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#1 2012-09-15 18:58:18

Shingetsu
Member
Registered: 2012-09-15
Posts: 27

Alsa/PulseAudio vs OSSv4

Hello all,

I'm very happy with my Arch desktop right now, but I've noticed that my ALSA/Pulseaudio setup had high latency (obviously, but the Pidgin bleep has a 4-6 second delay, so one might say _very_ high). I've done some reading, notably:

(there were a few more pages, but these are the most relevant ones).

Based on my reading, OSSv4 can provide, by itself, nearly everything I expect from ALSA/PulseAudio, with a much lower latency.
In case I missed something, I'll state my needs here:

  • Per-Application volume control

  • Ability to select a "default" sound card which will be the only one receiving output

  • Preferably low latency to avoid delays

  • USB support (I have a USB headset)

(edit:) As well as decent Wine support. Pulse has mediocre support in Wine (emulating win7 makes it better in a lot of cases, but still not alike to basic ALSA), and I've heard Wine has good OSS support but couldn't find similar info on the wine wiki.

So would I actually gain anything from trying OSSv4 instead of ALSA/Pulse? If so, as seen in the Debian link, it appears that OSSv4 removes ALSA on installation (which can mess up the kernel), so (if there are still such problems), what is the best way of switching.

Thank you for your time.

Last edited by Shingetsu (2012-09-15 19:05:40)

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#2 2012-09-15 19:05:48

tomegun
Developer
From: France
Registered: 2010-05-28
Posts: 661

Re: Alsa/PulseAudio vs OSSv4

Two things to consider:

* ALSA/Pulse should give latencies of less than 20ms just fine, so there is something strange happening (maybe fixing that is the easiest solution?)
* OSS4 was just dropped to the AUR a few days ago, so there won't be any more packages unless you compile them yourself.

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#3 2012-09-15 19:23:57

Shingetsu
Member
Registered: 2012-09-15
Posts: 27

Re: Alsa/PulseAudio vs OSSv4

tomegun wrote:

Two things to consider:
* ALSA/Pulse should give latencies of less than 20ms just fine, so there is something strange happening (maybe fixing that is the easiest solution?)

It usually does, however in some programs (e.g. pidgin, wine) sound can be delayed/buggy. I'm simply wondering if OSS4 would perform better (as it's one single package it won't pass stuff around while still giving me what I want).

tomegun wrote:

* OSS4 was just dropped to the AUR a few days ago, so there won't be any more packages unless you compile them yourself.

I noticed that oss4 is installed from the AUR, but building stuff isn't really that scary, especially if it's supported. However I did notice that the "oss" package in the AUR is a "flashplayer for OSSv4" (uh-oh!) so I'd have to try and find the right package.

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#4 2012-09-16 11:28:41

tomegun
Developer
From: France
Registered: 2010-05-28
Posts: 661

Re: Alsa/PulseAudio vs OSSv4

Shingetsu wrote:

building stuff isn't really that scary, especially if it's supported.

What I meant to say is that it is not supported any longer, that is why it was dropped. It might work of course, but no dev is using/testing it any more.

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#5 2012-09-17 00:03:04

nomorewindows
Member
Registered: 2010-04-03
Posts: 3,362

Re: Alsa/PulseAudio vs OSSv4

Shingetsu wrote:
tomegun wrote:

Two things to consider:
* ALSA/Pulse should give latencies of less than 20ms just fine, so there is something strange happening (maybe fixing that is the easiest solution?)

It usually does, however in some programs (e.g. pidgin, wine) sound can be delayed/buggy. I'm simply wondering if OSS4 would perform better (as it's one single package it won't pass stuff around while still giving me what I want).

tomegun wrote:

* OSS4 was just dropped to the AUR a few days ago, so there won't be any more packages unless you compile them yourself.

I noticed that oss4 is installed from the AUR, but building stuff isn't really that scary, especially if it's supported. However I did notice that the "oss" package in the AUR is a "flashplayer for OSSv4" (uh-oh!) so I'd have to try and find the right package.

Using OSS, you may still need flashplayer for OSS.  I couldn't even get sound through the browser without it.


I may have to CONSOLE you about your usage of ridiculously easy graphical interfaces...
Look ma, no mouse.

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