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Author Topic: Playback Could Not Be Started  (Read 5801 times)

InflatableMouse

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Playback Could Not Be Started
« on: September 25, 2014, 12:55:41 pm »

I just reinstalled my HTPC with Arch Linux and installed MC20.

I tested the DAC with speaker-test, I used the front: device. It works fine.

I selected this in MC and it first didn't work. I retested speaker-test, used S32_LE and 44100 Hz. It worked, back in MC, it worked too.

I try another song and MC pops up the message Playback could not be started on [ALSA].

I tried everything I could think of, but now it refuses to work for whatever reason, speaker-test and other applications can play audio, MC refuses.

I made a log, attached. Hopefully someone finds something useful in there.

Thanks!
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Hendrik

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Re: Playback Could Not Be Started
« Reply #1 on: September 25, 2014, 01:05:47 pm »

Its trying to open a device called "front:CARD=UD501,DEV=0", and just gets "No such device or address" from ALSA.
Did the device name change? Try selecting the device again in MC settings?
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InflatableMouse

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Re: Playback Could Not Be Started
« Reply #2 on: September 25, 2014, 01:24:02 pm »

No name change, aplay -L outputs:

front:CARD=UD501,DEV=0
    TEAC UD-501, USB Audio
    Front speakers

A copy/paste of that line in speaker-test works fine:

speaker-test -D front:CARD=UD501 -c 2 -F S32_LE -r 44100
speaker-test 1.0.28

Playback device is front:CARD=UD501
Stream parameters are 44100Hz, S32_LE, 2 channels
Using 16 octaves of pink noise
Rate set to 44100Hz (requested 44100Hz)

Buffer size range from 16 to 131072
Period size range from 8 to 65536
Using max buffer size 131072
Periods = 4
was set period_size = 32768
was set buffer_size = 131072
 0 - Front Left
 1 - Front Right
Time per period = 2.979440
 0 - Front Left
 1 - Front Right
Time per period = 1.183191

I have to mention though that speaker-test failed on front:CARD=UD501 too until I tested another device, then the front: device worked too. MC however, continues to fail on every attempt, even after speaker-test works fine.
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InflatableMouse

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Re: Playback Could Not Be Started
« Reply #3 on: September 25, 2014, 02:57:01 pm »

I know why speaker-test failed. When MC worked incidentally, I tried DoP. After that, no device towards the UD501 works anymore, even speaker-test fails with the message that a device with that name (aplay -l) doesn't exist.

When I reboot, speaker-test works fine, MC doesn't play. After a lot of trial and error with speaker test and swapping devices in MC, it suddenly works for no obvious reason.

The PC is a new generation Intel NUC, i5 4250 with HD5000. The Teac DAC is attached to USB on the back (not changed) and worked flawless under Windows with MC20. I'm sure this device is very similar to the Id. I'm not sure what is going on.
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mwillems

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Re: Playback Could Not Be Started
« Reply #4 on: September 25, 2014, 03:22:37 pm »

I know why speaker-test failed. When MC worked incidentally, I tried DoP. After that, no device towards the UD501 works anymore, even speaker-test fails with the message that a device with that name (aplay -l) doesn't exist.

When I reboot, speaker-test works fine, MC doesn't play. After a lot of trial and error with speaker test and swapping devices in MC, it suddenly works for no obvious reason.

The PC is a new generation Intel NUC, i5 4250 with HD5000. The Teac DAC is attached to USB on the back (not changed) and worked flawless under Windows with MC20. I'm sure this device is very similar to the Id. I'm not sure what is going on.

Is there anything helpful in the journal or dmesg?  Usually when I get a playback failures I get something one place or the other.
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bob

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Re: Playback Could Not Be Started
« Reply #5 on: September 26, 2014, 09:36:53 am »

I know why speaker-test failed. When MC worked incidentally, I tried DoP. After that, no device towards the UD501 works anymore, even speaker-test fails with the message that a device with that name (aplay -l) doesn't exist.

When I reboot, speaker-test works fine, MC doesn't play. After a lot of trial and error with speaker test and swapping devices in MC, it suddenly works for no obvious reason.

The PC is a new generation Intel NUC, i5 4250 with HD5000. The Teac DAC is attached to USB on the back (not changed) and worked flawless under Windows with MC20. I'm sure this device is very similar to the Id. I'm not sure what is going on.
\
Sounds like the DAC went into outer space when you tried DoP.
You could try powercycling it (or if it's usb powered, unplug and replug).
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InflatableMouse

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Re: Playback Could Not Be Started
« Reply #6 on: September 26, 2014, 11:45:54 am »

Yeh, not sure about that. Everything's been power cycled overnight, I'm just trying to get PCM to work first.

When I try to play with MC, I get this in my dmesg log:

[  524.215097] usb 1-1: clock source 41 is not valid, cannot use
[  524.344225] usb 1-1: clock source 41 is not valid, cannot use
[  549.744623] usb 1-1: clock source 41 is not valid, cannot use
[  549.846835] usb 1-1: clock source 41 is not valid, cannot use
[  693.279438] usb 1-1: clock source 41 is not valid, cannot use
[  693.381780] usb 1-1: clock source 41 is not valid, cannot use
[  717.637499] usb 1-1: clock source 41 is not valid, cannot use
[  717.739830] usb 1-1: clock source 41 is not valid, cannot use

I try speaker-test, it works fine. I can play different sample rates.

At this moment, MC is unable to play at all, its not intermittend anymore.
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bob

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Re: Playback Could Not Be Started
« Reply #7 on: September 26, 2014, 11:56:24 am »

Yeh, not sure about that. Everything's been power cycled overnight, I'm just trying to get PCM to work first.

When I try to play with MC, I get this in my dmesg log:

[  524.215097] usb 1-1: clock source 41 is not valid, cannot use
[  524.344225] usb 1-1: clock source 41 is not valid, cannot use
[  549.744623] usb 1-1: clock source 41 is not valid, cannot use
[  549.846835] usb 1-1: clock source 41 is not valid, cannot use
[  693.279438] usb 1-1: clock source 41 is not valid, cannot use
[  693.381780] usb 1-1: clock source 41 is not valid, cannot use
[  717.637499] usb 1-1: clock source 41 is not valid, cannot use
[  717.739830] usb 1-1: clock source 41 is not valid, cannot use

I try speaker-test, it works fine. I can play different sample rates.

At this moment, MC is unable to play at all, its not intermittend anymore.

What are the dsp studio settings?
Perhaps something else has grabbed the device at a particular sample rate?
MC disables all ALSA level resampling.
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InflatableMouse

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Re: Playback Could Not Be Started
« Reply #8 on: September 26, 2014, 12:03:42 pm »

System sound notifications are disabled, there is nothing else running that can play so nothing should grab a device. If it did, I don't think speaker-test would function.

I also tried creating the custom hw device:

Code: [Select]
pcm.ud501hw { type hw;
card "UD501";
device 0;
subdevice 0; }

pcm.ud501 { type plug;
                slave.pcm "ud501hw";
                hint {  show on;
description "Teac UD501 USB DAC"; } }

That doesn't work either in MC, it works everywhere else.

In DSP Studio I have volume leveling enabled, output format enabled for higher than 384.000 to 384khz, JRSS mixing to 2 channels and detect stereo in pseudo surround. Output encoding is set to none.

I'll rename the jriver folder to let it reset all settings, if that doesn't work I can rename it back.
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bob

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Re: Playback Could Not Be Started
« Reply #9 on: September 26, 2014, 01:32:03 pm »

System sound notifications are disabled, there is nothing else running that can play so nothing should grab a device. If it did, I don't think speaker-test would function.

I also tried creating the custom hw device:

Code: [Select]
pcm.ud501hw { type hw;
card "UD501";
device 0;
subdevice 0; }

pcm.ud501 { type plug;
                slave.pcm "ud501hw";
                hint {  show on;
description "Teac UD501 USB DAC"; } }

That doesn't work either in MC, it works everywhere else.

In DSP Studio I have volume leveling enabled, output format enabled for higher than 384.000 to 384khz, JRSS mixing to 2 channels and detect stereo in pseudo surround. Output encoding is set to none.

I'll rename the jriver folder to let it reset all settings, if that doesn't work I can rename it back.
For testing, you could also try setting all of the dsp conversions to 48k.
That is the common sample rate when multiple devices are using the audio
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InflatableMouse

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Re: Playback Could Not Be Started
« Reply #10 on: September 26, 2014, 02:01:51 pm »

I tried 48kHz, that doesn't matter.

Resetting the JRiver folder doesn't help.

When I unplug/plug the Teac, I get this in dmesg log:
Code: [Select]
Fri Sep 26 20:52:41 2014] usb 1-4: USB disconnect, device number 9
[Fri Sep 26 20:52:42 2014] usb 1-3: USB disconnect, device number 5
[Fri Sep 26 20:53:10 2014] usb 1-3: new high-speed USB device number 10 using xhci_hcd
[Fri Sep 26 20:53:11 2014] usb 1-3: clock source 41 is not valid, cannot use
[Fri Sep 26 20:53:11 2014] usb 1-3: clock source 41 is not valid, cannot use
[Fri Sep 26 20:53:11 2014] hid-generic 0003:0644:8043.000C: hiddev0,hidraw0: USB HID v1.10 Device [TEAC Corporation TEAC UD-501] on usb-0000:00:14.0-3/input2

But my own pc does the same thing and MC plays immediately.

I'm really at a loss about what's going on that other pc  ? ?
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bob

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Re: Playback Could Not Be Started
« Reply #11 on: September 26, 2014, 02:36:24 pm »

device permissions? (audio group)?
Missing dependencies?

Not sure what else there could be.
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InflatableMouse

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Re: Playback Could Not Be Started
« Reply #12 on: September 26, 2014, 03:16:02 pm »

Same thing as root. I think all dependencies are satisfied.

I can play to other devices and the Teac actually worked just now, incidentally. I switched back and forth between another device and the Teac and now it stopped working again.

I removed any customizations I made in /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base.conf (mainly device order) and removed ~/.asoundrc too.

It's basically a fresh install of Arch, XFCE4 and MC20. Same patchlevel as my own PC.

Maybe I'll try reinstalling tomorrow, if I can find the time.

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InflatableMouse

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Re: Playback Could Not Be Started
« Reply #13 on: September 28, 2014, 10:53:01 am »

Well, I don't know anymore.

I reinstalled and MC refuses to play. Banshee plays, but I noticed it does skip a track or two sometimes.

Speaker-test fails too sometimes.

I have no idea what could be wrong.
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bob

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Re: Playback Could Not Be Started
« Reply #14 on: September 28, 2014, 07:23:09 pm »

Turn on logging and look in the log.
MC does a very detailed report on the stages of opening the device in Linux. Search for ALSA.
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InflatableMouse

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Re: Playback Could Not Be Started
« Reply #15 on: September 29, 2014, 03:13:05 am »

I did, its the same as the log I attached to my initial post.

I need to come up with another plan for this, I didn't anticipate these issues as everything works fine under Arch on my own PC.

For now, I put Win8.1 back so I can play music and movies. I'll try to install dual boot so I can take my time troubleshooting MC on Arch on the NUC.

TBC ...
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bob

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Re: Playback Could Not Be Started
« Reply #16 on: September 29, 2014, 10:02:38 am »

Its trying to open a device called "front:CARD=UD501,DEV=0", and just gets "No such device or address" from ALSA.
Did the device name change? Try selecting the device again in MC settings?
This "front:CARD=UD501,DEV=0" is the exact string used for opening the device.
The test IM used with speakertest  was "front:CARD=UD501"
IM can you try using exactly the same string?
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InflatableMouse

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Re: Playback Could Not Be Started
« Reply #17 on: September 29, 2014, 10:10:56 am »

Sharp eye Bob  :P.

I tried that too, it makes no difference but in later tests I got lazy and left DEV=0 out.

For now Windows is back on there, I need to reinstall Linux, hopefully (before) this weekend. I may just to be sure install Debian first and see how that works.
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