[pulseaudio-discuss] Crackling Audio in Pulseaudio RTP Stream

[Sean Greenslade]

On Sat, Feb 18, 2023 at 08:44:21PM +0100, NicoHood wrote:
> Hey Guys,
> I am using pulseaudio for years now, but since Version 14, maybe 15 there is
> a crackling in the rtp stream. I've setup RTP just with paprefs, enable the
> sender and local receiver on a separate audio device.
> 
> I know that I am reporting this really late and the bug is there for some
> years now. I hoped this gets eventually fixed, but it did not. I am using
> the latest archlinux pulseaudio.
> 
> Are you guys aware of the issue, does it also happen to you? It is just a
> tiny crackling, but you can hear in on good audio boxes. It sound a bit like
> the vinyl sound, just not so often. You can hear it on the sender via
> loopback and on all other receivers as well.

Can you describe your setup in more detail? It's unclear if you're using
pulseaudio as the RTP sender, RTP receiver, or both.

Occasional audible crackling is usually due to buffer underruns. Are
your RTP streams going over a wireless network? If so, have you tried
increasing the jitter buffer size on the receiver?

--Sean