@scrumpydaniel

try power up the speaker via usb within the pi4 or by some audio converter from hdmi to 3,5 jack audio and have the audio setting of pi4 to hdmi and not 3.5 jack.

[bump]

No one else? This problem persists for me regardless of what device I hook it up to. Originally it was hdmi audio but I now have it hooked up via the audio jack into an amplifier in my bartop and the same thing still happens.

@sleve_mcdichael It hasn’t been added as far as I know

@john_carter No, it's is when I enable the VMS video driver and then the audio fails to work under HDMI. I haven't seen any other reports of this.

It's a common issue, since the HDMI audio is handled by the KMS driver automatically. It's been widely reported - in fact when the KMS driver for Pi4 was announced, it was one of the changes included (see this forum post). Here in the foruns - see this topic.

@mitu said in Audio Settings w/ PulseAudio:

@bluestang It should be fixed now in latest RetroPie-Setup, make sure you update if you wan to test it again.

Thanks, works as expected.

After trying Bluetooth w/o success --- Does Retropie Support USB Headphones and Headsets? How does it work? I am new to Linux as well --- I am not afraid of using the command line --- I just need my handheld if needed. Thank you in advance.

@mrnoholster Cool. As a courtesy for other users may I ask you to edit your heading of the post and add [Solved] or something similar, thanks.

The audio jack is not grade A at any Pi I own, so I moved to USB-audio, but good to know that HDMI with dedicated audio outlet does also work well.

There is some configuration that can be done by modifying the ALSA configuration file ($HOME/.asoundrc), but looks complicated and there's no 'one-size-fits-all' solution (depends on the devices present on the system).

You could try installing PulseAudio and configure the module-combine for simultaneous output.

In case anyone googles and finds this ... I did get to the bottom of it by looking into the source code (by source code I mean the RetroPie ES version, stable branch)

You can see here in VideoPlayerComponent.cpp where it launches omxplayer with a bunch of args:

VideoPlayerComponent.cpp:

// Run the omxplayer binary execve("/usr/bin/omxplayer.bin", (char**)argv, (char**)env);

Now if you fire up ES, launch the screensaver, and take a look in the process list while its running (in ssh session, ps -ef) you'll actually see all those args, something like this in the process list:

pi 2143 1 7 01:16 ? 00:00:08 --layer 10010 --loop --no-osd --aspect-mode stretch --vol -3885 -o alsa --win 0,0,800,480 --orientation 0 /home/pi/RetroPie/roms/neogeo/media/videos/trally.mp4

What I noticed is the volume is set to -3885. Now if I run that on the command line to simulate the screensaver I can play with the volume. For omxplayer, volume 0 should be 100% as it's measured in millibels according to the omxplayer help.

So I quit es and ran this:

omxplayer.bin --layer 10010 --loop --no-osd --aspect-mode stretch -o alsa --vol -0 --win 0,0,800,480 --orientation 0 /home/pi/RetroPie/roms/neogeo/media/videos/trally.mp4

ok great I can hear it now! I researched %vol to db and the formula is db = 20*log(%vol) and that checks out because I had es at roughly 65% volume which equates to about -3742 millibels.

So I went back into es and set the volume to 100%, and now I can finally hear it on a default RetroPie install. The issue is the drop off is really steep (must be some bug in omxplayer on pi, that their millibels to volume curve is off) because if you set the volume level at say, 60% you won't hear much of anything from the speakers. I think this is also compounded by the fact that when you're playing around with the audio settings in es, many times it resets the volume back to zero because it's trying to sync up the level with alsa.

Anyway, hope this helps someone get their head around the screensaver audio.

p.s. also, in es audio settings, make sure you set the "omx player audio device" to alsa (or whatever works on your pi, or in your command line experiments), as that drives the argument sent into omxplayer above.

@matthewlawson3 said in DualShock no audio:

At the time I checked I didn’t have the Dual Shock plugged in. Does that matter?

No, it doesn't. Was making sure you didn't have PulseAudio installed. Here's a quick'n'dirty method to get rid of the audio switch:

have a keyboard connected to the Pi or use SSH to connect to it exit EmulationStation and run the following commandecho blacklist snd-usb-audio | sudo tee /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist-snd-usb-audio.conf reboot your Pi

NOTE: this disables any USB based audio devices, so if you ever want to connect an audio sound card, remove the file you created (sudo rm /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist-snd-usb-audio.conf).

@mitu said in lr-PUAE Pi400 CD Audio jumps/mute in 50Hz:

@maxbeanz said in lr-PUAE Pi400 CD Audio jumps/mute in 50Hz:

Have you also noticed that the audio quickly mutes whenever the core changes the resolution ?

Yes, but I expect this to happen with emulation, since probably the emulator needs to re-calibrate and re-sync the audio to the video.

It only seems to happen on Raspberry Pi, i've tried Android and PC and they don't do it. The Android device I tried was a Firestick 4K which is a lot slower than a Pi 400.

it's weird how a clean install on a Pi 3 sets it as 'alsathread'

Not sure which version of RetroPie you're installing, but alsathread is not explicitly set as default anywhere in the latest version, regardless of Pi version. Could be that RetroArch chooses it as best at runtime.

I installed a clean version to my old Pi 3 from the Retropie Downloads section. The first thing I did was look at the audio section in Retroarch, it said 'alsathread'.

So to sum up, this whole thread was a pointless report and looks like we're stuck with it !

@mitu

Great thanks. It is ok. As I said forgot the '&' at the end. Still do not know why 'DMIX' option gives no sound and the 'Sysdefault' option does.

Took some time and feels that it was a lot easier in the end. That's always when you find out how it works properly.

Finally have some results...

@buffyp00h said in Audio stutter in some SNES games on surround receiver:

All have the same problem on soundbar systems (and likely also on surround receivers).

I just don't get why these particular games generate hdmi sound that gets wrecked by so many setups, one would think there was a way to fix this at the source - the generation of sound on the pi/other device.

Just my 0.02 here, the world of modern TVs and home theater/surround sound devices is needlessly complicated for these simple old tasks we are trying to recreate here with simple digital signals (ironically that are emulations of old analog signals).

What I would try to see if it helps:
Many TVs have a "game mode" that is intended to reduce or eliminate "signal processing" to enable a more pure, delay free signal and timings. Many surround sound receivers have something similar, although it is usually called Pure Audio or Direct Sound mode. You might see if your receiver has this option and try it to see if it eliminates audio hitches.

For what it's worth, I have an Onkyo receiver at home and even with modern consoles I have noticed that something in the HDMI convergence where all video inputs are routed to a single HDMI output to the TV will cause a 'gap' in sounds sometimes. (After a dead silence of any kind, the first sound made is either dropped entirely or gets cut so I only hear part of it before normal audio resumes. Sort of like the audio stream has to buffer up before it becomes stable again.)

EDIT: Hit the submit button too soon and wasn't done typing.

@dankcushions yes! I did the change when I found this new emulator was ported to libretro. At the end I found that the main problem in my lr-genesis-plus-gx performance is the bilinear filter. If I turn it off it's working 58-60 fps with very good sound quality. So as I see it maybe I overloaded my raspberry pi 3B too much, if I'm correct is definitely something to have in mind if you dont have a rpi3B+ or rpi4. SegaCD is working fine too now!

@mitu ok, i will do just that. i will have my old image restored, update the OS and retropie, then follow the instructions in the previous thread.

i just updated system and is on 5.10.11

If anyone uses bgm with livewire setup it seem update removes the python-pygame which is needed. (tested on another base and was ok)
So you need to reinstall manually
or use the install script to remove and re install BGM and missing package

If you use @mitu tweak in cmdline.txt
snd-bcm2835.enable_compat_alsa=1
you can set audio so mixer can work to SYSDEFAULT or HW with PCM
if you dont use this and have new default setup
you use SYSDEFAULT or HW and HDMI

NOTE
If you touched the retropie config section audio settings, go back and set to reset to default