Distorted Audio - VLC and XMMS (Mystery Solved - Thank You)

[never_stop_learning]

Installed VL6.0 Standard on an HP nc4000 with the following specs:

-Computer-
Processor      : Intel(R) Pentium(R) M processor 1400MHz
Memory      : 705MB (164MB used)
Operating System      : Slackware 12.1.0
User Name      : david (David)
Date/Time      : Sun 27 Sep 2009 06:38:30 PM PDT
-Display-
Resolution      : 1024x768 pixels
OpenGL Renderer      : Mesa DRI Radeon 20061018 AGP 4x x86/MMX/SSE2 NO-TCL
X11 Vendor      : The X.Org Foundation
-Multimedia-
Audio Adapter      : ALI5451 - ALI 5451
-Input Devices-
 Power Button (FF)
 Sleep Button (CM)
 Lid Switch
 Macintosh mouse button emulation
 AT Translated Set 2 keyboard
 SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad
 PS/2 Generic Mouse
 Video Bus
-Printers-
No printers found
-IDE Disks-
TOSHIBA MK4026GAX
-SCSI Disks-
Verbatim STORE N GO

The audio on streaming video is fine. Streaming MP3 audio is horribly distorted. Tried rerunning ALSA from run level 2 - no change. Made sure that XMMS was using the ALSA plugin. VLC has zero output unless I set the output to 'default' - then I get the distorted output.

Any thoughts?

[flip city]

Hello there,
 I read that others using that same audio chip were helped by updating to a boomer-RC3 driver. check the link out.

http://www.opensolaris.org/os/project/opensound/files/

[never_stop_learning]

Thank you for the info.

Any thoughts why the sound on video works?

Also, did a quick frugal install of Puppy 3.01 just to check and the audio sounds fine so it definitely appears to be an issue with the ALI5451 and Vector.

I found this thread http://forum.vectorlinux.com/index.php?topic=7410 from almost a year ago - same ALI5451, same issue.

[flip city]

 in the alsamixer, there is a analog/digital output jack option. check that, and see if it works.

[never_stop_learning]

in the alsamixer, there is a analog/digital output jack option. check that, and see if it works.

Will do when I get home tonight.....

[never_stop_learning]

in the alsamixer, there is a analog/digital output jack option. check that, and see if it works.

Went through every Alsamixer option - still get distorted sound.

One correction - YouTube audio is also distorted. Looks like the audio on only a few certain video sites is OK, all others - no go.

Tried to figure out how to install the boomer-RC3 driver without success. Any and all guidance is appreciated.

[never_stop_learning]

Here is lsmod:

root:# lsmod
Module                  Size  Used by
xt_limit                3076  8
xt_tcpudp               3712  13
iptable_mangle          3584  0
ipt_LOG                 6532  8
ipt_MASQUERADE          3456  0
nf_nat                 16792  1 ipt_MASQUERADE
xt_DSCP                 3968  0
ipt_REJECT              3840  1
nf_conntrack_irc        6052  0
nf_conntrack_ftp        8100  0
nf_conntrack_ipv4      14220  8 nf_nat
xt_state                2816  6
nf_conntrack           55776  6 ipt_MASQUERADE,nf_nat,nf_conntrack_irc,nf_conntrack_ftp,nf_conntrack_ipv4,xt_state
iptable_filter          3456  1
ip_tables              11536  2 iptable_mangle,iptable_filter
x_tables               13572  8 xt_limit,xt_tcpudp,ipt_LOG,ipt_MASQUERADE,xt_DSCP,ipt_REJECT,xt_state,ip_tables
radeon                141472  1
drm                    70824  2 radeon
lp                     10372  0
snd_seq_dummy           3716  0
snd_seq_oss            31872  0
snd_seq_midi_event      6912  1 snd_seq_oss
snd_seq                48368  5 snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_midi_event
snd_seq_device          7436  3 snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq
snd_pcm_oss            37408  0
snd_mixer_oss          15104  1 snd_pcm_oss
speedstep_lib           4740  0
acpi_cpufreq            7948  0
freq_table              4352  1 acpi_cpufreq
irtty_sir               5888  0
arc4                    2688  2
ecb                     3584  2
rtc_cmos               10144  0
sir_dev                11780  1 irtty_sir
rtc_core               15132  1 rtc_cmos
crypto_blkcipher       16516  1 ecb
rtc_lib                 3328  1 rtc_core
cryptomgr               3712  0
irda                  108984  1 sir_dev
crc_ccitt               2688  1 irda
tg3                   119940  0
serio_raw               6020  0
libphy                 16640  1 tg3
snd_ali5451            19724  2
snd_ac97_codec         99492  1 snd_ali5451
i2c_ali1535             6788  0
ath5k                 119048  0
ac97_bus                2432  1 snd_ac97_codec
i2c_ali15x3             7300  0
mac80211              155548  1 ath5k
snd_pcm                67972  3 snd_pcm_oss,snd_ali5451,snd_ac97_codec
i2c_core               21268  2 i2c_ali1535,i2c_ali15x3
led_class               4484  1 ath5k
snd_timer              19976  2 snd_seq,snd_pcm
snd                    51492  14 snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq,snd_seq_device,snd_pcm_oss,snd_mixer_oss,snd_ali5451,snd_ac97_codec,snd_pcm,snd_timer
cfg80211               23688  2 ath5k,mac80211
alim1535_wdt            5528  0
soundcore               7008  1 snd
shpchp                 29716  0
snd_page_alloc          8840  1 snd_pcm
pci_hotplug            27040  1 shpchp
ati_agp                 7564  1
parport_pc             35908  1
parport                31724  2 lp,parport_pc
video                  17040  0
output                  3456  1 video
wmi                     6568  0
joydev                 10048  0
evdev                  10144  6

Google pointed me to the alsa project page. It sure looks like all the right things are loading. Any thoughts?

[flip city]

For those of you with an ali5451 chipset card, sound will not work by default. There is actually a problem with a name mismatch between Jack Sense and External Amplifier. To fix this, simply disable both in a mixer, like alsamixergui or kmix. After that, sound should work perfectly.

This fix may work for other sound cards who give an error relating to Jack Sense or External Amplifier.

[newt]

I actually have ali5451 on my laptop running VL6STD and it has always worked fine from the start. I've never needed to do anything to get working audio.  I just tried a youtube video and it played fine.  I've played MP3s before and they've always played fine.

I'm not sure exactly what it meant by 'streaming mp3' - do you mean playing mp3's over a networked location or more like a radio feed?

I don't see any anything names 'Jack Sense' but I do see External Amplifier, and it is checked in the xfce mixer. I also noticed the the xfce mixer is set to use 'default' rather than '#0 Ali 5451' in File/Options.

[flip city]

in xmms, preferences, audio in/out plugins, are you using the alsa plugin ?

ALSO, check the vlc preferences for the same.

[newt]

XMMS: It was actually set to OSS. As a test, I changed to ALSA and noticed no difference. I even restarted xmms just in case but it was normal. I was playing a local MP3. I would say that at MAX mixer volume and MAX xmms volume there is a little distortion, but it is awefully loud for these little laptop speakers.

VLC: Plays audio and video fine. Both settings are set to 'default' output, but I'm not sure what is actually the default.

[never_stop_learning]

External amplifier is muted in alsamixer.

Not sure where to find 'jack sense' so I can disable it?

Using alsa plugin with xmms and vlc.

Set xfce mixer to use '#0 Ali 5451'.

Audio is distorted at all volumes. 

[newt]

I don't know what kind of audio setup you're working with but perhaps ours differ. I'm using just the laptop built-in speakers; nothing plugged into either of the jacks (i.e. no external speakers). Is this the same as you?

Also, I updated my kernel (to 2.6.27.29) due to the security issue and since ALSA is now kernel-based perhaps this plays a factor. Are you running the updated kernel - 2.6.27.29?

[never_stop_learning]

I don't know what kind of audio setup you're working with but perhaps ours differ. I'm using just the laptop built-in speakers; nothing plugged into either of the jacks (i.e. no external speakers). Is this the same as you?

Also, I updated my kernel (to 2.6.27.29) due to the security issue and since ALSA is now kernel-based perhaps this plays a factor. Are you running the updated kernel - 2.6.27.29?

Just using the built-in speakers.....

No, I have not but will do so to see if that fixes the issue.

Thank you all for your help and suggestions.

[never_stop_learning]

Line Jack Sense and External Amplifier are both disabled.

xmms and vlc are both set to the alsa output.

Updated to the 2.6.27.29 kernel.

No change - sound is still distorted.

This used to be my primary business laptop. Ran Ubuntu starting in 2006 through this year and the sound worked fine. Works fine on Windows XP, Puppy 3.01 and Puppy 4.3, too.

This has really got me stumped.....