I want my reliable laptop based Amarok jukebox back

[Martin Steigerwald]

Am Samstag, 10. August 2013, 08:51:49 schrieb Alan Ezust:
> On Sat, Aug 10, 2013 at 5:29 AM, Myriam Schweingruber <myriam at kde.org>wrote:
> > Hi Martin,
> > 
> > On Thu, Aug 8, 2013 at 3:08 PM, Martin Steigerwald <Martin at lichtvoll.de>
> > 
> > wrote:
> > > I do not use Pulseaudio 4 right now cause it still does not detect the
> > 
> > USB
> > 
> > > sound card at all times, spamming logs with "usb_set_interface_failed"
> > > messages. I reported this once, Lennart even answered me back to my bug
> > 
> > report
> > 
> > > and I admit I did not follow up then, cause what he asked me to do would
> > 
> > have
> > 
> > > take some time to do and it was not the only bug with PulseAudio back
> > 
> > then. I
> > 
> > > was just so annoyed by PulseAudio back then that I apt-get purge´d it. I
> > 
> > would
> > 
> > > be willing to follow-up with this, as it seems that Pulseaudio 4 is the
> > 
> > first
> > 
> > > Pulseaudio *ever* that is able to play *fluent* sound on the ThinkPad
> > 
> > T42. With
> > 
> > > Pulseaudio 3 still I had sound drops longer than 20 seconds (this is
> > > *no*
> > > joke).
> > 
> > Kubuntu uses Pulseaudio by default, and Phonon is compiled with PA
> > support, which should be pretty standard currently. If you did remove
> > Pulseaudio deliberately this might explain some of the sound problems
> > you experience.
> 
> In my experience, some of the cheaper external USB sound cards are not
> constantly reliable. They sometimes just disconnect and reconnect after
> running fine for a long time. If you want something reliable, use an
> internal or PCI or PCI-e sound card. I've been using an Audiophile 24/96
> for over 10 years now for its digital sound capabilities.

Okay. I have removed the USB sound card, even tough I have the impression the 
onboard Intel audio of that ThinkPad T42 just does not provide the same audio 
quality and playback is more dull, muffled.
 
> Furthermore, in my experience, PulseAudio is also not very reliable. When I
> apt-get remove pulseaudio and just use ALSA directly, I have a more stable
> system in general.
> I wish Pulse was more reliable, because without it, I can't share my
> digital soundcard between amarok and other apps such as VLC or my browser.
> Using Alsa, Amarok takes over that device and other apps must use my analog
> output.

I hear you.

I may just remove Pulseaudio again to see whether it helps with the dropouts I 
am experiencing with the standard setup I described in my last posting.

-- 
Martin 'Helios' Steigerwald - http://www.Lichtvoll.de
GPG: 03B0 0D6C 0040 0710 4AFA  B82F 991B EAAC A599 84C7