Bug#703869: audacious: Garbled audio using PulseAudio output on Intel 82801 AC'97

[Ryan J Nicholson]

Package: audacious
Version: 3.2.4-1

On two separate systems, a ThinkPad T43 and an HP Compaq nc6220,
playback is garbled or out of order when using the default PulseAudio
output plugin. Both systems use the Intel 82801 AC'97:

Multimedia audio controller: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW
(ICH6 Family) AC'97 Audio Controller (rev 03)

Each system is running a newly installed Debian testing:

Linux dwrc1 3.2.0-4-686-pae #1 SMP Debian 3.2.35-2 i686 GNU/Linux

I observed that the problem does not occur when I change the output
plugin to ALSA. I also observed that the problem only occurs when
PulseAudio uses the default Buffer size (from File, Preferences,
Audio) of 500 ms. If I decrement to 100 ms, the problem goes away.
Values at and above 500 ms seem to always cause distorted playback.

VLC, which also defaults to PulseAudio output, does not show this
issue. It appears to be specific to the PulseAudio output plugin that
comes with Audacious, and specific to this sound card.