[pulseaudio-discuss] Toslink capture looback latency problem

[NicoHood]

On 01/29/2018 07:48 PM, Georg Chini wrote:
> On 29.01.2018 19:39, NicoHood wrote:
>> On 01/29/2018 07:19 PM, Georg Chini wrote:
>>> On 29.01.2018 18:46, Nico wrote:
>>>> On 01/29/2018 03:52 PM, NicoHood wrote:
>>>>> On 01/29/2018 03:29 PM, Georg Chini wrote:
>>>>>> On 29.01.2018 14:44, NicoHood wrote:
>>>>>>> On 01/29/2018 01:39 PM, Georg Chini wrote:
>>>>>>>> On 29.01.2018 12:52, Nico wrote:
>>>>>>>>> Hi,
>>>>>>>>> I want to capture the audio stream of my TV with my PCI-E Toslink
>>>>>>>>> sound
>>>>>>>>> card and play it back on my usb XLR soundcard. The reason why I
>>>>>>>>> do that
>>>>>>>>> is to use my own music boxes rather than the TV speakers. With
>>>>>>>>> toslink +
>>>>>>>>> XLR I do not have problems with ground loops etc.
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> I am using the pulseaudio loopback module with its default
>>>>>>>>> configuration. The problem is, that the delay between picture and
>>>>>>>>> sound
>>>>>>>>> is about one second off, and the longer I wait, the more delay it
>>>>>>>>> gets
>>>>>>>>> (30 seconds and more). It is no usable like this.
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> I tried to play with the latencies of source, sink and the tv
>>>>>>>>> delay
>>>>>>>>> itself without sucess. I also tried streaming with pacat
>>>>>>>>> directly as
>>>>>>>>> described here:
>>>>>>>>> https://thelinuxexperiment.com/fix-pulseaudio-loopback-delay/
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> I also tried to change different parameters of the loopback
>>>>>>>>> module or
>>>>>>>>> the sources/sinks, but that did not help. I never changed any
>>>>>>>>> global
>>>>>>>>> pulseaudio config to avoid larger configuration issues. The CPU
>>>>>>>>> usage of
>>>>>>>>> pulseaudio is at 3% with the loopback module
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> Can anyone help me to get rid of this lag?
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> Hi Nico,
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> which version of PA are you using? Can you provide logs?
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> Regards
>>>>>>>>                 Georg
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Hi Georg,
>>>>>>> oh sure I completely forgot:
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> pulseaudio 11.1-1 (Arch Linux)
>>>>>>> uname -a: Linux zebes 4.14.15-1-ARCH #1 SMP PREEMPT Tue Jan 23
>>>>>>> 21:49:25
>>>>>>> UTC 2018 x86_64 GNU/Linux
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Here is a logfile:
>>>>>>> LANG=C pulseaudio -vvvv --log-time=1 > ~/pulseverbose.log 2>&1
>>>>>>> https://gist.github.com/NicoHood/85976f426e1621e599253ee1a95230dd
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Regards
>>>>>>> Nico
>>>>>> This is weird. It looks like the source sample rate is so much higher
>>>>>> than the sink rate that module-loopback can't adapt. No idea why
>>>>>> this happens. Does it work with another input?
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>> I've tested it also with the builtin front microphone input (2nd
>>>>> revision on gist) and with the PCIE Analog line in (3rd gist
>>>>> revision).
>>>>> You can view the changes here:
>>>>> https://gist.github.com/NicoHood/85976f426e1621e599253ee1a95230dd/revisions
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> The problem only occurs with the digital, optical TOSLINK input
>>>>> from my
>>>>> Samsung TV. For some other reason the sound distortion for the analog
>>>>> input is now (temporary) gone. However I still want to get that
>>>>> TOSLINK
>>>>> running :/
>>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>>> pulseaudio-discuss mailing list
>>>>> pulseaudio-discuss at lists.freedesktop.org
>>>>> https://lists.freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/pulseaudio-discuss
>>>>>
>>>> As an additional test I send the audio to the TOSLINK output of the
>>>> soundcard, back to its input and setup loopback on the input again (to
>>>> the USB soundcard). With this method the sound has no lag. The
>>>> difference is that the toslink signal comes from the soundcard itself
>>>> rather than the TV. I have some smaller noises/distortion however
>>>> sometimes. Here is the log:
>>>> https://gist.github.com/NicoHood/6ef237649d97eaa69d9a78dd91eff34a
>>>>
>>> Somehow this still sounds like a sample rate mismatch. (A wild
>>> guess, I do not know how the signal chain works for a TOS-link)
>>> Have you tried setting your card to 48kHz? You can change
>>> default-sample-rate and alternate-sample-rate in daemon.conf
>>> both to 48000 and restart pulse to enforce this.
>>>
>>>
>> With 48kHz The sound is working properly now. The problem I got ~~now~~
>> is that there is sound distortion in the recording. -> A reboot fixed
>> that.
>>
>> Is there any negative effect when using 48kHz as default sample rate? Is
>> there a way to configure only the loopback module with this special
>> sample rate? (Sorry, I have no idea how audio works internally). And if
>> there is no other way than configuring the default sample rate, how can
>> is set this as user (without root) if possible?
>>
>> Thanks a lot so far :)
>>
> If the sound card supports it, PA will always use either the default
> or the alternative sample rate, whatever fits the current stream
> better, unless there is already a stream running on the card.
> 
> So it should be enough to run module-loopback with rate=48000.
> Don't forget to change the values in daemon.conf back to their
> original values before you try it.
> 
> 

Setting the rate for the loopback module does not give a positive
result. Setting the sample rate with pacat for the SINK works fine
though. This is the command I used:

pacat -r --latency-msec=100 -d alsa_input.pci-0000_01_00.0.iec958-stereo
| pacat -p --latency-msec=100 -d
alsa_output.usb-M-AUDIO_M-Track_Hub-00.analog-stereo --rate=48000

Is this a general bug? Is there a way to change the sample rate for the
sink itself within the loopback module? I am still wondering why this
happens, as I can capture any other input without changing the sink
sample rate.

If i set the source to 48000 and the sink to 44100 it does not work. I
have no idea why. Any ideas?