Mint 13 MATE: Sound problem w/ maximised youtube window

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Aethelred

Mint 13 MATE: Sound problem w/ maximised youtube window

Post by Aethelred »

Hello everyone!

I am fairly new to Linux (I tried openSuSe two weeks ago) and have installed Linux Mint 13 two days ago. First of all I have to say that, especially in comparison to SuSe, Mint and the MATE desktop are great! I like the balance between being accessible, functional and not too demanding with regard to hardware. I still encouter some bugs, like the one which displays "could not write bytes: broken pipe" on shutdown, but overall everything is running more or less smoothly and I enjoy the adventure that is getting to know Linux (I come from a Windows 7 background). So to all those Mint developers out there: I really do like your work! Thank you!

But I digress and should get to the point. My problem is the following: When I play youtube videos, usually everything works perfectly, both the video and the sound quality. This changes when I maximise the youtube window to fullscreen, in which case the sound starts stuttering. It sounds a bit like when you turn up the volume too high on a cheap soundsystem, creating some sort of crackling noise (for lack of a better way of describing it). However, the volume does not actually change, just the sound quality. I have searched the forum for similar cases, but the threads I found mostly deal with cases in which sound does not work at all, as opposed to it working rather selectively.

My computer is a Lenovo Thinkpad T60. It has a dualboot with Windows 7 and Linux Mint 13 (MATE), both of which are 32-bit. The System Information application gives me the following:

-Computer-
Processor : 2x Intel(R) Core(TM)2 CPU T7200 @ 2.00GHz
Memory : 3096MB (625MB used)
Operating System : Linux Mint 13 Maya

-Display-
Resolution : 1680x1050 pixels
OpenGL Renderer : Gallium 0.4 on ATI RV515
X11 Vendor : The X.Org Foundation

-Multimedia-
Audio Adapter : HDA-Intel - HDA Intel
Audio Adapter : USB-Audio - Microsoft LifeCam VX-5000
Audio Adapter : ThinkPad EC - ThinkPad Console Audio Control

I should maybe clarify that every other application involving sound works perfectly fine (as far as I had the time to test it), so the only issue is with youtube in fullscreen. I am not sure what the problem is. I admit that I am not too savvy with regard to hardware matters and I have not been able to figure out yet which driver might work for the sound system of this notebook (if indeed it is a driver issue). Furthermore, since I do not really know what the source of the problem is, I am aware that the information given above might not encompass everything needed to solve this "riddle". So please do not hesitate to ask for further specifications.

Many thanks in advance!
Last edited by LockBot on Wed Dec 28, 2022 7:16 am, edited 1 time in total.
Reason: Topic automatically closed 6 months after creation. New replies are no longer allowed.
mank_in

Re: Mint 13 MATE: Sound problem w/ maximised youtube window

Post by mank_in »

you can try install the latest adobe flashplayer for linux (at this time is 11.2.202.238 ):
Open synaptic package manager :
removed mint-flashplugin and install adobe-flashplugin package .

If not working, try disable hardware acceleration in firefox:
Firefox>edit>preferences>advanced>general
uncheck box : use hardware acceleration when available
Aethelred

Re: Mint 13 MATE: Sound problem w/ maximised youtube window

Post by Aethelred »

Hi mank, cheers for the quick reply. I tried both methods, but the problem persisted, both before and after a restart of Firefox and the system. So you do not think it might be a driver issue? Or did you just want to start with the more immediate solution possibilities?
Aethelred

Re: Mint 13 MATE: Sound problem w/ maximised youtube window

Post by Aethelred »

Hey guys!

I have continued experimenting regarding this problem and came up with the following:

I used the Synaptic Package Manager to do the following updates:
linux-firmware (1.79) to 1.79.1
xserver-xorg-input-evdev (1:2.7.0-0ubuntu1) to 1:2.7.0-0ubuntu1.2
xserver-xorg-input-synaptics (1.5.99.902-0ubuntu5) to 1.6.2-1ubuntu1~precise2
xserver-xorg-input-vmmouse (1:12.8.0-1) to 1:12.9.0-0ubuntu0.1
xserver-xorg-video-intel (2:2.17.0-1ubuntu4) to 2:2.17.0-1ubuntu4.1
xserver-xorg-video-vmware (1:12.0.1-1ubuntu1) to 1:12.0.1-1ubuntu1.1

Some of them were most likely not connected to this problem and I only updated them for completeness' sake. But I think (correct me if I am wrong) that both the linux-firmware and the xserver-xorg-video-intel update could have been connected to it, since when I started Firefox again, the sound problem in the youtube videos was gone! So this is a success. Unfortunately, it is only a partial success, since the videos have now started to become slower when I maximise them. I have not checked it yet, but maybe the forum has some threads on this new problem. I will see about this soon. (Feels a bit like talking to myself, but then again maybe that helps someone else.).

EDIT: Spoke too soon! When I restarted the laptop, the videos started stuttering again. So it's back to the beginning.

EDIT 2: Ok, two days ago I was bored and installed Battle for Wesnoth" on my laptop. Pretty nice game, but apart from being fun, it also showed me that my laptop does not only have sound issues with youtube. It also seems to struggle with the game sound (it works, but occasionally has a disturbance or so). I have come to the conclusion, then, that the problem is not necessarily the flashplayer, but rather something to do with the sound driver. I have had a look at a thread on replacing PulseAudio with ALSA (in this forum: http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.p ... sa#p410093) and tried to find more information on my hardware (as I said, I am pretty new to linux and not that experienced with some hardware issues, so I found it hard to believe that my sound system is just called "Intel HD Audio Chipset". But hey, it is!). This guy http://www.prolixium.com/linux-t60 had a nice introduction to Linux on a Lenovo T60 and I believe that, although mine is a slightly different one, the statement that the Intel Audio Chipset mentioned above works fine with ALSA might also be relevant to my laptop. I checked the synaptic package manager and it looks like my laptop is using both PulseAudio and ALSA packages. Before I start tinkering with de- and re-installing some of them: is it advisable to completely clear either of the two from the system? Or is there something I don't know yet on how they relate to each other in some way?

Many thanks in advance!
RoyM

Re: Mint 13 MATE: Sound problem w/ maximised youtube window

Post by RoyM »

Hi. Noticed that no one has responded to your question for the past two weeks or so. I certainly don't have an answer but you may want to try another forum which is what I do when I don't get any response from this forum. Try http://www.linuxquestions.org I recently got a lot of help there with a problem that I had. By the way, there are several other Linux forums if you don't get an answer from LinuxQuestions. Good luck in finding a solution soon. By the way, I am running Linux Mint 13, Mate and I haven't noticed any audio problems when I watch a video/movie in full screen.
Aethelred

Re: Mint 13 MATE: Sound problem w/ maximised youtube window

Post by Aethelred »

Hey RoyM,

thanks for your support! That's much appreciated and I will give linuxquestions & co a shot. Sorry for the late reply, but October did not leave much time for Linux experiments.

Have a good one!
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