Distortion in Windows Media

[jtmt]

 Hi folks. I'm coming up on a whole year on a computer now, so I hope I'm in the right forum. I have an Acer am5630, 3 GB memory, 500 GB sata hard disk, E4500 intel Core 2Duo processor. Windows home premium is my OS.
 I don't store a lot of music, mainly stuff I've converted off of cassettes, but now when I put a CD in to play (commercial) it sounds like I blew a speaker! It sounds fine when I play something from windows media library or iTunes. It seems to work when I play movies or record something on a CD. Do you think it's something I can fix (got some setting wrong), or am I.....

                                                             Jim

[Carbon Dudeoxide]

Bad CD maybe? Does this happen when you try to play all CDs?

[jtmt]

Yes, it happens with all CD's. Could it be the laser is dirty? is there a way to clean it,if so? The cleaning disc for my dvd player won't work in the computer.

            Jim

[Trizle1]

Hi Jim, welcome to computer hope. Does your PC has a sound card install? If it doesn't, then you should find out about your motherboard requirement on sound cards. The bits rate determines the quality of sound. An 8-bits sound card uses a sampling size of 256, while a 16-bits card gives you 65,536(accurate sample and better sound quality).need to read from you to give more details. Ovie aka Trizle

[BC_Programmer]

Hi Jim, welcome to computer hope. Does your PC has a sound card install? If it doesn't, then you should find out about your motherboard requirement on sound cards. The bits rate determines the quality of sound. An 8-bits sound card uses a sampling size of 256, while a 16-bits card gives you 65,536(accurate sample and better sound quality).need to read from you to give more details. Ovie aka Trizle

could you please start reading the original post a little more thoroughly?

but now when I put a CD in to play (commercial) it sounds like I blew a speaker!

It sounds fine when I play something from windows media library or iTunes. It seems to work when I play movies or record something on a CD.

this has absolutely nothing to do with ISA sound cards, which is the only way to get or have a 8-bit sound card. Additionally, the lack of a sound card would kind of prevent it from working with itunes, WMP, or anything, for that matter.


Now then.


Jim- do you happen to know if your Drive is using Digital playback?

[jtmt]

BC, I'm not sure if I'm digital or not. Can you tell me where or how to find out?


                                                                           Jim

[BC_Programmer]

Sure! I should have mentioned that in my question, but better late then never, I suppose.

Control Panel, System Icon, hardware tab, "Device manager" button.

Navigate to DVD/CD-ROM drives, Locate your Drive, and right-click it and select properties, then the properties tab. There should be a checkbox to "Enable Digital Audio playback for this device" or something along those lines. try toggling to option, rebooting, and seeing if you still have issues with your CD playback.

[jtmt]

BC, I've tried what you've suggested. There didn't seem to anywhere I could in that particular properties menu, but the Realtek site said: Digital Output Device (HDMI)
                                  working properly

                             Speakers
                                  working properly

                             Realtek Digital Output
                                   working properly

  I don't know what "toggling to option" is but I did try rebooting. I guess I'm doomed 

[jtmt]

  Ive just tried one of my 'Lord of the Rings" DVD's (does this make me even more of a loser ) and the sound and picture were great! I'm losing my mind 


  This is what the pop up info looks like:

P.S. I'll stop with the emoticons.

[attachment deleted by admin]

[BC_Programmer]

I'm sorry; my instructions assumed XP.


is it possible this was an artifact of the conversion from cassette? can you test the music on another PC?

  Ive just tried one of my 'Lord of the Rings" DVD's (does this make me even more of a loser )

Only if me having all 6 episodes of Star wars on DVD makes me a loser...

[jtmt]

 I don't think so,BC. It's been about two months since I finished converting all my old band tapes off of cassettes. I've sent many hours of music to me old band mates and they all tell me the sound is very good (considering the source). The conversion box downloaded to iTunes and then I burned cd's from there. This problem just seemed to have popped up in the last week or two. Trying to think of something I might have done, but I come up blank.

                       Jim                                               

[pcjoseph1974]

My input probably wont solve much but when you say it sounds like a blown speaker, what do you mean. Is it crackling or static? From my experience, when you start to get a crackling sound from nowhere, It means a bad card. Sounds like yours may be an integrated card though so maybe going and buying a used sound card at a parts store may be an efficient way to trouble shoot, returning it later if not needed. Im not an expert though, but I have had many computers and broken parts.

[jtmt]

PC, it doesn't seem to be the sound card. If I play a CD through realplayer or iTunes it seems to work fine. The distortion only happens when played through the windows media center, which makes me think I've got something set wrong in the software, but what?


                                                Jim

[Kurtiskain]

Have you checked the EQ?
Did you change the SRS WOW effects?
Vista shipped with WMP 11 right?

I don't use WMP so I'm still in the version shipped with XP

so here is a guide to find the EQ and adjust it

http://maximumpcguides.com/windows-vista/enable-and-adjust-windows-media-player-11-graphic-equalizer/

[jtmt]

Kurtiskain, that was it! The graphic equalizer was all the way up in every frequency. The WOW effect is off. Sounds good now. I want to thank everyone for being so nice and helpful and not making me feel like an idiot. Of course, you folks are always this way. Thanks again,


                                                            Jim