Bug 496988

Summary:	Playback through Bluetooth briefly interrupt on start of next track
Product:	[Applications] amarok	Reporter:	Marian Kyral <mkyral>
Component:	Playback	Assignee:	Amarok Bugs <amarok-bugs-null>
Status:	RESOLVED FIXED
Severity:	normal	CC:	robert, tuomas
Priority:	NOR
Version First Reported In:	unspecified
Target Milestone:	kf5
Platform:	Gentoo Packages
OS:	Linux
Latest Commit:		Version Fixed/Implemented In:
Sentry Crash Report:

Description Marian Kyral 2024-12-03 14:44:23 UTC

SUMMARY

Recently I've switched from internal laptop speakers to external one connected via Bluetooth. In Amarok, when I create playlist and start playing it, on each track switch, the next track starts playing, then is playback interrupted for a small time (less than 1 sec), then starts playing again. Sometime there is two interruptions, sometime only one.

Amarok plays without interruptions with internal speakers or headphones connected via cable.
Also other players, like mpv, Elise or YT music in Firefox has no issue with playback through Bluetooth.

On the other hand, VLC has the same issue as Amarok.


STEPS TO REPRODUCE
1. Create playlist
2. Start playback
3. Wait to switch to next track

OBSERVED RESULT
Track starts playing, then playback is interrupted for a short time and then playback continues

EXPECTED RESULT
Next track plays without interruptions

SOFTWARE/OS VERSIONS

Linux/KDE Plasma: Gentoo Linux

Amarok Version: 3.1.71-git
KDE Plasma Version: 6.2.3
KDE Frameworks Version: 6.8.0
Qt Version: 6.7.3

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

Comment 1 robert marshall 2024-12-04 16:39:16 UTC

I've been seeing this and have wondered if it is a consequence of the fix to https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=337849 though if VLC is affected maybe not.

Comment 2 Tuomas Nurmi 2024-12-05 19:21:54 UTC

Thank you for the report!
I haven't experienced this myself with gstreamer backend, and if plain VLC has the same issue, it might be something that's  coming from there, then. Also adding this to the list of bugs that would be probably fixed by audio backend rework ( https://invent.kde.org/multimedia/amarok/-/issues/11 )

Comment 3 Marian Kyral 2024-12-06 08:56:20 UTC

I totally forgot, there could be more options. I would like test different backend, but sadly only phonon-vlc is available on Gentoo right now :-(

At the other side, Elisa works fine with the same backend. Maybe different parameters? I have no idea how it works.

[I] media-libs/phonon
     Available versions:  4.12.0-r4 **9999*l[1] {debug designer minimal pulseaudio (+)qt5 (+)qt6}
     Installed versions:  4.12.0-r4(07:52:27 26.8.2024)(pulseaudio qt5 qt6 -debug -designer -minimal)
     Homepage:            https://community.kde.org/Phonon
     Description:         KDE multimedia abstraction library

[I] media-libs/phonon-vlc
     Available versions:  0.12.0-r1{gpkg} **9999*l[1] {debug (+)qt5 (+)qt6}
     Installed versions:  0.12.0-r1{gpkg}(05:47:27 15.7.2024)(qt5 qt6 -debug)
     Homepage:            https://community.kde.org/Phonon
     Description:         VLC backend for the Phonon multimedia library

Comment 4 Tuomas Nurmi 2024-12-06 09:08:27 UTC

I think Elisa doesn't actually use Phonon for audio playback.
(I wasn't quite sure, but had a quick look at its CMakeLists and seems that it's either QtMultimedia or LIBVLC directly.)

phonon-gstreamer is unmaintained since some years, so it is not widely offered by distributions any more (sources available archived at https://invent.kde.org/libraries/phonon-gstreamer )
It seems there's also phonon-mpv still around, but it seems to be even more rarely offered by distributions.

Comment 5 Marian Kyral 2024-12-06 09:39:02 UTC

So I did some tests and  I was able to fix it in VLC by changing Audio Output Module from "Auto" to "ALSA audio output" and Device "Default ALSA Output (currently PipeWire Media Server)".  When I select "Pulse audio output", issue is back. So maybe a pipewire issue?

I have no clue, how to change it in Phonon-vlc.

Comment 6 Marian Kyral 2025-06-26 05:23:38 UTC

Hi,
I just tested Amarok 3.3 beta and issue is gone. Thanks a lot.

Comment 7 Tuomas Nurmi 2025-06-26 06:01:09 UTC

Great to hear, thank you for reporting!