virtualbox.org

I've searched through the threads about choppy audio and so far I haven't seen any fixes for it. Is there anything at all that can be done to have normal audio input/output via USB Headset without it being choppy sounding?

Thanks!!

Same question here, over 2 years later. Is there a good fix for the crackling audio when using a USB headset?

Thanks,

-Mark

As USB in the guest or as virtual Soundcard?

You give no Infos instead of "does not work".

Sorry, you're right, I should know better.

I have a Dell D630 laptop running Ubuntu 11.04 x86-64 host, running Virtualbox 4.0.4.

My guest is Win XP, with a Plantronics USB headset.

After a few problems getting USB headphones working at all, now they work, but get "choppy" sound from them.

Native sound/speakers, sound fine under VM, it's only the USB headset that gets the choppy audio.

Any thoughts, ideas, suggestions, would be appreciated....

Thanks,

-Mark

set the usb headset as the default input and output device on the host and the guest's virtual audio hardware will do the rest.

Perfect!

I set the headphones to be my default under Unbuntu, verified they work well. Then, I disabled all the USB device filtering, and just used the default audio device in Windows guest, and all is well.

Thanks so much for your help!

-Mark

Sorry to reopen this. I do have a similar problem. However, I cannot set the device on the host simply because it is not supported (no drivers). Hence, I installed the drivers on the guest (windows 7) and the device is recognised. If I try to use it, it plays like a microsecond every minute. Any idea? Thanks in advance!

Since this thread was started or last updated, a lot has changed. Even VirtualBox has changed an owner or two. So, for future reference do not resurrect the dead, start a new thread, it's more relevant.

If your host supports USB3, try to enable USB3 in the VM settings. You'll have to install USB3 drivers for your guest Win7 as well.

Thanks socratis, I'll keep it in mind.
My device is pre USB 3. If I try USB 3 it doesn't even show up.

socratis wrote:If your host supports USB3, try to enable USB3 in the VM settings. You'll have to install USB3 drivers for your guest Win7 as well.

Correction. If your guest supports xHCI, enable USB3 in the VM settings (and if it's Windows 7, see manual). There is no requirement for the host to have an USB3 controller, or any USB controller at all for that matter.

What I meant is that my audio device does not support USB3. In fact, if I switch to USB3 on virtualbox, it does not even recognise it

michaln wrote:Correction. If your guest supports xHCI, enable USB3 in the VM settings

Question. How do you know if a guest supports xHCI? And what about the host? I mean my host does not support USB3. I could simply "switch" to xHCI for selected guests (the ones from your 1st answer)?

epifab wrote:What I meant is that my audio device does not support USB3.

That is not relevant.

In fact, if I switch to USB3 on virtualbox, it does not even recognise it

I don't know what that means.

socratis wrote:Question. How do you know if a guest supports xHCI?

Well, the best test is to try it (it's not hard to change the settings back). The next best thing is to look it up.

Any Linux since about 2011 supports xHCI. OS X since about 10.7 supports it. Windows 8 and later supports it out of the box. Windows 7 does not support USB3 and will not automatically install any drivers, but it is possible to download and install the drivers in a VM. With some effort, even XP can support xHCI. Recent versions of other OSes (Solaris, FreeBSD, etc.) also support xHCI.

And what about the host? I mean my host does not support USB3. I could simply "switch" to xHCI for selected guests (the ones from your 1st answer)?

I will just repeat myself. The host is irrelevant.If your host has no USB3 hardware, you can't use USB3 devices in USB3 mode. But you certainly can use xHCI emulation in the guests.

Technically, xHCI controllers have two completely separate sets of ports; USB2 ports (also support USB 1.x devices) and USB3 ports. I don't know if anyone does it, but it would be theoretically possible to build an xHCI controller which does not have any USB3 ports (and hence no USB3 support). Is that confusing? Don't look at me...

The VirtualBox manual describes the USB emulation and gives a detailed hint about Windows 7 guests.

And to restate what seems obvious to me but apparently isn't: USB host hardware is required to pass through USB devices. It is not required to emulate USB controllers and devices (see emulated USB tablet, webcam, storage).

Ah, I had no idea windows 7 does not support USB3, that's why the audio device was not recognised by the guest when switching to USB3 in virtual box.
I installed the intel driver and now I can see the device again.
There are some sort of progress, now rather than playing 1 microsecond of music every minute it seems to be better, but audio is very distorted and for some reason only 1 channel works.