Skype works fine, but all conversations are really choppy. I have never heared a fluent sound over 3 seconds! I'm running Debian unstable, 2.6.6 smp kernel, OSS es1371 (sb128). Processor is dual PII 333 (but this should not be a problem) and connection is 1Mbit/s down, 128kbit/s up.

Well...

http://www.skype.com/help_linux_faq.html

Sound's choppy for me too, but my system more than matches the minimum requirements. I'm running a 2.8Ghz system using ALSA (with OSS compatibility), the sound chip is intel 8x0 based, using the 2.6.7 kernel, also on a Debian unstable (sid) based system. When using plain OSS I don't get any sound at all with Skype (fine with other programs though).

One thing everyone with sound issues might try is to call "echo123" - a special test user set up to help you debug sound setup. The choppiness might be with either end of the conversation and if echo123 is working fine, the choppiness is due to the setup of the person you are talking to, not yourself.

Ah, that worked perfectly, must have been due to the fact that the two machines were both on the same network I guess (one Windows one Linux).

Is the quality of calls from Windows machine OK otherwise? If both Linux and Windows machine can call to echo123 perfectly, but have choppiness with each other, it is still a quality issue we need to look at.

Both had no problems with echo123. My connection is 512kb downstream 256kb upstream.

I just tested again between the two and had no problems, the only difference from now and before is that I've set up the OSS emulation to make use of the dmix plugin.

wondering about that choppy sound:

- a call to echo123 results in:

* using the alsa wrapper directly sound is choppy
* using artsdsp as a wrapper for arts which is then using alsa works fine?

WHY?

I hear echo123 also choppy. I haven't tried to use OSS over alsa and artsd though, i'll try them in near future.

edit:
pure oss - choppy
artsd & oss - choppy
alsa with oss emulation - choppy
artsd & alsa - choppy

i'd like to add, that sound is not just purely choppy, sometimes it repeates itself, or smth like that ...

testingtest.t...gtesting << something like that maby, hard to explain

Are you sure it's not your mic picking up sound from both people's speakers? I get this problem a lot with GnomeMeeting where both me and the other party have their speakers turned up.

Party 1 -------transmit (slight time delay)-------> Party 2

Party 1 <-------transmit (slight time delay)-------- Sound from party 2's speakers

If you really crank up the volume and mic sensitivity you can hear your own voice bouncing back and forth a few times. If you use headphones as speakers the problem goes away.

Give it a shot and see whether that's your echo problem.

Tyr_7BE - indeed, sound equipment matters a lot. Speakers + mic are not the best combo due to the feedback issue. Although our codecs detect and eliminate that, it might still cause some quality issues.

h2k - you said you have a P2/333. Please check your CPU usage during a call. It might still happen that it's just not capable processing all the sound - our codecs eat up a LOT of CPU even with the lowest possible quality. There are several codecs used which use different amounts of CPU, and if Skype detects a weak CPU it also switches to a lower-grade codec, but even this might be too much for your 333 MHz.

I think this is indeed the problem. Just a few minutes ago I tested a conversation with my girlfriend. Until the Linux-version was available I used the Windows client. But today the sound was indeed choppy using my laptop speakers and microphone. However, normally I use an ADSL-connection (today Cable) and external speakers or a headphone. Today I was at my parents house, where I do not have a set of speakers or a headphone available. With the windows/ADSL/speakers combo everything worked fine, So, to check if it was caused by the Linux-client, I quickly booted to Windows so we had a Windows-to-Windows connection. But the sound quality was equally bad an choppy. So a bad sound quality is not per definition caused by the Linux-client. I think the reason is indeed the audio equipment I used. Unfortunately, I'm unable to test that now.

IBM Thinkpad 600x 256 MB Ram 500Mhz

Using the ALSA driver calling echo123

Catch about every third or fourth sylable and is real scratchy
Quality is the same with headset or speakers

Thorkyl

I have the same problem.

More details:
When I try a call to echo123, I can hardly understand the welcome message. It comes by parts, missing somes words. When I record a message and then hear it, nothing changes.

I did try to call some friends and they said they could hear me perfectly but I could not hear them correctly. Btw, I use headphones and my laptop's mic.

For technical details:
I use Alsa with OSS compatibility turned on (module snd-pcm-oss loaded). Xmms plays correctly using OSS. I use Slackware 9.1 (with dropline-gnome on top).

I meet all minimum requirements (with only 50% or less cpu usage while in call).

My personnal guest would be the way the sound is sent through OSS-ALSA.. but I can't help more.

i've got dual PII/333, in the matter of fact, and i did not have mic when i tested. So, I don't know if other person hears me OK or coppy also. Anyway, during conversation the CPU usage was well under 10% of CPU. Something else is causing this choppy sound, but i have no idea ...

Same problem :? . Mandrake 9.2, Alsa, OSS emulation. Xmms sounds grate, some DJ stuff that is eating 100 % of CPU power works fine too (Mixxx, MuSE). My configuration is double P II 400 (SMP kernel), so it is enough for calling... Gkrellm shows cpu load as about 10 up to 25% but the sound is extremly chopping.... I'am connecting to the internet using 256/96 kb cable modem, so it's enough too... Windows version works fine, and I've noticed that windows skype under wine (cvs edition) works much better. Under emulator sound is clear without breakes, but after about 30~40 seconds my caller can't hear me and the upstream disapperas, but I can hear him without any problems.
I have tried artsd + artsdsp, but there is no sound while calling anyone... Without artsdsp skype freezes on "routing". And one more thing. the only 'person' I've called is test123.

I think that those who got skype working perfect (or very small chopping) should post their cmoputer conf and some more revelant information here ... who knows, maby something interesting comes out.

Reading some earlier posts, I noticed to run skype like

and the choppiness was almost gone! there were still some pauses and glitches, but i was really impressed.

Try out and share experiences.

When artsd is running I have no sound in skype but all otrzer programs behaves normally when using artsdsp ./progname command. When artsd is shutted down the sound is chopping like always...

I don't know waht is wrong but I think that is problem in alsa drivers or in drivers configuration (/etc/modules.conf)...

artsdsp -m skype segfaulted on the first try, don't forget to start artsd (especially gnome users).

But with artsd running, artsdsp -m skype did not produce any sound. Still i let artsd running and tried skype alone. The sound was lots of times less choppy but it still skipped some words from time to time (while calling echo123).

We are on a path to success here.

I think I was mistaken, after some retry, even with artsd running, the sound was as choppy as it used to.

nothing more to do then than hope that the problem is found and fixed in next version (0.90.0.5)

Same problem here too...

I'm glad to see skype for linux... but so far I can not get it properly working on
my Suse 8.2 machine (400Mhz, 200Mb, using ADSL connection)

when calling the echo123 test I hear pieces of sound here and there but not usable at all.

skype seems to use about 45% of cpu loading (and there is still idle left on the machine)

I also tried: artsdsp -m ./skype which did not help

I tried to close 'almost' everything on the machine, only running skype, but no noticable improvement

on the ADSL link there seems plenty of room for more data

I am running: skype/skype_ver-0_90_0_4-staticQT (latest download but also tried other versions and nonstatics)

I have in iptables:
ACCEPT tcp -- anywhere anywhere tcp dpts:32984:65535
ACCEPT udp -- anywhere anywhere udp dpts:32984:65535


any suggestions?

I think the problem resides in the way the sound is transmitted by skype to the sound card:
either it is the oss/alsa bridge witch cause this problem or something else.

I use Alsa 1.0.4 (according to alsamixer --version 1.0.4). with kernel 2.4.22.
What version of Alsa are u guys running?

It doesn't depend on Alsa verion. I've already comiled the newest 1.0.5a edition but the sound is still very bad, as it was before installing new drivers. My kernel is 2.4.22-28.tmb.1mdkcustom, very similar to pluc's, so maybe it is a kernel bug? I cant't belive in it... Maybe tomorrow I'll test it with another one but today I don't want to reboot my machine becouse it works as a server for about 2 days ;P.
Do you have the same problem as I have - when artsd is running there is no sound when you launch it through artsdsp (artsdp -m skype), but in any other program like mpg123 or xmms the sound is great and it works.

The same problem. I'm using alsa compiled into kernel (2.6.6-mh2) and alsa drivers 1.0.4. The sound is very poor, I can hardly hear one word of 4. Nothing changes with artsd (sometimes segfaults ).

I think, that's not a problem with the sound driver. It sounds like using a 14.4 Modem. It is posible that the linux client, not using the same bandwith like the windows clien?
Booting my Computer with Windows (I don't like it) I have a perfect Sound, the same Computer with Linux sound very choppy.

I already have a problem with an echo on the other person, could the choppy sound depends on a half-duplex connection and the echo breaks the own voices???

Hi
I've done a small test - calling the testuser echo123 with Windows client and Linux client an calling netstat -s and the result is, that both have the same udp paket count (2000 pakets). But the sound using linux is choppy!

My Computer: 1,5 GHz Pentium M;Windows XP/Mandrake 9; DSL 768/128; Linksys Router WRT54G/OpenWRT

I just moved from alsa to oss sound system
which seems to be a great improvement for skype!

I can now hear the test123 almost without problem
and alsy playback is much better

it does however report this:
Jun 25 00:30:52 obelix kernel: OSS warning: Application skype caused too many output underrun errors on audio device #0.
Jun 25 00:30:52 obelix kernel: Look at oss/docs/README.performance for more info.


which probably matches the fact that I got some glitches here and there

I must say I'm happy to tell I just had a very clear and un-interrupted skype call
using the oss drivers instead of the alsasound drivers.

I hope this helps in pinpointing the rootcause of the choppy sound that some people
report too....

I wonder if more people notice that oss is better than alsa?

Not working for me... After installation of OSS drivers sound is worse.
Additional when I'm running skype I;ve got many lines like this:

Other programs behaves normally, but not Skype.. :/

For Skype staff. Visit this site for some inforamtion hov oss is emulated on alsa:http://www.alsa-project.org/~iwai/OSS-Emulation.html

I've loded snd-pcm-oss module with direct or non-block option and the sound become less choppy. After a few seconds you can speak even normally... maybe here is our problem. Please give a report.

Wow! About minute ago I've talked to the real user, not echo123 and everything was fine. I think that this problem is connected with testing sevice, becouse it's overloaded . This is my opinion and it works for me, but you can have some more problems with using it.

--
No, Echo123 just has a heavy accent, she's not choppy. :lol:

Estonian
Nope. For me it is choppy. I've heard echo123 in action on PC and I know it's voice This woman have got hard acent like most of people in this region and it's not anything new for me becouse i live in Poland, so her english is almost normal

(to moderator: it's off topic but don't delete this post, becouse some people could mistake choppy voice with her accent )

it is NOT drivers problem, because everything else is working FINE, it is skype problem, and maby sound driver just makes it worse. Still waiting for next working version

The plobem resist most probably in skype's OSS part, you should check it out again and again ... very carefully ,)

echo123 is not choppy, it has just choppy accent maby Turn volume uppppp, and then you can listen (even) when there are pauses in silence's "zzzzzzzzzz".

Sound's choppy for me too, Use this command can improve sound.

you can compare with this:

Mm, sometimes the command is invalid.

alsa http://www.alsa-project.org/~iwai/OSS-Emulation.html
Here is my config:

Even with Zest's suggested commands, i can't get to hear echo123.

During the call, I get these messages in the terminal

or when loged in english :

and the messages appear exactly when the sounds skips. I bet these are debuging messages incorporated in the kernel since they were translated (and Skype is not yet in french for linux).

As far as I have read while googling, this problem has been met with Quake2, it was related to a mis implemented function in some soundcard drivers... According to the websites, there are others ways to produce the sound...

here is my set up:
/proc/asound/version

/proc/asound/cards

ahaaaa, the same thing that i did with quake2 :lol:
i'll try this

aah, sorry
this applies only for ALSA, not OSS
so this didn't fix my problem...

Strange to say, same config. Under skype for linux with alsa, the sound is choopy. But under wine + skype with alsa, the sound is great. Why?

Could anyone explain about that?

hi,

Perhaps it works under Wine, because it does not use OSS emulation?

what is your config?



greez st0ne

here is my config:

anybody still suffering bad & choppy sound besides me? any solutions?

I still do
and I given up using skype until they produce a working version
But I still monitor the forums...

For what it's worth, I'm experiencing the choppy sound as well.

My machine is a 2GHz P4 IBM ThinkPad with Fedora Core 2. I think it's using ALSA.

As far as my googleling says, I think our problems comes from badly implemented Sound card drivers.

To confirm, is there anyone here experiencing choppy sound on an Sound Blaster Live (emu10k)? It is one of the most common hardware, so drivers tends to be of quite good quality.

Unfortunately I have a Laptop with some strange sound card.

I have Sound Blaster 128 PCI (OSS - es1371 and ALSA - ens_es1371 ?)

yes you bet me for one ..

it was totaly perfect for about a week then it all went knockers up and has been anabsolute pain in the rar end ever since in fact close enough to completely unusable ,

and another thing as well i can hear people perfectly most of the time but either i am choppy or completelt broken if i speak in single words with a long pause i can just about get a message thru , Which is a waste iof time i did notice that the problem started around the time of the release of version 0.90.0.6 i am wondering if there was any updates done on the servers at that time as i say it was ok B4 THEN ..

Suse 9.1 athlon XP2700+ 512 Mb pc3200 ram 120Gb ata133 Hdd
Sound Blaster live card using alsa sound standard Suse issue :evil:

Strangely, it suddenly happened. I've also had the same problem to others, they can hear me OK, but their audio comes back choppy. I've just brought up skype under crossover office and tested to echo123. I hope to try sometime tomorrow to see if there is a difference between the Linux version and the Windows one. SuSE 9.1 on AMD 3000+/512M, both x86 box and x86_64 laptop. I may also check out on the Mandrake 10.0 box. If I use Hamradio VOIP (qtel from svxlink ), I have no problems.

Have to say that I too have the chop problem - listening can be OK, but my corespondents can't understand what i'm saying.

i'm using:
headphones + mic
ibm thinkpad x40
suse 9.1
tried also, oss and toss - no apprecialbe impact

i guess i'll have to try under wine ... but then why use skype rather than any of the other voips out there?

tone