Distorted Sound - SSometimes

Linux Mint 14 Nadia on an older Dell Inspiron 9400

I want to use this computer as a movie streaming device for my flat screen TV. The problem at the moment is that when I switch to full-screen mode, either through the TV or the computer speakers, the sound is distorted unacceptably. When not in full-screen, it is acceptable.

That might sound like a bandwidth problem, but I don't experience that with my Windows computers, nor with this computer before I replaced Windows with Mint.

If I need to provide more info, please walk me through how to get it since I'm not very experienced with Linux - especially from the terminal.

Suggestions?

Thanks!
Optiker

adjust the volumes down and try it. Distortion is often overdriving. The hardware distorts the signal, but the volume does not significantly increase.

I Have done that, but even at lower volume, switching from good sound while windowed to full screen distorts. And, I can use volume that's too high for normal listening in windowed mode with no distortion. When connected to my flat panel TV, I then have three volume adjustments, video adjustment (in the video window), computer and TV. I've played with that trying to get a combination that gives both sufficient volume and no distortion, and so far, haven't been able to get there in full screen mode.

I've also DLed and burned the DVD for a live Ubuntu Feisty DVD thinking that it might use a different driver that might make a difference. Only problem is that apparently the live DVD is missing some file (don't recall what filename) and I get no sound at all, so can't test it. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get my wireless connection working with the live DVD, so it couldn't go out and find the file it needed. That's another issue I'd need to work out if I switched to Ubuntu. I do like Mint, but would switch if I could get it working.

Other ideas?

Thanks!

Wait, is your linux box the server for the videos? I was doing something similar but wrote a HTML5 client for the media player, I put the movies on my linux box but they connected to them through a simple HTML5 app I wrote. No problem with the sound, I even used imdb for the info :

http://mymovieapi.com/?q=undisputed&type=xml&limit=1

quick example there, then used mongo as the database to store all the info and javascript to access it when a user clicks a genre, movie, etc.

I'm not sure how you are connecting your linux machine to you televison though, more info maybe?

Guiness...sorry...not experienced enough to follow most of that. I connect computer to TV with a cable - not HDMI, but one of the other kind where I need to connect sound by way of a separate miniplug from the computer headphone output to the computer RCA plug socket. Is that adequate to tell you what I'm doing?

Thanks!

Optiker