Score:-2

Audio/Video interruption during Netflix/AmazonPrime playback in Ubuntu 22.04 LTS with KDE Plasma

de flag
Aby

I have a 12 year old 4 dual core HP Pavillion i7 computer running Ubuntu 22.04 LTS with KDE Plasma installed with GE-Force GT 730 Graphics Card, and I find that when playing Netflix or Amazon Prime videos both the video and audio get garbled during playback.

My question is: should I downgrade to Ubuntu 18.04 LTS or 16.04 LTS to get a better/clear audio/video playback on my computer, or it doesn't matter what OS I have?

By the way, the playback works fine in Windows 7, so I know it is not a problem with the Graphics card, but I'm tired of Windows and I love Linux and Ubuntu :o)

Edit: I want to add that if I the audio/video playback in Ubuntu 22.04 LTS is fine. It is only when I install the kde-full or kde-plasma-desktop that this problem begins to occur. I started by installing Kubuntu (because I have used it before) and had this audio/video problem, so I switched to Ubuntu which doesn't have the problem, but doesn't give me the KDE Qt environment that I like.

So does anyone know who to solve this problem without me going through all possible Distributions of Ubuntu 22.04LTS?

Also, restarting pulse-audio does not help. Interestingly the computer is running both pulse-audio and pipewire at the same time. Is that normal?

I have found many questions on this and other sites asking about the same issue. Please do not down-vote as substantial and several days of research effort has been done before asking this question. Please provide an answer if you can.

Thanks a million for your help. Aby.

David avatar
cn flag
Ubuntu 16.04 is long past EOL and receives no support or security upgrades. 18.05 goes EOL in April of next year so neither is a good choice. If you think an older version would be better you have 20.04 or go with a lighter weight product like Lubuntu.
David avatar
cn flag
A quick Google search shows me that the graphics card you are using is most likely the issue. The GeForce GT 730 was a graphics card by NVIDIA, launched on June 18th, 2014. Are you sure you are using the best driver for it?
ChanganAuto avatar
us flag
The version should be 470. Older versions may work to a certain extend; not recommend. Newer will give you problems or not work at all.
Aby avatar
de flag
Aby
Thanks for the comments everyone. I do have the latest driver for it, i.e. 470.
Score:0
de flag
Aby

Kubuntu does not come with NVIDIA Settings.

After installation, you have to install "Software & Updates" that usually comes with Ubuntu.

After that, you see that the "Additional Drivers" tab has all Drivers grayed out, and is using a "manually installed driver" like so: enter image description here

To solve this, you have to install the latest driver: sudo apt install nvidia-driver-470

Then you have to restart Now you have to search "NVIDIA Settings" on Discover to install it.

Once installed, you set the desired resolution and refresh rate, and then the sound problem goes away :o)

Please note: Google Maps website does not display correctly on Firefox unless your refresh rate is set to 30Hz (1) in the "NVIDIA Settings" app.

Also, make sure you have "LivePatch" turned ON to protect your computer.

Edit: I have a very big screen (55" UHD TV) and I installed "imwheel" to speed up my mouse. As soon as I did this, the problem started recurring. And as soon as I uninstalled "imwheel", the problem went away. So if you want your playback to be smooth and uninterrupted, don't install "imwheel". It is sad that Kubuntu doesn't have mouse wheel control in its Settings :-(

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