[Karmic] VLC sound does not reproduce

[Claudio Moretti]

Binary package hint: vlc

VLC does not reproduce sound, neither from a video (that totem plays correctly), neither from an mp3 (flawlessly played from both songbird and rhytmbox).
I have tried a "dpkg-reconfigure vlc vlc-nox vlc-data", but did not work, and also installing vlc-plugin-pulse was useless.
The only sound I can get is a cracking annoying sound that is meant to be (for example) the voice of people speaking in the video.

[wolfen69 (wolfen69)]

This is also happening to me. Sound skips severely if there is any sound at all. Otherwise no sound. Sound works great with every other player and in Firefox.

My integrated audio is: 00:14.2 Audio device: ATI Technologies Inc SBx00 Azalia (Intel HDA)

Let me know if any other info is required.

[Jimmy KR (jimmy-kjaersgaard)]

I have the same bug on an amd64 machine with onboard sound.

I also tried "dpkg-reconfigure vlc vlc-nox vlc-data" as well as installing the pulse plugin without any inprovements.

When vlc is started from terminal with

vlc --verbose 2

I get the following: (there is a lot more output over this part)

[0x1393ec8] mkv demux debug: | | + Seek
[0x1393ec8] mkv demux debug: | - unknown seekhead reference at 375052087
[0x1393ec8] mkv demux debug: | | + Seek
[0x1393ec8] mkv demux debug: | - unknown seekhead reference at 375535914
[0x1393ec8] mkv demux debug: | | + Seek
[0x1393ec8] mkv demux debug: | - unknown seekhead reference at 375860898
[0x1393ec8] mkv demux debug: | | + Seek
[0x1393ec8] mkv demux debug: | - unknown seekhead reference at 376343090
[0x1393ec8] mkv demux debug: | | + Seek
[0x1393ec8] mkv demux debug: | - unknown seekhead reference at 376674480
[0x1393ec8] mkv demux debug: | | + Seek
[0x1393ec8] mkv demux debug: | - unknown seekhead reference at 376919744
[0x1393ec8] mkv demux debug: | | + Seek
[0x1393ec8] mkv demux debug: | - unknown seekhead reference at 377225626
[0x1393ec8] mkv demux debug: | | + Seek
[0x1393ec8] mkv demux debug: | - unknown seekhead reference at 377528555
[0x1393ec8] mkv demux debug: | | + Seek
[0x1393ec8] mkv demux debug: | - unknown seekhead reference at 377747809
[0x1393ec8] mkv demux debug: | | + Seek
[0x1393ec8] mkv demux debug: | - unknown seekhead reference at 377998994
[0x1393ec8] mkv demux debug: | | + Seek
[0x1393ec8] mkv demux debug: | - unknown seekhead reference at 378258871
[0x1393ec8] mkv demux debug: | | + Seek
[0x1393ec8] mkv demux debug: | - unknown seekhead reference at 378691025
[0x1393ec8] mkv demux debug: | | + Seek
[0x1393ec8] mkv demux debug: | - unknown seekhead reference at 379061199
[0x1393ec8] mkv demux debug: | | + Seek
[0x1393ec8] mkv demux debug: | - unknown seekhead reference at 379425643
[0x1393ec8] mkv demux debug: | | + Seek
[0x1393ec8] mkv demux debug: | - unknown seekhead reference at 379797712
[0x1393ec8] mkv demux debug: | | + Seek
[0x1393ec8] mkv demux debug: | - unknown seekhead reference at 380334970
[0x1393ec8] mkv demux debug: | | + Seek
[0x1393ec8] mkv demux debug: | - unknown seekhead reference at 380674304
[0x1393ec8] mkv demux debug: | | + Seek
[0x1393ec8] mkv demux debug: | - unknown seekhead reference at 380961782
[0x1393ec8] mkv demux debug: | | + Seek
[0x1393ec8] mkv demux debug: | - unknown seekhead reference at 381249306
[0x1393ec8] mkv demux debug: | | + Seek
[0x1393ec8] mkv demux debug: | - unknown seekhead reference at 381496070
[0x1393ec8] mkv demux debug: | | + Seek
[0x1393ec8] mkv demux debug: | - unknown seekhead reference at 381666929
[0x1393ec8] mkv demux debug: | | + Seek
[0x1393ec8] mkv demux debug: | - unknown seekhead reference at 381908089
[0x1393ec8] mkv demux debug: | | + Seek
[0x1393ec8] mkv demux debug: | - unknown seekhead reference at 382124473
[0x1393ec8] mkv demux debug: | | + Seek
[0x1393ec8] mkv demux debug: | - unknown seekhead reference at 382303001
[0x1393ec8] mkv demux debug: | | + Se...

[Alejandro Vidal (mancvso)]

same for me, it's a shame such a fast PC without decent DVD playback support...

[Claudio Moretti (flyingstar16)]

Shall we consider this as confirmed?

[Reinhard Tartler (siretart)]

Claudio Moretti <email address hidden> writes:

> Shall we consider this as confirmed?

the description is still poor. it works just fine on my system, FYI. In
any case, this bug needs more investigation.

--
Gruesse/greetings,
Reinhard Tartler, KeyID 945348A4

[Jimmy KR (jimmy-kjaersgaard)]

So, what information is needed to confirm this? How should we test our systems.

Reinhard: What soundcard do you have? - both wolfen69 and I have onboard ATI Azalia.

[Reinhard Tartler (siretart)]

I'm using the alsa driver snd-hda-intel on my laptop.

[Reinhard Tartler (siretart)]

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/SoundTroubleshooting contains more information how to debug sound problems. I'm attaching the output of the alsa-info.sh script that is described there.

for reference: vlc is working just fine for me. Perhaps people with affected hardware could do so as well so that we can compare better what's going on.

[Jimmy KR (jimmy-kjaersgaard)]

ok, here is my output from the script and I will dig some more using the info from the very helpful link from Reinhard.

[Claudio Moretti (flyingstar16)]

This problem is not related to alsa, but to vlc:
Totem, MPlayer, Rhythmbox, Songbird are working fine for me; it's just vlc that does not reproduce/reproduces bad audio.

BTW, my scan from alsa
http://www.alsa-project.org/db/?f=676fe16470e0d1ba5aa5daae164ab3e43daf0a91

[Jimmy KR (jimmy-kjaersgaard)]

Ok, this is a bit embarassing, but I have solved my problems.

I went to vlc preferences and under advanced settings I went to

audio -> output modules -> ALSA

and chose the device I want (hw0:0)

This solved the problem for me and I am able to reproduce the 'bug' by setting the choice back to 'default'

Does this help for you other guys as well?

[Claudio Moretti (flyingstar16)]

-- Does this help for you other guys as well?

Hum.. Yes xD

Now, the question is: WHY? O_o
What is the device vlc is trying to use, if setting to (hw0,1) [Digital] Does not reproduce the error?

[wolfen69 (wolfen69)]

I can confirm that Jimmy KR's suggestion does work. However, selecting (hw0,1) results in no sound whatsoever.

[Aurelijus Pitrėnas (aurelijus-pitrenas)]

Jup sounds lags in VLC. mp3, video, flac what ever.. flac does plays a bit better. The lagging began after update. Before update on karmic alpha 3 playback was perfect.

[Aurelijus Pitrėnas (aurelijus-pitrenas)]

Sorry for doble post but after writing the first one I installed vlc-plugin-pulse and woula- perfect sound playback for me.

p.s. sorry for bad english.

[Florian Schweikert (kelvan)]

Same problem here, sounds buggy with vlc.
Sound speed also isn't constant.
Totem has no problems with sound, but it is worst player for network streaming (vdr).

Using intel-chip (with intern speakers and hdmi)

[Dalle1985 (mortendalgaard)]

So, just to confirm that this bug is still around. I get sound, but it lags. It's not so bad that sound becomes incomprehensible, but it's bad enough to be annoying! I'm using the intel hda driver with Alsa and I to was able to eliminate the problem by forcing VLC to use Alsa as output module with hw:0,0 as the device. That isn't really a solution though! It shouldn't be necessary for people to have to do this simply to get sound to work properly!

Anyway, feel free to ask for any info wanted in order to fix this and I'll be happy to help out with the data...

[phoozle (phoozle)]

I was experiencing a similar problem. VLC would skip or stop for less then a second every so often.

SOLVED the problem by changing the sound output to Pulse instead of ALSA / default.
Tools > Preferences > Audio > Output > Type > Pulse

I can also reproduce the bug by changing the output back to default or ALSA.

[Reinhard Tartler (siretart)]

can be solved by bug #402018. I'm marking therefore this bug as duplicate