xmms/oss newbie problem

[thane]

You're right curaga. Mplayer from the command line will play m3u -- hadn't tried that because it didn't seem like it could from the desktop.

But it has the same problem on TCL 2 that XMMS does -- accelerated sound that starts getting choppy and cutting out after a couple minutes, through both ALSA and OSS.

It works with ALSA on 1.4.3 though (as XMMS does). Maybe there's a difference in the ALSA versions between TCL 1.x and 2.x?

[thane]

Some digging on the web suggests that the sped-up sound problem in ALSA/OSS may have to do with sampling rates and/or interactions with particular sound cards, but I'm very unclear on how all that works. Looks like it's a more general issue (like so many others) with Linux/ALSA/OSS and not just a TCL thing.

[thane]

Downloaded TCL 2.0 final release and tried it out in TCE mode.

Still having the problem with distorted sound in XMMS using both ALSA and OSS. I tried some configuration changes and using .ram rather than .m3u on streaming radio (Radio Paradise) with no effect.

I'm making arrangements to get a newer box with faster video and presumably a different model sound card. I'll probably stay with 1.4.3 until that happens unless another solution comes along.

[thane]

I tried out TCL 2 with Opera, Flash10, and OSS.

The YouTube videos I ran had accelerated sound (Joe Strummer sang like he was breathing helium). Manipulating the settings in OSS didn't help. ALSA under TCL 2 has similar problems, although it works fine under TCL 1 and is what I'm using there.

[thane]

After more noodling around on the web, it looks like the default sound driver on my Compaq box isn't right for the sound chipset. A number of Linux forums for various distros note the accelerated sound problem.

Not sure how that explains why the sound is OK in TCL 1 using ALSA (but not OSS), and why it's bad using either ALSA or OSS on TCL 2.

[thane]

Going off what Curaga said above, I fiddled some more with mplayer from the command line and got something that sounds OK (speed at .85). Good enough for voice playback but I'm not sure if the speed or pitch is exactly right for music.

[Jason W]

I am seeing the fast sound issue with alsa, though OSS works perfect on this particular machine.  And it has the chipset that another machine has that works fine with alsa.

Fortunately, with both alsa and oss extensions available, normally one will work in a case where trhe other does not.

[thane]

Alsa worked fine with XMMS on TCL 1.x, but both Alsa and OSS have fast sound on TCL 2 (so far tried flash, mplayer, and xmms). My machine (Compaq Deskpro EN) is mentioned on some Linux blogs as one that has this problem, so it's not really a TCL thing. I can adjust the playback speed in command-line mplayer to compensate but for whatever reason music still doesn't sound quite right.

I'm using OSS now but may give alsa another try.