Q: Sound stuttering after Mountain Lion install

Crazy stuff.  I use FireWire interfaces and having the same crackle/static recording on my computer in my pro studio...  It hasn't affected playback of tracks recorded before the upgrade to ML, just new recorded tracks.  Sounds that are monitored through my interface aren't affected until the point of recording into logic and playback of those tracks.  I've had to push sessions and clients aren't happy... I hope Apple can sort it quickly.  I weighed up the pros and cons before the upgrade (obviously not from forums) to ML and Logic was the last thing I'd expected not to work, but it's the biggest thing!!  If anyone hears anything, please post and let us know.

That poster wasn't very specific about which set of updates he has installed.

Ever useful

I suspect he's not talking about an point upgrade for Mountain Lion but rather a firmware update specific to his model of machine.

In his signature he has that he has a "MacBook Pro Retina" which has coincidently had a few firmware updates in the last few days :

http://support.apple.com/downloads/#MacBook Pro Retina

These updates would be specific to the model of hardware so even if you downloaded them they won't install.

I'ld offer to take them apart to see if there's new versions of certain kernel extensions inside but I'm at work. On a Windows machine with 7 zip that cheerfully extracts the DMG as partitions into seperate files (literally I have files with partition type names lol)

I've had a look at the posts sixfour linked above.

Looks like the guy is speaking of the recent SMC update for his MacBook Pro Retina that come out in the last few days ago.

Of course the guy wasn't that specific about if he had the previous installed as well nor how long he had it so it could of been any of the firmware updates for his MacBook Pro

Still getting used to this crazy commenting system these communities have

See my replys above. There is no 10.8.1 update out for Mountain Lion AFAIK.

I suspect the guy was talking about a firmware update specific to his MBRP. Not sure which one as I don't know what's already been installed.

I'm also having this problem on my mbp 15" early 2011. I've noticed this on VLC all the time playing 720p files, but also on adium once, when an audio notification stuttered and slowed down some.

Something is up!

I've been reading some of the glowing reviews about ML and I've read some of the complaints. The problems described here cause concern. I'll bide my time and wait out the storm before adopting ML.

Hi, everyone.

I've posted several times on this and other threads/forums about this issue and the dozens of steps I've tried to solve it, including reinstalliing ML several times. There are very few things, if any, that I haven't already done.

If I watch video from any source (Netflix, DVD, videos on my computer, using a browser, DVD Player, VLC, etc.) full screen, the audio stuttering, followed by the video pausing or stopping completely, ALWAYS happens. What's odd is that it may happen one minute into the video, 5 mnutes, 20 minutes. There doesn't seem to be a pattern.

When this happens, no other programs are runniing. The console isn't reporting anything really odd, and everything looks great in Activity Monitor (no apparent spikes in CPU).

The only light I can shed on the problem is this:

If I go out of full screen video and continue watching the movie (or quit and start over, which I have to do most of the time) in a much smaller window, it almost always plays without hiccups for the entire movie! As soon as I try going full screen again, the problem consistently returns.

Therefore, I can only conclude that this issue must have something to do with the video drivers (?) in ML or something else (memory issue? buffering?). I'm not a programmer (obviously), so I'm only guessing.

Because it appears to be random in how long it takes for the problem to occur, is there something in an OS, such as buffers(?), that would cause a "build up" until the problem occurs again. Maybe you can figure out what I mean.

Also, many people mention that they have MBP or MBPR, but that in itself isn't the problem. I have a 2011 iMac, and so do two of my friends. All three of us have the same problem with ML. No 3rd party RAM. And we never had any issues until the day we installed ML.

Any other ideas based on this info?

David

i too noticed today that when in full screen (with VLC) the audio stuttering was bad, but when I got out, it was okay again

...having said that, that doesnt explain why itunes was doing the same (since this isnt a video-only audio problem, or gpu, etc.)

i did find rebooting helped....fwiw....

Rebooting solves the problem...for about 5 minutes, but it always returns as soon as the full-screen video starts.

I haven't had any problem with audio only (in iTunes).

So, could audio be causing the video problem?

If so, logically, if we watched a full-screen video that had no sound (I mean, no audio track), the problem wouldn't occur.

Just a thought. Unfortunately, videos with no audio track aren't so common

Any thoughts? I'm throwing out any ideas hoping that some of the programming experts on this forum will think of something.

David

Question for everyone affected:

Do you have anything plugged into your Mac such as ext. hard drives, speakers, audio/MIDI interfaces, etc.?

Maybe we can start narrowing down the similarities and differences among out systems.

David

@dcollett.seattle:

Nothing plugged in, completely stock. It also happens when using my DAC for audio, too.

Glad I found this, so I'm not the only one.

Experiencing this with audio only, videos running fine.

When playing music (iTunes/VLC) I have little cracks every few seconds, this gets annoying.

At first I thought my external HD is broken, but then I tried playing music from the internal HD and got the same problem.

The "10min or so fine then broken"-problem only occurs to me when running speech on some text in Safari.

I upgraded to ML from a clean install of SL (<- no problem in years), but something's not right with the latest OS...

This is a call to all the experts here:

What could it be about playing audio that could also bring full-screen video to a halt?

(Again, if I reduce my video window to a small one, the problem doesn't occur. However, others here have had the stuttering issue using only audio.)

Thanks!

I just pulled all out (exHD, USB-hub, 2nd monitor, audio cable), started playing and it sounded better. Plugged all back in and it's nearly gone now. Interesting.

Listening now carefully with headphones for when it starts again, if

Lyone,

Would you please make a few tests:

1. Try playing iTunes audio only for a while with different audio levels. Does problem occur?

2. Try playing full-screen video with audio (nothing else running). Does problem occur?

If you could try both of these tests with and without your ext. stuff plugged in, this may help narrow the problem down.

Let us know what happens with these 4 scenarios.

Thanks

David