Surround problems with cs46xx

Surround problems with cs46xx

[Vasilis Manwlopoulos]

Hi,


Sorry for bothering the list again, but I have major problems with the 
surround 5.1 sound. I have manually compiled/installed th latest 
alsa-1.0.14 drivers but nothing improved. I am using Ubuntu 7.04 and my 
soundcard is  the Hercules Fortissimo III. This is, as far as I know by 
reading on Internet, supported by the module snd-cs46xx in ALSA. I have 
enabled the surround sound by creating the following .asoundrc file.

pcm.!default {
    type plug
    slave.pcm "surround51"
    slave.channels 6
    route_policy duplicate
}


The problem is that sound pauses whenever I try to do something "heavy" 
such as opening a new firefox window or generally another app. Also, 
there are delays and echo between the front and the rear speakers from 
time to time. I think that the problem is that, this alsa setup(meaning 
surround5.1 and the specific soundcard) places a heavy load on the cpu. 
There are 99% cpu usage times when the only thing active is a player 
playing a "normal bitrate" mp3. When I delete the .asoundrc file and I 
switch to default stereo sound using only the 2 front speakers the 
problems disappear.

Can anyone suggest anything about this?


Thanks in Advance
V.Manolopoulos

Re: Surround problems with cs46xx

[Takashi Iwai]

At Sat, 16 Jun 2007 16:56:53 +0300,
Vasilis Manwlopoulos wrote:
> 
> Hi,
> 
> 
> Sorry for bothering the list again, but I have major problems with the 
> surround 5.1 sound. I have manually compiled/installed th latest 
> alsa-1.0.14 drivers but nothing improved. I am using Ubuntu 7.04 and my 
> soundcard is  the Hercules Fortissimo III. This is, as far as I know by 
> reading on Internet, supported by the module snd-cs46xx in ALSA. I have 
> enabled the surround sound by creating the following .asoundrc file.
> 
> pcm.!default {
>     type plug
>     slave.pcm "surround51"
>     slave.channels 6
>     route_policy duplicate
> }
> 
> 
> The problem is that sound pauses whenever I try to do something "heavy" 
> such as opening a new firefox window or generally another app. Also, 
> there are delays and echo between the front and the rear speakers from 
> time to time. I think that the problem is that, this alsa setup(meaning 
> surround5.1 and the specific soundcard) places a heavy load on the cpu. 
> There are 99% cpu usage times when the only thing active is a player 
> playing a "normal bitrate" mp3. When I delete the .asoundrc file and I 
> switch to default stereo sound using only the 2 front speakers the 
> problems disappear.
> 
> Can anyone suggest anything about this?

First, try to investigate whether it's a problem of surround51
implementation or rather the "default" definition above.
For example, prepare a 6-channel WAV file, and play directly with
surround51 PCM.

But, from the symptom, I'm afraid it's rather a hardware problem.
The cs46xx uses three stereo streams for 5.1 output, and they are not
strictly synchronized.  And, debugging cs46xx driver is really a
nightmare...


Takashi

Re: Surround problems with cs46xx

[Vasilis Manοlopoulos]

Thanks for the reply Takashi.
I don't think that this is hardware problem, cause in windows XP, using 
the drivers by the manufacturer Hercules, the sound is fine. About the 
test you mentioned, I 'll check it when I find free time on weekend and 
I 'll let you know the results. I hope you could provide me some further 
help then. Unfortunately I am new in linux & sound issues, so creating a 
6 channel wav file and the whole procedure is a bit difficult to me and 
it's better to deal with it in the weekend!!



Regards.



O/H Takashi Iwai έγραψε:
> At Sat, 16 Jun 2007 16:56:53 +0300,
> Vasilis Manwlopoulos wrote:
>   
>> Hi,
>>
>>
>> Sorry for bothering the list again, but I have major problems with the 
>> surround 5.1 sound. I have manually compiled/installed th latest 
>> alsa-1.0.14 drivers but nothing improved. I am using Ubuntu 7.04 and my 
>> soundcard is  the Hercules Fortissimo III. This is, as far as I know by 
>> reading on Internet, supported by the module snd-cs46xx in ALSA. I have 
>> enabled the surround sound by creating the following .asoundrc file.
>>
>> pcm.!default {
>>     type plug
>>     slave.pcm "surround51"
>>     slave.channels 6
>>     route_policy duplicate
>> }
>>
>>
>> The problem is that sound pauses whenever I try to do something "heavy" 
>> such as opening a new firefox window or generally another app. Also, 
>> there are delays and echo between the front and the rear speakers from 
>> time to time. I think that the problem is that, this alsa setup(meaning 
>> surround5.1 and the specific soundcard) places a heavy load on the cpu. 
>> There are 99% cpu usage times when the only thing active is a player 
>> playing a "normal bitrate" mp3. When I delete the .asoundrc file and I 
>> switch to default stereo sound using only the 2 front speakers the 
>> problems disappear.
>>
>> Can anyone suggest anything about this?
>>     
>
> First, try to investigate whether it's a problem of surround51
> implementation or rather the "default" definition above.
> For example, prepare a 6-channel WAV file, and play directly with
> surround51 PCM.
>
> But, from the symptom, I'm afraid it's rather a hardware problem.
> The cs46xx uses three stereo streams for 5.1 output, and they are not
> strictly synchronized.  And, debugging cs46xx driver is really a
> nightmare...
>
>
> Takashi
>
>   
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Alsa-devel@alsa-project.org
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Re: Surround problems with cs46xx

[Takashi Iwai]

At Tue, 19 Jun 2007 21:49:01 -0700,
Vasilis Manοlopoulos wrote:
> 
> 
> Thanks for the reply Takashi.
> I don't think that this is hardware problem, cause in windows XP, using 
> the drivers by the manufacturer Hercules, the sound is fine. About the 
> test you mentioned, I 'll check it when I find free time on weekend and 
> I 'll let you know the results. I hope you could provide me some further 
> help then. Unfortunately I am new in linux & sound issues, so creating a 
> 6 channel wav file and the whole procedure is a bit difficult to me and 
> it's better to deal with it in the weekend!!

Well, I didn't mean that your hardware is broken.  Rather I meant that
it's hardware-specific problem due to the current driver
implementation (three parallel streams without synchronization).


Takashi

> 
> 
> 
> Regards.
> 
> 
> 
> O/H Takashi Iwai έγραψε:
> > At Sat, 16 Jun 2007 16:56:53 +0300,
> > Vasilis Manwlopoulos wrote:
> >   
> >> Hi,
> >>
> >>
> >> Sorry for bothering the list again, but I have major problems with the 
> >> surround 5.1 sound. I have manually compiled/installed th latest 
> >> alsa-1.0.14 drivers but nothing improved. I am using Ubuntu 7.04 and my 
> >> soundcard is  the Hercules Fortissimo III. This is, as far as I know by 
> >> reading on Internet, supported by the module snd-cs46xx in ALSA. I have 
> >> enabled the surround sound by creating the following .asoundrc file.
> >>
> >> pcm.!default {
> >>     type plug
> >>     slave.pcm "surround51"
> >>     slave.channels 6
> >>     route_policy duplicate
> >> }
> >>
> >>
> >> The problem is that sound pauses whenever I try to do something "heavy" 
> >> such as opening a new firefox window or generally another app. Also, 
> >> there are delays and echo between the front and the rear speakers from 
> >> time to time. I think that the problem is that, this alsa setup(meaning 
> >> surround5.1 and the specific soundcard) places a heavy load on the cpu. 
> >> There are 99% cpu usage times when the only thing active is a player 
> >> playing a "normal bitrate" mp3. When I delete the .asoundrc file and I 
> >> switch to default stereo sound using only the 2 front speakers the 
> >> problems disappear.
> >>
> >> Can anyone suggest anything about this?
> >>     
> >
> > First, try to investigate whether it's a problem of surround51
> > implementation or rather the "default" definition above.
> > For example, prepare a 6-channel WAV file, and play directly with
> > surround51 PCM.
> >
> > But, from the symptom, I'm afraid it's rather a hardware problem.
> > The cs46xx uses three stereo streams for 5.1 output, and they are not
> > strictly synchronized.  And, debugging cs46xx driver is really a
> > nightmare...
> >
> >
> > Takashi
> >
> >   
> 
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