Pops in AC-3 audio

[ccrisis@…]

I'm hearing pops in 5.1 AC-3 audio like DVD. The pops don't seem random, but seem to happen in some exact places. It may be signal clipping of some sort, but I don't know. I've fiddled with audio controls in many ways and nothing changed. Also, it doesn't happen in other players such as totem and vlc.

Here is an example video ripped with the audio copied; video is re-encoded but the same thing is heard as in the original:
​http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?omnhgukzojy
When the scene changes first there's a very slight crackle on the left, then there is another much louder, general one at the next scene change. These sort of pops happen throughout playback. At least that's what I'm hearing. I'm listening through headphones downmixed by the mplayer defaults.

[compn]

i dont hear it , but maybe i am just going deaf...

[compn]

actually, i only have two speakers, so nevermind

[ccrisis@…]

Well it doesn't really matter if it's just 2 speakers. Like I said, I'm listening through headphones and that's where I can hear them. It may not be noticeable on some speakers. Also, it doesn't seem to happen with 2 channel stereo ac3, only 5.1. At least I hear them in every 5.1 movie and not in stereo ones.

It doesn't seem related to 2 channel downmixing. Pops are actually even louder with '-channels 6' because of the low volume of the default 2 channel downmix. No switches or volume controls I tried have made a difference. The pops seem to play back no matter what, and even mencoder records them when trying to reencode the audio; actually records them and are heard on any player at that point.