8 replies to this topic

[adrianxx]

Hey guys, I just spend the last 4 days trying to get XBMC working, and havent been able to get a fix for this common issue. Tried almost everything i could find on google and the XBMC forums. I currently having stuttering audio/video, but if i mute my audio in alsamixer, the video plays smoothly, which proves it to be an audio issue instead? I am connecting this via a HDMI cable. Funny thing is when i tried plugging my computer speakers in, it works fine. But if i plug an audio cable from this HTPC to my TV's audio in, i cant get sound. With HDMI it just stutters and FPS drops below 5 as long as audio starts coming in.

My multimedia files are on my NAS and i am pretty sure it is not a networking issue because it plays fine when audio is off. I have tried different variations of asoundrc.conf and asound.conf as found on XBMC forum and google, but none seem to do the trick for me. I currently dont have this files, deleted them, with HDMI selected in all 3 options in settings.

I have a debug log of the time i play a stuttering video here:-
http://pastebin.com/QFjT2aAj

I would appreciate it if someone could give me a hand. I question if this is a hardware issue as i am using 2GB of ram + On-board ATI Radeon HD 4250 (ASRock 880GMH-LE Motherboard).

Thanks heaps fellas.

[spudstrawb]

When you plugged the audio cable from the htpc to the TV's audio in, did you play with the audio settings in XBMC at all? I'm wondering if changing something here will give you sound.

[adrianxx]

When you plugged the audio cable from the htpc to the TV's audio in, did you play with the audio settings in XBMC at all? I'm wondering if changing something here will give you sound.

Yes i tried every possible combination. Analog/Coaxial/HDMI with all the different audio output and passthrough options. I was able to get sound to my computer speakers, I cant remember what the exact settings were, but i used the same one and plug an audio cable from my HTPC to my TV and it didnt work. I dont get the different. The cable is definately working because my old setup was Computer speaker cable + audio cable from tv > double connector plug > my computer sound card.

I also tried every possible resolution settings and no go. Does my debug log give off anything?

There's a huge bump on my forehead from my constant wall banging, this is driving me insane

Edited by adrianxx, 31 May 2011 - 07:23 AM.

[spudstrawb]

Do you have another program installed (say mplayer or something similar) that you can try separately? This would then give an indication of whether the problem is just with XBMC or is a system setup problem.

[adrianxx]

I have the latest XBMC live installed. Im new to XBMC/linux so no i dont think mplayer came within the installer. Can i get this as an addon?

[spudstrawb]

No, it won't be installed. Let's just go back a step. When you did the installation, what were you asked (in terms of audio)? Did you have to configure alsamixer yourself? I haven't had anything to do with XBMC Live for years.

[spudstrawb]

Did you look at this post (Arkay's comments in particular)?

[adrianxx]

No, it won't be installed. Let's just go back a step. When you did the installation, what were you asked (in terms of audio)? Did you have to configure alsamixer yourself? I haven't had anything to do with XBMC Live for years.

I dont recall any audio selection options when installing XBMC Live. I am getting sound just stuttering and going at 3-5 fps. I have tried increasing all volumes on alsamixer and unmutting every hardware there, and it didnt work. Currently i disabled everything except the HDMI output which gives me the stuttering audio/video via hdmi. I read the link you gave me, its one i didnt come across before. But according to this: http://forum.xbmc.or...tal passthrough ,I cant remove pulse audio from XBMC live because it wasnt actually installed on a full Ubuntu installation?

Now i dont have any experience on ubuntu/linux, but im happy to learn and try new things. Is it best i install a full Ubuntu OS and then install XBMC on it? Will that reduce the chance of running into this HDMI audio issue?

[spudstrawb]

If you want to try something like that, you would be better installing Mythbuntu than the standard Ubuntu. Feel free to give it a try. There's also LinHes, which might be a better option. It's loosely based on Arch linux. I haven't used it so I can't comment on what it is like, but I'd be tempted to give it a run before using Mythbuntu or installing applications into a full Ubuntu OS.