Retropie 4.4 HDMI Problem: Garbled Sound When Playing ANY Console/Emulator

A Former User

Hardware: RPi 3B
Power Supply used: 5.25V
RetroPie Version Used: Retropie 4.4
Built From: Pre made SD Image on RetroPie website
USB Devices connected: Keyboard, Arcade Controller (x2)
Guide used: https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/20338/tutorial-bluetooth-audio-on-retropie-v4-4-and-raspberry-pi-3-model-b
My Issue: So I've kinda built my own "Switch" by attaching an official 7" touchscreen and adding a script to make it change from the lcd to hdmi. I needed portable audio as I didn't want to use headphones, so I had an old usb speaker and found the tutorial. It worked great until I plugged the RPI into the hdmi. The bluetooth speaker wasn't on, so i was relying on the TV speakers. The splashscree worked and the splashes for each game (only sometimes). On ALL consoles (some lr, some not), I got a jumbled mess of sound. I can't find a fix. Can anyone help? I'm not the best at creating my own scripts so please and thanks for any help!

A Former User

Also if anyone can maybe give some alternatives to bluetooth audio as the lag ain't great, that will be greatly appreticated!

mitu

@TheBossT when you switch to HDMI, you should add a command to the script to also switch the main sound output to HDMI, something like

amixer cset numid=3 2

See more details on https://retropie.org.uk/docs/Sound-Issues/.

A Former User

@mitu Thanks! I'll try it out!

A Former User

This post is deleted!

A Former User

@mitu I decided to try it out in terminal (ish) via SSH. I put in amixer cset numid=3 2 but it makes no difference.

A Former User

Oh, and for some reason, my headphone jack just seems to not work. Hence why, the bluetooth audio.

dicentes

I also had the same issue after following that tutorial. I went backwards undid everything (changing apt-get install to remove/purge on the bluetooth module) then did the following in no particular order (these are the steps that eventually worked for me):

(Set these if you are getting no audio whatsoever - doesn't do any harm otherwise)

Set Audio under Retropie settings to HDMI
Also set HDMI in Raspi-Config > Advanced > Audio
Modify "sudo nano/boot/config.txt" to include:
hdmi_drive=2
hdmi_force_hotplug=1
Emulation Station Menu - ensure the Sound Settings are as follows:
Audio Card: Default
Audio Device: PCM
OMX Player: HDMI

(Set these to fix garbled audio)

Run the following in order
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade
sudo apt-get install alsa-utils
sudo modprobe snd_bcm2835
alsactl restore -P
sudo amixer cset numid=3 2
amixer -c 0 cset numid=3 2
sudo apt-get --purge remove pulseaudio
Use nano (SSH) to create /etc/asound.conf with this content

pcm.!default {
type hw
card 0
}

ctl.!default {
type hw
card 0
}

These are all the steps that I can remember, your mileage may vary and I recomended you reboot after each major change such as setting EmulationStation Audio settings. If you are still getting the same problem then try to rearrange the commands under "Run the following in order". Personally I think removing PulseAudio is the actual solution so you could try that first. It was installed with the Bluetooth module and theres a few references to it causing issues with ALSA.

dicentes

@TheBossT said in Retropie 4.4 HDMI Problem: Garbled Sound When Playing ANY Console/Emulator:

Also if anyone can maybe give some alternatives to bluetooth audio as the lag ain't great, that will be greatly appreticated!

There aren't many solutions out there and it seems this solution not only breaks other audio outputs but also is unusable due to the lag. I'm almost certain the Pi dosen't have enough horsepower to emulate games and stream bluetooth audio, as per the tutorial above I have completely removed it and I recommend that you should too. Let me know how you get on and if you find an alternative that doesn't stutter.