Question

I’m using this code to play a WAV file from a resource, and the audio plays correctly, but then I get a short blast of static after it plays (about 1/2 second):

//System.Media.SystemSounds.Beep.Play();
SoundPlayer sndPlayer = new SoundPlayer();
sndPlayer.Stream = Resources.Notify;
sndPlayer.Play();

If I uncomment the System.Media.SystemSounds.Beep.Play() line above, then the beep and the Notify sound from my resources both play correctly, and no static. I’ve tried a few different variations of the above code, and always getting the static. I tried making all of the variables static, incase there was something related to early garbage collection, but that didn’t help.

The WAV file is just one I copied from c:\WINDOWS\Media\ding.wav (on Windows XP) and it plays fine in Windows Media Player. Also, if I use new SoundPlayer("c:\WINDOWS\Media\ding.wav"), it plays correctly from the file.

I imagine it has something to do with the UnmanagedMemoryStream that Resources.Notify is, and maybe I need to load it in to a managed stream first? I know I’ve had issues with PNG files if I don’t use new Bitmap(Resource.MyPNG) and try to use Resource.MyPNG directly instead, so maybe something similar with WAV resources?

Update : I originally thought it was happening everytime the sound played, but now it appears it only happens the very first time I play the sound in my app. So maybe some initialization needs to be done?

I also tried this, same issue:

SoundPlayer sndPlayer = new SoundPlayer(Resources.Notify);
sndPlayer.Play(); 

Answer 1

Was just an issue on one PC. Never figured it out, and other apps don’t appear to have this issue, but not worth my time if only on 1 PC (out of maybe 15 tested) so far. Will report a better answer if I ever get one.