microphone not working in xp pro 32 guest on win7 64 host

[scarver007]

Hi I am running windows 7 64 bit version as my host.
I have a guest os of xp pro service pack 3, and I have configured the sound as using windows direct sound driver with controller ICH AC97. (Which seems to be the only combination except for soundblaster 16 which sounds old.)

The sound playback works fine, however microphone recording does not work in the guest, even though it is working in the host.

The version of virtual box is 3.2.8 r64453.

Any ideas of how to fix this?

[mrodent]

I have exactly the same prob with the same host and guest.

Am trying to get Dragon Naturally Speaking (v 8 pref) up and running... everything else is working wonderfully.

Symptons: at best, sound is scratchy, there is hiss, etc. Not surprisingly DNS cannot recognise stuff and is unusable for all practical purposes.

[mpack]

Why do you guys expect physical hardware to be relevant to a virtual PC?

Or put it this way: you need to plug your imaginary (not your real one) microphone into your VMs imaginary mic input. If you can do that then I'm sure it will work great.

[avataruy]

Had thesame problem over here, went to the sound panel of my XP Guest, unchecked the Mute checkbox of Line In and voila!

My microphone is working now =)

[mrodent]

Mpack

Why do you guys expect physical hardware to be relevant to a virtual PC?

Or put it this way: you need to plug your imaginary (not your real one) microphone into your VMs imaginary mic input. If you can do that then I'm sure it will work great.

inappropriate tone.

if you have sthg to say such as "VB isn't as hot as that" say it. Otherwise go away.

[mrodent]

Dear all,

Significant development!

Specs: Dell E6410, core i5, 4 GB RAM. Host OS Ubuntu 10.10 64-bit (beta). Guest OS XP 32-bit.
Microphone: USB "Buddy USB 5G". This has been working wonderfully in my previous machine with XP 32-bit.
Main crucial app needed: Dragon Naturally Speaking v8 pref

Just succeeded in installing Ubuntu today, then Vbox, and I did get microphone sound when I worked out how to use USB. But sound was very scratchy. For dictation sound has to be v hi quality.

Then I stumbled across the following permutation. Being an utter newbie in these waters, and no technical pretensions, I have no idea which of these elements might be significant (if either):
- instead of using the default sound set up in Ubuntu, which I believe is Pulseaudio, I chose to use ALSA, and set this in my settings for the WXP virtual machine
- I closed down all the USBs except the microphone when I ran the WXP virtual machine

Importing my previous speech files, I tried to dictate in word pad. Not good. But playing back (this is an option in Dragon NS) the sound was impossibly GARBLED, rather than SCRATCHY.

Then I noticed that the USB icon in the Vbox "taskbar" (at the bottom right) was flashing madly. So I unplugged my mike's USB and plugged in back in again. USB no longer flashing.

When I dictated the next phrase the recognition was quite a bit better. When I played back the phrase the sound was beautiful, a perfectly clear recording of my voice. After that, though, the USB icon started flashing madly again.

So I'm wondering whether things have somehow been wired up so that, inadvertently, sound output is somehow being fed back to the sound input, thus creating a garbling phenomenon.

To my way of thinking this is infinitely preferable to SCRATCHINESS because I'm now more hopeful things might improve.

Any Vbox experts got any suggestions how to proceed now?

[mpack]

if you have sthg to say such as "VB isn't as hot as that" say it. Otherwise go away.

VB isn't as hot as that? If you feel that way then you should demand your money back.

[mrodent]

I can see the spirit of repartee lives and thrives in this forum

what age are you?

[mpack]

How old am I? I'm old enough to know that this is not an appropriate forum for personal abuse. If you persist then you may find yourself banned. In the meantime I would ask you not to hijack the OPs thread. While you may disagree with the comments of another participant, it is certainly not your place to invite them to stay or go.

[Sasquatch]

Scarver, how did you set up the microphone on the Guest? Did you try avataruy's suggestion? Did it help you?

[mpack]

Scarver, how did you set up the microphone on the Guest? Did you try avataruy's suggestion? Did it help you?

I couldn't see how the suggestion would work. How could you share the microphone or "line in" inputs between (multiple) VMs and the host? True the serial port has a similar problem, but the RS232 data rate is so low that you don't care too much about virtualization latencies. I wouldn't have expected the devteam to attempt it... and I don't remember seeing audio input support in the source code (however I've never specifically looked).

[Sasquatch]

Mpack, audio input is supported for quite some time. If I start a VM and I check the pulseaudio volume control, I see the VM as input program listening for my microphone. The thing that VB does, is when a VM has focus, it allows input. When it doesn't, the microphone input isn't send to the VM. That's how the sharing is done. At least, I think that's how it works.
Of course, you're not mapping the Mic to Line In or vice versa. And the Guest needs a similar set up, use the mic as input, not line in.

[mpack]

Mpack, audio input is supported for quite some time. If I start a VM and I check the pulseaudio volume control, I see the VM as input program listening for my microphone.

Ouch. Thanks for letting me know: so this means that if I have a tape to mp3 recording going on in the background, and I start a VM, then the VM will steal the audio even though there's nothing in the VM settings telling it to? Useful to know!

[Sasquatch]

I do not know how the Host handles it. It might give the input to both the program using it, and VB, or the program alone. It would be poorly programmed if the current input connection would be disconnected when the VM starts.

[mpack]

I guess it must rely on the wavInOpen() call failing if the host mic input is already in use. But when does VBox make this call? How does VBox know that a particular guest will want to use mic-in? Rhetorical question, but surely it can't do this at the virtualization level?

Or is this a GA service?