Boxee on Intrepid (Ubuntu 8.10)

[samjaynes]

I upgraded to 8.10 from 8.04, and as a result both Boxee and XBMC UI's run very slow, painful to the point that I can not use them. I have read threads about changing the vsync to 0 in the xml properties file, which did not help. So, I hope others have had success.

[agentlame]

what kind of video card do you have... also, are you using the latest binary drivers?

[denied]

didn't want to start a new thread, but nobody seems to be reporting too-fast playback like I have on my intrepid install.

figured audio might be a problem on upgrade... turns out everything appears to run fine but the video portion of content runs about 2x speed, audio still plays at normal speed but quickly loses sync since the video is flying along.

any suggestions? pretty basic setup, dell c521s, amd 3400+, ati x1300.

[agentlame]

just upgraded last night and had the same problem (and a host of others)

in system > administration > sound
i set all three 'sound playback' to:
ALSA - Advanced Linux Sound Architecture

fixed the following:
video too fast
pulseaudio lock up on exiting a video
boxee seg fault on mp3 playback.

[uncola]

I played around more with boxee in ubuntu 8.10 and once I changed system/preferences/sound to all ALSA instead of default or pulseaudio.. the video playback seems ok.. audio seems ok too.. but as soon as I skip ahead 30 seconds.. my computer hard locks :P
this happens in xbmc, too. when I use VLC 0.94 with audio output set to alsa I have no problems, even when I skip ahead in the video.
one tip that might help people is: if the only sound you have is crackling, that means you need to turn go into sound preferences and change the default mixer track to alsa PCM, then go to the volume control and turn the PCM volume up to get sound
UPDATE: I ran "killall pulseaudio" and now Boxee works perfectly, even when skipping ahead 30 seconds! It works for xbmc too! But you have to run the command every time you reboot :/ I'm just happy to have working boxee. why does pulseaudio interfere so much with boxee?

[marcel]

guys ..thanks for the advice..

[agentlame]

Originally Posted by uncola

I'm just happy to have working boxee. why does pulseaudio interfere so much with boxee?

because, frankly, pulseaudio is .....

that said, you can safely remove it all together, like so:

sudo rm /etc/X11/Xsession.d/70pulseaudio
killall pulseaudio
sudo apt-get remove pulseaudio
sudo apt-get install esound

reboot and enjoy.

[svega85]

why doesn't boxee just not use the pulse sound server instead of alsa

[agentlame]

Originally Posted by svega85

why doesn't boxee just not use the pulse sound server instead of alsa

that's the point... boxee does not use pulse.
pulse is a 'replacement' for alsa... well, actually it's an abstraction for oss that implements alsa/esound.
sdl sucks at pulse because pulse does not offer a full alsa implantation.
it's not boxee/xbmc/sdl fault. pulse sits above oss and says 'hey i'm alsa' but it's not.

the situation is not helped by the fact that sdl_audio is itself an abstraction for the underlying operating system's native sound server.
(coreaudio, alsa, directsound)

short: pulse is not done, and should not be in any production distro.

shorter: see here: http://blogs.adobe.com/penguin.swf/linuxaudio.png

shortest: pulseaudio is a fucking joke.

[DarkFox]

Originally Posted by agentlame

it's not boxee/xbmc/sdl fault. pulse sits above oss and says 'hey i'm alsa' but it's not.
...
shorter: see here: http://blogs.adobe.com/penguin.swf/linuxaudio.png

Ugh, that makes my brain hurt...