Audio crackle and no audio levels in Client

Hi everyone,
I am using CG Server 2.3 and Client 2.08, and am having issues with audio in my videos.
A couple of issues I am seeing - first one being that the videos seems to stutter a bit - system performance seems fairly stable at the time, and the audio always crackles.
I have tested stock videos and also some I have converted myself. They have been converted down to 720p 2997 and play fine in VLC or any other player I put them in.

Also, I never see audio levels in the Client show up, but I Think I read that the current client is not 100% configured to work with the latest server, but wasn’t certain.

I have tried to use NDI to push to Vmix, and I am able to use all my templates as an overlay with no issues, but no audio from the videos I play, even when trying to push just the system audio.

I have the following in my server config

720p2997



stereo [mono|stereo|matrix]
200 [0…]



Just hoping its something obvious that I am doing that is causing the problem.

Thanks!

Hi
Lets start with the simple things:
audio level in client is a OSC-problem
NDI:
in server 2.08 you use an older version of NDI called iVGA AirSend. That version does not support audio to NDI version 4.0 or higher. The fix is in this topic. The server 2.3 uses a real NDI consumer so you have to put NDI as a consumer in your config-file.
About the real problem so you dont say in which outputs the audio is crackeling, system audio, embeded SDI-audio in decklink, analog audio from Decklink or what.

you have this in your config-file (in channel)


<ndi>
                <name>CasparCG_1</name>
                <allow-fields>false </allow-fields> 
   </ndi>

Thanks for the reply. Thanks I will look at upgrading to the latest NDI version.
Sorry I forgot to mention the audio issue is on the system audio. I am trying to do this from home since our studio with ATEMs, hyperdecks etc cannot be used due to Covid, so doing a smaller cost effective setup, planning to run everything through NDI only.

I will upgrade NDI to see if I have an issue on that output too.

Thanks

As far as I have experienced, audio crackling in system audio is commonplace since Server 2.2, but it isn’t in NDI consumer, so you should try that instead.

Regarding no audio level readings in Client 2.0.8, that is a known issue that is fixed on Client 2.2.0. Check the forums for links to download that version, or I can link to it in a while.

1 Like

You guys are awesome!
Here is what i did…

  • Upgraded to Client 2.2 to fix audio levels in Client, and also to give me time remaining in the video! as per @noquierouser
  • Turned off screen in the server config, since that would give me a crackle on the consumer if i am testing NDI Studio monitor on the same laptop (if i understand that correctly)
  • Upgraded the NDI Dlls as per @markusnygard

Now I get audio levels, time remaining and no crackle in the audio.
Thanks for the super fast solutions!

for others that are looking for Client 2.2 it can be found here: http://builds.casparcg.com/
The download i used is this one: http://casparcg.com/builds/CasparCG%20Client/next/CasparCG%20Client%202.2.0%20RC%201.zip (Client 2.2.0 RC1).

@markusnygard I did not have that ndi code in my config file. Should i add that?
I did a double check in a quieter area, and do notice the small crackle sound still there, but it is noticeably better than before. I am still tweaking and learning the config to see if its a setting in there i need to change.

Thanks

If you have the NDI part in the config file then you use the NDI consumer which is work with is recomended.
If you have the “newtek-ivga” part in config then you use a older system which is not supported with NDI4 and you have to do a “work around” to get it to work.
If youre running on a laptop it can be a performance issue.
I would recommend to either install rrebuffos CasparCG Laucher and run the diagnose window, either from the laucher or in the server window just write “diag”.
Usually I run a file called GO1080p25.mp4 looped to check that my hardware is working OK. Thats a SVT-file that was included in older versions of the server (for example 2.0.7).

also have you set windows to “Best performance
Even if the wiki is a bit outdated there are tons of useful information for someone starting to use CasparCG.