Issues with Xonar Phoebus

OptimaLnrg · 9 Nov 2014 at 20:27

Issue 1: Audio popping and dropping in VLC player. -OR- no audio at all in VLC player - MP4 or MKV files

Issue 2: Audio in Borderlands 2 / TPS cutscenes quickly becoming out-of-sync with video AND audio popping when characters talk (Neither present outside cutscenes)

Issue 3: Audio popping and dropping on YT uploads of shadowplay recordings of BL TPS (See below) - This popping is not present in windows media player (no audio at all in VLC, quicktime player etc). Popping also wasn't present in-game.

Drivers are up to date (and firmware)

Questions:

-I can't find anything on the net about this in any detail, anyone else experienced it?

-What's a good external alternative to a bloody soundcard? Budget around £120-£150. Headphones = Senn HD650s.

Thanks

EDIT: Audio used to be fine in VLC player a few months back, before I had to reinstall windows. Not sure if newer driver or newer VLC broke it. Fail. My primary concern is the VLC audio situation because I rip all my blu-rays to mkv and now can't watch them.

rids57 · 10 Nov 2014 at 14:37

worth a look...

http://www.komku.org/2013/06/how-to-fix-crackling-popping-sound-problem.html

OptimaLnrg · 16 Nov 2014 at 19:52

Thanks, no latency issues found.

OptimaLnrg · 16 Nov 2014 at 20:41

I've solved all the above issues by removing the phoebus

.

It's out of warranty by now surely, so I'll chuck the crappy thing into my junk box.

rids57 · 16 Nov 2014 at 21:26

That's really weird, never had a single problem playing anything with my STX and I use VLC exclusively for video and have a few MKV.

Marsman · 16 Nov 2014 at 23:48

I'd get a DAC/amp. Upto £150 should allow you to get something pretty decent.

cwgk91 · 17 Nov 2014 at 00:04

Have you tried changing the sound quality in windows? I had a problem when it was changed for some reason

OptimaLnrg · 17 Nov 2014 at 16:52

rids57 said:
That's really weird, never had a single problem playing anything with my STX and I use VLC exclusively for video and have a few MKV.

VLC used to be fine before I reinstalled windows, but the other issues have always existed - I used to put the out-of-sync audio down to having a 120hz monitor but that wasn't the case.

I assume it's one of the following:

-Faulty Phoebus (it gets quite hot, which can't be normal?)
-Incompatibility between specific chipset driver revisions (Z77) and Phoebus driver revisions

cwgk91 said:
Have you tried changing the sound quality in windows? I had a problem when it was changed for some reason

I've tried everything except reinstalling windows.

Marsman said:
I'd get a DAC/amp. Upto £150 should allow you to get something pretty decent.

I'm thinking about a FiiO E17.

One thing I have noticed about Asus is that they can't make an installer properly. After installing the phoebus drivers Windows will always prompt you when related executables are run at startup, same goes for their installer for ASMedia usb3 drivers.