[mythtv] Weird Audio Problems

tarek Lubani mythtv-dev@snowman.net
Tue, 29 Oct 2002 17:53:58 -0500 (EST)


Well, this problem is a "full duplex" problem..

If you think about it, your sound card has to constantly be recording and 
then playing back.. if it can't achieve "full duplex", then this doesn't 
happen.. and so the audio buffers run out.. Yes, this is not the *only* 
reason that audio buffers run out.. You can google for some previous 
attempts to fix this problem.. This is, however, the most common reason I 
have found in my experiences.. So, what can you do? Well, I don't know.. 
but I'll tell you what I did: I got a new sound card.

Many cheapo sound cards nowadays have full duplex and alsa support for 
said full duplex (www.alsa-project.org to verify).. Only problem is they 
have horrendous Signal-to-Noise most of the time.. oh well.. you win some, 
you lose some : )

If myth *SOMETIMES* works and *SOMETIMES* doesn't in terms of sound, then 
it could be that you're overloading the system.. here, extra buffers 
(dma_buffers= in most cases) might sort out your problem.. Just keeping 
the strain off your system might also help.. When the computer is 
complaining of buffer problems, it'll slow down the video and such..

tarek : )

> On Tue, Oct 29, 2002 at 11:46:59AM -0500, rlbpublic@rlblounge.mine.nu wrote:
> > I've been trying to get mythtv working but have been running up against a 
> > weird intermittent issue with the audio.
> 
> Me too!
> 
> > The box I'm using has integrated audio and uses the VIA686 driver.
> 
> I'm using snd-cmipci, so it might not be specific to the card.