Cannot go from K-Lite 10.5 to 12.3 because of "audio pins missing" on Win7 x64

Hi, guys,

My situations is somewhat similar with the issue described here. However, I couldn't find anything similar anywhere.

Basically, K-Lite Codec Pack Full 10.5.5 has been working perfectly for me, from whenever it was released. I have Win7 x64 and I use MPC-HC to play my video files. However, recently, I have downloaded certain videos encoded with H.265 or HVC1 at 3840x2160, and they play with perfect sound but the video stutters a lot. Now, I know your first reaction here will be to tell me to upgrade my hardware, but I assure you that my hardware is not the issue here:

• ASUS Crosshair V Formula-Z Mobo
  
• AMD FX-9590 (8 cores) @ 4.71 GHz
  
• 32GB of DDR3 (PC3-10700) @ 667 MHz
  
• Nvidia GeForce GTX 680
  

Anyway, long story short, I'd uninstalled K-Lite 10.5.5 completely, ran CCleaner, etc. and then installed the latest Full 12.3.5. Lo and behold, my crazy-ass video now works without stuttering and with perfect sound. Hallelujah!

Now, the next time I reboot, MPC-HC throws a message about audio pins being missing! If I close the error message, the video plays perfectly, but the sound is gone. Note that I can still play sound files in Winamp, etc. It doesn't take a genius here to see that either K-Lite 10.5.5 doesn't remove something entirely or replaces some defaults and that removal or replacement allows it to properly play my files. Upon reboot, the new codecs go into effect and I lose sound.

Can you help me figure out how to fix this? Thanks in advance!

Mhumm. The plot thickens. K-Lite 10.5.5 comes with MPC-HC 1.7.5.146. On a hunch, I went and downloaded MPC-HC 1.7.10. Using the newer player with the older codec pack allows me to play the H.265 3840x2160 files without a hitch: good video, good sound. Can you please look into this for your next codec pack release? I'm sure I'm not the only person holding out on Win7 while Win10 is still being "fixed," eh? Thanks!

The two most common causes for that pin connecting error are:
1) You enabled audio bitstreaming/passthough when you should not have.
2) There is an issue with the sound driver.

Once again, I don't think the sound driver is at fault, because other apps and the system itself can play audio just fine when the pins fail.

Now, I'm pretty sure that I didn't enable this audio bitstreaming/passthrough feature anywhere...but let's say I somehow did enable it accidentally. Where do I turn it off? Thanks!

You can configure through:
Codec Tweak Tool > Audio output

If you copy/paste the error message here, then I can see more precisely what goes wrong.

Hey, man. It's me again. Everything worked fine for a couple of months with the aforementioned hack and now (I suspect, after a recent Windows update), the sound is broken with the "audio pins missing" error again (still on Win7 x64).

I took this opportunity to remove all players and codecs and install K-Lite Full 12.4.4 from scratch with essentially default settings. No go. Here's the error I'm getting:

Code:

LAV Splitter Source::Audio
LAV Audio Decoder::Output
Audio Switcher::Out

Media Type 0:
--------------------------
Audio: IEEE Float 48000Hz stereo 3072kbps

AM_MEDIA_TYPE:
majortype: MEDIATYPE_Audio {73647561-0000-0010-8000-00AA00389B71}
subtype: MEDIASUBTYPE_IEEE_FLOAT {00000003-0000-0010-8000-00AA00389B71}
formattype: FORMAT_WaveFormatEx {05589F81-C356-11CE-BF01-00AA0055595A}
bFixedSizeSamples: 1
bTemporalCompression: 0
lSampleSize: 8
cbFormat: 18

WAVEFORMATEX:
wFormatTag: 0x0003
nChannels: 2
nSamplesPerSec: 48000
nAvgBytesPerSec: 384000
nBlockAlign: 8
wBitsPerSample: 32
cbSize: 0 (extra bytes)

pbFormat:
0000: 03 00 02 00 80 bb 00 00 00 dc 05 00 08 00 20 00 ....€»...Ü.... .
0010: 00 00                                           ..


Media Type 1:
--------------------------
Audio: PCM 48000Hz stereo 1536kbps

AM_MEDIA_TYPE:
majortype: MEDIATYPE_Audio {73647561-0000-0010-8000-00AA00389B71}
subtype: MEDIASUBTYPE_PCM {00000001-0000-0010-8000-00AA00389B71}
formattype: FORMAT_WaveFormatEx {05589F81-C356-11CE-BF01-00AA0055595A}
bFixedSizeSamples: 1
bTemporalCompression: 0
lSampleSize: 4
cbFormat: 18

WAVEFORMATEX:
wFormatTag: 0x0001
nChannels: 2
nSamplesPerSec: 48000
nAvgBytesPerSec: 192000

Do note that audio works in Winamp, in other applications (i.e. games), and even in VLC. It's MPC-HC where I can't get it to work. Do you have any ideas for me?

Logic suggests that something in the way MPC-HC interprets audio (perhaps in conjunction with K-Lite) is broken (why would VLC work with the same files, otherwise?). I would really like to get MPC-HC to work, however...

Mhumm. This is weird. I rolled back to K-Lite Codec Pack Full 10.5.5 again, and I got my sound back in the MPC-HC 1.7.5.146 that comes with it (but this version makes 4K video stutter yet again). Moreover, I can't reproduce the trick of installing 1.7.10 to get the 4K video to work right. Here's the error:

Code:

LAV Splitter Source::Audio
ffdshow Audio Decoder::Out
Audio Switcher::Out

Media Type 0:
--------------------------
Audio: PCM 48000Hz stereo 1536kbps

AM_MEDIA_TYPE:
majortype: MEDIATYPE_Audio {73647561-0000-0010-8000-00AA00389B71}
subtype: MEDIASUBTYPE_PCM {00000001-0000-0010-8000-00AA00389B71}
formattype: FORMAT_WaveFormatEx {05589F81-C356-11CE-BF01-00AA0055595A}
bFixedSizeSamples: 1
bTemporalCompression: 0
lSampleSize: 1
cbFormat: 18

WAVEFORMATEX:
wFormatTag: 0x0001
nChannels: 2
nSamplesPerSec: 48000
nAvgBytesPerSec: 192000
nBlockAlign: 4
wBitsPerSample: 16
cbSize: 0 (extra bytes)

pbFormat:
0000: 01 00 02 00 80 bb 00 00 00 ee 02 00 04 00 10 00 ....€»...î......
0010: 00 00                                          ..

The fault is not with MPC-HC or the decoders. The problem is that the audio renderer is not accepting the audio. You can usually fix that by re-installing your sound driver.

If that doesn't help, then try:
MPC-HC options > Internal Filters > Audio Switcher > Downsample to 44100 hz.
or
MPC-HC options > Playback > Output > Audio Renderer > Internal Audio Renderer

Here are drivers:
https://www.asus.com/Motherboards/CROSSHAIR_V_FORMULAZ/HelpDesk_Download/

Well, I already did have the latest audio drivers for my mobo.

Interestingly, the "Down-sample to 44100 Hz" option did nothing (I got the following error):

Code:

LAV Splitter Source::Audio
LAV Audio Decoder::Output
Audio Switcher::Out

Media Type 0:
--------------------------
Audio: IEEE Float 48000Hz stereo 3072kbps

AM_MEDIA_TYPE:
majortype: MEDIATYPE_Audio {73647561-0000-0010-8000-00AA00389B71}
subtype: MEDIASUBTYPE_IEEE_FLOAT {00000003-0000-0010-8000-00AA00389B71}
formattype: FORMAT_WaveFormatEx {05589F81-C356-11CE-BF01-00AA0055595A}
bFixedSizeSamples: 1
bTemporalCompression: 0
lSampleSize: 8
cbFormat: 18

WAVEFORMATEX:
wFormatTag: 0x0003
nChannels: 2
nSamplesPerSec: 48000
nAvgBytesPerSec: 384000
nBlockAlign: 8
wBitsPerSample: 32
cbSize: 0 (extra bytes)

pbFormat:
0000: 03 00 02 00 80 bb 00 00 00 dc 05 00 08 00 20 00 ....€»...Ü.... .
0010: 00 00                                           ..


Media Type 1:
--------------------------
Audio: PCM 48000Hz stereo 1536kbps

AM_MEDIA_TYPE:
majortype: MEDIATYPE_Audio {73647561-0000-0010-8000-00AA00389B71}
subtype: MEDIASUBTYPE_PCM {00000001-0000-0010-8000-00AA00389B71}
formattype: FORMAT_WaveFormatEx {05589F81-C356-11CE-BF01-00AA0055595A}
bFixedSizeSamples: 1
bTemporalCompression: 0
lSampleSize: 4
cbFormat: 18

WAVEFORMATEX:
wFormatTag: 0x0001
nChannels: 2
nSamplesPerSec: 48000
nAvgBytesPerSec: 192000
nBlockAlign: 4
wBitsPerSample: 16
cbSize: 0 (extra bytes)

pbFormat:
0000: 01 00 02 00 80 bb 00 00 00 ee 02 00 04 00 10 00 ....€»...î......
0010: 00 00                                           ..

On the other hand, the "Internal Audio Renderer" solution did work. However—whereas in the past I'd simply be able to plug in my headphones (the sound on the speakers would automatically turn off because of the plug-sensing on the mobo), or I'd unplug the speakers and the sound would be piped to the speakers—now the sound just stays on the device it's playing on and I have to turn off and restart the player for the sound to go to another device. I guess this is an annoyance I can live with...but maybe this is something you could eventually look into?

Regardless, everything seems to work now. Thanks for continuing to support Win7 x64!!

Please go ahead and mark the topic with [Fixed] so that others may learn from my misadventures.

For the headphone issue:
1) MPC-HC options > internal Filters > Audio Renderer > disable Exclusive mode (off by default)
2) Windows Control panel > Sounds > Speakers > Properties > Advanced > dsiable Exclusive mode options
3) Check the Realtek driver settings. It might have an option for headphone detection.

I am glad it works now, but I don't consider it fully fixed. Things should work wit the default audio renderer too. So the driver is still not working as it should.

I just realized that the Asus site has an older version (R2.75).

Here is the latest version (R2.79):
http://filehippo.com/download_realtek_high_definition_audio_vista_64/