Trouble with choppy .FLAC playback when starting apps etc.

[Xophile]

Hi!

I have converted almost 80% of my record collection to .flac and love it but I do have one problem. If I play a .flac file and say, start Outlook or any other above-average-heavy application my songs start to skip.

This is extremely annoying and would love it if someone could tell me how to fix this issue. I know I can change WinAMPs priority mode but Winamp tells me that's not recommended. Since my .flac files are pretty big (around 25-40mb each) I guess you should't cache them, right?

I'm running Winamp 5.20 with 1.1.1 flac-plugin on:
XP SP2 (100% patched, spyware free and virusfree)
AMD 3500+ (with Cool N Quiet if it makes any difference?)
1024Mb DDR400 Cl 2.5
Geforce 7800GT
Creative Audigy II ZS (<--- I assume it's this card that's causing trouble? Drivers are fully updated though)

etc etc.

Any ideas or tips?

Thank you kindly!

I guess it's the soundcard indeed. I never have any problems playing flac, not even while I'm gaming or doing other heavy stuff. I'm using the flac 1.1.2 plugin that comes with the rest of the tools you can download from http://flac.sourceforge.net/download.html . My computer is older than yours from what I can tell, so the resources shouldn't be a problem.
Maybe you should try to set the priority class to high and see if it helps. It's not "recommended" but it doesn't hurt. I used Winamp with that setting on "high" for a while and didn't notice anything bad.

[DJ Egg]

Have you tried the DirectSound Output tweaks? .. <-- clickme!

In particular:
out_ds > config
device tab: allow hardware acceleration
buffering tab: enable cpu usage control

Or does it only happen with flac playback,
and not other formats (mp3, wav, ogg, aac, etc)?

[edit]

I don't think it's the soundcard. My 2nd card is an audigy 2 zs and I don't have any probelms (main card is M-Audio Revo 7.1). And I'm also using the 1.1.1 flac plugin (with ml support).

[Xophile]

Thank you kindly for your replies!

I will try to change the priority level first.

I actually had v 1.1.1 of the flac-plugin and today I upgraded to see if it makes any difference.

Should I really use hardware acceleration with my Audigy card?'

DJ Egg:

What do you mean by "out_ds > config" ?

Thanks!

[Xophile]

When I changed the priority level to "high" it plays flac files without stutter when starting Steam (just an example)

Do you really play flac-files and game etc at the same time?

Sure, for example when I play simcity4, which is a pretty heavy game.

out_ds config:
Preferences --> Plug-ins --> Output --> DirectSound --> Configure

[pjo]

I am having the same choppy flac play back problem. The settings are as described above.
CPU usage is around 4% or below.
AMD dual core 4800+, Windows XP SP2.
FLAC plugin is http://www.facquet.com/en/projects-4...wnload-78.html

This choppy play back happens when external audio device, Terratec Phase 88 Firewire, is used.

With Realtek AC97 on mother board, it does not happen.

Any advise ?

[pjo]

After changing the audio driver setting, ASIO latency to a longer one, the problem is gone !

Thank You !