[Z97X-UD3H, ATI R6xx HDMI, Digital Out, HDMI] Sound quality over HDMI very poor at times.

[mattiasje]

Frequently, I suffer from pops when playing audio over HDMI to my home cinema receiver. Stereo or 5.1 output doesn't matter, the pops happen regardless. The pops can go from a small one every few seconds, to constant loud pops. At times, all sound can also become muffled and have an unpleasant static tone. It's horrible, worse than the worst popping. Other times sound can be fine, sometimes for hours, but the pops always come back. I'm not experiencing any pops when switching to line out, although my testing here is limited.

The problem started months ago, either in 18.10 or 18.04, and my impression is that it's even worse in 19.04. Certainly, the complete staticy mangling of all sound that occasionally happens is new. When the sound starts acting up, it can fixed sometimes partially, sometimes in whole, by switching between outputs and output configurations, and then switching back. It is also my impression that using multiple programs that play sound at the same time will have a high risk of triggering, and worsening, the problem.

I don't think it's my home cinema receiver, as it works as it should with my several video game consoles. It was also flawless in Ubuntu 6 months ago. It's not my GPU or its drivers, as I have had the same problem with both Nvidia and AMD.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 19.04
Package: alsa-base 1.0.25+dfsg-0ubuntu5
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 5.0.0-13.14-generic 5.0.6
Uname: Linux 5.0.0-13-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.20.10-0ubuntu27
Architecture: amd64
AudioDevicesInUse:
 USER PID ACCESS COMMAND
 /dev/snd/controlC0: mattias 13111 F.... pulseaudio
 /dev/snd/controlC1: mattias 13111 F.... pulseaudio
 /dev/snd/pcmC1D7p: mattias 13111 F...m pulseaudio
CurrentDesktop: ubuntu:GNOME
Date: Tue Apr 30 10:50:11 2019
InstallationDate: Installed on 2019-04-26 (3 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 19.04 "Disco Dingo" - Release amd64 (20190416)
PackageArchitecture: all
SourcePackage: alsa-driver
Symptom: audio
Symptom_AlsaPlaybackTest: ALSA playback test through plughw:Generic failed
Symptom_Card: HD-Audio Generic - HD-Audio Generic
Symptom_Jack: Digital Out, HDMI
Symptom_Type: Digital clip or distortion, or "overdriven" sound
Title: [Z97X-UD3H, ATI R6xx HDMI, Digital Out, HDMI] Sound is distorted
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)
dmi.bios.date: 04/25/2014
dmi.bios.vendor: American Megatrends Inc.
dmi.bios.version: F4
dmi.board.asset.tag: To be filled by O.E.M.
dmi.board.name: Z97X-UD3H-CF
dmi.board.vendor: Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd.
dmi.board.version: x.x
dmi.chassis.asset.tag: To Be Filled By O.E.M.
dmi.chassis.type: 3
dmi.chassis.vendor: Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd.
dmi.chassis.version: To Be Filled By O.E.M.
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnAmericanMegatrendsInc.:bvrF4:bd04/25/2014:svnGigabyteTechnologyCo.,Ltd.:pnZ97X-UD3H:pvrTobefilledbyO.E.M.:rvnGigabyteTechnologyCo.,Ltd.:rnZ97X-UD3H-CF:rvrx.x:cvnGigabyteTechnologyCo.,Ltd.:ct3:cvrToBeFilledByO.E.M.:
dmi.product.family: To be filled by O.E.M.
dmi.product.name: Z97X-UD3H
dmi.product.sku: To be filled by O.E.M.
dmi.product.version: To be filled by O.E.M.
dmi.sys.vendor: Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd.

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

Thank you for reporting this bug to Ubuntu.
Ubuntu 19.04 (disco) reached end-of-life on January 23, 2020.

See this document for currently supported Ubuntu releases:
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Releases

We appreciate that this bug may be old and you might not be interested in discussing it any more. But if you are then please upgrade to the latest Ubuntu version and re-test. If you then find the bug is still present in the newer Ubuntu version, please add a comment here telling us which new version it is in and change the bug status to Confirmed.