Metalic Distortion during MP3 playback with VLC

Nalyd Relwof · 2011-05-07 00:39:44

Thanks in advance for any help that I recieve with this issue! I'm a fairly new Arch user (I have used many other distros in the past), and I am currently up and running with GNOME Shell. I have installed pulseaudio, and the GNOME pulseaudio plugin. The problem I am experiencing is a metallic distortion of any .mp3 file that I play (I don't have any files with a different format) through VLC (though MPlayer worked fine, it wouldn't show a GUI and would not stop playing until a reboot was performed). I followed both the Arch Wiki and the Arch install tutorial provided by This Week in Linux (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=azySq-uBaB8), the video was for GNOME 2.32.x, but many of the steps still worked. Is there something else that I need to install to get it working? Again, any and all help on this problem is greatly appreciated.

Solved: If you are encountering issues with Metalic Distortion through VLC or Teamspeak 3 (or other applications like them), install the pulseaudio-alsa package through Pacman and follow the steps outlined here: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Pu … _crackling . All the credit for this fix goes to the users below this post. Again, thank-you!

Last edited by Nalyd Relwof (2011-05-12 15:53:09)

R00KIE · 2011-05-07 16:32:31

If I'm not wrong the current vlc version has a known bug that affects the output to pulse. For now I've set my vlc to output to SDL, not optimal but it's the one that seems to work better for now.

Nalyd Relwof · 2011-05-07 16:59:02

@Rookie, I did try SDL. It definitely appears to be slightly less distorted, however there is still a lot of distortion. I guess I will have to wait for the next version of VLC to be released. What I have found that works (though it is slower on GNOME Shell, since it uses a GTK 2+ application) is to install all of the Gstreamer plugins and then install Rhythmbox. It works with minimal distortion, and seems to have solved one of two major concerns at this point. The only other is that GNOME Shell is duplicating my menu items. However, it seems that duplication is quite common.

linas · 2011-05-07 17:54:30

Did you install pulseaudio-alsa ?

Have you tried changing the output audio method?

For me, it sometimes shows the distortion, sometimes plays nice and other times it refuses completely to play any sound.

Nalyd Relwof · 2011-05-07 22:52:58

I have not tried that package. Really at this point, VLC is not much of a concern. I used Rhythmbox quite often under Ubuntu and Linux Mint, and it is my favorite media player. As such I am fairly happy with my solution.

jib2 · 2011-05-08 06:43:27

Did you try this?
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Pu … _crackling

Nalyd Relwof · 2011-05-12 15:47:16

jib2 wrote:

Did you try this?
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Pu … _crackling

Yes I did after I found that Teamspeak 3's audio was also metalic and echoing. After I applied all of the changes mentioned here everything is fixed. Thanks for the help everyone!

Last edited by Nalyd Relwof (2011-05-12 15:49:07)

Arch Linux

#1 2011-05-07 00:39:44

Metalic Distortion during MP3 playback with VLC

#2 2011-05-07 16:32:31

Re: Metalic Distortion during MP3 playback with VLC

#3 2011-05-07 16:59:02

Re: Metalic Distortion during MP3 playback with VLC

#4 2011-05-07 17:54:30

Re: Metalic Distortion during MP3 playback with VLC

#5 2011-05-07 22:52:58

Re: Metalic Distortion during MP3 playback with VLC

#6 2011-05-08 06:43:27

Re: Metalic Distortion during MP3 playback with VLC

#7 2011-05-12 15:47:16

Re: Metalic Distortion during MP3 playback with VLC

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