Arch Linux

userlander

Member

Registered: 2008-08-23

Posts: 413

weird "chirping" issue with mpd

Since upgrading my processor to an intel quad, mp3s that I play through mpd now all have this chirping sound happening intermittently throughout the track, especially seeming to get worse when I do something else like open a new web page or an application. I tried the same tracks in XMMS and they don't do it there. mpd was working fine with my A64.

Has anyone encountered this before? I did a search for "mpd" and "chirp," but I don't really know what to call it. It's like a little high-pitched artifact. These aren't crappy lo-bit mp3s, either. I ripped and encoded these myself with lame at 320kbps. I'm still testing other players, but right now it's only in mpd.

Wintervenom

Member

Registered: 2008-08-20

Posts: 1,011

Re: weird "chirping" issue with mpd

Buffering issues?

GogglesGuy

Member

From: Rocket City

Registered: 2005-03-29

Posts: 610

Website

Re: weird "chirping" issue with mpd

http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=63236 ?

userlander

Member

Registered: 2008-08-23

Posts: 413

Re: weird "chirping" issue with mpd

http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=63236 ?

hmm, interesting. It's similar to those regarding application use, but the sound is different. It's a chirping sound kind of like when you chirp your car door lock, and it happens pretty much randomly throughout the track.

It's worse on lower bitrate (or poorly encoded I guess) mp3s (ones I downloaded -- but it was a long time ago, I swear! ), and it seems to get worse when doing something else. I can reliably get it to chirp when I open rox filer, for example, and multiple chirps when opening gimp. I tested multiple mp3s in xmms, quodlibet, mpg123, and mpd (sonata), and it only happens in mpd/sonata.

@Winter: How can I check buffering issues?

The mpd error.log has a bunch of errors about not being able to open ffmpeg for some reason (?). I was doing some video encoding with ffmpeg after that, but why would that get written to the mpd log?

Last edited by userlander (2009-01-27 03:22:50)

userlander

Member

Registered: 2008-08-23

Posts: 413

Re: weird "chirping" issue with mpd

Bumping this up. I increased the mpd buffer from 2048 to 4096 and the chirping is still there, but maybe improved slightly. To what amount is it reasonable or safe to increase the buffer?

userlander

Member

Registered: 2008-08-23

Posts: 413

Re: weird "chirping" issue with mpd

Well, increasing the buffer maybe helped a little, but the problem is still there. I tried ncmpc in case it was because of sonata, but no better. I'm just putting this down as an unknown bug with mpd/kernel/buffering and quad cpus.

NVS

Member

Registered: 2007-12-30

Posts: 29

Re: weird "chirping" issue with mpd

Are you using onboard audio via your motherboard? If so I'd imagine it's interference from input devices, etc.

userlander

Member

Registered: 2008-08-23

Posts: 413

Re: weird "chirping" issue with mpd

Are you using onboard audio via your motherboard? If so I'd imagine it's interference from input devices, etc.

No, a turtle beach santa cruz card. The chirping doesn't happen in any other player I've tried (xmms, quodlibet, flashplugin), and didn't happen in mpd until I upgraded to the q6600. Before this I had an A64 3200+ and mpd worked fine.