Arch Linux

ArchMed

Member

Registered: 2011-08-27

Posts: 20

Frequent pauses when playing video - ? ALSA issue.

Hi,

I have had a persistent issue after issuing a full system upgrade on my system in December. The issue occurs when playing a video using either Mplayer or VLC. I do not have any issue playing flash video from youtube using a browser even at high resolutions nor do I have any issues playing audio only using vlc, mplayer, totem or rhythmbox.

Running mplayer from a terminal gives the following error at each pause / glitch:
AO_ALSA] Write error: Broken pipe
[AO_ALSA] Trying to reset soundcard.

Similarly running vlc from a terminal provides the following error at each pause / glitch:
[0x7fe71c000b78] main input error: ES_OUT_SET_(GROUP_)PCR  is called too late (pts_delay increased to 692 ms)
[0x7fe71c000b78] main input error: ES_OUT_RESET_PCR called
warning: first frame is no keyframe

 
==========================================================================
==========================================================================
Opening audio decoder: [mpg123] MPEG 1.0/2.0/2.5 layers I, II, III
AUDIO: 48000 Hz, 2 ch, s16le, 32.0 kbit/2.08% (ratio: 4000->192000)
Selected audio codec: [mpg123] afm: mpg123 (MPEG 1.0/2.0/2.5 layers I, II, III)
==========================================================================
AO: [alsa] 48000Hz 2ch s16le (2 bytes per sample)
Starting playback...
Movie-Aspect is 1.77:1 - prescaling to correct movie aspect.
VO: [xv] 624x352 => 624x352 Planar YV12 
A:   5.5 V:   5.5 A-V:  0.000 ct: -0.031 133/133  4%  0%  0.5% 0 0 
[AO_ALSA] Write error: Broken pipe
[AO_ALSA] Trying to reset soundcard.
A:   7.1 V:   7.1 A-V:  0.000 ct: -0.031 171/171  4%  0% 11.0% 7 0 
[AO_ALSA] Write error: Broken pipe
[AO_ALSA] Trying to reset soundcard.
A:   8.5 V:   8.6 A-V: -0.001 ct: -0.030 206/206  4%  0% 32.0% 15 0 
[AO_ALSA] Write error: Broken pipe
[AO_ALSA] Trying to reset soundcard.
A:  16.2 V:  16.2 A-V:  0.000 ct: -0.031 389/389  4%  0% 29.1% 22 0 

Can anyone provide suggestions of how I may begin to address this. I tried google and searched the forum here but I was not able to find anything that helped.

I also just did a fresh install of Arch Linux x86_64 and the problem still persists in the same way.

Running Arch Linux x86_64, Nvidia Quadro 512MB graphics, Intel® Core™2 Duo CPU T9400 @ 2.53GHz, 4GB RAM, Intel Sound

Last edited by ArchMed (2012-02-26 14:34:30)

brebs

Member

Registered: 2007-04-03

Posts: 3,742

Re: Frequent pauses when playing video - ? ALSA issue.

Intel Sound

Do the usual thing: Find a model= parameter that works.

Bonus points if you inform the ALSA devs after finding something that works, so they can fix ALSA for the next poor user with the same model of soundcard.

ArchMed

Member

Registered: 2011-08-27

Posts: 20

Re: Frequent pauses when playing video - ? ALSA issue.

@ brebs - Thank you.

I'll look into reporting the bug to the ALSA guys. In the interim for others who may have the same issue with a HP8730W laptop which uses snd_hda_intel and Analog Devices AD1984A.

These are the changes I had to make. The model=laptop alone did not appear to fix the issue however when I used it with the Position Fix it seems to resolve the issue.

Edit the file /etc/modprobe.d/alsa.conf and include the following.

File: /etc/modprobe.d/alsa.conf

options snd slots=snd_hda_intel
options snd-hda-intel model=laptop
options snd-hda-intel position_fix=1

I tested MPlayer for 5 minutes with no issues and similarly for VLC.

Last edited by ArchMed (2012-02-26 18:02:58)

ArchMed

Member

Registered: 2011-08-27

Posts: 20

Re: Frequent pauses when playing video - ? ALSA issue.

For some strange reason the problem has begun recurring after about 20 minutes. I did not upgrade or change any files. This is truly strange.
Any other recommendations?

/proc/asound/cards

 0 [Intel          ]: HDA-Intel - HDA Intel
                      HDA Intel at 0xdb320000 irq 49

/etc/asound.conf

# Use PulseAudio by default
pcm.!default {
  type pulse
  fallback "sysdefault"
  hint {
    show on
    description "Default ALSA Output (currently PulseAudio Sound Server)"
  }
}

ctl.!default {
  type pulse
  fallback "sysdefault"
}

# vim:set ft=alsaconf:

aplay -L

null
    Discard all samples (playback) or generate zero samples (capture)
pulse
    PulseAudio Sound Server
default
    Default ALSA Output (currently PulseAudio Sound Server)
sysdefault:CARD=Intel
    HDA Intel, AD198x Analog
    Default Audio Device
front:CARD=Intel,DEV=0
    HDA Intel, AD198x Analog
    Front speakers
surround40:CARD=Intel,DEV=0
    HDA Intel, AD198x Analog
    4.0 Surround output to Front and Rear speakers
surround41:CARD=Intel,DEV=0
    HDA Intel, AD198x Analog
    4.1 Surround output to Front, Rear and Subwoofer speakers
surround50:CARD=Intel,DEV=0
    HDA Intel, AD198x Analog
    5.0 Surround output to Front, Center and Rear speakers
surround51:CARD=Intel,DEV=0
    HDA Intel, AD198x Analog
    5.1 Surround output to Front, Center, Rear and Subwoofer speakers
surround71:CARD=Intel,DEV=0
    HDA Intel, AD198x Analog
    7.1 Surround output to Front, Center, Side, Rear and Woofer speakers

Last edited by ArchMed (2012-02-26 18:20:11)

brebs

Member

Registered: 2007-04-03

Posts: 3,742

Re: Frequent pauses when playing video - ? ALSA issue.

Could try the latest Ubuntu LiveCD, see if that works, and if so, what their modprobe parameters are. E.g.:

for n in $(ls /sys/module/snd_hda_intel/parameters/) ; do echo "$n: $(cat /sys/module/snd_hda_intel/parameters/$n)" ; done

Also, could try alsa-driver, rather than the in-kernel ALSA.