PipeWire 0.3.77 (2023-08-04)
This is a quick bugfix release that is API and ABI compatible with previous 0.3.x releases.
Highlights
- Fix a bug in ALSA source where the available number of samples was miscaluclated and resulted in xruns in some cases.
- A new L permission was added to make it possible to force a link between nodes even when the nodes can’t see each other.
- The VBAN module now supports midi send and receive as well.
- Many cleanups and small fixes.
it’s amazing how rapid the development of pipewire into a “usable state” so that distro quickly put it as drop in replacement for “matured” pulseaudio
I love pipewire for my audio.
True, and it’s fabulous for video as well.
Ow you are right. I wasn’t aware of the video part of Pipewire. Which allows very low latency video recording as well.
Fun fact: with the proper plugins, you can capture both the video and the output of a particular window / process in OBS, giving you a stream of exactly that and nothing else (which you can then mix with other sources). Very handy for streaming if you don’t want to include voice chat (for privacy reasons) or background music (DMCA takedown on VODs).
However, for capturing Vulkan games, I recommend the vkcapture plugin. It acts as a Vulkan layer and is very performant, plus I get the impression it works better with Freesync.
I hate OBS under Linux still doesn’t allow me to use the GPU (using AMD videocard) for encoding.
Don’t blame OBS, AMD’s video encoding is awful in a multitude of ways
owh…? I was hoping it was open-source. Some standard API. or something…
As someone said, there are ways to get it working in OBS.
Does it expose the full feature set using VA-API? I have no clue. I was never able to actually hit the bitrate I wanted.
Please note that cards until the RX 6000 generation do not support B-frames.
AMD’s encoders are garbage, but if you insist, you can use VA-API to get accelerated encoding in the output advanced settings.
Perhaps a shot in the dark, but does anyone know if this update does anything to change the sound issues on Samsung laptops? For example, I have a GalaxyBook3 Pro 360, and it doesn’t matter what distro I use; I cannot get audio working. I spent 8 hours one day just going through forums and trying various fixes but could never get anything to work.
Is it because of missing firmware? From the Arch wiki on ALSA:
sof-firmware is required for some newer laptop models (mainly since 2019) because they implement their drivers with firmware provided by the Sound Open Firmware project.
I swear I tried all of that and uninstalled the existing firmware, and pulled the newer files. I might give it another go, but I saw on a thread that this is a specific issue with Galaxy Book devices. Someone had a detailed step-by-step guide to get the audio working; I tried it, but it didn’t.
There’s a lot of love for it here, so I guess my experience isn’t typical. I updated to Ubuntu Lunar Lobster on my home media machine, which comes with PipeWire by default, and it’s utter shit. The vocals and some instruments in my music tracks only play nearly inaudibly from the center channel of my 5.1 surround system. It’s unlistenable, even with the center volume boosted.
Seriously, what am I missing? How can it do audio that poorly?
I’ve never had a multi-channel setup to experience configuring it, but I am sure there must be guidance out there. In my own experience PW improved my Linux audio experience quite a bit by resolving some issues I had with glitchy audio on my DAC and audio latency that was noticeable in some games.
