Crackling/Tearing Audio

[NukeJockey]

So I tested the in-home streaming this morning from my Desktop (i5 2500k, 8gb ram, 2x7950, windows 7) to an older laptop (i7 nehalem (cant remember exact chip), 8gb ram, AMD 5470 GPU running windows 7) and it worked without issue.

I then decided to install SteamOS on the laptop, which was painless, however, when it comes to streaming a game, the audio is all crackly and makes tearing noises. The sound works fine on the desktop and when starting up SteamOS, it only has issues when streaming.

I found one thread (in here) which linked to another thread (elsewhere) that mentioned changing the default sample rate in /etc/pulse/daemon.conf, so I edited it and rebooted, then tried again, this time the audio is just crackly, not nearly as bad, but far too annoying to actually play anything.

I've tried changing sampling rates and bit rates on the desktop machine as well as swapping between my SB XFI Titanium sound card and the realtek onboard sound for the output device on the desktop.

While google gave me a little luck at first, I've been unable to find any other suggested solutions, anyone come across this and resolved it?

If you need any other info, let me know.

Cheers.

[NukeJockey]

After several hours of playing around, I was unable to get the audio working correctly, at that point, I was still trying to use the HDMI audio on the laptop and no amount of fiddling with the bit rate and sample rate was helping, so I decided to try the analog out from my laptop with a pair of headphones at first (my amp doesn't have any analog 3.5mm audio in) which worked perfectly, so I set about looking through all my junk to find my little 3.5mm Analog to RCA device and hooked the sound up to my amp that way. So I can finally stream games without crappy audio.

Pain in the ass, no idea why it doesn't like my HDMI audio, but hopefully that gets fixed in the future.

[SCUZNUTS]

Same issue here.
You are the first person I have found with the same issue.
Streaming from Windows AMD GFX based machine to SteamOS AMD GFX based machine (Also laptop with mobile chip).

Getting the same cracking/tearing through the receiver or through the TV direct.
Laptop speakers will work fine if you enable them.

Streaming to my MAC - No issues.

Interestingly local installed games will not have the issue.

I'm blaming AMD drivers.
Either them or the current use of the drivers to decode the audio stream.

If you have had any more info since you logged this please share.

I did log a bug over at;
https://github.com/ValveSoftware/SteamOS/issues

[Hurrakan]

The sound seems to come though very quiet and distorted.

I have no AMD drivers so that can't be the problem for me.

[i liek turtals]

I don't think it's the AMD drivers. I'm using this rig[www.ensl.org] (check computer) to stream to a five-six years old Core2Duo laptop (with intel 945 or something) running on XP. When I plug my headphones (usb surround headset, the one written in the specs), I get the same audio crackling issue. When I switch back to laptop speakers, the issue is fixed but it isn't useful to me since my laptop's audio jack is busted.

Not a big deal though. I'm playing shadow warrior from the comfort of my bed and my crotch isn't melting. I can't complain.

[Sadboosh]

I'm also experiencing static in HDMI audio when streaming from a Windows 7 PC (Nvida GTX670) to a StreamOS box (Radeon 5770). Local games on SteamOS do not have any audio issues only the ones that are streamed.

I confirmed that it was a problem with streaming Windows->SteamOS as i also tried streaming to another Windows 7 PC. The in game audio was fine going Windows->Windows.

[yokem66]

I'm seeing this as well. Streaming from an i5 2500K+GTX 560 ti 2GB+ on board Realtek audio to a linux Intel G630, on cpu graphics, built-in intel hdmi audio. Playing Skyrim, I get distorted/crackling/clipping background environmental noise. Very wierd.

[yokem66]

I apologize for the self reply but I did some more testing last night. Banishing Pulseaudio from the client system seemed to fix things for Skyrim, but caused other problems for Bioshock Infinite - the "Beep tone" from the Steam client on startup (when you are asked if you want to start the game or the benchmark tool) would lock the sound device and the Streaming session then couldn't get sound. Enabling ALSA Dmix would work around that but then the steam client would be making a horrible repeating buzz sound while the game was playing sound normally. I'll be fiddling some more with this later. Perhaps I'll try going back to Pulseaudio 2.1 instead of 4.0.

[DrLinny]

I'm having this problem too. Using nvidia / intel high end server system connected to a llano AMD apu client running ubuntu 13.10. Client using 48KHz sample rate edit as well.

[WorkingStallion]

Finally! I've found others that have been having the same annoying problem!

About 20 minutes into streaming a game to a HTPC running SteamOS from a Windows based rig, I start to experience serious audio corruption/static! The only way to remedy the situation is to close the game and start it again from the Steam library. The problem then repeats itself about 20 minutes later.

System specs:

Rig I'm streaming FROM:
Windows 7 Professional 64, Creative X-Fi Titanium HD sound card, i7 4770k, Radeon 7870.

Rig I'm streaming TO:
HTPC, SteamOS, AMD Phenom II X6, Nvidia GTX-650ti Boost, connected to a Harman Kardon AVR-254 receiver using HDMI.

[alfred]

If you run a native Linux game on your SteamOS machine do you have the same audio issues appear?

[WorkingStallion]

Originally posted by alfred:

If you run a native Linux game on your SteamOS machine do you have the same audio issues appear?

Nope, as long as I have played (about 2 hours) a native Linux game (portal) it seems the problem doesn't exist.

[Panick]

When I stream to my Ubuntu laptop game audio starts out clean but turns into a crackling mess within a couple minutes. Never had the issue with any native games though.

[SCUZNUTS]

Indeed, no issues with native games on SteamOS, but the audio issues appear when streaming,

[ezkill]

I also have this issue when using HDMI audio through my Radeon HD4250 in Ubuntu 12.04. This does not happen with native games, but does happen when streaming.

I get the exact same audio issue in Google Chrome, but not in e.g. Firefox or XBMC, so it seems it depends on the software delivering the audio.
Curiously, the issue is fixed in Chrome by launching it with "--audio-buffer-size=2048". Could this be a hint on how to fix it for in-home streaming? Some kind of audio buffer setting?

[DrLinny]

It must be a buffer problem. Cracking occurs when there are no frames / samples available to output. So the buffer must not be filling fast enough or is too small.