Updated alsa-lib and alsa-plugins to latest version 1.0.27. Unfortunately the a52 plugin makes pulseaudio crash immediately. Had to compile the alsa-plugins against libav 9 instead of libav 0.8.6 (that comes with raring) to make it work! Unfortunately the problem with audio breaking up persists. The pulseaudio log is attached.
** Attachment added: "pulse_20130614.7z" https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/pulseaudio/+bug/1188425/+attachment/3704128/+files/pulse_20130614.7z -- You received this bug notification because you are a member of Desktop Packages, which is subscribed to pulseaudio in Ubuntu. https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1188425 Title: Audio breaks up and pulseaudio eventually crashes with Alsa a52 (ac3) plugin (Ubuntu 13.04) Status in “pulseaudio” package in Ubuntu: New Bug description: I am encoding all audio in AC3 and sending it to my Logitech Z-5500 speakers through the SPDIF out jack on my laptop. Audio works fine for a while until it breaks up randomly and pulseaudio eventually crashes. By looking to the pulseaudio logs one can see some buffer underruns. I also tested with the 3.9.4 mainline kernel though I am not sure this issue is driver related. The result is always the same! I have this in /usr/share/alsa/alsa.conf.d/a52.conf pcm.a52 { @args [CARD] @args.CARD { type string } type rate slave { pcm { type a52 format S16_LE # S16_LE, S16_BE channels 6 # 2, 4, 6 bitrate 640 # 192, 224, 256, 320, 384, 448, 512, 576, 640 card $CARD } rate 48000 # 44100, 48000 } } One other thing I tried was the dcaenc-2 alsa plugin from this web page http://aepatrakov.narod.ru/index/0-2 and this plugin appears to not have the same problem. The disadvantage of the dca plugin is that it needs a lot more processing power! So I would prefer the a52 plugin if it worked flawlessly. These are the answers to the first two questions: 1) Ubuntu 13.04 2) libasound2-plugins-extra: Installed: 1.0.25-2ubuntu3 Candidate: 1.0.25-2ubuntu3 Version table: *** 1.0.25-2ubuntu3 0 500 http://pt.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ raring/universe amd64 Packages 100 /var/lib/dpkg/status To manage notifications about this bug go to: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/pulseaudio/+bug/1188425/+subscriptions -- Mailing list: https://launchpad.net/~desktop-packages Post to : desktop-packages@lists.launchpad.net Unsubscribe : https://launchpad.net/~desktop-packages More help : https://help.launchpad.net/ListHelp