Both experiences are sub-optiman, but I’ve noticed people are more lenient to watch something that is choppy than listening to something (in the form of pure audio or paired up with a video) with the same level of stuttering.
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When a video is choppy, it just stays still/unchanged for a few milliseconds.
When audio stutters it goes silent for a few milliseconds. That’s a change.
The visual equivalent to stuttering audio would be if the image would flash black every time it stutters.
Your brain is good at “filling in the gaps” when you are missing visual information. You do it every day (looking away from something, blinking, partial obstructions), and you’ve learned to do it well.
“Filling in the gaps” of audio is something you’re not naturally good at, and it is fairly uncommon to run into naturally. Thus, it’s harder to naturally overcome.
Great question! I think it comes down to how we process visual and audio information. When a video is choppy, our eyes can still catch enough movement and context to follow what’s happening. But with audio, even a small stutter can make it hard to understand what’s being said. Sound carries important details, like tone and emotion, which makes us more sensitive to any disruptions. So, while both are annoying, we can often still “get” the video even if it’s not smooth, but stuttering audio can really break our connection to the content.
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