Static and crackling in my HDMI audio?

Question

So, I managed to dual boot Windows 8.1 and Ubuntu 13.04. In Ubuntu 13.04, I installed the drivers for my graphics card(AMD HD Radeon 7700 Series, I'm pretty sure it's a 7790 one and Intel HD Graphics 4600 for Motherboard, but this shouldn't be necessary, considering that it's not the motherboard where I have connected the HDMI) for HDMI. I went to System Settings, and then to Sound, selected the HDMI sound option. Now, whenever I play anything that has sound, the audio has static and crackling. It does not play correctly. I tried searching, but all I find is questions in which the HDMI audio is simply not recognized and not playing.

Do you have HDMI audio set for Windows as well? Is the HDMI cable you're using connected to your GPU or motherboard? There is a good chance you are picking up on interference from your motherboard, which causes the crackling. I have a similar problem myself, and have to route my audio through my keyboard to prevent it. — Dillmo, Jan 14 '14 at 00:53
I do have HDMI audio for Windows as well, and there are no such problems. And the HDMI cable is connected to the GPU. — TehSephirothSpirit, Jan 14 '14 at 00:55

score 64 · Accepted Answer · edited Apr 07 '14 at 16:16

64

SOLUTION:

I finally found a solution to my problem randomly.

sudo pico /etc/pulse/default.pa

look for

load-module module-udev-detect

and add tsched=0

load-module module-udev-detect tsched=0

This simple modification fixed all the sound crackling and static on my PC, in Google Chrome, chromium, HTML5 videos, etc etc

edited Apr 07 '14 at 16:16

Waldir Leoncio

1,895

answered Apr 07 '14 at 15:52

Gav

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6
3

I did this, and after a reboot, the static was gone and the crackling was reduced a lot. Now using HDMI is actually enjoyable. Thanks a lot. I do hope this will work with 14.04 when I upgrade(It should work, logically. And I'm going to wait for drivers specifically for 14.04 before upgrading, so we could at least be sure that drivers are not at fault(?)). – TehSephirothSpirit Apr 08 '14 at 16:51
1

This fixed it for me, too! Can you tell us what this has changed? I'm curious if this may affect something that will give me trouble later on. – Gilgamesh Apr 17 '14 at 21:04
5

It turns off time based audio scheduling. Apparently some people have glitches with it turned on and for others it works better when turned off :/ – TehSephirothSpirit Apr 21 '14 at 21:46
This resolve the noisy and crackle hdmi sound with a radeon x290, thank you. – Le Gluon du Net Mar 01 '15 at 13:56
Unfortunately this fix does not work in 16.10 – Jack Dec 26 '16 at 23:52
Worked for me in elementary OS 0.4.1 Loki – The Mitra Boy Apr 11 '18 at 04:12
I can't believe this fixed the problem for me in Ubuntu 18.10. – Lukáš Lánský Mar 24 '19 at 11:56
Still works on Ubuntu 18.04 / bionic on a Hades Canyon NUC. – Neal Fultz Mar 26 '20 at 18:28
1

Worked in Pop_OS! 20.04. – Zach Bloomquist Nov 30 '20 at 15:21
it seems like this worked on Ubuntu 20.10 with Asus monitor speakers. It's been about a week without the noise for me. The crackling noise would appear some time after the reboot, probably after the display went to sleep mode. – xealits Jan 04 '21 at 22:42
I can confirm it worked for Ubuntu 21.04 with Dell monitors HDMI -> 3mm jack – Troyhy Sep 29 '21 at 06:02
This is still necessary in 2021, with ubuntu 21.10 and a Lenovo display. Remarkable that it's not a default thing 7+ years later! – cemerick Dec 14 '21 at 16:13
Is 2022 and this fixed my noise audio issue on Debian 11, thanks – Cesar Apr 29 '22 at 21:50
lifesaver! fixed on Debian GNU/Linux 11 bullseye (x86-64) – edward_wong Jul 05 '22 at 07:30
Worked with Ubuntu 22.04.3 on "UM773 Lite" mini pc. How is this still not fixed? Does Ubuntu not have a bug tracker for this basic stuff? – zezba9000 Jan 01 '24 at 03:35
This worked perfectly for me with a AMD 6400 and Ubuntu 22.04.1 – Johnny John Boy Jan 09 '24 at 09:18

score 7 · Answer 2 · edited Oct 28 '14 at 07:12

7

I have a ATI R7 260x, the HDMI audio problem was solved when I've had trying two different workarounds together. It's working as designed now. (on Ubuntu 14.10 64-bit)

Follow the steps below:

Open the terminal with Ctrl+Alt+t.
sudo nano /etc/pulse/default.pa

Replace the line

load-module module-udev-detect

with

load-module module-udev-detect tsched=0

and save file.

sudo nano /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base.conf
Insert options snd-hda-intel vid=8086 pid=8ca0 snoop=0 at the end of the file.
Reboot the PC

edited Oct 28 '14 at 07:12

MadMike

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answered Oct 28 '14 at 01:44

Marcos Silveira

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Now the sound is perfect, thanks. My video card is also a R7 260x – Thomio Apr 16 '15 at 21:30
This fixed the static issue for my onboard Intel audio device in Ubuntu 14.04. Thanks! – randlet May 12 '15 at 14:41
Thank you so much. Based on the accepted answer I did up to step 3 with no help. For me, 4-6 made all the difference. – pylua Mar 25 '24 at 23:53

score 3 · Answer 3 · answered Jan 14 '14 at 03:05

3

I've had crackling and static as well and I solved it by first muting microphone input, and secondly changing my sound to 7.1 surround (even though I only have 2 speakers).

answered Jan 14 '14 at 03:05

MikeJerome

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1
3
15

Well, I don't have any microphone, and I don't have an option to change HDMI to 7.1 surround. I can do that with the other ones, though. But then I won't have sound at all. – TehSephirothSpirit Jan 14 '14 at 03:26

score 0 · Answer 4 · answered Oct 04 '20 at 15:52

I had this problem in Ubuntu 20.04; the above solution didn't help. It was due to the bug in PulseAudio, as described in https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/pulseaudio/+bug/1585084
The solution that worked for me was:
Install alsa-tools-gui
Run hdajackretask
Override "Green Headphone, Front side" to "Not connected"
Override "Pink Mic, Front side" to "Headphone"
Click "Apply now"
Click "Install boot override" to make this permanent
From now on, just plug your headphones in the front microphone jack instead of the front headphone jack...

jaanus · Answer 5 · 2023-08-28T06:48:39.600

0

I had bad and cheap headset cable splitter. It split headset cable into mic and audio, but it also caused static noise when i moved mouse. Also i changed my headphones. Before i had hyperx cloud X but now i have Sennheiser GSP 300 No problem with the OS.

edited Aug 28 '23 at 06:48

answered Aug 28 '23 at 06:38

jaanus

111

score 0 · Answer 6 · edited Jan 14 '15 at 10:48

0

In case others run into this issue, I've had this come up when installing pipelight on Ubuntu 14.04 with the AMD Catalyst 14.6 drivers using an A10-7800 APU.

My only solution was to remove pipelight, but I had not run into the solution above. It's quite possible pipelight messes something up that this solution fixes.

edited Jan 14 '15 at 10:48

Jens Erat

5,051
7
31
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answered Jan 14 '15 at 07:42

Erik Squires

1

Static and crackling in my HDMI audio?

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