spdif setup

spdif setup

[Ronald S. Bultje]

Hi,

Use case for the average user:
* have a cool new soundcard and the box says "HOT NEW SPDIF AC3!!11" [*]
* start Totem
* don't get AC-3 passthrough

How to fix this? I've just gone through the horror and joy that is free
software documentation. The best I can find is cool sample code in xine,
videolan and mplayer, who all set manual device entries with something
called AES0, AES1 and S16LE as audio format to get AC-3 passthrough to
work. Regardless of the fact that I cannot get any of this to work in the
first place (FC4 default install on x86-64; alsa 1.0.9 and latest cvs of
gstreamer), I'd like to make a more important point:

YOU GOTTA BE KIDDING ME!

I don't care much for the fact that the app needs some work to get this to
work, but I need to special case every possible format and add weird code
(what are those hex numbers anyway?) that assumes 16-bit integer to get
AC-3 working. Is that the new great ALSA? Please... Users have to set
weird-ass paranoia commandline options in each app out there (mplayer) or
edit through tons of xine config files to get this setup, with the end
result most likely being that it crashes. This just can't be it.

So, of course I'm just hoping that I'm completely wrong. I know that most
ALSA developers are really intelligent people and they, just like me, are
out there to make the Linux desktop experience happen. So I must've
misunderstood the whole thing. So, how *is* this supposed to work? What is
the theory and where are code examples to get AC-3 passthrough to work and
what is the suggested method for applications to make this transparent to
their user? I'd like to make any change needed to Totem and gstreamer for
this to be 100% transparent, but I'm just totally lost.

Cheers,
Ronald

[*] actually, the box mumbles some marketing stuff about dolby digital and
dts support, but same thing.


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Re: spdif setup

[James Courtier-Dutton]

Ronald S. Bultje wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> Use case for the average user:
> * have a cool new soundcard and the box says "HOT NEW SPDIF AC3!!11" [*]
> * start Totem
> * don't get AC-3 passthrough
> 

I don't see what the problem is.
start totem, edit->preferences->audio->audio_output_type=AC3 passthru.

It should then work.

If it fails, send us the output of:
cat /proc/asound/cards
cat /proc/asound/version


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Re: spdif setup

[Ronald S. Bultje]

On Sun, 2005-07-03 at 17:49, James Courtier-Dutton wrote:
> start totem, edit->preferences->audio->audio_output_type=AC3 passthru.

I'm one of the Totem authors. I'm trying to give that item some meaning
by making it work. Right now, it just works if you manually select the
right crypto-like device string in some dark-corner config file in the
xine backend. In the gst backend, it doesn't work at all. I'm trying to
understand how to make it work. It's not very obvious to me.

As said, alsa 1.0.9, it's a Nvidia Nforce (the onboard type thingy)
using the intel_8x0 driver.

Ronald

-- 
Ronald S. Bultje <rbultje@ronald.bitfreak.net>



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Re: spdif setup

[James Courtier-Dutton]

Ronald S. Bultje wrote:
> On Sun, 2005-07-03 at 17:49, James Courtier-Dutton wrote:
> 
>>start totem, edit->preferences->audio->audio_output_type=AC3 passthru.
> 
> 
> I'm one of the Totem authors. I'm trying to give that item some meaning
> by making it work. Right now, it just works if you manually select the
> right crypto-like device string in some dark-corner config file in the
> xine backend. In the gst backend, it doesn't work at all. I'm trying to
> understand how to make it work. It's not very obvious to me.
> 
> As said, alsa 1.0.9, it's a Nvidia Nforce (the onboard type thingy)
> using the intel_8x0 driver.
> 
> Ronald
> 

AC3 is not possible with the Nvidia Nforce chipset in Linux due to lack
of datasheets

James



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Re: spdif setup

[Ronald S. Bultje]

On Sun, 2005-07-03 at 19:42, James Courtier-Dutton wrote:
> AC3 is not possible with the Nvidia Nforce chipset in Linux due to lack
> of datasheets

OK, so what do you suggest I buy instead?

Ronald

-- 
Ronald S. Bultje <rbultje@ronald.bitfreak.net>



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Re: spdif setup

[Lee Revell]

On Sun, 2005-07-03 at 20:41 +0200, Ronald S. Bultje wrote:
> On Sun, 2005-07-03 at 19:42, James Courtier-Dutton wrote:
> > AC3 is not possible with the Nvidia Nforce chipset in Linux due to lack
> > of datasheets
> 
> OK, so what do you suggest I buy instead?

You could always try to RE it...

Lee



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