Choppy audio...

[jtniehof]

This seems a fairly common issue around here, but figured I'd try. Windows XP guest; Ubuntu 8.04 host; VBox 1.5.6_OSE with the guest extensions installed. 1.83GHz Core2 Duo, 1GB RAM.

I've been using the "play" button in the Windows sound control panel just to test audio. Using ALSA output, I get nothing. Using PulseAudio, I get very choppy playback a few times, and then nothing. The sound playback device in the guest Sound control panel is set to SigmaTel audio (the only option.)

I don't have anything else sitting on the sound card while I'm running VirtualBox.

[jtniehof]

Tried upgrading to 1.6.0, not much difference, with or without async TSC. However, switching to the SoundBlaster emulation (which required manually installing the SoundBlaster driver in the guest OS) improved matters, and let me use ALSA on the host, which improved it a bit more.

It's still pretty staticky and choppy, but somewhat usable.

[stefan.becker]

Sound in a VM is nice to have, nothing else.

A VM isnt made for Multimedia or Games. Its for Office.

[dman777]

A VM isnt made for Multimedia or Games. Its for Office.

Saids who? If people want to use it their VM for multimedia, than that makes it for multimedia also. There are more homes than offices. Every home uses their computer for multimedia. That means computers are used more for multimedia than for office work. It makes since to utilize VM for mutlimedia for the demand.

[lemrichard]

I think that saying that VirtualBox is only suitable for work is certainly not appropriate since I often use a virtual machine to edit movies (with VirtualDub). Sometimes Linux has problems with some codec combinations...

But about the problem with choppy audio, I have to say I also encounter this problem. You could try switching to a rt (realtime) kernel to see if it improves the situation. Another thing that has worked very well for me is using Virtual Desktop (RDP). For some reasons, it seems that the sound is much more consistent in that mode (it is less choppy).

This is something you may want to try... However, I'm not sure the images will be as smooth... It may be a problem for videos...

[stefan.becker]

A VM isnt made for Multimedia or Games. Its for Office.

Saids who? If people want to use it their VM for multimedia, than that makes it for multimedia also. There are more homes than offices. Every home uses their computer for multimedia. That means computers are used more for multimedia than for office work. It makes since to utilize VM for mutlimedia for the demand.

Nonsense. For Multimedia you need the best Performance.

Best Performance you get only with native OS and native drivers.

A VM always costs Performance, so it is by default not a good solution for Multimedia.

[dman777]

It depends on why you define as performance. Machines have more than enough power for playing music. I play FLAC files in Winamp and it barely puts a dent in my CPU usage. This is even so in VM.

Performance as far as drivers go, that is where I am asking for Virtualbox to improve it's USB port so I can use my USB reciever directly through the Windows XP USB without choppy audio.

[DaLaunge]

Hi,

I am not able to reproduce your error.
I have a Dual Core2 CPU with 1.86GHz and 1GB RAM, but running a Windows Host;
Guest is Windows XP;

Settings no XP Guest:
- 192 MB RAM
- 8 MB Graphics
- ACPI activated,
- IO APIC deactivated
- Audio is Windows DirectSound with ICH AC97 controller (NOT Soundblaster)
- Used Media Player: Standard-player from Windows

What I've tried
- I tried to play some usual mp3-files (exactly: Dire Straits); That works very fine and NOT choppy.
- Playing mp3-files from a USB - stick -> also NOT choppy
- I have no FLAC - files available, but I think that both algorithmus are using nearly the same CPU - power for decoding... -> performance should be nearly the same

Maybe a solution:
- Don't touch the VM while it's playing Multimedia - files
- Don't use too much CPU Power (not too much Applications in VM ... I'm sure you don't have so much RAM free, because you have also a 1GB - machine...)
- Just take a look to the task manager, if your problem occurs again; I think you'll find very fast a solution

I hope this will work for you,
best regards
DaLaunge

[dman777]

Hi,


- Audio is Windows DirectSound with ICH AC97 controller (NOT Soundblaster)


What I've tried

- Playing mp3-files from a USB - stick -> also NOT choppy
- I have no FLAC - files available, but I think that both algorithmus are

Thank you for your suggestion, it is greatly appreciated. Unfortunately, my problem is I am using an USB audio device. I plug in my receiver, it loads it's own audio drivers into Windows XP(in this case the guest). Windows recognizes and loads the driver correctly and everything is great in that respect. The problem is for some reason the sound is not buffering and so there is glitchy audio. Even though there is buffering in the media player itself, the firmware/usb audio driver also has it's own buffering and for some reason it is not working in Windows XP guest. I say buffering...this is a guest. I believe this is buffering though because it is the same effect when a song is playing without enough buffering. I believe also that the USB audio has it's own buffering because in Audacious(linux media player) the ALSA plug in for USB audio has it's own buffering in addition to the media player's buffering. Therefore, from that plugin I have learned that the USB audio device has it's own buffering in addition to the media player buffering.

[cybergenesis]

Sound in a VM is nice to have, nothing else.

A VM isnt made for Multimedia or Games. Its for Office.

Whatever the designers may have planned is of course their decision but Virtualbox is a tool which will be utilized by the public according to what it is able to do.

It must be horribly hard work from a developer point of view, but I'd say from the consumer point of view most the public hope Virtual Box will broaden its horizons as much as possible, because most of us want to see it rise very high in the software world. It already is an important peace of software as it is (one of my favorite of all applications).

[runeks]

I would just like to add that I'm experiencing this as well. I agree with cybergenesis, VirtualBox is a great application and yes, it must be very difficult to make so I just hope some developers will see this and do their best to implement non-choppy audio. I will surely do my best to help solve the issue.

[steppres]

This seems a fairly common issue around here, but figured I'd try. Windows XP guest; Ubuntu 8.04 host; VBox 1.5.6_OSE with the guest extensions installed. 1.83GHz Core2 Duo, 1GB RAM.

I've been using the "play" button in the Windows sound control panel just to test audio. Using ALSA output, I get nothing. Using PulseAudio, I get very choppy playback a few times, and then nothing. The sound playback device in the guest Sound control panel is set to SigmaTel audio (the only option.)

I don't have anything else sitting on the sound card while I'm running VirtualBox.

I've got this problem too, but using VirtualBox 3.0.4 running Windows 7 Home Premium as a guest. I got around it by running another VM in the background. It's a wierd solution, but it works.

[ryeckley82]

I had the same problem at one time too. It takes an understanding of PulseAudio and ALSA. ALSA is the hardware interface, and PulseAudio is the middleman that negotiates who can use the audio and who can't. There is a good fix on WineHQ that redirects PulseAudio to use the DMIX and DSNOOP interfaces rather than directly accessing the card, so multiple applications can use it smoothly.

http://wiki.winehq.org/WineAndPulseaudio spells it out quite clearly. If you're running PulseAudio as a single-user program, edit default.pa. If you're running it as a system-wide service, edit system.pa.

Look for the lines that reference HAL and UDEV. Comment (put a # before the line) out that sequence so it doesn't tie your physical interfaces to your cards. Under module-alsa-sink and module-alsa-source, uncomment the lines and tell it to use DMIX for sink and DSNOOP for source. You should have no problems in any application.

[loukingjr]

ryeckley82, you do know you replied to a six year old thread?

[ryeckley82]

Nope, didn't notice.