Search code examples
audiounicode-stringpsychopy

Unicode Decode Error with audio in psychopy experiment

I have the following problem: I have experiments that ran on a computer with the PsychoPy Version 1.83.04. Due to some problems, the computer was reconfigured, hence also PsychPy updated to Version 1.85.4. Since then, none of my experiments with a sound included work anymore. The error message is as follows: enter image description here Following an advice in another forum, I changed the files of - psychopy/sound/init.py - psychopy/sound/backend_pyo.py (as suggested also in here).

But unfortunately, this did not work neither. I get a new error message that is

enter image description here

I also tried with the old PsychoPy-Version 1.83.04 - here the experiment at least starts before breaking down. The error message then states that the lxml version is too old to be used with openpyxl and hence cannot open the xlsx-condition file. But there seems to be no problem with the sound device with the old version.

My sound device is as follows:

Description: Lautsprecher (Realtek High Definition Audio)

Default Sound Playback: Yes

Default Voice Playback: Yes

Hardware ID:
HDAUDIO\FUNC_01&VEN_10EC&DEV_0671&SUBSYS_173411EB&REV_1000

Manufacturer ID: 1

Product ID: 100

Type: WDM Driver

Name:
RTKVHD64.sys

Driver Version: 6.00.0001.8186 (English) Driver

Attributes: Final Retail WHQL

Logo'd: Yes

Date and Size: 6/29/2017
18:52:00, 5826560 bytes

What else can I try? Thank you for your help.

Solution

  • I finally managed to solve the problem - at least superficially. Following this advice I set PsychoPy back to version 1.85.2. But then, the experiment crushed with a "Fatal Python error: (pygame parachute)..." error message. Finally, I found the hint where to "switch off" pyo (it was found here): in PsychoPy in File -> Preferences and then delte pyo from the audio library. Now, my experiments are running again.