(BG music script) Sound cuts in and out after some minutes of gameplay.

illando

PI 3 Model B, CPU 1.2 GHz Quad Core, 1 GB RAM
Got a proper power supply
RetroPie Version 4.8
Pre made SD Image on RetroPie website
USB Gamepad

Emulators: lr-fceumm, lr-genesis-plus-gx (Mega CD), lr-snes9x2010

I finally decided to update my retrovie to 4.8, starting from scratch (I was stuck to 4.4). Everything seems to work fine except for an audio issue similar to what described here:
https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/32574/sound-gets-slowly-lost?_=1662971617689

After some minutes of gameplay (more or less 20) sometimes the sound cuts in and out till to disappear, also if the game is running at constant FPS. This happens in a various range of cores, also with simple to run games like Dr. MArio on lr-fceumm.

The temperature seems under control: CPU 62°C, GPU 63°C. I'm also using a fan, and the audio output is set trough the DVI port to my TV.
I had to set the video output at 1080p because my 1080p TV doesn't have a decent scaling option. I also tried to overclock my PI with these setting but the problem persist and also on NES games, and doesn't seems to performance related (FPS still constant).

arm_freq=1350
core_freq=500
over_voltage=4
gpu_mem=400

Any idea?
Thanks a lot.

illando

Solved!
I forgot to mention that I installed a script for background music:
https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/347/background-music-continued-from-help-support
Sorry but I thought was just related to emulation station. apparently the script continues to run as background process also after a game launch.

After uninstalling python-pygame, everything works fine, but I would really like to add some background music to my ES theme.

Searching on the forum I can see there are some scripts for background music.
https://github.com/Naprosnia/RetroPie_BGM_Player
https://github.com/Rydra/bgm-for-es

Would you suggest me what's the most updated (retropie 4.8 compatible) and suitable for my configuration? I have really basic request: just play 1 mp3 file in emulation station.
Thanks a lot.

ExarKunIv

@illando the bottom of my first post as a bunch of different BGM
https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/31580/suggestions-for-ports-2

all you have to do is try them and find out what ones work for you

illando

@ExarKunIv Thanks a lot for the list.
Hope one of this script will be integrated in a future official release very soon.

Anybody has any recommendations?

ExarKunIv

@illando personally i have liked RetroPie BGM player
its Naprosnia main script, i just fixed a error that was coming up, and he is not supporting it anymore

there is current support for Integrated music player for Retropie -IMP that is getting alot of updates and fixes

and the newest one BGM123 by s1eve-mcdichae1, that is bundled into RetroPie-Extras.

illando

@ExarKunIv thanks again!

illando

@ExarKunIv I tried several of the scripts from your list, and only a few of them didn’t suffer of the problem I mentioned before.
I quickly realized the difference between them is the path of the music folder. If it’s not a shared folder the script will
run perfectly!
For example, my favorite is BGM123 bundled into RetroPie-Extras and using the default settings, sound will become discontinued after few minutes of gaming (I found Dr. Mario on lr-Feceumm being a perfect test).
Changing the music folder path to a non-shared folder (you can still have access via SFTP/SSH) makes the script working again.

I hope this feedback will be helpful for the future development of the scripts.

illando

Nope, it seems I was wrong. :-(

Yes, placing the audio folder in a non shared folder helps to reduce the raspberry workload, but after a while the sound cuts starts.
I tried all the scripts in your list @ExarKunIv and they all fail!!
I also tried various mp3 or OGG files with the same result. The one I would like to play is a very small 956kb file, 44100hz 256kb/s.
Maybe it's because my hardware configuration is not enough to play background music?
Is a Raspberry pi3b+ or 4 the minimum requirement for this kind of scripts?

ExarKunIv

@illando not sure where the problem is.

I have a script running on my pi3+ running without a issue and I have had one on my pi4 running without issues also. Just not right now since I'm doing other script testing at the moment.

I'm using this one on my pi3+ (but this has a old OS on it)
https://github.com/Exarkuniv/RetroPie_BGM_Player

And I think I used that script on my pi4 also. But that I can remember

illando

@ExarKunIv Maybe it's the combination of RetroPie Version 4.8 + PI 3 Model B instead of B+?
I run retropie from a 32GB micro-sd card UHS 1. Should I upgrade to a UHS 3 (U3)?
Maybe the problem is the reading speed of the SD.

ExarKunIv

@illando unfortunately I don't know
I really don't see the card speed being much of an issue because the raspberry pi doesn't have a very fast read write speed to start with as far as I know

But if you have one laying around or easily accessible guess it wouldn't hurt to try that