Video stutters on long podcasts

[suresh419]

So, I basically use my phone to watch my tech podcasts like TWIT, CNET, Tekzilla (if wpc had a video podcast id watched it too on the go... i watch it online on my pc ) .

Anyways, its so annoying that right after 20min or so, every 10 secs it stutters like .5 millisecs ... but it gets worse the more time there is to the video... right upto to the 50min mark, the stutter is 1sec pauses every 5secs of video. Interrupting sentences, and basically just extending the time and annoying me. I did a test and ran both the same podcast of 2hour on the pc and on the phone's podcast and when the 2 hours went by on the pc there was still 34min left on the phone's podcast player. So as you can tell, those millisecs interruptions really add to alot.

Now I did a second test, I downloaded the podcast from youtube then put it on the phone and no stutter... and yes, i've tested with high and low video resolutions. I thought that would solve it but it didn't. At first I downloaded the HQ podcasts but moved to the lowest one. same thing I did with the downloaded one, I downloaded the HQ and the low quality, both played flawless on the video player, but on the podcast's video player it stutters...

I thought it was the same, there seems to be something weird with the file from the podcast too, its a mp4 but I cannot play it on the PC.

I was actually thinking of just subscribing to podcasts on the pc and then in the morning pass them to my phone... but it should'nt be this way, that's why the convenience of autodownload it built into the phone.

So any ideas? is there a fix? btw, I updated to my phone to the Portico update and its still the same. Lumia 920

 

[suresh419]

really... nobody else is having this issue?

 

[David Binns]

I get exactly the same problem and it is crazy to think it was fine on my old windows phone. I too have a lumia920 and find that if I stream the video it seems to work but then you need to be in a good area to get the bandwidth. Still looking for a solution but I'm listening to the audio versions again to get around it. Can't imagine more people are not experiencing this issue.

 

[Lloyd Grose]

Yep I get it too. I've had 3 Lumia's and It occurred on all of them. So frustrating and its unbearable halfway through a 2 hour podcast. I'm sure its come kind of WP8 problem.. Its annoying that MS or Nokia have not released a fix for this

 

[peacock93]

Just got a new Lumia 920 and while trying to watch Widows Weekly video podcast I started getting this audio/video stutter. I have 3 video podcast I subscribe to with 2 of them being close or over 2 hours. This is horrible. I'm running the latest WP8 OS and the 1308 firmware update. I guess I'll just have to save them to my PC to watch them until this gets fixed!

 

[suresh419]

So, after all this time i finally decided to go to Android, im getting an HTC one next weekend. Still searching on how to fix this all this time. I even reinstalled the phone scratch, also tried it with my friend 920 and its thr same story. I jave long commutes, n this is just drivibg me crazy. As much as i hate to say good bye to wp8, ill keep an eye out to wp9 to see if its fixef. Until then.... :'(

 

[suresh419]

well.... I FIXED IT!!! it seems that mp4 is just not very well compatible with the windows phone platform, so i converted it to the most microsoft codec i could think of... wmv ... lol. I used a program called xilisoft (they have a trial version) u just put the video there and tell it to convert it to wmv. Oh make sure the details align, like i usually download standard definition podcasts, so make sure you put ur wmv to 480p... the bad thing about it... it takes A LONG TIME to convert, and with itunes just downloading them into the different u literally have to manually import each video and port them back. I played the same original video in my wife's galaxy s3... no problem.... and it has itunes import (which tried as i might, my wp8 never wanted to import podcasts from itunes, only music)... i'm sorry MS... i really love ur phone, please fix it and i'll be back... i promise.
i'm probably now gonna start posting at the android central forums starting next week when I get my HTC ONE.

 

[suresh419]

Well... here i'm back again, with the same problem. The fix I proposed, while usable is really a pain. I stayed with Windows phone, and now upgraded my 920 to windows phone 8.1 and actually got myself a second wp8 with wp8.1 too. Now the podcasts that are long,... well instead of stuttering at 40min in, now its at 1 hour in... still no improvement though and annoying as always. I thought they'd fix this, I don't know how can this be so difficult when even the simplest of video players get it right. I really do not want to keep downloading and converting podcasts, that basically beats the purpose of having them and their convenience. I do not know what to do, i love windows phone.. but man... this.. ugh.

Has anybody found a fix yet? Using other podcasts apps, like podcast lounge, is the same thing. the problem is the de-coder on the OS, not the app

 

[IAMPS3]

I've been having this problem for a couple of years, too. Highly annoying. The problem has followed me from my 920 to my 1020 with no resolution. Manually downloading and converting is not an option for me. Too cumbersome and not worth it. I'll just stop listening.

The problem persists in the new "Podcast" app in 8.1 as well, because like you said it seems to be a system-level codec that's to blame.