30/2007 12:16:41 PM |
| The simple solution is to not use WMP. I use a third-party audio player, as well as a third-party video player, and have almost no problems, compared to the frequent problems with WMP. WMP has never worked well for me, even on XP. |
| #7 By 37047 (216.191.227.68) at 10/30/2007 12:39:54 PM |
| This comment has been removed due to a violation of the Active Network Terms of Use. |
| #8 By 61 (12.108.60.37) at 10/30/2007 1:28:14 PM |
| One of the features of Vista is "glitch-free audio". |
| #9 By 17996 (131.107.0.105) at 10/30/2007 2:10:54 PM |
|
Oddly enough I encounter much worse glitching since I moved from XP to Vista (using WMP in both cases). However it only happens rarely, and only when I'm multitasking the machine to death. Yet, XP in the same scenario would've handled it much better. I'd suspect it's caused more by the "media foundation protected pipeline EXE" -- the underlying audio APIs may be better, but forcing playback to go through another EXE might cause the end result to be worse.
And regarding multitasking... the average user may not have a lot of different apps running, but how about tabs in their web browser? Flash is a performance hog, and the number of flash ads and widgets on pages has gone up a lot in the past couple years, so things like this can contribute to higher CPU usage even though you don't have a lot of apps running. |
| #10 By 61 (65.34.98.80) at 10/30/2007 3:48:15 PM |
|
Patriot,
It really depends on what you are doing, but in this case I would say it probably has more to do with audio drivers (or the lack there of) being the issue. |
| #11 By 23275 (71.12.191.230) at 10/31/2007 6:46:35 PM |
|
#9, the media foundation protected pipeline EXE only fires in Windows Media player briefly and to check to see it protected media is playing - like an HD DVD, or Blu-Ray disc - if it is, other processes that support the playback of such content along the protected path, are fired and run.
If no protected media is present, the media foundation protected pipeline EXE shuts down. Similarly, neither media foundation protected pipeline EXE or related processes run at all under normal operations. They only run when content calls them - except as I have described in Windows Media Player and only briefly. By the way, all of this stuff is there in Vista as support for the playback of AACS protected content - the real story here is that Vista "CAN" play such content - the *Nix, including OS X cannot - they are stuck in the SD world and frankly, I don't know how OS X will ever support protected content playback. Finally, it is a total myth that there are any bits in Vista continually polling for such content. Ridiculous people have held that out and it is simply not true. BTW, I am watching a killer HD DVD on a 52" 1080P screen from our Vista media center as I write this - a spooky movie in honor of the day. It is butter smooth and looks stunning. |
|
Write Comment
Return to News |
Displaying 1 through 25 of 316 Last | Next |
The time now is
2:32:34 PM
ET.
Any comment problems? E-mail us |
