Arch Linux

HotDogEnemy

Member

Registered: 2020-11-24

Posts: 72

Playback freeze when changing audio devices with OBS open

Details of my setup before I describe the issue:

- I am using headphones via the front audio port on my desktop PC
- I just recently switched to PipeWire, I haven't tested whether this issue is on PulseAudio too
- I tried both Wayland and X11, issue occurs on both
- Tried KDE on Wayland and X11, and Gnome on Wayland, issue occurs on all of them
- I have three audio devices according to audio settings :
        |_ Analog Stereo Output
        |_ Digital Stereo Output (IEC958)        <----- This is the one I use
        |_ HDMI / DisplayPort GPU audio
   

My issue:

- Audio is initially set to Analog Stereo Output.
- With OBS and a video playback open, everything is OK, OBS also displays audio level in the audio mixer.
- After switching audio device from Analog to Digital output, no sound is present, OBS displays zero audio level. However, video playback still continues as normal.
- On switching back to Analog Output, video playback freezes and needs to be reloaded to fix. However after restarting, OBS displays zero audio level, even though I can hear audio through headphones.
- This can be fixed by restarting OBS, but ideally OBS shouldn't need to be restarted for this to be fixed.
- This can also be reproduced by disconnecting and reconnecting the headphone jack, since that causes the system to switch to Digital Output, and then it switches back to Analog once reconnected.

Other notes:

- Switching from Analog to HDMI audio doesn't seem to cause this bug. It seems these two drivers can coexist, i.e. HDMI can be the selected output device but sound is still present through the Analog Output.
- Switching from Analog to Digital Output and vice versa without OBS being open doesn't cause this issue

In case it is useful, I'm including info from pactl:

$ pactl info
Server String: /run/user/1000/pulse/native
Library Protocol Version: 35
Server Protocol Version: 35
Is Local: yes
Client Index: 152
Tile Size: 65472
User Name: hotdogenemy
Host Name: archlinux
Server Name: PulseAudio (on PipeWire 0.3.35)
Server Version: 15.0.0
Default Sample Specification: float32le 2ch 48000Hz
Default Channel Map: front-left,front-right
Default Sink: alsa_output.pci-0000_00_1f.3.analog-stereo
Default Source: alsa_output.pci-0000_00_1f.3.analog-stereo.monitor
Cookie: b797:caf7

Help would be much appreciated!