[mythtv-users] "Woodchuck" sound on TV playback

[John Welch]

On Sat, Aug 16, 2008 at 5:11 AM, Allen Edwards
<allen.edwards at oldpaloalto.com> wrote:
> On Fri, Aug 15, 2008 at 6:47 PM, John Welch <jrw3319 at gmail.com> wrote:
>> On Wed, Aug 13, 2008 at 10:37 PM, Allen Edwards
>> <allen.edwards at oldpaloalto.com> wrote:
>>> This is what I recommend to set up digital sound.
>>>
>>> 1) remove or rename the two alsa config files (asound.conf and .asoundrc)
>>> 2) some people have to uninstall pulse audio.  I think this is with Fedora.
>>> 3) Sound ALSA:default
>>> 4) Passthrough ALSA:spdif
>>> 5) check Stereo (not 5.1)
>>> 6) turn on iec958 in alsamixer
>>>
>>> chipmunks and digital noise should be gone.
>>>
>>> Allen
>>
>> I'm having this same issue with the "woodchuck" or "static chatter"
>> sounds, as it has been described here, when trying to passthrough
>> sound to my HT receiver.  I was hoping that following these steps
>> would fix the problem, but unfortunately it did not.  I saw the
>> suggestion in a previous posts to turn off AC3/DTS passthrough in the
>> MythTV setup, and when I do this I do the get audio, but I WANT the
>> passthrough enabled (red light comes on on the receiver, full 5.1
>> sound, etc.).  I've gotten it to work on other frontends, but nothing
>> I've tried has been successful on this one.
>>
>> One thing I'm curious about is step 6, where you say "turn on iec958
>> in alsamixer".  In my alsamixer settings I've got a regular volume bar
>> for IEC958.  I've un-muted it and pushed it all the way up to 100.
>> I've also got another "IEC958 Playback Source" setting, which I can
>> toggle through four settings: PCM, ADC1, ADC2, and ADC3.  So far in my
>> testing, if I set it to PCM I get the "static chatter"; if I set it to
>> any of the other settings I get nothing.
>>
>> For reference, I'm running Fedora 9.  I've gotten the same results
>> regardless of whether or not I have pulse audio installed (it is
>> currently not installed).  I've also tried using the
>> .asoundrc/asound.conf file from the MythTV wiki with the same results.
>>  My sound card is on-board, and shows up as an HDA Intel / AD198x.
>>
>> Any help would be greatly appreciated.
>>
>> TIA,
>> John
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>>
> On my system the IEC958 setting is a mute button, not a slider.  You
> must have something in there adding capability to the system.  Hunt it
> down and kill it.  Make sure your config files are gone and that Pulse
> Audio is uninstalled.  I helped someone else with the same steps that
> had Fedora and he went to some special trouble to get rid of
> PulseAudio if I remember correctly.  You might search the archives
> this month and last and see if you can find it.  Anyway, he for sure
> removed it and didn't just turn it off.
>
> That control should definitely not be a slider.
>
> Allen
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OK, thanks.  I'll do some searching around.  When I said I uninstalled
PulsaAudio I guess I should have been a bit more specific.  I
uninstalled what would easily go.  There are two packages remaining,
pulseaudio-libs and pulseaudio-libs... (don't have the exact package
names as I'm not on that particular box right now).  When I tried
removing these packages they gave me a bunch of dependency errors for
packages like mplayer, xine, etc.  Maybe that is what you are
referring to as "special trouble".