Bad Sound Quality


No, usually, the programs use the .asoundrc to initialize and that is what we're working on until notaz receives a unit to do some of his magic.

ALSA is a pain to setup, so many parameters that can give you crackling, etc.
 
Heh, the patch seems to break some sound stuff.
PSX4ALL (now already with crystal clear sound) doesn't work with the new settings, only with the old ones.

ALSA is haaaard...
 
The program I'm having the most luck with is PicoDrive (Thanks Notaz :D) I can change the sound from worse to better by pressing select (going into the menu and back out)
 
I already would be happy if this really is only a Software issue and not a Hardware Problem. :)
Once, we also thought the slow WiFi is software but... :ph34r:

Does someone "out there" work on a better alternative for Alsa? Maybe Beagleboard guys or crazy devs from other Linux Powered Handhelds? ^^
 
Well, ALSA is the de facto sound API for Linux. You could try to patch OSS v4 into the kernel and use ALSA emulation on top of that (as most software is going to expect ALSA functions) but I think it's unlikely to improve much.
 
The firmware and custom pandora mods to Angstrom or open source? Where are they hosted? I know I have to be VERY careful with piling bash scripts as one missed variable breaks the whole party.
 
I'm doing something insanely crazy :blink: Why you ask? Just to see what happens...

Code: 
sudo opkg update
sudo opkg upgrade
B) Never know...
 
So like aside from changing some variables in a cfg file, is there any REAL solution being worked on? <_<

Just wondering.

HackModford said:
Notaz is going to get a pandora that has this problem and figure out what's going on... so yes/no
Click to expand...

hopefully :D

edit: HackModford's settings seem to be working okay for me. With the old settings when there was a 'audio twitch' in the genesis emulator it would spit out aids in my ears until I fastforwarded, or went to the menu to 'reset' the audio. Now it just hops and returns to normal usually. Sometimes the aids comes out though.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Notaz is going to get a pandora that has this problem and figure out what's going on... so yes/no
 
EvilDragon said:
ALSA is haaaard...
Click to expand...

Maybe I missed the last time I asked... but has anyone tried OSS4 (as in replacing the underlying ALSA system, I know if you tried using OSS now it just wraps it in alsa)
There is a wrapper for OSS4 that allows ALSA-using programs to use it fine
 
Last edited by a moderator:
EvilDragon said:
Heh, the patch seems to break some sound stuff.
PSX4ALL (now already with crystal clear sound) doesn't work with the new settings, only with the old ones.

ALSA is haaaard...
Click to expand...

Crystal Clear sound? What are you talking about? The sound in PSX4ALL is scratchy as hell for me, and I don't have any sound problems with my Pandora.

-God Ginrai
 
Last edited by a moderator:
God Ginrai said:
EvilDragon said:
Heh, the patch seems to break some sound stuff.
PSX4ALL (now already with crystal clear sound) doesn't work with the new settings, only with the old ones.

ALSA is haaaard...
Click to expand...

Crystal Clear sound? What are you talking about? The sound in PSX4ALL is scratchy as hell for me, and I don't have any sound problems with my Pandora.

-God Ginrai
Click to expand...

You don't have the latest version ;) I always get testing versions before they are up. Expect that one soon :)
 
Last edited:
fusion_power said:
I already would be happy if this really is only a Software issue and not a Hardware Problem. :)
Click to expand...

Is there anything you DON'T think it's a hardware problem?

I mean, I've seen you commenting on EVERY thread on nearly every issue that you hope it's not a hardware problem (even if it clearly IS a software issue).
Next thing would be... "Hm, we don't have a Pong Emulator yet" - "I really hope it's no hardware problem!"

Geeez.
We're working on it, the unit to notaz is on the way, but there really is no need commenting each thread with thinking about hardware problems...
We'll see when he debugs a bit.
 
Last edited:
EvilDragon said:
fusion_power said:
I already would be happy if this really is only a Software issue and not a Hardware Problem. :)
Click to expand...
I mean, I've seen you commenting on EVERY thread on nearly every issue that you hope it's not a hardware problem (even if it clearly IS a software issue).
Next thing would be... "Hm, we don't have a Pong Emulator yet" - "I really hope it's no hardware problem!"
Click to expand...

I hope that's not a hardware problem. Maybe you should see an optician, just to be sure? Having any kind of hardware problem with your eyes can be a real pain (I speak as one who knows).
 
Last edited by a moderator:
^ Hehe, I once compared him on the German boards to the two dudes from the Muppet Show :D
(I don't mean this offensive, as it often enough fits well to my dark sense of humor ;) )
 
Seeing that the Pandora doesn't have any twisty knobs the lack of proper Pong is clearly a hardware issue.

I really expect you to do better with the Pandora 2, which should at the very least have two twisty knobs, a full-size ten-button force-feedback analog joystick, a steering wheel with pedals and a lightgun. In addition to the current controls. And it better still fit into my pocket.
 
Okay I have investigated this a little bit more and you're not going to be happy with what I have discovered, I think:

1. The *type* of SD card you have in your Pandora effects how strange the audio gets. Some blocking operation on SD i/o - on *some types of card* - causes massive underruns of ALSA. I have gone through 3 SD cards - Fujitsu, NONAMEBRAND, and SANDISK Ultra II .. only the Sandisk card provides superlative audio. The others, on some i/o operations it seems (forced by sync;sync;sync while playing audio with Exaile or games with Picodrive), stall the audio immensely and produces glitches/noise during playback. The noise is really massive spurts of buffer underruns happening concurrently during the i/o op on the SD card, occurring so fast that it appears to sound like noise/overdrive.

2. I/O on the WLAN *also* causes audio glitches. On my two Pandoras, if I turn off wlan and put the SANDISK ultra II card in, I always get perfect Exaile playback. With one, if the WLAN is active (wget in the background), it glitches occasionally. With the other, it glitches often and more frequently for some reason. However with WLAN off, both play nicely.

Technically, I predict that in some driver - either WLAN/SD or ALSA - there is a lock that should not be being taken .. or such lock usage is simply broken. Could it be the display driver, also? Maybe I'm misinterpreting the initial stalled i/o op report as the first in a chain of stalled i/o ops that occur during the *scroll of my Terminal window*. A bit of debugging of the interaction of the WLAN/Audio/SD/USB/Display drivers is going to be needed to fully answer this question, I think.

Anyway I do not think this is hardware related, but bad-quality hacks in some driver around these parts, coming to light through more testing than the driver-developer had the luxury to afford themselves during development ..
 
torpor said:
Okay I have investigated this a little bit more and you're not going to be happy with what I have discovered, I think:
Click to expand...
I think I'm weird. My thoughts: "Yay, I might have something to debug with my pandora!" :p
 
Last edited by a moderator:
torpor said:
Okay I have investigated this a little bit more and you're not going to be happy with what I have discovered, I think:

1. The *type* of SD card you have in your Pandora effects how strange the audio gets. Some blocking operation on SD i/o - on *some types of card* - causes massive underruns of ALSA. I have gone through 3 SD cards - Fujitsu, NONAMEBRAND, and SANDISK Ultra II .. only the Sandisk card provides superlative audio. The others, on some i/o operations it seems (forced by sync;sync;sync while playing audio with Exaile or games with Picodrive), stall the audio immensely and produces glitches/noise during playback. The noise is really massive spurts of buffer underruns happening concurrently during the i/o op on the SD card, occurring so fast that it appears to sound like noise/overdrive.
Click to expand...

Maybe that explains why I have the worst audio! I'm using some cheap card I found lying around... It's a PNY Optima 2GB
Maybe I should grab a sandisk to see if it makes a difference.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

M
New Gp2x With Major Sound / Other Problems
Replies
7
Views
1K
markiej
M
Dark Pulse
Bad audio quality with earbuds?
Replies
17
Views
7K
FBnil
FBnil
Prophet
Sound Issues - Headphone Jack
Replies
3
Views
8K
WizardStan
WizardStan
A
Sound Problems With Fw 1.4
Replies
3
Views
829
Arcnaleon
A
T
Audio Quality
Replies
7
Views
2K
twobit
T
Back
Top