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#1 2012-06-03 21:42:03

ohshitgorillas
Member
From: Austin, TX
Registered: 2012-06-03
Posts: 7

S/PDIF out produces static when playing audio, sometimes with video

This is my first install of Arch Linux, and I am a bit of a noob. I started using Arch because I wanted to learn, and it's been absolutely perfect--I actually love it so far, and this is the first major problem I've had. Most of the Arch documentation has been exceptional, however I've been working at this all afternoon and haven't come up with a solution. SO, here goes nothing:

My motherboard has a few analog, S/PDIF optical and coaxial, and HDMI audio outputs as native (although HDMI runs through an onboard Radeon 6xx family card). I use S/PDIF because my receiver doesn't have HDMI inputs.

The specifics:

  • In gnome-alsamixer, I have three tabs: USB Mixer, ATI R6xx HDMI, and Realtek ALC887-VD. The first tab has one PCM volume control, the ATI tab has nothing but a IEC958 checkbox at the bottom, and the Realtek tab has everything from master to input to surround sound settings.

  • In the console alsamixer, going to Select sound card has three options: 0 USB Audio CODEC, 1 HD-Audio Generic, and 2 HDA ATI SB. These correspond to the same three tabs above in the GUI. Selecting 1 shows an SPDIF output with no way to change the volume, only to mute or un-mute. WTF!

  • In GNOME sound settings, Output tab, I have for output selected Built-in Audio Digital Stereo (IEC958) with Connector: Digital Output (S/PDIF) selected at the bottom. In the Hardware tab I've selected Built-in Audio (1 Output, Digital Stereo (IEC958) Output). For some reason this program seems to prefer the first Built-In Audio option, which has two settings: Off, and HDMI audio. I do NOT want to use HDMI audio. It is currently turned off.

Some outputs that might be helpful:

[root@balerion atom]# uname -r 
3.3.7-1-ARCH
[root@balerion atom]# pacman -Q alsa-lib
alsa-lib 1.0.25-1
[root@balerion atom]# lsmod | grep '^snd' | column -t
snd_hda_codec_realtek  114123  1
snd_hda_codec_hdmi     24120   1
snd_usb_audio          93519   1
snd_hda_intel          24021   2
snd_hda_codec          92713   3   snd_hda_intel,snd_hda_codec_hdmi,snd_hda_codec_realtek
snd_hwdep              6556    2   snd_hda_codec,snd_usb_audio
snd_usbmidi_lib        18744   1   snd_usb_audio
snd_rawmidi            18991   1   snd_usbmidi_lib
snd_seq_device         5300    1   snd_rawmidi
snd_pcm                74812   4   snd_hda_codec,snd_hda_intel,snd_usb_audio,snd_hda_codec_hdmi
snd_page_alloc         7217    2   snd_pcm,snd_hda_intel
snd_timer              19222   1   snd_pcm
snd                    59656   17    snd_timer,snd_pcm,snd_seq_device,snd_rawmidi,snd_usbmidi_lib,snd_hwdep,snd_hda_codec,snd_hda_intel,snd_u    sb_audio,snd_hda_codec_hdmi,snd_hda_codec_realtek
[root@balerion atom]# ls -l /dev/snd
total 0
drwxr-xr-x  2 root root       60 Jun  3 12:11 by-id
drwxr-xr-x  2 root root      100 Jun  3 12:11 by-path
crw-rw----+ 1 root audio 116,  4 Jun  3 12:11 controlC0
crw-rw----+ 1 root audio 116,  7 Jun  3 12:11 controlC1
crw-rw----+ 1 root audio 116, 13 Jun  3 12:11 controlC2
crw-rw----+ 1 root audio 116,  6 Jun  3 12:11 hwC1D0
crw-rw----+ 1 root audio 116, 12 Jun  3 12:11 hwC2D0
crw-rw----+ 1 root audio 116,  3 Jun  3 15:42 pcmC0D0c
crw-rw----+ 1 root audio 116,  2 Jun  3 15:42 pcmC0D0p
crw-rw----+ 1 root audio 116,  5 Jun  3 12:48 pcmC1D3p
crw-rw----+ 1 root audio 116, 11 Jun  3 15:42 pcmC2D0c
crw-rw----+ 1 root audio 116, 10 Jun  3 13:20 pcmC2D0p
crw-rw----+ 1 root audio 116,  9 Jun  3 16:04 pcmC2D1p
crw-rw----+ 1 root audio 116,  8 Jun  3 15:42 pcmC2D2c
crw-rw----  1 root audio 116,  1 Jun  3 12:11 seq
crw-rw----+ 1 root audio 116, 33 Jun  3 12:11 timer
[root@balerion atom]# lspci | grep Audio
00:01.1 Audio device: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] nee ATI Wrestler HDMI Audio [Radeon HD 6250/6310]
00:14.2 Audio device: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] nee ATI SBx00 Azalia (Intel HDA) (rev 40)

Has anyone run into anything like this before, and have you emerged victorious? I'll be happy to answer any other questions for more details, of course. Thanks in advance!

Cheers,
atom

edit: skipping around on VLC while playing movies can produce some normal audio after a few seconds of static, however audio files have proven uesless. VLC is the only program that will play them so far and they've all been static.

Last edited by ohshitgorillas (2012-06-03 23:34:11)

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