no navigation sounds on spdif

[steveh80]

I have some problems with the navigation sounds in xbmc (linuxport, rev. 19616). They work fine with analog audio, but using digital audio through optical output, the navigations sounds are broken. The sound while entering a menu "whoap" works, but it seems that the first few ms are cut of. The clicks while switching over the menu items are cutted completly, maybe because they are shorter.
Sometimes when I switch between different skins the navigation sounds are working for a while, but it's not repeatable.

Has anyone an idea how to fix this?

Board: ASUS P5N7A-VM with onboard sound on jaunty, alsa installed as described here (http://xbmc.org/wiki/?title=HOW-TO:_Install_XBMC_for_Linux_on_Ubuntu_8.10_(Intrepi d)_step-by-step#Upgrading_ALSA_.28sound_driver.29_to_the_late st_version).

[pat1975]

Hi Steve,

same problem here. Did you connect to an AV-Receiver?
Can you also confirm, that the receiver "looses sync"?

I noticed that if I'm not pressing a button on the remote (no sound), my receiver shows a display like it were nothing connected.
If I klick multiple times on the remote, it shows PCM 48 and the following klicks a hearable. Until - there is no sound to be output for about half a second.
Sync is lost then.

Patrick

[steveh80]

Hi Patrick,

i've got a harman kardon receiver conneted via optical toslink to the asus board. The harman doesn't looses his sync, there is always "Logic 7 - Cinema" in the display. And there is no sound too when clicking multiple times, even when clicking fast (eg using keyboard). I don't think this is a problem of the AVR.

Stephan

[olympia]

Are you guys using full-blown ubuntu installation?
Did you use PPA or compile from SVN?

And the main question: what about PulseAudio?

[steveh80]

I am using Ubuntu 9.04 Desktop Edition and XBMC linuxport compiled from svn rev. 19616 with:

./configure --enable-vdpau

I don't know anything about pulseaudio. I installed alsa as described here (http://xbmc.org/wiki/?title=HOW-TO:_Install_XBMC_for_Linux_on_Ubuntu_8.10_(Intrepi d)_step-by-step#Upgrading_ALSA_.28sound_driver.29_to_the_late st_version).

[olympia]

Pulseaudio is installed by default on a full Ubuntu installation.
I strongly beleive (not entirely sure) that your problem is linked to it...

Enable vdpau is not necessary at compilation as it is enabled by default.

Try to recompile with --disable-pulse
But you might also have to kill it before running xbmc.
(I don't have too much experiences with full ubuntu installations)

[ronie]

I have the exact same issue. In my case the cause of the problem is the receiver.
If you use a digital connection (HDMI or SPDIF) the receiver need some time to find out what kind of audio stream it is receiving (PCM, DTS or AC3), so during that period the sound is muted. (All of this is explained in the manual of the receiver).

Quite likely, in your case, the receiver is the one to blame too and there's nothing you can do about it.

[DoubleX667]

For me this thread worked

http://xbmc.org/forum/showthread.php?t=35901

[steveh80]

So, I recompiled with --disable-pulse, tried the thread you posted doublex667, nothing changed. The navigation sounds are still not working with spdif.

I tried to disable pulseaudio like this:
xbmc@htpc:~/src/linuxport/XBMC$ sudo /etc/init.d/pulseaudio stop
* PulseAudio configured for per-user sessions
xbmc@htpc:~/src/linuxport/XBMC$ ps -ef |grep pulse
xbmc 14659 1 1 11:20 ? 00:00:31 /usr/bin/pulseaudio --start --log-target=syslog
xbmc 14660 14659 0 11:20 ? 00:00:00 /usr/lib/pulseaudio/pulse/gconf-helper
xbmc 24919 11605 0 11:52 pts/3 00:00:00 grep pulse


When I kill the pulse threads, sound is off. :oo:

Edit: While recompiling i have upgraded to rev. 19838.

[olympia]

How did you setup your sound within xbmc?
As sound is off if you kill pulseaudio it's obvious that xbmc is not using alsa

[toiva]

I'm having this same issue. I don't mind missing navigation sound but it's annoying cause it cuts a little bit of sound from every video/music file you play.
I've removed pulseaudio completely from my system but the issue is still there.

[steveh80]

The setup is configured as here described (http://xbmc.org/wiki/?title=HOW-TO:_Install_XBMC_for_Linux_on_Ubuntu_8.10_(Intrepi d)_step-by-step#Sound_configuration_in_XBMC) (screenshot):

Does anyone get navigation-sounds through Spdif, or is this an overall issue?

[olympia]

The setup is configured as here described (http://xbmc.org/wiki/?title=HOW-TO:_Install_XBMC_for_Linux_on_Ubuntu_8.10_(Intrepi d)_step-by-step#Sound_configuration_in_XBMC) (screenshot):

Does anyone get navigation-sounds through Spdif, or is this an overall issue?

Yes I do! With the same mobo.
... and I know this guide, as I made this wiki entry:;):

[steveh80]

Ok, hm. So do you have an idea where the problem is? I had the same problem with Ubuntu 8.10 desktop edition.

Are you using hdmi or optical out? Edit: And are you running pulse-audio?

[olympia]

Ok, hm. So do you have an idea where the problem is? I had the same problem with Ubuntu 8.10 desktop edition.

Are you using hdmi or optical out? Edit: And are you running pulse-audio?

No, I am not using pulseaudio, even not installed the package
Yes, I am using spdif, not hdmi
No, I am not using desktop edition, as you might can guess from the guide, I am using the minimal approach

[steveh80]

Thanks for your reply guy and btw thanks for your guide, it was very helpful for me to find an entry to all of this amazing xbmc stuff! :-)

I have now deinstalled pulseaudio with
sudo apt-get purge pulseaudio
sudo reboot
After reboot pulseaudio is not running anymore:
xbmc@htpc:~$ ps -ef |grep -i pulse
xbmc 3487 3413 0 13:34 pts/0 00:00:00 grep -i pluse

Nothing changed about the sound issue in xbmc. Same behaviour as before.

[steveh80]

So, I upgraded ALSA to 1.0.20 and recompiled XBMC.

Still no navigation-sounds.

So I don't understand why the navigation sounds also doesn't work while playing sound (video or music). The option to play navigaition sounds during video playback is set.

[steveh80]

I tried the 9.04 xbmc live cd, no sound at all.

[dbldown768]

im in the same boat as you. I have been experiencing this problem for a while now, but then again, i'm also having must larger audio issues.

[xnappo]

im in the same boat as you. I have been experiencing this problem for a while now, but then again, i'm also having must larger audio issues.

For me navigation sounds works when I first launch, but then after I play anything, they go away. I have lots of little issues like this - one of these days I am going to post 3-4 debug logs for all of them.

xnappo

[pat1975]

Hi!

The issue is still there for me.

I think, the problem is, XBMC does not mute the sound, it disables the SPDIF, if no sound is to be played.
So, if sound should be output, Receiver has to make a "handshake" first, before it can start decode and output the audio.

Is there a chance to have a very very silent - unherable- audio output all the time?

Regards,
Patrick

[ronie]

Hi!

The issue is still there for me.

I think, the problem is, XBMC does not mute the sound, it disables the SPDIF, if no sound is to be played.
So, if sound should be output, Receiver has to make a "handshake" first, before it can start decode and output the audio.

Is there a chance to have a very very silent - unherable- audio output all the time?

Regards,
Patrick

it's a known issue and being worked on:

http://xbmc.org/forum/showpost.php?p=334852&postcount=9

http://xbmc.org/forum/showthread.php?t=50820&page=2