[AE] XBMC constantly hogging audio device
#1
Question 
I just upgraded XBMC from a GIT build (12/10/16) to Frodo RC3 and noticed that XBMC keeps hogging the audio device in Frodo RC3. There is no way for me to use external players, even when XBMC is idle. In the October GIT build I was coming from I could set:
Code:
<streamsilence>0</streamsilence>

in advancedsettings.xml, but as of Frodo RC3 setting this key to any value (0, 1, true, false) does not make any difference - XBMC keeps blocking the ALSA device.

With debugging enabled I always get this after playing an audio stream:
Code:
DEBUG: CSoftAE::Run - Sink restart flagged

I believe that this is where the behavior comes from. XBMC used to suspend the sink after playback, but after upgrading to Frodo RC3 it simply restarts it. This causes some external players to segfault, as the audio device is still claimed by XBMC.

How can I fix this? Is there a way to force XBMC to suspend an audio sink?
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#2
Yes its broken and IIRC DDDamian knows its broken, however if this is going to be fixed before Final is out idk...

Only he can shed some light on this.

uNi
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#3
I wasn't aware that this feature ever worked on Linux, at least on with pure ALSA (are you using Pulseaudio)? I stumbled upon this same issue a few days ago when I wanted to launch Chrome for watching YouTube videos. Now I have to resort to closing XBMC before I open the browser.

I think our only option is to wait until after Frodo has been released. Hopefully the AE devs have a few patches up their sleeves that can be included post-release.
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#4
Sad 
Yes, I am using pure ALSA on my system (no Pulseaudio installed). Suspend/resume used to work for AE sinks in git revision a7a09602a7b20f9c8f08289b30c8b424ea83878f.

If this is really broken in RC3 I don't see how Frodo final can be released - this should be a release blocker for quite a few reasons:
  • Higher power consumption. If the ALSA device is being blocked continuously it cannot enter a low power mode, which is exceptionally bad for 24/7 media centers. On my system this is a 3 watts difference (GPU suspended/not suspended)! 3 watts is real money for a 24/7 system!
  • Bad influence on externals players. Some applications will segfault due to this behavior, which is bad!
  • Regression: Releasing of ALSA devices used to work in pre-Frodo releases, so it also needs to work in Frodo.

Are there any statements about these facts from the AE authors? I've tried to report a bug about this on github, but some Devs don't seem like they want to hear about this serious issue and I was pointed to the forums instead Sad
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#5
Feel free to fix it if you know where it goes wrong . Like we don't know there is something not 100%
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#6
it is a release blocker.
signed "The Release Manager"
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#7
(2013-01-06, 19:03)vfred Wrote: Are there any statements about these facts from the AE authors? I've tried to report a bug about this on github, but some Devs don't seem like they want to hear about this serious issue and I was pointed to the forums instead Sad

Its well documented that you should NOT use github for bug reporting or discussing bugs, you were kicked to forums because of this and probably should have been referred to trac instead where bugs are supposed to be reported

This is documented in wiki and website.

uNi

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#8
(2013-01-06, 19:27)uNiversal Wrote:
(2013-01-06, 19:03)vfred Wrote: Are there any statements about these facts from the AE authors? I've tried to report a bug about this on github, but some Devs don't seem like they want to hear about this serious issue and I was pointed to the forums instead Sad

Its well documented that you should NOT use github for bug reporting or discussing bugs, you were kicked to forums because of this and probably should have been referred to trac instead where bugs are supposed to be reported

This is documented in wiki and website.

uNi

Also no entirely true
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#9
(2013-01-06, 19:05)Martijn Wrote: Feel free to fix it if you know where it goes wrong . Like we don't know there is something not 100%
I am very sorry, I did not want to offend anyone. It's just that this used to work with an earlier git build and it is now broken. This is why I believe that this should be a release blocker until whoever has introduced this bug is able to fix it. I've actually already tried to bisect the commit which broke suspend support in order to revert it locally, but I was not successful. The AE maintainers sure have a better overview over this...

Now if you are really aware of this issue and it's consequences I am kind of relieved. I was just a bit concerned as the bug did not show up on github. As long as the release manager also knows that there are still bugs in the current Frodo-branch it's okay I guess.

EDIT:
(2013-01-06, 19:26)davilla Wrote: it is a release blocker.
signed "The Release Manager"
Thank you very much for this statement, this is all I wanted to know. Thumbs up!
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#10
(2013-01-06, 19:33)Martijn Wrote: Also no entirely true

Well not unless your working with a developer... I meant bug reporting is not accepted in github. If this is inaccurate please let me know what is accurate so I can update wiki documentation. As for website Someone else needs to do that then.

uNi

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#11
Because 9 out of 10 "bugs" users "found" are either fixed, misinterpreted, user error or dependent on plugins, script or skin.

Creating a ticket for each of them will drive us crazy. Preferred is to discuss "bugs" here first to see if it's a real problem and then create a trac ticket
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#12
I'm kind of glad to hear that this issue has critical status, it surely would be nice to get it working before the final version is released.
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#13
(2013-01-06, 23:02)negge Wrote: I'm kind of glad to hear that this issue has critical status, it surely would be nice to get it working before the final version is released.

If it affects our own HTPC's it definitely gets top priority Wink
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#14
Naturally :-)
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#15
Just to weigh in - yes, we did release the ALSA device in earlier builds, but it was reported to cause issues for some as ALSA didn't like being started and stopped frequently. The issue was specific to ALSA - the other platform where we needed to release the device was the Windows WASAPI exclusive mode, and that platform is now fine.

TheUni and Davilla have both done some investigation on the Linux and Android platforms, but there isn't a good solution just yet.
System: XBMC HTPC with HDMI WASAPI & AudioEngine - Denon  AVR-3808CI  - Denon DVD-5900 Universal Player  - Denon DCM-27 CD-Changer
- Sony BDP-S580 Blu-Ray  - X-Box 360  - Android tablet wireless remote - 7.1 Streem/Axiom/Velodyne Surround System
If I have been able to help feel free to add to my reputation +/- below - thanks!
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