Playback

1. What media types does Amarok support?
2. Why can't Amarok play MP3s?
3. Amarok won't play MP3's under SUSE Linux 9.3, what could I do?
4. With GStreamer-engine I'm getting 100% CPU usage while playing. How can I fix it?
5. I can't get any media to play in Amarok, why not?
6. Can Amarok output directly to OSS/ALSA?
7. But! XMMS can output directly to ALSA!
8. The sound stutters, is there anything I can do to improve it?
9. The CPU usage is high, is there anything I can do to improve it?
10. The Amarok analyzers are really unresponsive!
11. I have GStreamer installed but when I try to change to the GStreamer engine Amarok crashes, what gives?
12. I ran gst-register but I still have have GStreamer troubles, what can I do?
13. Amarok says that the GStreamer engine cannot play MP3 files, although I have compiled/installed the mad plugin!

1.	What media types does Amarok support?
	None. Yes, that's right! None! We have a backend independent approach, so the question you should be asking is "What media types does GStreamer/xine/aRts/NMM/MAS/KDEmm support?" So as you can guess we pretty much support absolutely every audio format you can think of. GStreamer can even decode text and PNG! For more information, have a look at Audio Engine Comparison.
2.	Why can't Amarok play MP3s?
	It can! Chances are you're using Fedora/RedHat linux, they don't ship with MP3 decoders by default (due to patenting issues). Solution: Alt-F2, gg:redhat mp3 kde, ENTER
3.	Amarok won't play MP3's under SUSE Linux 9.3, what could I do?
	Open the "YaST Online Update" and install the 'Multimedia Option Pack 1' patch. Voila, Amarok plays MP3's.
4.	With GStreamer-engine I'm getting 100% CPU usage while playing. How can I fix it?
	When using GStreamer-engine with alsasink, Amarok requires the device to provide a mixer. Mixing allows multiple applications to access the device at the same time, and output sound simultaneously. This can either be achieved by using a soundcard with hardware-mixing (e.g. SBLive), or by using the "dmix" plugin for alsa, which provides software-mixing. See Setting up Dmix for ALSA. After installation you need to specify "dmix" as the sound device in the engine settings dialog.
5.	I can't get any media to play in Amarok, why not?
	You need to test the sound frameworks at the commandline: artsplay foobar.mp3 gst-launch filesrc location=/home/foo/bar.mp3 ! spider ! audioscale ! audioconvert ! alsasink xine-check The output from these commands should help you identify the problems you are having and how to fix them. Please note you may need to use a different sink to test GStreamer (eg. osssink).
6.	Can Amarok output directly to OSS/ALSA?
	We already do! Don't forget that the media must be decoded first! You can't just pipe an MP3 to ALSA, all you will get is white-noise. GStreamer is the best choice for most people who want a low-overhead decoding solution, it reads the file, decodes it and pipes the PCM data to ALSA. Exactly like XMMS.
7.	But! XMMS can output directly to ALSA!
	But it decodes it first! GStreamer can output directly to ALSA too! So can xine!
8.	The sound stutters, is there anything I can do to improve it?
	You can either use the GStreamer engine (it's great!), or tweak aRts. Open Control Center Sound and Multimedia->Sound System. Enable Run with highest possible priority, and increase the size of the Sound buffer: (warning, see the next FAQ!) You should also ensure that your artswrapper is suid: su chmod a+rsx /path/to/kde/bin/artswrapper killall -9 artsd With KDE 3.2.x there are issues with the KDEMultimedia codecs that can cause distorted playback, please see this bug report. Also, increasing the size of the sound buffer in your .asoundrc alsa configuration file can help a great deal.
9.	The CPU usage is high, is there anything I can do to improve it?
	Either don't use the aRts-engine, use the GStreamer or xine engines, or address the high CPU usage by installing KDEMultimedia in its entirety to get the faster aRts codecs (eg. libarts_mpeglib.so, etc.)
10.	The Amarok analyzers are really unresponsive!
	You are probably using the aRts-engine, either use another engine (the xine-engine has been seriously tweaked to give perfect analyzer-sync), or reduce the size of your aRts buffer in kcontrol, sound system. The lower the buffer the more responsive the visuals. Yes this is a bug, please help us fix it!
11.	I have GStreamer installed but when I try to change to the GStreamer engine Amarok crashes, what gives?
	After installing GStreamer you have register it's components, running `gst-register` (sometimes suffixed with a version, so gst-register-0.8) should take care of registering your GStreamer components.
12.	I ran gst-register but I still have have GStreamer troubles, what can I do?
	You can try the GStreamer FAQ. If all else fails you can try the knowledgeable people at the #gstreamer IRC channel.
13.	Amarok says that the GStreamer engine cannot play MP3 files, although I have compiled/installed the mad plugin!
	Try this (make sure that Amarok does not run): - Download, compile and install the ffmpeg package - Run gst-register (you may need to run it twice, as root and as your "normal" user) - Go to your GStreamer plugin directory (you can find it with gst-config / gstreamer-config) - Delete the ffmpeg files (or move them somewhere else) - Run gst-register again - Start Amarok