This release also brings various A2DP Bluetooth improvements

Jun 21, 2018 21:18 GMT  ·  By

PulseAudio 12.0, a major version of its open-source sound server program designed to work on a wide-range of POSIX operating systems like Linux, BSD, macOS, and others, was released with numerous improvements and new features.

Highlights of PulseAudio 12.0 include better latency reporting with the A2DP Bluetooth profile, which also improves A/V sync, more accurate latency reporting on AirPlay devices, the ability to prioritize HDMI output over S/PDIF output, HSP support for more Bluetooth headsets, and the ability to disable input and output on macOS.

PulseAudio 12.0 also adds support for Steelseries Arctis 7 USB headset stereo output and Dell's Thunderbolt Dock TB16 speaker jack, a new "dereverb" option that can be used for the Speex echo canceller, a new module-always-source module, better detection of Native Instruments Traktor Audio 6, and improved digital input support for various USB sound cards.

Intel HDMI LPE driver improvements, A2DP Bluetooth profile by default

Users who upgrade their systems to PulseAudio 12.0 will also be able to choose the A2DP Bluetooth profile by default instead of HSP, use the Intel HDMI LPE driver, which now works well with sound system no longer causing high CPU problems or crashes, as well as to set the "non-audio" bit when using audio passthrough for compressed files.

A new "sink_input_properties" module argument was added as well for the module-ladspa-sink module, and PulseAudio 12.0 updates the module-augment-properties module to use XDG_DATA_DIRS for finding .desktop files, the module-pipe-sink module to use existing pipets, and the module-switch-on-connect module, which now ignores virtual devices.

Last but not least, PulseAudio 12.0 makes state files unreadable by all users in system mode, no longer provides the esdcompat tool if esound support is disabled, ports the qpaeq component to Qt 5 and changes its license from AGPL to LGPL, and brings compatibility with the latest Vala bindings and GNU C Library 2.27, while avoiding dependency on GConf.

Download PulseAudio 12.0.