[mythtv-users] Debug Atom/Ion HDMI audio?

[Marc Tousignant]

From: mythtv-users [mailto:mythtv-users-bounces at mythtv.org] On Behalf Of Michael Wisniewski
Sent: Friday, October 9, 2015 1:31 PM
To: Discussion about MythTV <mythtv-users at mythtv.org>
Subject: Re: [mythtv-users] Debug Atom/Ion HDMI audio?

 

 

 

On Fri, Oct 9, 2015 at 10:29 AM, Mike Perkins <mikep at randomtraveller.org.uk <mailto:mikep at randomtraveller.org.uk> > wrote:

On 09/10/15 14:47, Michael Wisniewski wrote:

On Wed, Oct 7, 2015 at 12:19 AM, Tom Harris <thom.j.harris at gmail.com <mailto:thom.j.harris at gmail.com> > wrote:

I recently switched my frontend to a Zotac Zbox with an Atom 330 and Ion
GPU.  I've worked out most of the issues, but still have one remaining
problem that I'm having a hard time debugging.

The audio has very frequent dropouts, where there will be no sound for a
fraction of a second.  These little hiccups are sometimes bad enough to be
unwatchable.

- The program seems to be okey.  I've played the same video on my TV via
DNLP and it played perfectly.
- The video shows no interruption, only the audio has problems.
- Audio/Video output is over HDMI to a Yamaha soundbar

In the past, I had used this hardware for a myth frontend.  At that time
my display was 720p, it's now doing 1080p.  Could 1080p be stressing the
Ion?

I tried running mythfrontend with "-verbose audio" and didn't get any
audio logs.  Any pointers on how to debug the audio issue?




I don't have an Ion box, but I do have an Ion2.  I had a few problems, but
finally got things working properly.  I did have audio dropouts, especially
when browsing the EPG.  Some things I did to resolve this was...

"On the frontend, if you go
into the settings -> audio, you choose what audio card to use and the
capabilities of that card (IE: dolby digital, plus, dts(?), things like
that). In there, there's a checkbox for '5.1 upmix'. "

Disable that 5.1 upmix.

Source: http://www.gossamer-threads.com/lists/mythtv/users/584464?#584464

The other thing I did was change the "Apperance/Theme" to OpenGL.  I think
this fixed a lot of the issues too.  Finally, I followed the wiki page for
the 'vdpau' stuff.

Also, make sure you're using the nvidia driver and not the open source
one.  I even had issues with the nvidia driver included with mythbuntu.
It's a pain, but I have to reinstall the driver by hand everytime I do a
kernel update.  If it's of any help, I'm using the following driver on my
frontend...

NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-340.76.run

This is for an Ion2, so I would make sure your Ion is supported with this
driver version.

Strange. Installing the nvidia driver on a stock Debian, following the instructions, sets it up as a DKMS build[1]. This means that it is automatically rebuilt every time there is a kernel update. No tinkering or pain involved.

Of course, Ubuntu may do things different.

[1] https://wiki.debian.org/NvidiaGraphicsDrivers

-- 

 

 

Mike,

 

So Ubuntu should do this and it does.  I've just experienced a few glitches with the video driver after a kernel update.  I don't know if it's my junky receiver or the video driver, but it seems like it looses sync.  After a reinstall of the driver, it works a lot better.  

 

I have a "flagship" Onkyo receiver that's had a known problem with the HDMI daughter board.  I've had it replaced two or three times now and it works OK....but I think it might loose sync when it's cold...which means that the solder point on it is junk.  Or, maybe it's something else....  

 

In any case, I just reinstall the driver for the video card after the kernel updates to prevent possible future problems.

 

Mike

 

 

 

I don’t have a zbox, I have the ionitx, and I do not see this issue.

My AudioOutputDevice is ALSA:hdmi:CARD=NVidia,DEV=0 and depending on the room, my MixerDevice is either software or /dev/mixer

Looking directly in the database, too lazy to go to a machine atm.

| AudioOutputDevice                 | ALSA:hdmi:CARD=NVidia,DEV=0

| MaxChannels                       | 2                          

| SRCQuality                        | 3                          

| MixerDevice                       | /dev/mixer                 

 

Everything else audio related is 0 or blank.

 

I also have 340.76 installed for my driver.

 

MarcT

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