Thanks for not marking the pulseaudio task invalid yet, as I have a theory as to why some applications stutter.
If you can bear with me by installing the Debian unstable versions of libasound2/libasound2-plugins and run pulseaudio in verbose mode, it exposes some odd behaviour for certain applications:
Skype (ALSA version, preconfigured to use the "pulse" device in Options): When you launch Skype, it opens and closes 57 client connections just to play the 3 second "startup" sound (which plays, albeit with stutter). Starting a call to "test123" works, yet it causes about a dozen client connections *per second*. This behaviour does not seem correct to me. I think that my earlier theory re: lowering the buffer helped this situation as each new client connection did not have to wait as long for a buffer to fill, therefore the sound did not appear to stutter as badly.
SDL application using libsdl1.2debian-pulseaudio (i.e. neverball): opens one client connection in PulseAudio that remains stable.
SDL application using libsdl1.2debian-alsa* & configuration from bug #198453: opens and closes approximately two connections per second (much less than Skype, but surely this is not correct behaviour).
(By the way, neither Skype nor SDL applications using the -alsa backend work with Hardy's libasound2/libasound2-plugins).
It seems there is still a problem in PulseAudio and/or the pcm_pulse ALSA plugin (even if updated to Debian's version) that can cause symptoms that appear to be buffer underruns, and should be investigated.
Daniel,
Thanks for not marking the pulseaudio task invalid yet, as I have a theory as to why some applications stutter.
If you can bear with me by installing the Debian unstable versions of libasound2/ libasound2- plugins and run pulseaudio in verbose mode, it exposes some odd behaviour for certain applications:
Skype (ALSA version, preconfigured to use the "pulse" device in Options): When you launch Skype, it opens and closes 57 client connections just to play the 3 second "startup" sound (which plays, albeit with stutter). Starting a call to "test123" works, yet it causes about a dozen client connections *per second*. This behaviour does not seem correct to me. I think that my earlier theory re: lowering the buffer helped this situation as each new client connection did not have to wait as long for a buffer to fill, therefore the sound did not appear to stutter as badly.
SDL application using libsdl1. 2debian- pulseaudio (i.e. neverball): opens one client connection in PulseAudio that remains stable.
SDL application using libsdl1. 2debian- alsa* & configuration from bug #198453: opens and closes approximately two connections per second (much less than Skype, but surely this is not correct behaviour).
(By the way, neither Skype nor SDL applications using the -alsa backend work with Hardy's libasound2/ libasound2- plugins) .
It seems there is still a problem in PulseAudio and/or the pcm_pulse ALSA plugin (even if updated to Debian's version) that can cause symptoms that appear to be buffer underruns, and should be investigated.