rhythmbox sound "skips" or cust out randomly for fraction of second

[Greylander]

Binary package hint: rhythmbox

Ubuntu 9.04
Rhythmbox 0.12.0

During playback, the sound cuts out for a fraction of a second at random intervals, roughly once per minute (several times in a typical song).

This is in 64-bit Jaunty with built-in motherboard audio. This is not an issue of system resource (4 cpu's, 8GB ram, and looking at system monitor, nowhere near even a single cpu being used).

This seems to be rhythmbox specific problem, I have tried several other music players wihtout duplicating the problem. For example movie player and the mouse-over audio preview (both use totem) playback normally. I can play song in rhymbox and it will cut out several times, play same song in movie player plays perfectly, then back to rhythmbox and cuts out several times. I have also tried banshee, songbird and gmusicbrowser -- none of them has this problem.

The times when it cuts out are definitely random -- play same song it happens at different places. Occasionally makes it through a song without it happening, but usually happens about once per minute or 2-5 times in a 3-4 minute song.

This must be at least somewhat specific to my system, as a problem like this could not have made it to release if it was common.

ProblemType: Bug
Architecture: amd64
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 9.04
ExecutablePath: /usr/bin/rhythmbox
Package: rhythmbox 0.12.0-0ubuntu4
ProcEnviron:
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: rhythmbox
Uname: Linux 2.6.28-16-generic x86_64

[Greylander (greylander)]

Clarification: when I say "skip" or "cut out", it seems that the sound itself cuts out, but playback continues -- it does not seem to be a pause BUT I am not entirely certain of my perception. The "skips" usually last for a fraction of a second, but sometimes can be as much as 1-2 seconds.

[Greylander (greylander)]

Here is a debug log. This is from playing a 10 minute song. It skipped several times during playback. No idea if the log will show anything unusual.

?field.comment=Here is a debug log. This is from playing a 10 minute song. It skipped several times during playback. No idea if the log will show anything unusual.

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

Thank you for your bug report. The issue is an upstream one and it would be nice if somebody having it could send the bug the to the people writting the software (https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Bugs/Upstream/GNOME)

[Greylander (greylander)]

How do you determine that the bug is upstream in Gnome?

Are you suggesting that if I run rhythmbox under KDE, for example, that this problem would disappear?

As I noted in the initial report, out of five other music players, this bug only affects rhythmbox, so if it is a problem with Gnome, then it is a peculiar problem that only seems to impact rhythmbox. That seems to make it a rhythmbox problem.

I would be happy to report the problem to the correct place. However, if the real cause of the problem is in Gnome, I do not know how you have determined that, so I wouldn't really know what to report on the Gnome side, other than "Hey, here is a problem that so far as I know only affects rhythmbox, but they tell me it is really a Gnome bug."

So if you have direct knowledge of a mistake in the Gnome source code, or of how Gnome fails to implement some behind-the-scenes protocol correctly, then you are in a much better position to report the bug than I am.

I just did a quick search, and the closest gnome bug I found was: https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=581936

However, I do not believe that this is the same problem. The skips I am refering to are not caused by any other activity (at least no other obvious activity). Opening windows, starting new applications, activity in other applications, etc,, generally does not cause any skipping (but maybe once in a great while). The problem that I am describing happens with rhythmbox in the foreground, and while I am not doing anything else.

I will be happy to report the bug in Gnome, but if I link it here can you followup with a comment explaining to them what the real problem is? Alternatively, if you could report a bug in Gnome and link to it here, I will be happy to followup with any useful diagnostics for reproducing the problem and determining the cause.

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

> How do you determine that the bug is upstream in Gnome?

> Are you suggesting that if I run rhythmbox under KDE, for example, that this problem would disappear?

No, the bug is a rhythmbox one and rhythmbox upstream is GNOME, Ubuntu is only distributing the software, since we have no change that should create a such issue the bug is likely an upstream one

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

the bug could also be a system load one or a pulseaudio latency one but that should impact on other players like totem too if that was the case there

[Greylander (greylander)]

I am fairly certain it is not a system load issue --- I have 4 cpu's and 8MB ram, and I have observed using system monitor when the problem occurs and I can see no indication of any other process using resources at the time of the "skips".

It is also highly unlikely to be a pulseaudio issue, because the problem does not occur with the other music players.

I did not use rhythmbox prior to Jaunty, so I do not know if this is a problem as of a new version of Gnome or Ubuntu with no change in rhythmbox. For all I know this problem could exist with earlier version of either Gnome or Rhythmbox.

I could take the time to try different combinations of versions of rhythmbox & ubuntu.

I am quite new to this. Can you point me to information on how to obtain and install earlier releases of rhythmbox? (I'm sure I can figure it out on my own, but any links to information that will speed up the process would be appreciated).

Also, I have looked more closely at the discussion in the Gnome bug report I linked above -- I now think that it may be the same or related bug to this one. I will comment there and provide a link to this bug.

[Greylander (greylander)]

I commented about this bug in the Gnome bug report mentioned above. The Gnome developers decided to create a new bug for it as a potentially new/distinct problem.

Here is the Gnome bug report:

      https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=601662

[plikplok (plikplok)]

Same problem with Ubuntu 10.10 (Maverick Meerkat) and rhythmbox 0.13.1

[Skuggi (agust)]

Samehere with Linux Mint Debian edition. Seems to be fixed by installing Audacious.

[Skuggi (agust)]

Well talked to soon, got the skips also with Audacious, I actually had to install Banshee along with few other players. The playback is better but still not perfect. Very strange.

[bartgenuit (bartgenuit)]

Same problem with Ubuntu 10.04 and Rhythmbox 0.12.8, not sure if it's only in Rhythmbox though..