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suberimakuri · (This post was last modified: 2016-12-28, 10:17 by suberimakuri.)

HI there,

This has been happening for the past year or so through 15-16-17 betas? I didn't use steam before Kodi version ~15.

I have two computers, both running Debian unstable and steam.
Laptop is client, desktop is host for steam streaming.
Desktop runs steam in the background on boot and also kodi in the foreground. Running on top of a Openbox.
Pulseaudio is installed.

After an indefinite amount of time but normally at least an hour, the sound in the steam game (streamed to) on the laptop starts getting scratchy.
The scratchiness gets stronger and stronger until the audio is completely garbled.

Just recently I alt-tabbed out of steam on the laptop, ssh'd to desktop and killed the kodi process.
The audio in steam instantly restored.

Laptop is i5 haswell. Desktop is i3 + Nvidia 960.

I don't know if this is kernel/pulse/steam/kodi/other error, but any suggestions on where to start would be good.
I will turn on kodi debugging and check the log and also check dmesg for next time.
I've never had scratchy sound just using kodi on the desktop.

It's no big deal for me.

**fritsch** · 2016-10-03, 21:52

Can you post your kodi.log? Do you force kodi to ALSA by chance? Cause that way, it's quite clear what happens.

suberimakuri · 2016-10-04, 20:02

Thanks for this fritsch.

I tried last night to reproduce but only played steam for ~1 hour and sound was fine.
I'm pretty sure it is closer to 2 hours that it happens as I have kodi shutdown timer at 120 minutes.
If I don't press a key on the host keyboard then it will suspend (shutdown action) at the 120 minute mark, regardless of steam running in the background.
I normally remember to press a key, or I quit kodi first (then no problem with sound).

Because I couldn't reproduce last night I haven't attached the log.
I did use ALSA in the past, but found it a pain with HDMI audio.
I now use Pulseaudio and in Kodi Settings Audio, I have it set to Pulseaudio Default Device.
Sometimes I have to change it specifically to Nvidia device (PCIe graphics card) after resuming from suspend.
Then after the next suspend I might have to change it back to default.
The motherboard has onboard HDMI as well and IEC etc, so they are listed as options.
I think sometimes Pulse might not see the nvidia card in time after resuming and puts the onboard HDMI or IEC as default device.
Apart from some key bindings and buffer settings I don't have anything set manually in config files (re: do you force kodi to ALSA).

Sorry I've expanded upon this with a couple other quirks.
Please let me know if you would still like me to send a log and I'll do a fresh one tonight or tomorrow.

**fritsch** · 2016-10-04, 20:11

Suspend, resume is not supported by kodi. Make sure pa is up correctly when resuming, this will cause massive issues. Alsa an pa in parralel accessing the same device

suberimakuri · 2016-10-06, 06:51

Yeah, suspend works well though. Was a bit hairy when first changed to systemd and some of the early pm-utils stuff, but has been good, especially running under openbox session rather than directly. (Openbox done for steam).

I thought had removed ALSA but have just noticed it is also installed. It didn't show in Audio list.
I've removed it now (alsa*) so we'll see what happens.
Thanks again.

**fritsch** · 2016-10-06, 07:43

You cannot remove alsa. Pa uses it under the hood.

suberimakuri · 2016-10-06, 09:57

I seem to have something weird then or perhaps another package is there.
Normally with pulse just need a mixer like pavucontrol to choose output device and mix/volume control/etc.
Youtube works fine on laptop after removal. .
On desktop, after removal of alsa, steam audio fine and was just watching video on kodi.

laptop:~$ apt-cache policy alsa-base
alsa-base:
Installed: (none)
Candidate: 1.0.27+1
Version table:
1.0.27+1 650
650 http://ftp.nz.debian.org/debian sid/main amd64 Packages

**fritsch** · 2016-10-06, 10:02

lol. Oki.

Post a Kodi.log please.

suberimakuri · (This post was last modified: 2016-12-28, 10:17 by suberimakuri.)

So I finally got to test this out over a couple of hours.
Scratchy sound started so I killed Kodi process... sound went back to normal.

Then... sound got scratchy again, so I changed sound output in the steam game to something else and then back again.
Sound went back to normal.

Sound got scratchy again some time later, changed sound device in steam game to something else and then back again...

So... not Kodi, likely steam/pulse bug.
Sorry to waste your time, appreciate help and kodi software. Cheers.

Have marked as resolved for now.