Audio on a Model B?

OK, I'm behind the times as I haven't acquired my Pi 3 yet (:-)), but I've been trying to play mp3s and wavs on my model B (mpg123 or aplay) and they always stutter. I'm puzzled because I thought I'd done that successfully when I first got it; Csound was always too much of a load, but I thought a straight audio file played OK. And I played with XBMC then, too. Never found anything persuasive enough to use it more, but as I remember it worked. (Just running Raspbian with audio over HDMI. Rebooting doesn't improve anything.)

Using the GUI I found I had Kodi so I double-clicked on a file and tried that. Equally, if not more, glitchy, even though the animated background swirled smoothly... And is there any way to exit Kodi and get back to the original screen? I found the little 'switch' icon at bottom left, and clicked on the 'Exit' item it brought up, but that just killed the GUI completely and I had to reboot.

So have others played music etc though an original Pi? What might I be doing wrong?

(BTW, is there any "Process Monitor" for the Pi that shows the CPU being used by each process? I don't know of anything that might be hogging things, but it'd be nice to be able to check.)

Thanks,

-- Pete --

Reply to
Pete
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On 05/12/2016 21:50, Pete wrote: []

Pete,

I don't know about the audio, but "htop" may be what you are looking for. You'll likely need to download and install. I think it's a better version of "top".

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Reply to
David Taylor

Ackk... 'top', yes, of course! I think I last had occasion to use that on a lab machine ten years ago, and I'd completely forgotten it (:-/) It would probably do what I want in this case, but I'll certainly take a look at 'htop'.

Thanks,

-- Pete --

Reply to
Pete

Where are the MP3s? If you've got stutter, its likely to be the storage or transort at fault.

I've used my original Model B's running Libra Elec (the standalone version of XBMC now called Kodi) to play them both from the memory card (decent spec on) and over the wired network from my NAS.

---druck

Reply to
druck

I've used omxplayer, and then mpv (a rather heavier-weight player), to play 192k mp3 streams supplied across 802.11/USB or ethernet, with no trouble at all, on an original model B.

(Not messing with the GUI - this is all command-line.)

Reply to
Roger Bell_West

They're on the card. I thought it was a pretty reasonable SanDisk, but I guess it must be that. Having been alerted to 'htop' I checked with that, and the CPU never exceeds ~12%, with 3% of that being the audio, so that's hardly bogged down.

I just removed Kodi off the system... (:-/) I still can't find any way to return the screen to normal after it runs, and (unlike the first time) when I clicked on the file to see what apps would play it, Kodi revved up automatically, so I had to reboot again! Enough...

I'll have to try playing from a stream from my LAN, though. See if that works.

Thanks,

-- Pete --

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Reply to
Pete

About the best GUI media player I've found for my main Fedora i386 systems is VLC - try it if its been ported to Raspbian.

I only run my RPi as a headless device accessed via ssh and don't use it as a media player, so can't offer any more direct advice.

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martin@   | Martin Gregorie 
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Reply to
Martin Gregorie

There's a simple fix for that, google and you'll find it on the Kodi forums.

---druck

Reply to
druck

Agreed... I dumped all the glitzy (but annoying) players that came on my Ubuntu system and installed VLC. Much happier!

But colour me astonished! I just did install it on the Pi, and

-- after an initial glitch where it wanted the non-enabled PulseAudio and killed *all* sound, requiring a reboot -- it plays the MP3 glitch free!

No idea how it succeeds where mpg123 fails. Tried increasing the buffer in that to 1MB without noticeable effect.

Thanks,

-- Pete --

Reply to
Pete

OK, thanks. I'll go look and maybe try it again later.

-- Pete --

Reply to
Pete
08 Dec 16 21:42, you wrote to snipped-for-privacy@druck.org.uk:

Pe> OK, thanks. I'll go look and maybe try it again later.

Take a look at this....

formatting link

This appears to solve this issue, I *can't* verify, as I don't use XBMC.

Rick

... Ding Dong the Witch is DEAD! I Made America Great Again! President Trump!

Reply to
Rick Christian
08 Dec 16 20:24, you wrote to Pete:

dr> There's a simple fix for that, google and you'll find it on the Kodi dr> forums.

Why not just post the link and help solve this?

Rick

... Ding Dong the Witch is DEAD! I Made America Great Again! President Trump!

Reply to
Rick Christian
09 Dec 16 10:24, you wrote to druck:

dr>> There's a simple fix for that, google and you'll find it on the Kodi dr>> forums.

RC> Why not just post the link and help solve this?

Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.

)\/(ark

Always Mount a Scratch Monkey Do you manage your own servers? If you are not running an IDS/IPS yer doin' it wrong... ... The landscape belongs to the person who looks at it.

Reply to
mark lewis

Well, sorry all! It seems I was looking at the wrong end...

After VLC was playing my audio glitch-free, I went back to mpg123

-- and it was now perfectly smooth too!

I realized that before I tried VLC, I had kicked the HDMI cable and had to make sure it was fully inserted. Sure enough, if I move the cable slightly, I get audio breakup, but the screen stays perfectly steady! I can move the cable far enough to make the screen go black, too, but this wasn't happening at all. (Also interesting that the breakups were fairly regular -- a second or so apart -- but the cable wasn't being jiggled at all.)

Things are a bit cramped back where the Pi is stationed, so I have to be careful that nothing is sitting on it, but I guess I have good audio now.

[I don't know anything about the HDMI protocol, but it's a bit weird too with my DVD/CD player that shares the display through a switch. CDs go straight out to my HiFi from the player's audio (not via HDMI), but if I switch the display say to TV and back to HDMI, the direct audio hiccups! There's apparenly two-way communication in HDMI -- "CEC" or some such --that I suppose is doing this, but it's odd.]

-- Pete --

Reply to
Pete
11 Dec 16 15:50, you wrote to me:

AS> There is a standard you know - and it's dash dash space EOL.

in fidonet, we have a standard, too... it is dash dash dash space but it is also not a required part in our standards...

AS> -- AS> Steve O'Hara-Smith | Directable Mirror Arrays C:>> WIN | A better way to focus the sun AS> The computer obeys and wins. | licences available see AS> You lose and Bill collects. |

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AS> --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05 AS> * Origin: Agency HUB, Dunedin - New Zealand | FidoUsenet Gateway AS> (3:770/3)

PS: the above is how we see your posts on this side of the fence... if we were in to tearing off the text after the message body, we could complain in the same manner to you about putting three dashes and a space right above or right below your two dashes and a space... we, on this side of the fence, do not have that luxury because it is up to the gating software to handle that for us ;)

)\/(ark

Always Mount a Scratch Monkey Do you manage your own servers? If you are not running an IDS/IPS yer doin' it wrong... ... It's the net: the use of common sense is totally out of place.

Reply to
mark lewis

AB> mark seems to be reading/replying via some sort of fidousenet AB> gateway, soupgate ...

yes... rick/richard is, too... he's the one that someone started whining at in the first place...

)\/(ark

Always Mount a Scratch Monkey Do you manage your own servers? If you are not running an IDS/IPS yer doin' it wrong... ... Live life as an exclamation, not an explanation!

Reply to
mark lewis
11 Dec 16 17:43, you wrote to Andy Burns:

AS> I'm pretty sure the standard goes back to UUCP days (USENET is older AS> than the pubic internet), which makes it older than fido and I'm sure AS> older than whatever gateway software is in use. IOW they should be AS> doing it right IMHO.

we are "doing it right"... don't believe it? read our specs, expand your mind and learn that the world is larger than you originally thought it was ;) O:) ;)

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)\/(ark

Always Mount a Scratch Monkey Do you manage your own servers? If you are not running an IDS/IPS yer doin' it wrong... ... Hey Rocky! Watch me pull a rabbit outta my hat!

Reply to
mark lewis

You, as well as Rick, need a sig sep.

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Sig Sep is Dash Dash Space Newline
Reply to
Kerr Mudd-John

There is a standard you know - and it's dash dash space EOL.

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Steve O'Hara-Smith                          |   Directable Mirror Arrays 
C:>WIN                                      | A better way to focus the sun 
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Reply to
Ahem A Rivet's Shot

mark seems to be reading/replying via some sort of fidousenet gateway, soupgate ...

Reply to
Andy Burns

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