Audio Issues

[Johnny3208]

Hi Guys,

I'm running 11.2. I can watch and hear videos online that run on flash. However, whenever I try to listen to a MP3 in Amarok there is no sound and when I try to open it in the default media player in SuSe it just shows a red X with no error.

Also, if I'm listening to something online then open up Amarok and try to play a song the audio stops with the flash video. It's like Amarok stole the priority of the sound card and doesn't allow other applications to share with it.

Any ideas?

[oldcpu]

Originally Posted by Johnny3208

I'm running 11.2. I can watch and hear videos online that run on flash. However, whenever I try to listen to a MP3 in Amarok there is no sound and when I try to open it in the default media player in SuSe it just shows a red X with no error.

mp3 is a proprietary audio codec. Media players packaged with openSUSE are crippled and will not play proprietary codecs. To play such codecs, you need to replace the Novell/SuSE packaged media players with Packman packaged media players.

Please read and follow the directions here:
Multi-media and Restricted Format Installation Guide - openSUSE Forums
Note for Amarok, you need to install the packman packaged libxine1, xine-ui, amarok, amarok-xine, amarok-packman, replacing any Novell/SuSE packaged versions. You can tell Packman packaged versions by the "pm" in the version number. Then when you launch Amarok, under settings > configure amarok, be certain to select the xine sound engine.

Originally Posted by Johnny3208

Also, if I'm listening to something online then open up Amarok and try to play a song the audio stops with the flash video. It's like Amarok stole the priority of the sound card and doesn't allow other applications to share with it.

Yes, that is typical for Linux. Many of the Linux sound daemons/servers such as esound, aRts, oss (as packaged with openSUSE) only allow one audio application at a time to have access to the sound device. However the alsa API will allow multiple devices, as will pulse audio, although pulse audio is buggy.

Note the alsa application includes a sound driver (that all multimedia applications require in place) and it also comes with an alsa API that applications may or may not use (ie its optional). As noted, if your applications have their settings set to use the alsa API, then it will share the audio with other devices also using the alsa api.