Audio quality issue when playing video files in mpd

darnir · 2012-08-11 08:34:19

I have been using mpd for a long time now and absolutely love it.
However, I recently added a few video files to the mpd database. Now I understand mpd won't play the video files, I don't want it to.

But when mpd plays the audio track of the video file, there is a lot of static noise in the output. My other audio files work perfectly with mpd. As do these video files in other players like mplayer and vlc.
This leads me to conclude that the audio track on these videos is not of bad quality. There is something wrong in the way mpd handles them.

Can anyone suggest what might be wrong and how I can resolve it?
Yes, I know I could rip the audio tracks out of my video files and play them using mpd, but I would rather fix this issue with mpd than do that. Just a matter of choice.

Lyle · 2012-08-11 08:39:57

Have you added mpd to the daemons array?

Rasi · 2012-08-11 08:48:34

Lyle wrote:

Have you added mpd to the daemons array?

I dont see how this is related.

To the original question: How have you set up your resampling with mpd? Video files have a samplerate of 48hz whereas audio files usally have 44.1hz.

darnir · 2012-08-11 09:23:04

@Rasi: I think I did resample it. I'll check my mpd.conf as soon as I get to my system and let you know.
Though it is highly likely you've hit bulls eye. Thanks!

darnir · 2012-08-11 13:51:28

I checked. My mpd.conf has this:

 audio_output_format             "48000:16:2"

However, the video whose audio track I am trying to play uses the audio codec MPEG AAC Audio with a sample rate of 44.1 kHz.

If I comment out the above audio_output_format line in my mpd.conf, mpd consumes above 30% processor time on my machine. With the line as it is, mpd consumes 3-4% with no noticeable loss in quality. Even commenting the line out didn't help in my problem.. I tried..
And setting the output format to 44.1kHz makes mpd take 40% and above CPU resources!

Last edited by darnir (2012-08-11 14:01:17)

Rasi · 2012-08-11 15:37:34

this is surley odd, since mpd uses ffmpeg for decoding video material, same as mplayer does. whats your version of mpd?

ah, one more thing to try. disable software mixing for a try.

Last edited by Rasi (2012-08-11 15:37:55)

Arch Linux

#1 2012-08-11 08:34:19

Audio quality issue when playing video files in mpd

#2 2012-08-11 08:39:57

Re: Audio quality issue when playing video files in mpd

#3 2012-08-11 08:48:34

Re: Audio quality issue when playing video files in mpd

#4 2012-08-11 09:23:04

Re: Audio quality issue when playing video files in mpd

#5 2012-08-11 13:51:28

Re: Audio quality issue when playing video files in mpd

#6 2012-08-11 15:37:34

Re: Audio quality issue when playing video files in mpd

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