Media Center Build - Audio Artifacts

booman

booman

Grand High Exalted Mystic Emperor of Linux Gaming
Staff member
I inherited a 4K TV and have been using Verizon FIOS fiber optic internet with Gigabit internet speed since we moved to Virginia!

I've been using a laptop because it was the smallest computer with a dedicated video card I had. Everything worked smoothly with 4K streaming and audio.

Finally I was able to build a dedicated compact computer just this week to replace the laptop.

MediaCentre.jpeg


I love this build because its extremely small, compact and still allows a dedicated video card for some gaming and 4K streaming.

Unfortunately I am experiencing some strange audio issues.

Symptoms:
  • Audio drops when interacting with windows and buttons
  • Repetitive random scratching static sounds in all speakers
  • Some system sounds half-trigger - like during speaker tests
  • Chrome movies & music randomly lose audio (muted for a second)
  • Keyboard buttons randomly will not increase/decrease volume
Other than these symptoms, everything is running and installing perfectly

Steps Taken

Linux:
  • Updated Nvidia to 525
  • Downgraded to Nvidia 515
  • Downgraded to Nvidia 510
  • Tested in Nouveau open source (testing again)
  • Changed to HDMI 2-ch Stereo
  • Changed to HDMI 5.1
  • Changed to HDMI 7.1
  • Increased Cinnamon memory limit to 8000MB
  • Disabled Compositor
  • Disabled windows effects
  • Created test profile in Mint
  • Installed Mint 21
  • Adjusted refresh rates: 50, 60, 30, 25, 29.9
  • Changed screen resolution to: 1920x1080
  • Bought new 4K HDMI Cables
  • Tested DisplayPort to HDMI
  • Separated video and audio with two cables
Software:
  • Tested in Chrome (Netflix, Prime, Youtube
  • Tested MP3 with Rythmbox over network
  • Tested MP3 with Rythmbox directly from the desktop
  • Tested in Firefox
Hardware
  • Swapped HDMI cable
  • Swapped Video cards
  • Tested with analog stereo RCA cables (humming/stuttering artifacts when interacting with windows)
  • MemTest - Currently running
Specs:
 
Last edited:
This is certainly not an easy one to figure out. Have you tried to play sound over other outputs than HDMI? Just to attempt to narrow down the issue, see if sound plays fine on any other output, audio jack, or some USB sound output if you can test it.

Otherwise, the only thing that comes to mind at the moment might be bad RAM. Trying out some other RAM sticks might be worth a test.
 
Yes, I have used the speaker jack on the motherboard and ran it to RCA on the amp. It seemed to work fine, but I didn't try analog for a long period of time.

When I disabled Compositor yesterday it got better, but it seems to get worse over time.

Oh I forgot to mention I am using a Sony 5.1 surround AMP (brand new) and an LG 4K Smart TV. I'll add these to my list of specs.

I previously had a tiny Shuttle PC and later a Lenovo laptop connected to it and never had audio issues.
So I'm almost sure its something with my new build and maybe Pulseaudio

I tried installing Pipeline and uninstalling Pulseaudio, but Cinnamon will not run without pulseaudio. Won't even boot to the login screen.

I thought about the RAM too, I'll test it with a flash drive using MemTest and see what happens. Its super rare, but has happened before.
 
I want you to try one thing, just to rule out other issues. Create a brand new user profile on this computer, and try it out with the new user.
 
I tested with analog connection (speaker jack to RCA) for an hour watching a movie. No audio dropouts or statics sounds the whole time. There was some faint stuttering, but I think it was just interference.

I"ll try the test profile now.

By the way, I also tried deleting /home/booman/.config/pulse directory and killing pulseaudio, which seems to work for a bit, then it starts up again slowly.

Also, I noticed when I click objects like windows, buttons or opening windows and clicking makes a sound artifact. Very strange but maybe its something to do with X server or interacting with the operating systems
 
Ok, I was able to create a new profile and the sound artifacts & dropouts still occurred.

This morning I started a MemTest scan and will let it run for about 4-6 hours. So far no errors.

I'm going to test the Neavou drivers again because I can't remember if it had the artifacts as well.

I'm hoping it isn't the video card, because I would hate to send it back. I really don't think it is because I swapped the 1650 with my old GTX 950 and it had the same problem

Thank you for your help!
 
I don't know for sure, but if the PSU can't power the GPU properly then you might experience stability issues, which I suppose could manifest in the way you experience.

But there are some troubleshooting steps you might want to try from the Arch wiki:

https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/PulseAudio/Troubleshooting#Glitches,_skips_or_crackling

https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/PulseAudio/Troubleshooting#Disabling_timer-based_scheduling

Those seems like the first things to try out, but there are other points there as well.
 
I thought about that as well. The Enermax PSU is a tiny power supply but 650watts. The video card does not have external power requirements, but maybe it is still struggling. i would think there would be more screen related artifacts, specially when playing movies in 4K on the TV.

But when I tried the GTX 950 it does require a 6 pin power connector and still didn't have any issues with 4K. Just the audio artifacts.

I ran the Memtest and it came back successful

mediacentre_memtest.jpg



I was also wondering about the Ubuntu Driver Manager.
I'm noticing some differences from previous versions of Mint.

driver.png


Notice there are two different Nvidia drivers?
  • Nvidia driver (open kernel) metapackage
  • Nvidia driver metapackage
I wonder what "Open Kernel" is?

I'll take a look at those pulseaudio solutions. Thanks again!!! You are always a lot of help when I need it!
 
Nvidia has started to release open source driver (nouveau is also open source, but not developed by Nvidia), but as far as I know it only supports a few GPU's at the moment. You could always try the open source driver, I assume it supports your hardware since it is recommended.

The proprietary driver is an external kernel module, while the open source driver is in the kernel.
 
I'm all about stability so I would rather use the closed source as I always have.
I'll try that too!

By the way, been testing with the Nouveau driver and there is a tiny bit of static clicking but no audio dropouts at all for several hours of music. Not sure if that means anything???

But I seriously can't use it because it won't do 4K fullscreen or gaming.

I also tried the pulseaudio tsched=0 but no effect.

I might try the other pulseaudio suggestions as well.
 
The Nvidia open driver is undoubtedly as stable as the proprietary driver, it is developed by Nvidia after all. As far as I understand, the plan is to fully open source their Linux driver so I would not worry about trying it out.
 
Ok, well I have tried the following drivers and still having the artifacts:
  • Nvidia 510
  • Nvidia 515
  • Nvidia 525
In the archlinux wiki there are a few things I don't understand...

How do I know if my CPU is an Intel using IOMMU?

There is a not about real-time kernel which I've read about for recording multi-track audio, but I don't think I need that in this case.

Here is my lshw output

Code: 
mint-media                 
    description: Desktop Computer
    product: B660-ITX (To Be Filled By O.E.M.)
    vendor: To Be Filled By O.E.M.
    version: To Be Filled By O.E.M.
    serial: To Be Filled By O.E.M.
    width: 64 bits
    capabilities: smbios-3.4.0 dmi-3.4.0 smp vsyscall32
    configuration: boot=normal chassis=desktop family=To Be Filled By O.E.M. sku=To Be Filled By O.E.M. uuid=d959a1a8-cad3-0000-0000-000000000000
  *-core
      description: Motherboard
      product: B660-ITX
      vendor: ASRock
      physical id: 0
      serial: M80-F4002000904
    *-firmware
          description: BIOS
          vendor: American Megatrends International, LLC.
          physical id: 0
          version: 2.02
          date: 01/21/2022
          size: 64KiB
          capacity: 16MiB
          capabilities: pci upgrade shadowing cdboot bootselect socketedrom edd int13floppynec int13floppytoshiba int13floppy360 int13floppy1200 int13floppy720 int13floppy2880 int5printscreen int9keyboard int14serial int17printer int10video usb biosbootspecification uefi
    *-memory
          description: System Memory
          physical id: b
          slot: System board or motherboard
          size: 16GiB
        *-bank:0
            description: DIMM DDR4 Synchronous 2133 MHz (0.5 ns)
            product: CMK16GX4M2B3200C16
            vendor: Corsair
            physical id: 0
            serial: 00000000
            slot: Controller0-ChannelA-DIMM0
            size: 8GiB
            width: 64 bits
            clock: 2133MHz (0.5ns)
        *-bank:1
            description: DIMM [empty]
            physical id: 1
            slot: Controller0-ChannelA-DIMM1
        *-bank:2
            description: DIMM DDR4 Synchronous 2133 MHz (0.5 ns)
            product: CMK16GX4M2B3200C16
            vendor: Corsair
            physical id: 2
            serial: 00000000
            slot: Controller1-ChannelA-DIMM0
            size: 8GiB
            width: 64 bits
            clock: 2133MHz (0.5ns)
        *-bank:3
            description: DIMM [empty]
            physical id: 3
            slot: Controller1-ChannelA-DIMM1
    *-cache:0
          description: L1 cache
          physical id: 1a
          slot: L1 Cache
          size: 96KiB
          capacity: 96KiB
          capabilities: synchronous internal write-back data
          configuration: level=1
    *-cache:1
          description: L1 cache
          physical id: 1b
          slot: L1 Cache
          size: 64KiB
          capacity: 64KiB
          capabilities: synchronous internal write-back instruction
          configuration: level=1
    *-cache:2
          description: L2 cache
          physical id: 1c
          slot: L2 Cache
          size: 2560KiB
          capacity: 2560KiB
          capabilities: synchronous internal write-back unified
          configuration: level=2
    *-cache:3
          description: L3 cache
          physical id: 1d
          slot: L3 Cache
          size: 4MiB
          capacity: 4MiB
          capabilities: synchronous internal write-back unified
          configuration: level=3
    *-cpu
          description: CPU
          product: Intel(R) Celeron(R) G6900
          vendor: Intel Corp.
          physical id: 1e
          bus info: cpu@0
          version: 6.151.5
          serial: To Be Filled By O.E.M.
          slot: CPUSocket
          size: 2919MHz
          capacity: 4400MHz
          width: 64 bits
          clock: 100MHz
          capabilities: lm fpu fpu_exception wp vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss ht tm pbe syscall nx pdpe1gb rdtscp x86-64 constant_tsc art arch_perfmon pebs bts rep_good nopl xtopology nonstop_tsc cpuid aperfmperf tsc_known_freq pni pclmulqdq dtes64 monitor ds_cpl vmx est tm2 ssse3 sdbg fma cx16 xtpr pdcm pcid sse4_1 sse4_2 x2apic movbe popcnt tsc_deadline_timer aes xsave avx f16c rdrand lahf_lm abm 3dnowprefetch cpuid_fault epb cat_l2 invpcid_single cdp_l2 ssbd ibrs ibpb stibp ibrs_enhanced tpr_shadow vnmi flexpriority ept vpid ept_ad fsgsbase tsc_adjust bmi1 avx2 smep bmi2 erms invpcid rdt_a rdseed adx smap clflushopt clwb intel_pt sha_ni xsaveopt xsavec xgetbv1 xsaves split_lock_detect avx_vnni dtherm arat pln pts hwp hwp_notify hwp_act_window hwp_epp hwp_pkg_req umip pku ospke waitpkg gfni vaes vpclmulqdq rdpid movdiri movdir64b fsrm md_clear serialize arch_lbr flush_l1d arch_capabilities cpufreq
          configuration: cores=2 enabledcores=2 microcode=34 threads=2
    *-pci
          description: Host bridge
          product: Intel Corporation
          vendor: Intel Corporation
          physical id: 100
          bus info: pci@0000:00:00.0
          version: 05
          width: 32 bits
          clock: 33MHz
        *-pci
            description: PCI bridge
            product: 12th Gen Core Processor PCI Express x16 Controller #1
            vendor: Intel Corporation
            physical id: 1
            bus info: pci@0000:00:01.0
            version: 05
            width: 32 bits
            clock: 33MHz
            capabilities: pci pciexpress msi pm normal_decode bus_master cap_list
            configuration: driver=pcieport
            resources: irq:121 ioport:3000(size=4096) memory:71000000-720fffff ioport:4000000000(size=301989888)
          *-display
                description: VGA compatible controller
                product: TU117 [GeForce GTX 1650]
                vendor: NVIDIA Corporation
                physical id: 0
                bus info: pci@0000:01:00.0
                version: a1
                width: 64 bits
                clock: 33MHz
                capabilities: pm msi pciexpress vga_controller bus_master cap_list rom
                configuration: driver=nvidia latency=0
                resources: iomemory:400-3ff iomemory:400-3ff irq:125 memory:71000000-71ffffff memory:4000000000-400fffffff memory:4010000000-4011ffffff ioport:3000(size=128) memory:c0000-dffff
          *-multimedia
                description: Audio device
                product: NVIDIA Corporation
                vendor: NVIDIA Corporation
                physical id: 0.1
                bus info: pci@0000:01:00.1
                logical name: card1
                logical name: /dev/snd/controlC1
                logical name: /dev/snd/hwC1D0
                logical name: /dev/snd/pcmC1D10p
                logical name: /dev/snd/pcmC1D11p
                logical name: /dev/snd/pcmC1D3p
                logical name: /dev/snd/pcmC1D7p
                logical name: /dev/snd/pcmC1D8p
                logical name: /dev/snd/pcmC1D9p
                version: a1
                width: 32 bits
                clock: 33MHz
                capabilities: pm msi pciexpress bus_master cap_list
                configuration: driver=snd_hda_intel latency=0
                resources: irq:17 memory:72080000-72083fff
              *-input:0
                  product: HDA NVidia HDMI/DP,pcm=3
                  physical id: 0
                  logical name: input20
                  logical name: /dev/input/event5
              *-input:1
                  product: HDA NVidia HDMI/DP,pcm=7
                  physical id: 1
                  logical name: input21
                  logical name: /dev/input/event6
              *-input:2
                  product: HDA NVidia HDMI/DP,pcm=8
                  physical id: 2
                  logical name: input22
                  logical name: /dev/input/event7
              *-input:3
                  product: HDA NVidia HDMI/DP,pcm=9
                  physical id: 3
                  logical name: input23
                  logical name: /dev/input/event8
              *-input:4
                  product: HDA NVidia HDMI/DP,pcm=10
                  physical id: 4
                  logical name: input24
                  logical name: /dev/input/event9
              *-input:5
                  product: HDA NVidia HDMI/DP,pcm=11
                  physical id: 5
                  logical name: input25
                  logical name: /dev/input/event10
        *-generic UNCLAIMED
            description: System peripheral
            product: 12th Gen Core Processor Gaussian & Neural Accelerator
            vendor: Intel Corporation
            physical id: 8
            bus info: pci@0000:00:08.0
            version: 05
            width: 64 bits
            clock: 33MHz
            capabilities: msi pm cap_list
            configuration: latency=0
            resources: iomemory:400-3ff memory:401211c000-401211cfff
        *-usb
            description: USB controller
            product: Intel Corporation
            vendor: Intel Corporation
            physical id: 14
            bus info: pci@0000:00:14.0
            version: 11
            width: 64 bits
            clock: 33MHz
            capabilities: pm msi xhci bus_master cap_list
            configuration: driver=xhci_hcd latency=0
            resources: iomemory:400-3ff irq:122 memory:4012100000-401210ffff
          *-usbhost:0
                product: xHCI Host Controller
                vendor: Linux 5.15.0-60-generic xhci-hcd
                physical id: 0
                bus info: usb@1
                logical name: usb1
                version: 5.15
                capabilities: usb-2.00
                configuration: driver=hub slots=16 speed=480Mbit/s
              *-usb
                  description: Keyboard
                  product: USB Receiver
                  vendor: Logitech
                  physical id: 5
                  bus info: usb@1:5
                  version: 29.01
                  capabilities: usb-2.00
                  configuration: driver=usbhid maxpower=98mA speed=12Mbit/s
                *-input:0
                      product: Logitech Wireless Keyboard PID:4075
                      physical id: 0
                      logical name: input18
                      logical name: /dev/input/event3
                      logical name: input18::capslock
                      logical name: input18::compose
                      logical name: input18::kana
                      logical name: input18::numlock
                      logical name: input18::scrolllock
                      capabilities: usb
                *-input:1
                      product: Logitech Wireless Mouse
                      physical id: 1
                      logical name: input19
                      logical name: /dev/input/event4
                      logical name: /dev/input/mouse0
                      capabilities: usb
          *-usbhost:1
                product: xHCI Host Controller
                vendor: Linux 5.15.0-60-generic xhci-hcd
                physical id: 1
                bus info: usb@2
                logical name: usb2
                version: 5.15
                capabilities: usb-3.10
                configuration: driver=hub slots=10 speed=10000Mbit/s
        *-memory UNCLAIMED
            description: RAM memory
            product: Intel Corporation
            vendor: Intel Corporation
            physical id: 14.2
            bus info: pci@0000:00:14.2
            version: 11
            width: 64 bits
            clock: 33MHz (30.3ns)
            capabilities: pm cap_list
            configuration: latency=0
            resources: iomemory:400-3ff iomemory:400-3ff memory:4012114000-4012117fff memory:401211b000-401211bfff
        *-serial:0
            description: Serial bus controller
            product: Intel Corporation
            vendor: Intel Corporation
            physical id: 15
            bus info: pci@0000:00:15.0
            version: 11
            width: 64 bits
            clock: 33MHz
            capabilities: pm bus_master cap_list
            configuration: driver=intel-lpss latency=0
            resources: irq:27 memory:401211a000-401211afff
        *-communication
            description: Communication controller
            product: Intel Corporation
            vendor: Intel Corporation
            physical id: 16
            bus info: pci@0000:00:16.0
            version: 11
            width: 64 bits
            clock: 33MHz
            capabilities: pm msi bus_master cap_list
            configuration: driver=mei_me latency=0
            resources: iomemory:400-3ff irq:126 memory:4012119000-4012119fff
        *-sata
            description: SATA controller
            product: Intel Corporation
            vendor: Intel Corporation
            physical id: 17
            bus info: pci@0000:00:17.0
            logical name: scsi5
            version: 11
            width: 32 bits
            clock: 66MHz
            capabilities: sata msi pm ahci_1.0 bus_master cap_list emulated
            configuration: driver=ahci latency=0
            resources: irq:123 memory:72120000-72121fff memory:72123000-721230ff ioport:4050(size=8) ioport:4040(size=4) ioport:4020(size=32) memory:72122000-721227ff
          *-disk
                description: ATA Disk
                product: Samsung SSD 870
                physical id: 0.0.0
                bus info: scsi@5:0.0.0
                logical name: /dev/sda
                version: 2B6Q
                serial: S5RRNF0T382475N
                size: 931GiB (1TB)
                capabilities: gpt-1.00 partitioned partitioned:gpt
                configuration: ansiversion=5 guid=b2457e8a-d98e-4ea8-bcd8-b5aca59ac93c logicalsectorsize=512 sectorsize=512
              *-volume:0
                  description: Linux swap volume
                  vendor: Linux
                  physical id: 1
                  bus info: scsi@5:0.0.0,1
                  logical name: /dev/sda1
                  version: 1
                  serial: f30c4d4b-9537-4b85-9bb0-7db49ef8e103
                  size: 9533MiB
                  capacity: 9535MiB
                  capabilities: nofs swap initialized
                  configuration: filesystem=swap pagesize=4095
              *-volume:1
                  description: Windows FAT volume
                  vendor: mkfs.fat
                  physical id: 2
                  bus info: scsi@5:0.0.0,2
                  logical name: /dev/sda2
                  logical name: /boot/efi
                  version: FAT32
                  serial: 64da-cdd8
                  size: 379MiB
                  capacity: 380MiB
                  capabilities: boot fat initialized
                  configuration: FATs=2 filesystem=fat mount.fstype=vfat mount.options=rw,relatime,fmask=0077,dmask=0077,codepage=437,iocharset=iso8859-1,shortname=mixed,errors=remount-ro state=mounted
              *-volume:2
                  description: EXT4 volume
                  vendor: Linux
                  physical id: 3
                  bus info: scsi@5:0.0.0,3
                  logical name: /dev/sda3
                  logical name: /
                  version: 1.0
                  serial: 00fc911e-cebc-449d-b463-59170b6bf913
                  size: 921GiB
                  capabilities: journaled extended_attributes large_files huge_files dir_nlink recover 64bit extents ext4 ext2 initialized
                  configuration: created=2023-02-10 14:02:19 filesystem=ext4 lastmountpoint=/ modified=2023-02-12 16:20:25 mount.fstype=ext4 mount.options=rw,relatime,errors=remount-ro mounted=2023-02-12 16:20:25 state=mounted
        *-isa
            description: ISA bridge
            product: Intel Corporation
            vendor: Intel Corporation
            physical id: 1f
            bus info: pci@0000:00:1f.0
            version: 11
            width: 32 bits
            clock: 33MHz
            capabilities: isa bus_master
            configuration: latency=0
          *-pnp00:00
                product: PnP device PNP0c02
                physical id: 0
                capabilities: pnp
                configuration: driver=system
          *-pnp00:01
                product: PnP device PNP0c02
                physical id: 1
                capabilities: pnp
                configuration: driver=system
          *-pnp00:02
                product: PnP device PNP0c02
                physical id: 2
                capabilities: pnp
                configuration: driver=system
          *-pnp00:03
                product: PnP device PNP0c02
                physical id: 3
                capabilities: pnp
                configuration: driver=system
          *-pnp00:04
                product: PnP device PNP0c02
                physical id: 4
                capabilities: pnp
                configuration: driver=system
          *-pnp00:05
                product: PnP device PNP0c02
                physical id: 5
                capabilities: pnp
                configuration: driver=system
        *-multimedia
            description: Audio device
            product: Intel Corporation
            vendor: Intel Corporation
            physical id: 1f.3
            bus info: pci@0000:00:1f.3
            logical name: card0
            logical name: /dev/snd/controlC0
            logical name: /dev/snd/hwC0D0
            logical name: /dev/snd/pcmC0D0c
            logical name: /dev/snd/pcmC0D0p
            logical name: /dev/snd/pcmC0D2c
            version: 11
            width: 64 bits
            clock: 33MHz
            capabilities: pm msi bus_master cap_list
            configuration: driver=snd_hda_intel latency=32
            resources: iomemory:400-3ff iomemory:400-3ff irq:127 memory:4012110000-4012113fff memory:4012000000-40120fffff
          *-input:0
                product: HDA Intel PCH Mic
                physical id: 0
                logical name: input26
                logical name: /dev/input/event11
          *-input:1
                product: HDA Intel PCH Line
                physical id: 1
                logical name: input27
                logical name: /dev/input/event12
          *-input:2
                product: HDA Intel PCH Line Out
                physical id: 2
                logical name: input28
                logical name: /dev/input/event13
          *-input:3
                product: HDA Intel PCH Front Headphone
                physical id: 3
                logical name: input29
                logical name: /dev/input/event14
        *-serial:1
            description: SMBus
            product: Intel Corporation
            vendor: Intel Corporation
            physical id: 1f.4
            bus info: pci@0000:00:1f.4
            version: 11
            width: 64 bits
            clock: 33MHz
            configuration: driver=i801_smbus latency=0
            resources: iomemory:400-3ff irq:18 memory:4012118000-40121180ff ioport:efa0(size=32)
        *-serial:2 UNCLAIMED
            description: Serial bus controller
            product: Intel Corporation
            vendor: Intel Corporation
            physical id: 1f.5
            bus info: pci@0000:00:1f.5
            version: 11
            width: 32 bits
            clock: 33MHz
            configuration: latency=0
            resources: memory:70800000-70800fff
        *-network
            description: Ethernet interface
            product: Ethernet Connection (17) I219-V
            vendor: Intel Corporation
            physical id: 1f.6
            bus info: pci@0000:00:1f.6
            logical name: enp0s31f6
            version: 11
            serial: a8:a1:59:d9:d3:ca
            size: 1Gbit/s
            capacity: 1Gbit/s
            width: 32 bits
            clock: 33MHz
            capabilities: pm msi bus_master cap_list ethernet physical tp 10bt 10bt-fd 100bt 100bt-fd 1000bt-fd autonegotiation
            configuration: autonegotiation=on broadcast=yes driver=e1000e driverversion=5.15.0-60-generic duplex=full firmware=0.21-4 ip=192.168.1.2 latency=0 link=yes multicast=yes port=twisted pair speed=1Gbit/s
            resources: irq:124 memory:72100000-7211ffff
  *-graphics
      product: EFI VGA
      physical id: 1
      logical name: /dev/fb0
      capabilities: fb
      configuration: depth=32 resolution=3840,2160
  *-input:0
      product: Sleep Button
      physical id: 2
      logical name: input0
      logical name: /dev/input/event0
      capabilities: platform
  *-input:1
      product: Power Button
      physical id: 3
      logical name: input1
      logical name: /dev/input/event1
      capabilities: platform
  *-input:2
      product: Power Button
      physical id: 4
      logical name: input2
      logical name: /dev/input/event2
      capabilities: platform
 
By the way I added links for all the hardware I purchased in the original post.
The GeForce GTX 1650 is here:
https://www.newegg.com/gigabyte-geforce-gtx-1650-gv-n1656oc-4gd/p/N82E16814932287

It supports 8K resolution and requires a 300W PSU
The Enermax SFX I got is 650W so it should be enough. But it IS really tiny.
I'm testing right now with the screen resolution at 1920x1080 and so far its working fine with the audio.

So I'm gonna research the GTX 1650 and 4K TVs

I have a spare Enermax power supply I might be able to test but I'm not sure if it will fit in the case or properly grounded.
 
I'm looking at my ThinkPad laptop right now. I installed Mint 21 on it and used a USB-C Thunderbolt to HDMI cable and it ran 4K just fine and no issues with audio.

It has a GeForce Quadro T1000
 
Update - Looks like 1920x1080 runs fine in Mint 21 for now. Been using it all day and no audio artifacts at all...
Really sucks because when I want to watch a 4K video on Amazon Prime I can't... not the end of the world, but really sucks because my Verizon Fios internet is super fast gigabit.

Any thoughts?

Could it be the GTX 1650 isn't getting enough power?
 
Hey, sorry for late reply, been occupied.

It does sound like a power issue, which is odd as it shouldn't be a problem according to your specs. It could simply be a bad PSU.

But, did you try both these settings at the same time for PulseAudio:

Code: 
/etc/pulse/default.pa
load-module module-udev-detect tsched=0

And:

Code: 
/etc/pulse/daemon.conf
default-fragments = 3
default-fragment-size-msec = 5

Then make sure PA is restarted.
 
No problem! I'm in no hurry anyways.

Nope, I didn't try the tsched and fragment size at the same time. I'll give it a go.

I was also thinking, maybe my HDMI cable is cheap and inferior. I have noticed a lot of lip-sync in videos on Youtube and Prime are barely out-of-sync.

Here is an idea I had:
  1. Run a DisplayPort to HDMI from video card to TV
  2. Run an HDMI cord to amp for surround sound
This way, the load isn't on a single cable and maybe everything will sync properly and eliminate the noise.

I can probably return the power supply if I need to, but everything else seems to be working fine. Even the video looks beautiful!
 
Ok, I got the DisplayPort and HDMI cables and gave them a try. I did a few things and still got audio drop-outs, but the video is beautiful!

  1. DP/HDMI to TV and HDMI to AMP
  2. DP/HDMI to AMP and HDMI to TV
  3. DP/HDMI to AMP then HDMI out of AMP to TV
All three still produces audio crackling/static and drop-outs. Its so strange because the crackle/static is only happening when I click on other windows or OS objects and its not very disruptive... but the dropouts start to happen later on when I tested other videos and it gets worse and worse.

I also watched the System Monitor during the tests.
It was a bit high for CPU but never peaked at 100% for both cores
Memory and Networking look fine.

So now I'm thinking:
  • Buy a less powerful GPU like a Quadro?
  • Buy a more powerful SPX PSU?
But the GTX 1650 I'm currently using doesn't require extra power. All of the power is from the PCI-e slot on the motherboard. So how do we know its not receiving enough power?

I only have three things using the power supply:
  • Motherboard
  • CPU
  • SSD
So if these in combination with the video card are using too much of the 650watt PSU, then a more powerful PSU should be the solution... I think

I'm performing one last test by eliminating the AMP all together and going HDMI directly to the TV. So far so good... just doesn't sound great...

Just watched the rest of Lord Of The Ring: The Two Towers on Netflix with HDMI directly from the video card to the TV... No AMP. Audio was fine. No drop outs or audio artifacts.

So this is telling me there is something happening in the AMP. I'm going to double-check the AMP video specs and then contact support about it.
 
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Hey Daerandin,
I was doing some more testing... I noticed my CPU usage is a bit high while streaming 4K video. It isn't maxing out, but holding steady at 80%, no higher than 83%. Do you think this would cause any audio dropouts or video frame stutter?

Hold on, I just found an Intel Core i3 Quad-Core CPU for $82 on Newegg.com
https://www.newegg.com/intel-core-i3-12100f-core-i3-12th-gen/p/N82E16819118357

I went ahead and purchased it. This CPU doesn't have a bundled GPU which will make things less complicated as I have an onboard GPU, Video Card and Intel CPU/GPU. Who knows which one is processing the video codecs?

upload_2023-2-28_13-53-42.png
 
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