GNOME Bugzilla – Bug 658691
Gstreamer Backend causes choppy sound
Last modified: 2012-06-18 16:54:53 UTC
Created attachment 196158 [details] terminal outputs when starting amarok Hi, Gstreamer causes choppy sound when used as Audio Backend. I ran/run 4 different Linux systems on 4 different hardware systems and all of them have a choppy sound when Gstreamer is used. This chopping sounds like there is too much load on the system, as the processor couldn´t cope with the load. But when I switch the Audio Backend to Xine (on KDE) the choppy sound is away. Listening to music is fun again. Systems used: - Fedora 14 (Gnome) - Linux Mint 11 (Gnome) - openSUSE 11.3 and 11.4 (both, Gnome and KDE) Hardware: - used with openSUSE 11.3 and 11.4 (KDE) and Fedora 14 (two devices): 00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 82801JI (ICH10 Family) HD Audio Controller and 00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 5 Series/3400 Series Chipset High Definition Audio (rev 05) - used with Linux Mint 11: 00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) HD Audio Controller (rev 03) - used with openSUSE 11.4 Gnome: 00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation N10/ICH 7 Family High Definition Audio Controller (rev 02) All systems have the right plugins and codecs. The soundfile format used is .ogg. But this chopping also occurs when listening to .mp3 and radio streams over the internet. It occurs all the time, when music is playing. I tried different things to get rid of it: removing Pulseaudio, different settings... all didn´t work. Just switching to Xine does the job. I know that 1 year ago or so, Gstreamer did not have this issue. So I would be very grateful if you could fix this issue. If I can help you with logfiles, terminal outputs or whatever, just drop me a mail. Just in case it helps you, I attached a textfile of the terminal outputs when starting Amarok with Gstreamer as Backend. thanks and best Regards Steffen
Do these issues also happen with applications such as totem/rhythmbox/banshee, or with gst-launch-0.10 playbin2 uri=file:///path/to/foo.ogg audio-sink=autoaudiosink (or pulsesink or alsasink) ? It sounds quite odd that this issue should persist on all these different distros with such common hardware. Also, it looks like the distro versions are a bit out of date, maybe you could test with something more recent, like a Fedora 16 alpha live CD or so? It would be interesting to know the GStreamer versions used (of GStreamer core, gst-plugins-base and gst-plugins-good), via: gst-inspect-0.10 fakesink | grep Version gst-inspect-0.10 playbin2 | grep Version gst-inspect-0.10 pulsesink | grep Version There was a bug in libasound some time ago that caused problems (crackles) when alsa was converting audio formats internally, but if that was the problem then things should work fine with pulse. Seems unlikely that high load would cause such (persistent) issues, but maybe you could check the actual system load with top or some system monitor, just in case?
thanks for the answer. these issues also happen with Rhythmbox, Totem and Banshee. On the Gnome systems (Mint 11 and openSUSE 11.4) it also happens with all variants of this terminal command gst-launch-0.10 playbin2 uri=file:///path/to/foo.ogg audio-sink=autoaudiosink (or pulsesink or alsasink) in KDE I get a "command not found" on this. Gstreamer versions of the Gnome distros: openSUSE 11.4: steffen@linux-rwee:~> gst-inspect-0.10 fakesink | grep Version Version: 0.10.35 steffen@linux-rwee:~> gst-inspect-0.10 playbin2 | grep Version Version: 0.10.35 steffen@linux-rwee:~> gst-inspect-0.10 pulsesink | grep Version Version: 0.10.30 Mint 11: steffen@Jorja ~ $ gst-inspect-0.10 fakesink | grep Version Version: 0.10.32 steffen@Jorja ~ $ gst-inspect-0.10 playbin2 | grep Version Version: 0.10.32 steffen@Jorja ~ $ gst-inspect-0.10 pulsesink | grep Version Version: 0.10.28 in KDE there is no reaction on these commands. But the openSUSE system in KDE version is on the same update level as the Gnome version above. the versions of libasound are: - libasound2 1.0.24.1-4.9.1 in both openSUSE 11.4 systems - libasound2 1.0.24.1-0ubuntu5 in Linux Mint 11 I don´t have the Fedora systems anymore, but they all were on the latest update level. The system load on all systems while playing music is between 0.02 and 0.30. When I use Xine as Backend in KDE, the system load can be 100% on all cores with 7.9 Gb of RAM used and it does not chop. To me it does not seem like a system power issue. The computers I have, vary between Netbook and a 2x2,7 Ghz Intel Core Duo with 8Gb RAM. And all of them have the same issue with Gstreamer in the same level of severity. Regarding some "more recent" versions... Maybe, but this will take some time, as I need these Machines daily and I have to make room for this on the harddrives... Let me know if I can deliver some more info... thanks & regards
Do you also get choppy audio with: gst-launch audiotestsrc ! alsasink Can you tell if Xine is using ALSA (can't tell you how to check, sorry).
Setting NEEDINFO for information asked for in comment #3.
Closing this bug report as no further information has been provided. Please feel free to reopen this bug if you can provide the information asked for. Thanks!