Audio in the latest nightly of Frodo
#1
I made the mistake of upgrading from 20121220 to 20130103, and now audio doesn't work. With both devices set to NVidia HDMI and navigation sounds off, I get PCM audio but no passthrough.

I hate to be rude, but this doesn't seem like freaking rocket science: most of these problems would be solved if XBMC would just keep the audio device CLOSED unless it is actively playing something. Consider an obvious option like "Open audio device only when playing content" or "Close audio device when not in use". My problems started when I upgraded in a vain attempt to get audio working in mupen64plus when launched from XBMC, but of course XBMC hogs the audio device, making this impossible; little did I know that by upgrading I would screw up my HTPC function, as well. WHY does XBMC keep the audio device open in the menus even when navigation sounds are turned off? It makes no sense. This would mostly avoid the race conditions resulting from closing the PCM device and then opening the passthrough device before the lock is released, which I highly suspect is the problem here.
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#2
Been a problem for over a month
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#3
(2013-01-05, 07:37)squarooticus Wrote: I made the mistake of upgrading from 20121220 to 20130103, and now audio doesn't work. With both devices set to NVidia HDMI and navigation sounds off, I get PCM audio but no passthrough.

I hate to be rude, but this doesn't seem like freaking rocket science: most of these problems would be solved if XBMC would just keep the audio device CLOSED unless it is actively playing something. Consider an obvious option like "Open audio device only when playing content" or "Close audio device when not in use". My problems started when I upgraded in a vain attempt to get audio working in mupen64plus when launched from XBMC, but of course XBMC hogs the audio device, making this impossible; little did I know that by upgrading I would screw up my HTPC function, as well. WHY does XBMC keep the audio device open in the menus even when navigation sounds are turned off? It makes no sense. This would mostly avoid the race conditions resulting from closing the PCM device and then opening the passthrough device before the lock is released, which I highly suspect is the problem here.

I have noticed that using XBMC is quite easy if you don't change audio settings in it. I just tells it where to play the audio, and I change the settings in other programs. The problem is not really XBMC (I think) it's rather a Linux audio problem. Launch the applications under the same user (or same group) and this don't happen.

For example, I have alsa running the XBMC audio, and it is impossible to run the MPD server on the same audio, I change MPD to run on Pulse audio and that they are the same user (same PID in Linux) and the audio works like a charm.

However, your problem maybe is greater, I havent tried your setup with those programs you are running.
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#4
Not sure how youre launching your emulators but Rom Collection Browser (I think AdvancedLauncher too) has a solo mode that exits xbmc, launches your emulator then relaunches xbmc once the emulator is closed...
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#5
Look, at this point I just want to get *videos* playing again: screw RCB (for which solo mode doesn't seem to work in Frodo), Advanced Launcher, mupen64plus, and everything else on this machine other than playing media. I may just have to accept that XBMC will not play well with others. Unfortunately, since the repository seems to have blown away any builds earlier than the broken 20130103 build, I'm currently building git commit d4d9b3eeb6453df2f4316a6ff13c64eae7c0c56e (a day prior to the latest audio engine pull).

I appreciate that this is a volunteer project and that I'm paying nothing for this, but as a professional software engineer for two decades, breaking basic functionality in the public build would embarrass me greatly. It's shocking that there isn't simple functional testing for basic features like sound before changes hit master. I do not exactly have an exotic setup: an older Zotac NVidia ION barebones system with a single HDMI cable to my receiver.
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#6
(2013-01-05, 16:24)squarooticus Wrote: Look, at this point I just want to get *videos* playing again: screw RCB (for which solo mode doesn't seem to work in Frodo), Advanced Launcher, mupen64plus, and everything else on this machine other than playing media. I may just have to accept that XBMC will not play well with others. Unfortunately, since the repository seems to have blown away any builds earlier than the broken 20130103 build, I'm currently building git commit d4d9b3eeb6453df2f4316a6ff13c64eae7c0c56e (a day prior to the latest audio engine pull).

I appreciate that this is a volunteer project and that I'm paying nothing for this, but as a professional software engineer for two decades, breaking basic functionality in the public build would embarrass me greatly. It's shocking that there isn't simple functional testing for basic features like sound before changes hit master. I do not exactly have an exotic setup: an older Zotac NVidia ION barebones system with a single HDMI cable to my receiver.

Well with your two decades of being a software engineer and your conclusion that it's an easy fix, go ahead and submit the code/patches to git to fix it. Rolleyes
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#7
(2013-01-05, 19:47)Aenima99x Wrote:
(2013-01-05, 16:24)squarooticus Wrote: Look, at this point I just want to get *videos* playing again: screw RCB (for which solo mode doesn't seem to work in Frodo), Advanced Launcher, mupen64plus, and everything else on this machine other than playing media. I may just have to accept that XBMC will not play well with others. Unfortunately, since the repository seems to have blown away any builds earlier than the broken 20130103 build, I'm currently building git commit d4d9b3eeb6453df2f4316a6ff13c64eae7c0c56e (a day prior to the latest audio engine pull).

I appreciate that this is a volunteer project and that I'm paying nothing for this, but as a professional software engineer for two decades, breaking basic functionality in the public build would embarrass me greatly. It's shocking that there isn't simple functional testing for basic features like sound before changes hit master. I do not exactly have an exotic setup: an older Zotac NVidia ION barebones system with a single HDMI cable to my receiver.

Well with your two decades of being a software engineer and your conclusion that it's an easy fix, go ahead and submit the code/patches to git to fix it. Rolleyes

ding ding ding +++++1
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#8
Passthrough audio flat out doesn't work
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#9
(2013-01-05, 21:22)mudwater Wrote: Passthrough audio flat out doesn't work

Mine works
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#10
(2013-01-05, 21:24)Martijn Wrote:
(2013-01-05, 21:22)mudwater Wrote: Passthrough audio flat out doesn't work

Mine works

Let me rephrase, Passthrough audio does not work with Dolby or dts audio on 12.10 with Pulseaudio install. Video plays fast, its been a problem for many people ever since Frodo went Beta and has continued to be a problem in the RC releases. Nightlies before that worked great.
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#11
(2013-01-05, 19:47)Aenima99x Wrote:
(2013-01-05, 16:24)squarooticus Wrote: Look, at this point I just want to get *videos* playing again: screw RCB (for which solo mode doesn't seem to work in Frodo), Advanced Launcher, mupen64plus, and everything else on this machine other than playing media. I may just have to accept that XBMC will not play well with others. Unfortunately, since the repository seems to have blown away any builds earlier than the broken 20130103 build, I'm currently building git commit d4d9b3eeb6453df2f4316a6ff13c64eae7c0c56e (a day prior to the latest audio engine pull).

I appreciate that this is a volunteer project and that I'm paying nothing for this, but as a professional software engineer for two decades, breaking basic functionality in the public build would embarrass me greatly. It's shocking that there isn't simple functional testing for basic features like sound before changes hit master. I do not exactly have an exotic setup: an older Zotac NVidia ION barebones system with a single HDMI cable to my receiver.

Well with your two decades of being a software engineer and your conclusion that it's an easy fix, go ahead and submit the code/patches to git to fix it. Rolleyes

Herp derp. Besides, I never said this particular problem (whatever changed to break my audio) would be easily fixed. I did suggest that a lot of these audio problems would be easily mitigated by closing the damn audio device when XBMC isn't outputting any sound. I fail to see how this is at all controversial, because it would solve a lot of problems with external programs: I wouldn't have wasted 4 hours on this between last night and today when I could have been doing something else. Really, the better solution is for XBMC to play nicely with an audio server like PulseAudio and for PulseAudio to do intelligent things like blocking for a few seconds instead of immediately returning an error in the event of a device in use (e.g., opening PCM before someone else has closed passthrough, or vice versa).

It would be even cooler if PulseAudio could on-demand decode AC3 or DTS, add PCM audio to the stream, and re-encode it, but I have to imagine there would be lag that might make this practically infeasible.

FWIW, rolling back to the 20th doesn't fix it, so I am now just giving up and reinstalling from the latest nightly ISO. It's like Windows. Everybody reinstall! w00t!

Also, where did the "custom audio device" entry go? That was useful for tweaking. I guess someone decided flexibility was no longer useful. "It works for me!" I think is the common refrain.
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#12
... Pulseaudio

* un1versal drop kicked pulseaudio "two decades" ago and never looked back!

uNi
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#13
(2013-01-05, 21:51)uNiversal Wrote: Pulseaudio? narf!!!

Or something else. Maybe Pulse sucks, but some kind of server that will manage access to the device with a bit more flexibility and intelligence than ALSA's dmix.

(2013-01-05, 21:24)Martijn Wrote:
(2013-01-05, 21:22)mudwater Wrote: Passthrough audio flat out doesn't work

Mine works

I repeat: herp derp. This is the worst possible response from a developer ever. And here I thought I was joking with the "it works for me" line.
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#14
(2013-01-05, 21:51)uNiversal Wrote: ... Pulseaudio

* uNiversal drop kicked pulseaudio "two decades" ago and never looked back!

uNi

XBMC should work with Pulse flawlessly as it is part of the OS.
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#15
This is only a observation.

AudioEngine is relatively new (4 years development or so?) and if I had two decades of experience as a developer I would know 4 years is not enough on a opensource project to get anything working as beutifully as AE is atm, bugs and all. Never mind the fact nothing is ever bug free.

Put your money where your mouth is and contribute something. I cant code but I do my best to contribute to XBMC any way possible.

uNi

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