AC3 Filter can cause video jitter and live-preview problems

[csy]

The "AC3 Filter" is recommended on many threads on various forums but in my opinion it causes more trouble than its worth. There are several versions of the AC3 Filter, and the 3 commonly mentioned ones are shown below. I use the Intervideo video decoder filter, VMR9, and Dx9b quartz.dll, and this is what I've found:

ver 0.70b (incl fix patch), causes problems with live-preview not working
ver 1.01a RC5, causes video jitter and 0MB recordings
ver 1.02A test3, causes subtle video jitter which you can see if you closely study objects as they are moving (compared to a standalone TV), and occasional studder

I uninstalled the AC3 filter (needs to be fully uninstalled to fix problems) and instead went to the Intervideo audio filter, and now video movement is very smooth with no jitter or studdering.

[KingArgyle]

If you want AC3 output and also playback, then I'd recommend looking at FFDShow's audio filters. You can setup FFDShow so that it will realtime encode the audio streams for AC3 output no matter which original source it came in on. I've been using this setup for the past 8 months and haven't noticed any problems with jittery video or lag in the audio and video.

[reboot]

The only problem I've found, is extremely low volume in the AC3 audio (using ffdshow).
I also got tired of it's icon in my face (and sometimes two) if using ffdshow for postprocessing.
MP2 works just fine.

[KingArgyle]

If you are getting low audio out, then move the Audio booster filter ahead of the Audio Mixer, this way it'll boost the output audio before mixing it and converting it to AC-3.