Audio Destortion during Video Playback

[artwritesyou]

About three weeks ago, I noticed that when I play videos online, the sound sounds horribly distorted. I don't even know how to describe it. It's echoey and reverberates. I called my DSL service provider and they said the internet connection is fine. They suggested I uninstall and reinstall my brower (in my case mozilla firefox) which I DID but to no avail. I'm not sure if I have an add-on or a virus that's making playback difficult. I DID have a trojan on my comp but I cleaned it. I'm not sure if that might still be a problem. Has anyone else experienced this problem? Please let me know and if you have any success stories, too. Thank you.

[tomos]

They suggested I uninstall and reinstall my brower (in my case mozilla firefox)

-artwritesyou (August 19, 2012, 12:38 PM)

have you tried a different browser to see how they compare ?

[Renegade]

Not sure, but it could be a sound card driver. Try updating yours to see if that helps. (It's rare, but happens.)

[artwritesyou]

I've tried using Internet Explorer but the same problem persists and I'm not sure how to update my sound driver. Any recommended sites? The last time I updated Mozilla, I had a Babylon add-on. I'm not sure where to go.

[Renegade]

Start at the bottom, simplest -- drivers. Also check cabling connections and test with other speakers or headphones.

[superboyac]

could be a flash issue also. I had really bad flash issues a while back, where the flash elements on certain sites just wouldn't work at all.  my vote goes to flash, and maybe some software interfering with it...ad blockers, antivirus, antimalware, mine was actually due to a whole bunch of virtual network or real network devices that I was dealing with (I keep pushing the limits of connectivity).

[tomos]

I'm not sure how to update my sound driver.

-artwritesyou (August 19, 2012, 10:34 PM)

to be honest I'd be stuck there too (I've always avoided updating drivers unless absolutely necessary).
A google search gives mostly results for updating sound card drivers. Is there a difference if you're using onboard sound?
Anyone?

[app103]

artwritesyou is a long time friend of my daughter's. When he posted about this issue on Facebook, I had some thoughts about what the problem could be but wasn't sure how to give him advice about troubleshooting and fixing it, beyond the obvious of rebooting, trying another browser, closing all unnecessary programs, and so forth.

Not sure, but it could be a sound card driver. Try updating yours to see if that helps. (It's rare, but happens.)

-Renegade (August 19, 2012, 07:00 PM)

That was one of the possibilities that I thought of. I also thought it could be a clash between ATI graphics drivers (the sound portion) and those of his sound card. I didn't actually ask him if he has an ATI card though. I have a Dell with an ATI card and updating the drivers cause some issues with sound back when it was fairly new. Ended up having to call Dell's support line to get help fixing it (can't remember what they had me do, though).

I also thought it was possibly a hardware issue...maybe early sign of a hard drive problem? (I remember about a month before my daughter's laptop hard drive died, she started having audio problems that caused it to sound distorted) I didn't want to tell him anything that would make him have an unnecessary panic attack, so I didn't mention this to him on Facebook. If this is a real possibility, you guys could probably give him better advice than me about how to find out and what to do if it is the problem (safely and quickly backing up his data, etc.)

I also thought it was possible that Flash was causing an issue with high CPU/RAM usage, which can also cause the audio in videos to sound distorted.

Also the possibility of a codec issue, maybe?

I sent him here to consult with you guys, the biggest collection of PC smarts and experience that I know, knowing you'd probably know more than I do on how to figure out what is wrong and fix this.

[Curt]

first run %systemroot%\system32\msdt.exe -id AudioRecordingDiagnostic

edited:

Open the attached zip container and run 129... > Troubleshooting > Audio Playing Troubleshoot

129 Windows 7 Shortcuts.zip (89.92 kB - downloaded 224 times.)

[Renegade]

To update your sound card drivers, check the hardware first, then search at the vendor's site. You can find the hardware under "devices":

Start > Control Panel > Devices > Sound, video and game controllers

Or something like that.

Your card vendor should have the download available.

But DO check the cabling. You can get weirdness from bad cables or bad connections.

[IainB]

Not sure if this is relevant/useful, but it could be:
A few months back, I had something similar to this problem, always when playing videos directly from a file on my PC, in VLC. It took me a while to discover the cause - the settings in VLC had somehow been changed. I cleared or reset them to default. I think it was the "Time-Stretching" module that had been set "ON" and was causing the echeoy sound.

If there are similar settings in the module that plays vids in the browser, then maybe all that is required is to adjust/reset them for a normal listening experience.(?)