Sound cuts off when using webcam and microphone on Skype 4.3

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DM was on fire! · #1 Post by **DM was on fire!** » Wed 27 May 2015, 02:16

Greetings.

I recently bought a Gearhead webcam, model WC740i-CP10 precisely. All works well, the video quality is great, it worked without any fuss, just plug in and go.
Until this moment.
I'm having a problem on Skype calls where if I have both the webcam and I'm attempting to use a microphone -- both the in-built one, and my Turtle Beach P11 headset -- the microphone suddenly cuts out. The issue is clearly on my end as two different people experience the issue, and seems to lie with the webcam due to the fact that when I don't have the camera on, my sound is fine.

Does anyone have any fixes or resolutions? I tried to use Guvcview to properly test, but I couldn't get the repos for it. :/

I'm on Precise Puppy 5.5 and my Skype is updated (4.3.0.35).

mikeb · #2 Post by **mikeb** » Wed 27 May 2015, 07:55

What computer is this on?

It sounds a bit like its not keeping up with both sound and video running.
It now uses portaudio which is not likely helping matters...but thatss another story.
Could you lower the resolution/framerate of the video?
Is it ok if you don't have camera but you still see the other user?

Someone might leap in with better help...so ends the bump

mike

DM was on fire! · #3 Post by **DM was on fire!** » Wed 27 May 2015, 14:14

Hey mike, thanks for your reply.

It's on an old Dell Optiplex GX520 which has one gig of ram and a 1.6ghz processor. I'll try to lower the quality tonight and report back with results.
I think the thing that confuses me so much is that it ends up at random times... every time I hang up here is the amount of time the sound lasts:

[9:16:02 PM] Call to agus strider, duration 01:19.
[9:16:25 PM] Call from agus strider, duration 00:18.
[9:17:20 PM] Call to agus strider, duration 00:49.
[9:18:49 PM] Call from agus strider, duration 00:24.
[9:20:34 PM] Call to agus strider, duration 01:24.
[9:24:22 PM] Call to agus strider, duration 00:25.
[9:27:21 PM] Call to agus strider, duration 00:42.
[9:28:43 PM] Call to agus strider, duration 01:05.
[9:36:47 PM] Call to agus strider, duration 00:36.
[9:42:42 PM] Call from agus strider, duration 05:04.
[9:46:58 PM] Call from agus strider, duration 04:10.
[9:47:45 PM] Call to agus strider, duration 00:39.
[9:52:54 PM] Call from agus strider, duration 04:42.
[10:57:11 PM] Call from agus strider, duration 00:42.

And yes, it works fine if the other party has their cam on and I don't. The issue lies solely with the cam being on.

mikeb · #4 Post by **mikeb** » Wed 27 May 2015, 14:20

Ok...well the machine could be a bit marginal in terms of handling ability..plus you might have say a browser in the background chomping at the cpu as well.

It may also be a pulseaudio problem... did you use that or apulse?

I have given up trying to get Skype to work at all..they made it so pigging awkward now...last one was suspending my old username forcing me to get a microsoft account which then skype would not let me use anyway

And only one computer is allowed to use it anyway so defeats the object since we want it to talk between ourselves when out and about.

Sorry personal rant there..it used to be soooooo easy.

mike

watchdog · #5 Post by **watchdog** » Wed 27 May 2015, 16:46

Webcams have a microphone, too. I think your system could get confused on mixing two microphones. It depends on the skype package you used. Try to untick one microphone in retrovol.

DM was on fire! · #6 Post by **DM was on fire!** » Wed 27 May 2015, 17:03

Thanks for replying again, everyone.

watchdog; I had the issue when the microphone wasn't plugged into my machine. I thought that was perhaps the case because it seemed logical, so I plugged the mic in and outside of the audio quality being total [redacted], it made no difference.
When I make use of my headset, I actually have to go into the multiple sound card wizard and select my headset, so as far as it's concerned I don't have any microphone except for my headset. I'll try that however.

mikeb; Ugh, tell me about it. I'm still annoyed that Skype totally ended support for ALSA out of the freakin' blue.
I'm using apulse, for specifics the skype-4.3.0.37-apulse-precise.pet from here. I wondered if it was a Pulse problem so I attempted to install pavucontrol, but couldn't find the deps for it. I'm at my wits end here ahah.
I'll try to close other programs as well and see if that resolves things.

DM was on fire! · #7 Post by **DM was on fire!** » Wed 27 May 2015, 17:03

omg oops how did i confuse edit for quote

mikeb · #8 Post by **mikeb** » Wed 27 May 2015, 17:26

omg oops how did i confuse edit for quote Crying or Very sad Crying or Very sad

because you are suffering from Skype stress.....

Been using sip/psip for now...at least its the simple life...

I am surprised someone has not reversed engineered the protocol to make a client...but then again not long ago the client was not a problemo.......

You have my sympathy and a collection of stress toys to squeeze and gnaw at....

Perhaps they made the audio a problem to they don't have to listen to users complaints....

mike

DM was on fire! · #9 Post by **DM was on fire!** » Thu 28 May 2015, 02:32

Thanks again for your replies everyone!
We did a lot more testing tonight and determined the issues lies somewhere within Skype and/or Apulse. Facebook video chat and Google+ Hangouts worked flawlessly, yet Skype still cut out.

I guess I'll look for troubleshooting for one of those two, but at least now I have a fix so I don't feel like I spent money for nothing.

gcmartin · #10 Post by **gcmartin** » Thu 28 May 2015, 20:41

Could your camera (assuming it is USB connected to your PC) have its own microphone?

If so, some manual steps must be taken so the system can discriminate.

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Sound cuts off when using webcam and microphone on Skype 4.3

Sound cuts off when using webcam and microphone on Skype 4.3