Audio sync issues

[Ozymandias]

I've been fighting an issue with Sage for about 2 weeks now and it's simply driving me insane. I've searched here and really haven't found anything that fits the problem or resolves it. I didn't have this problem before a catastrophic HTPC failure (MB died) but that had been an existing system for... oooh, since version 5.

It doesn't matter what I'm watching, live, recorded or imported all have the same problem, the video will play fine but every so often the audio will skip just a split second and will move out of sync with the video. This will happen every 5-15 minutes until I start a new video or pause and then play the current video.

The videos play fine in other players, only Sage seems to have the problem.

I've already increased the JVM heap size to 1024MB and I'm pretty consistently seeing only 200MB used anyway.

Currently I'm at a very bare bones system. Nothing is installed except the Hauppauge card/decoders and Sage. I have tried in the past installing everything from Just AC3 filter/xvid/Matroska. I tried ffdshow... to even using codec packs.

Ultimately, I'm not a codec expert but it really seems to be a Sage specific issue since the videos work everywhere else I'm hoping someone here might have some ideas/guidance on what/where I'm missing something. I suspect it is something silly like a registry setting or something along those lines.

[jerryt]

Look what audio decoder you are using and then stop using that one?

What OS?

What decoders are being used?

What format is the videos in?

[Ozymandias]

Originally Posted by jerryt

Look what audio decoder you are using and then stop using that one?

What OS?

What decoders are being used?

What format is the videos in?

I've used selected every audio decoder that is available to me for ever video type.

Video types are pretty much everything from hauppauge .ts files to xvid/AC3 and mkv files. It isn't tied to any type of specific codec.

Windows XP 32. Considering upgrading to Win7 64 but I would rather not if I don't have to.

The way it seems to be going is video playback will be fine and after 5-15 minutes it will stutter and repeat the same half second of audio which tosses the sync off. If I pause and play again it's back in sync but it will do it again in a few minutes. If I don't pause it, it will continue to get further out of sync.

[jerryt]

My only advice would be a fresh re-install of the OS.

Sorry I don't have better advice. It is like DirectShow is broken.

[Ozymandias]

Well, then that bring up another thought. It's possible that I just have too much cruft left in the system. I keep things clear, but my install has been upgrade after upgrade. If I'm going to start with a fresh OS again (freshly loaded about a month ago) I think it would be a good idea to start from a fresh Sage install as well.

The only things I would want to keep would be my favorites and watched history but nothing else. Is that all that is held in the wiz.bin file? Or, better yet which files would be the only ones I should keep?

[Ozymandias]

Just in follow up to this I didn't dig too deep but after a total of 3 system loads with XP the problem persisted. Once I loaded Windows 7 64-bit and imported my wiz.bin everything is as it should be and even less codecs have to be installed for playability. So there's that to be said for the upgrade to Win7.

I honestly suspect that it was more of a hardware issue as the system hardware is totally new due to previous system's motherboard failure and videos were skipping even using Hauppauge's WinTV application but it would take longer for the issue to be visible. But the same deterioration of video playback was also present.