Amarok (Xine) Sound Quality Issues [SOLVED]

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Evilguru · Post by **Evilguru** » Thu Feb 01, 2007 7:52 pm

From what I believe to have been as a result of a package upgrade (~AMD64) all applications which make use of Xine for their audio-backend have started to give 'clipped'/'choppy' playback (much like a low-quality tape recording). This includes Kaffeine and AmaroK. However, if I play the same file in mplayer then it is fine.

Has anyone else noticed this? I only noticed it today.

I should note that it only seems to affect some of my MP3 collection, not all of it.

Flameeyes · Post by **Flameeyes** » Thu Feb 01, 2007 9:30 pm

Try changing the mad useflag to on or off, that changes the decoder used for mp3 files.

If you have an HDA sound card, you might want to try this hint: http://farragut.flameeyes.is-a-geek.org ... -hda-users

Evilguru · Post by **Evilguru** » Sat Feb 03, 2007 12:33 pm

Flameeyes wrote:Try changing the mad useflag to on or off, that changes the decoder used for mp3 files.

Yep, doing that appears to have fixed the problem. Thanks!

TinheadNed · Post by **TinheadNed** » Sun Feb 04, 2007 10:39 pm

Hmmm, I've got a similar problem - jerky sound in amarok w/xine engine on my new amd64 machine. I've recompiled with and without the mad useflag and can't notice any difference. I'm not sure if it's the same problem, as obviously it's a hearing thing. I get the audio jerk forward or backward by a small but annoyingly noticable amount (on dance music) every 10 seconds-ish.

I don't have this problem in games at all (ut2004, tremulous, nexuiz, etc) but trying ogg123 gives the same problem, even using OSS (emulation).

procon · Post by **procon** » Fri Feb 16, 2007 3:05 am

I'm noticing the same behavior on an AMD64. mplayer works perfect, amarok (using xine), xmms, and gxine appear to be playing back slightly faster, then have a choppy effect every 10 seconds or so.

This problem showed up about 2 months ago after doing an emerge (wasn't a problem for the past year).

raaman · Post by **raaman** » Fri Feb 16, 2007 5:51 pm

I'm having this problem too! In Kaffeine and Totem the sound is sometimes choppy.. in Mplayer everything is fine. I have done some experimenting with different USE-flags, but nothing has helped so far...

Kaffeine gives this output when playing a video that has choppy sound:

Code: Select all

[mp3 @ 0xb5ea6808]Header missing skipping one byte.
[mp3 @ 0xb5ea6808]Header missing skipping one byte.
[mp3 @ 0xb5ea6808]Header missing skipping one byte.
[mp3 @ 0xb5ea6808]Header missing skipping one byte.
[mp3 @ 0xb5ea6808]Header missing skipping one byte.
[mp3 @ 0xb5ea6808]Header missing skipping one byte.
[mp3 @ 0xb5ea6808]Header missing skipping one byte.
[mp3 @ 0xb5ea6808]Header missing skipping one byte.
[mp3 @ 0xb5ea6808]incomplete frame
[mp3 @ 0xb5ea6808]incorrect frame size
mdb:464, lastbuf:0 skiping granule 0
mdb:464, lastbuf:0 skiping granule 0
mdb:464, lastbuf:0 skiping granule 1
mdb:464, lastbuf:0 skiping granule 1
invalid new backstep 732
overread, skip -7 enddists: -5 -5
[mp3 @ 0xb5ea6808]incorrect frame size
invalid new backstep 732
overread, skip -7 enddists: -3 -3
overread, skip -7 enddists: -6 -6
[mp3 @ 0xb5ea6808]incorrect frame size
invalid new backstep 732
[mp3 @ 0xb5ea6808]incorrect frame size
invalid new backstep 732
overread, skip -5 enddists: -1 -1
[mp3 @ 0xb5ea6808]incorrect frame size
invalid new backstep 732
[mp3 @ 0xb5ea6808]incorrect frame size
invalid new backstep 732

The messages keep rolling in the terminal while the movie plays...

Xamindar · Post by **Xamindar** » Fri Feb 23, 2007 8:41 pm

I have this same problem with amarok and xine. I do have an HDA sound card but no asound.conf like the blog says.

queen · Post by **queen** » Tue May 08, 2007 8:13 pm

Xamindar wrote:I have this same problem with amarok and xine. I do have an HDA sound card but no asound.conf like the blog says.

having the same problem with vlc and mplayer on arch x86. It appeared after a recent upgrade.

Mnith · Post by **Mnith** » Thu Jun 14, 2007 9:51 pm

I don't know, if that's good solution, but I had the very same problem after recent upgrade and I managed to solve it by recompiling xine and mplayer with "mp3" use flag.

andriy155 · Post by **andriy155** » Sun Aug 05, 2007 9:28 am

Hey guys,
I had the same problem on an HDA sound card and switching on 'mad' USE flag fixed the issue!

risa2000 · Post by **risa2000** » Sun Sep 23, 2007 1:39 pm

Adding 'mad' to USE for xine-lib solved this for me too. Anyone care to shed some light on why this is happening? I am a bit scared when supposedly "non high-quality mp3 decoder" simply does not work.

Kreuzader · Post by **Kreuzader** » Sun Sep 23, 2007 7:31 pm

I had an issue that cropped up in the past few days (I'm not sure which package update broke it, even after going through my portage log...), where some mp3s, streamed or local, played back at an extremely high rate (chipmunk fast-forwarding). I'm on an x86_64 Gentoo system using stable packages, so I was pretty confused for a while - JuK and mplayer played back the same files correctly.

Anyway, adding the libmad flag for xine-lib solved my issue as well, so thanks! I just wish I knew why...

risa2000 · Post by **risa2000** » Sun Sep 23, 2007 11:43 pm

Kreuzader wrote:I had an issue that cropped up in the past few days (I'm not sure which package update broke it, even after going through my portage log...), where some mp3s, streamed or local, played back at an extremely high rate (chipmunk fast-forwarding). I'm on an x86_64 Gentoo system using stable packages, so I was pretty confused for a while - JuK and mplayer played back the same files correctly.

Anyway, adding the libmad flag for xine-lib solved my issue as well, so thanks! I just wish I knew why...

I am too using x86_64 (stable, gcc 4.1.2), might be x86_64 issue.