PulseAudio 4.0 Brings Many Changes

[duby229]

There seems to be an issue with some HDMI ALSA drivers where PA has absurdly high CPU and/or memory usage, maybe that's the problem? But I don't know if it's a PA or ALSA problem...
For me it's playing fine (no delays) and the cpu usage, with the 3 stream from the screenshot playing, is at ~0,5%, which is quite acceptable.

I'm not using HDMI audio because of some other unrelated issues with OSS radeon HDMI support. I'm using an optical SPDIF from my sound card out to my receiver, which then outputs to my TV. I don't have PC speakers. I have a 7.1 surround receiver which I use. The benefit is that I can play back on my receiver speakers or the TV speakers.

EDIT: I am using HDMI for the video signal, just not the audio signal. It works fine with plain Alsa.

EDIT2: This is my sound card. http://www.htomega.com/striker.html it is supported by the cmedia 8770 driver.

[droste]

I'm using an optical SPDIF from my sound card out to my receiver, which then outputs to my TV. I don't have PC speakers. I have a 7.1 surround receiver which I use.

You just seem to have some bad luck :-D

I have:
a) HDMI to A/V-receiver with 5.1 speakers attached for movies
b) SPDIF to A/V-receiver for music
c) an additional set of PC speakers and headphones attached to the onboard sound.

All of them work without delays, cracking, stuttering or something else.

The only reason I can think of is the kernel I use. I'm usually on the lastest rc that's out (because of the radeon OSS driver ;-)). PA and libalsa, vlc, etc. is distro provided.

/edit:

This is my sound card. http://www.htomega.com/striker.html it is supported by the cmedia 8770 driver.

Or this driver is the problem. My sound card is onboard and using the snd_hda_intel, the same driver is used by ATI as far as I know.

[Vim_User]

I'm not changing my distro. It's not gonna happen. I have eliminated every possible cause, and every possible cause comes down to only PA.

Ever heard of live-media? You don't have to change the distro to test a different one.

I still havent found a single oob experience where PA works. Not one.

Then maybe you use the wrong distro. As said before, I installed it on all my machines and it works without a problem.

[Vim_User]

Right now for android development Ubuntu seems better suited than windows (mainly because of better terminal).

Install Cygwin on Windows and you have a terminal with Unix powers.

[duby229]

Ever heard of live-media? You don't have to change the distro to test a different one.

Then maybe you use the wrong distro. As said before, I installed it on all my machines and it works without a problem.

It's not going to happen. Just because PA doesnt work damn sure doesnt make me want to switch distros to one that uses it by default. Matter of fact even less so.

[duby229]

You just seem to have some bad luck :-D

I have:
a) HDMI to A/V-receiver with 5.1 speakers attached for movies
b) SPDIF to A/V-receiver for music
c) an additional set of PC speakers and headphones attached to the onboard sound.

All of them work without delays, cracking, stuttering or something else.

The only reason I can think of is the kernel I use. I'm usually on the lastest rc that's out (because of the radeon OSS driver ;-)). PA and libalsa, vlc, etc. is distro provided.

/edit:


Or this driver is the problem. My sound card is onboard and using the snd_hda_intel, the same driver is used by ATI as far as I know.

I'm not a driver developer. But I just can't see how it could possibly be a fault of the driver, when that same driver has given me years of flawless performance. I could definitely see it being a problem with PA banging the hardware wrong. But in that case it is a problem with PA banging the hardware wrong.

[Awesomeness]

Perhaps you are one of the lucky few that are able to get audio mixing directly from your hardware. Unless I am mistaken for everyone else the software mixing is the only option then...

I have an ancient laptop with on-board NVidia sound. Pure ALSA just works here.

You are asserting that all major distributions including the enterprise variants are all dumb for chosing to use PulseAudio by defaultand you are correct? How likely do you think that is?

Sound in GNOME simply does not work without PA, so they don't really have a choice?

[RahulSundaram]

I have an ancient laptop with on-board NVidia sound. Pure ALSA just works here. Sound in GNOME simply does not work without PA, so they don't really have a choice?

Just saying that hey, ALSA WFM isn't taking into account, many users use features that PulseAudio provides and ALSA doesn't. Modern audio needs including being able to use a bluetooth headphone, jack detection, automatic audio routing, per application volume control, remote streaming etc.

Distributions that don't care about GNOME at all use PA by default as well and did so proactively long before GNOME relied on it. Claiming that they didn't have a choice is silly.

[Awesomeness]

Just saying that hey, ALSA WFM isn't taking into account, many users use features that PulseAudio provides and ALSA doesn't. Modern audio needs including being able to use a bluetooth headphone, jack detection, automatic audio routing, per application volume control, remote streaming etc.

And I thought the primary use case for a sound server is to play sound. Silly me. Do modern audio needs no longer include stutter-free playback of audio?

I'm currently installing PA 4.0 and I'll enable it afterwards. Somehow I doubt my bad experiences from before will be gone but I don't mind getting positively surprised after so many years.

[duby229]

And I thought the primary use case for a sound server is to play sound. Silly me. Do modern audio needs no longer include stutter-free playback of audio?

I'm currently installing PA 4.0 and I'll enable it afterwards. Somehow I doubt my bad experiences from before will be gone but I don't mind getting positively surprised after so many years.

I'd be interested to hear about your experience after you had sufficient time to play with it. If you would post your "feeling" (your sense about quality) about this version in this thread it would be very cool.