Rpi USB audio woes and other zombies.

Natron

Awesome! This was quite the head-scratcher, so I'm glad I could help!

Hex

@Xeon You shouldnt have to do that. You could have selected "ALSA:HW:1,0" in the OMX player output device option.

Xeon

@hex said in Rpi USB audio woes and other zombies.:

selected "ALSA:HW:1,0" in the OMX player output device option

How? Kindly explain.

Natron

If you hit the start button and go into Sound Options, there is an option called OMX player at the bottom. You can select this option, but I found that it didn't work for me.

I actually have a question for you, @Xeon. Are you noticing any performance issues with the USB audio? I've noticed that my games run slowly with it in use, and in the menu when I have the audio plugged in my frame rate drops by half. I'm wondering if it's specifically my adapter, or if this is some kind of driver or setup issue.

Hex

@natron said in Rpi USB audio woes and other zombies.:

If you hit the start button and go into Sound Options, there is an option called OMX player at the bottom. You can select this option

Yes this is the correct way to get USB audio

@Natron I checked it on a fresh Retropi setup and it worked as expected. Which option did you select ? ALSA:HW:0,0 or 1,0??

The 0/1 is the device id and :0 is subdevice. aplay -l gives you details about which is your usb sound card.

Natron

@hex That's odd because it didn't work. I tried both options, actually and got no love either way. I'll go back and reconfigure everything back to normal and try this method out again, though. Maybe I missed something.

Edit: Nope, still nothing. Oddly, the volume slider always sets itself back to 0% as well when I use the sound settings menu.

Edit 2: The performance is still atrocious, and fixes itself as soon as I disconnect my USB audio device. I think I'll just have to use this on a regular TV instead of a monitor with speakers. Ah well.

Hex

@Natron There are two settings you have to consider.

1) Master Volume control

If you want to control volume from ES, ES needs the device being used. For USB audio you need to select Speaker from PCM/SPEAKER/MASTER options. For Pi's own Audio out use PCM. For PC use MASTER

2) OMX Audio out device
If you want the Omx player to know which device to output audio from, you will have to set this option.

Local -> Pi's audio out
HDMI -> Hdmi audio
Both -> Both of the above [Default]
ALSA -> Use Manual settings.

To test out which works for you, try this command after closing ES from the command line

# Change the parameter after -o to each of the options to check what works for you.
# options : local / hdmi / both / alsa:hw:0,0 / alsa:hw:1,0

omxplayer MY_VIDEO_FILE.mp4 -o alsa:hw:0,0

Xeon

@hex This option not even being possible unless you run the update script.

Hex

@Xeon Are you not running the updated ES?? The feature was added a few weeks ago. If you havent updated ES then you will have to.

Xeon

@hex understood

Xeon

Thanks for helping out a old noob.

Xeon

Yeah i don't know why but the sound still won't work.
Not even being detected now.
odd.

Xeon

I think this usb hub may have a dead port.

Xeon

Nope.
tested usb chip in pc.
hub port works.
just not detected.

Xeon

Ahh it's the sound chip.. it died.. detects on my pc for a few seconds then stops working.

Xeon

@Hex

Ok so i replaced the sound card.

Then chose alsa:hw:1,0 as the chip is listed there
Then chose Master.
Still no sound.

Then increased the volume.
Still no sound.

Rebooted.

Volume reset to 0 by itself.
Increased the volume again.
Still no sound.

if i set the volume and exit the menu and return it sets it back to 0

Xeon

@Hex
Sound volume drops to 0 the moment Speaker or Master is selected.
PCM does not drop it to 0

Xeon

@Hex When launching any thing i can see the cli where it's launching, i see:

lvl0| VolumeControl|::init() - Failed to find Mixer Elements!

Xeon

After googling online i see no one has provided this much info.
But no one has solved this ever.
Starting to lose hope on this one.

Hex

Can you do a clean format, choose Speaker and ALSA:HW:1,0
That should get it working.

I would like to point out to you that if I have not replied you can edit your previous comment to include additional information. No need to create multiple posts. I am sometimes working on code and dont visit the site.