App using GStreamer doesn't work when another app is using ALSA

Question

I am using Ubuntu 12.04, which of course uses ALSA for sound. I have two apps that I'm working with that use GStreamer to decode and play media, and whenever I am listening to Pandora or have Youtube running, my apps won't work.

For the one app, whenever it starts, it tries to set the pipeline state to playing and it gets an error that it can't. The other app gives me an error on the bus that gives me this information:

    Setting the pipeline to play. Playing.
    Error received from element autoaudiosink-actual-sink-alsa: Could not open audio device for playback. Device is being used by another application.
    Debugging information: gstalsasink.c(689): gst_alsasink_open (): /GstAlsaSink:autoaudiosink-actual-sink-alsa:
    Device 'default' is busy

I use autoaudiosink in the pipeline for both apps, so this output shows me that it's choosing ALSA for the audio sink. No surprise there. But, it also means that GStreamer is trying to horde ALSA all for itself and doesn't play nicely with other media apps. I did some testing and my theory seems to hold.

Can anyone tell me if there is a way to set up GStreamer audio on Ubuntu so it will work with other media applications? Or is it known that when using GStreamer audio, other media apps can't run?

Answer 1

Please use pulsesink then try. You should also resolve all the required dependencies.