PS3 - Surround sound on SPDIF set-up

PS3 - Surround sound on SPDIF set-up

[gt bradley]

Hi,
I've been beating my had against this for several weeks now.  (started
with fedora 6, tried adding in the plugings etc (version 1.0.12) -- also
tried upgrading to the current 1.0.14 version, without success (couldn't
produce surround-sound on teh spdif output).  I have now switched to
fedorea 7 and was able to have rythmbox play surround sound via spdif,
but have since lost that ability.  (but I'm convinced the hardware and
low-level drivers support it).  In order to limit the number of moving
parts, I have reduced to just trying to get speaker-test to play on all
6 speakers.

from pirut &
I have alsa-lib 1.0.14-0.4.rc3.fc7.ppc(64) and
alsa-utils 1.0.14-0.7.rc2.fc7.ppc

The default install has no asound.conf file.  (attempts to create a
"better" one didn't improve the situation).

I do not see a file matching the ps3 device in etc/alsa/cards nor
etc/alsa/pcm, but I have not found any documentation on adding entries
to the above directories.


[root@ps3 pcm0p]# cat /proc/asound/card0/pcm0p/info
card: 0
device: 0
subdevice: 0
stream: PLAYBACK
id: SPDIF
name: SPDIF
subname: subdevice #0
class: 0
subclass: 0
subdevices_count: 1
subdevices_avail: 1


[root@ps3 ~]# aplay -l
**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: PS3 [PS3], device 0: SPDIF [SPDIF]
 Subdevices: 1/1
 Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
[root@ps3 ~]# aplay -L
null
   Discard all samples (playback) or generate zero samples (capture)
[root@ps3 ~]# amixer
[root@ps3 ~]# amixer scontrols
[root@ps3 ~]# speaker-test -c 6

speaker-test 1.0.14rc2

Playback device is default
Stream parameters are 48000Hz, S16_BE, 6 channels
Using 16 octaves of pink noise
Rate set to 48000Hz (requested 48000Hz)
Buffer size range from 4096 to 8192
Period size range from 256 to 256
Using max buffer size 8192
Periods = 4
was set period_size = 256
was set buffer_size = 8192
 0 - Front Left
 4 - Center
 1 - Front Right
 3 - Rear Right
 2 - Rear Left
 5 - LFE
Time per period = 17.821324

* above test only produces sound on channels 0 & 1.

xmms produces no sound and emits the following:
** WARNING **: alsa_setup_mixer(): Failed to find mixer element: PCM

Is it possible to get some help/pointers in the right direction?
thanks
GT*
*

Re: PS3 - Surround sound on SPDIF set-up

[Lee Revell]

On 7/2/07, gt bradley <gt.bradley@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi,
> I've been beating my had against this for several weeks now.  (started
> with fedora 6, tried adding in the plugings etc (version 1.0.12) -- also
> tried upgrading to the current 1.0.14 version, without success (couldn't
> produce surround-sound on teh spdif output).  I have now switched to
> fedorea 7 and was able to have rythmbox play surround sound via spdif,
> but have since lost that ability.  (but I'm convinced the hardware and
> low-level drivers support it).  In order to limit the number of moving
> parts, I have reduced to just trying to get speaker-test to play on all
> 6 speakers.

SPDIF only supports 2 channels unless the stream is AC3 encoded.

Lee

Re: PS3 - Surround sound on SPDIF set-up

[Takashi Iwai]

At Mon, 02 Jul 2007 19:17:35 -0700,
gt bradley wrote:
> 
> Hi,
> I've been beating my had against this for several weeks now.  (started
> with fedora 6, tried adding in the plugings etc (version 1.0.12) -- also
> tried upgrading to the current 1.0.14 version, without success (couldn't
> produce surround-sound on teh spdif output).  I have now switched to
> fedorea 7 and was able to have rythmbox play surround sound via spdif,
> but have since lost that ability.  (but I'm convinced the hardware and
> low-level drivers support it).  In order to limit the number of moving
> parts, I have reduced to just trying to get speaker-test to play on all
> 6 speakers.

SPDIF is basically only for a two-channel PCM stream.  For 5.1
outputs, you'll have to encode the raw multi-channel PCM to some
compressed format such as AC3 or DTS and embed in SPDIF frames.
And, that's not the driver job, so far -- at least the current driver
doesn't do any conversion.  Thus a software has to do it.

You can try a52 plugin for the on-the-fly encoding, found in
alsa-plugins package.  The plugin seems working for some apps but for
some not yet well, unfortunately...


Takashi

Re: PS3 - Surround sound on SPDIF set-up

[GT Bradley]

yes,
  I am aware that AC3 is required,  I'm trying to get the AC3 
pass-through configured. From your response, I understand now that 
speaker-test is performing as expected, however I have tired other 
things also:
 I have some AC3 encoded test files,  and I have also tried installing 
ffmpeg, and liba52.  and the ac3dec utility which I understand should 
pass through the AC3/DTS encoded files, but I recieve:

[root@ps3 Surround-SDL-testfiles]# ac3dec -C dolby-canyon.ogg
Using PCM device 'plug:iec958:{AES0 0x2 AES1 0x82 AES2 0x0 AES3 0x2}'
ALSA lib conf.c:3939:(snd_config_expand) Unknown parameters {AES0 0x2 
AES1 0x82 AES2 0x0 AES3 0x2}
ALSA lib pcm.c:2145:(snd_pcm_open_noupdate) Unknown PCM iec958:{AES0 0x2 
AES1 0x82 AES2 0x0 AES3 0x2}
snd_pcm_open: Invalid argument
Output open failed

However if I am planning to write ac3 to the linux driver, are you 
saying that I would be better to write directly to the driver rather 
than through the ALSA layer?

thanks
GT



Takashi Iwai wrote:

>At Mon, 02 Jul 2007 19:17:35 -0700,
>gt bradley wrote:
>  
>
>>Hi,
>>I've been beating my had against this for several weeks now.  (started
>>with fedora 6, tried adding in the plugings etc (version 1.0.12) -- also
>>tried upgrading to the current 1.0.14 version, without success (couldn't
>>produce surround-sound on teh spdif output).  I have now switched to
>>fedorea 7 and was able to have rythmbox play surround sound via spdif,
>>but have since lost that ability.  (but I'm convinced the hardware and
>>low-level drivers support it).  In order to limit the number of moving
>>parts, I have reduced to just trying to get speaker-test to play on all
>>6 speakers.
>>    
>>
>
>SPDIF is basically only for a two-channel PCM stream.  For 5.1
>outputs, you'll have to encode the raw multi-channel PCM to some
>compressed format such as AC3 or DTS and embed in SPDIF frames.
>And, that's not the driver job, so far -- at least the current driver
>doesn't do any conversion.  Thus a software has to do it.
>
>You can try a52 plugin for the on-the-fly encoding, found in
>alsa-plugins package.  The plugin seems working for some apps but for
>some not yet well, unfortunately...
>
>
>Takashi
>
>  
>

Re: PS3 - Surround sound on SPDIF set-up

[Takashi Iwai]

At Tue, 03 Jul 2007 11:50:34 -0700,
GT Bradley wrote:
> 
> yes,
>   I am aware that AC3 is required,  I'm trying to get the AC3 
> pass-through configured. From your response, I understand now that 
> speaker-test is performing as expected, however I have tired other 
> things also:
>  I have some AC3 encoded test files,  and I have also tried installing 
> ffmpeg, and liba52.  and the ac3dec utility which I understand should 
> pass through the AC3/DTS encoded files, but I recieve:
> 
> [root@ps3 Surround-SDL-testfiles]# ac3dec -C dolby-canyon.ogg
> Using PCM device 'plug:iec958:{AES0 0x2 AES1 0x82 AES2 0x0 AES3 0x2}'
> ALSA lib conf.c:3939:(snd_config_expand) Unknown parameters {AES0 0x2 
> AES1 0x82 AES2 0x0 AES3 0x2}
> ALSA lib pcm.c:2145:(snd_pcm_open_noupdate) Unknown PCM iec958:{AES0 0x2 
> AES1 0x82 AES2 0x0 AES3 0x2}
> snd_pcm_open: Invalid argument
> Output open failed
> 
> However if I am planning to write ac3 to the linux driver, are you 
> saying that I would be better to write directly to the driver rather 
> than through the ALSA layer?

You need set up the configuration for alsa-lib.
Otherwise the iec958 PCM isn't defined.
Usually the card-specific configuration is stored in
/usr/share/alsa/cards/*.conf.


Takashi

Re: PS3 - Surround sound on SPDIF set-up

[GT Bradley]

right,
  For my Fedora install, these files are at /etc/alsa/cards,   (although 
the iec958.conf) is in /etc/alsa/pcm).

The iec958.conf seems resonable, although I don't fully understand the 
syntax of the file, nor understand how the asoundrc file wires to 
/etc/alsa/...  to the actual linux driver.   It seems to pass through to 
the default device (which is what I want)

using the system-config-soundcard utility, I do get surround sound, and 
is displays the card as PS3 whcih matches the output of aplay -l    I've 
tryed createing a /etc/alsa/cards/PS3.conf file as follows:

I've added the following to my /etc/asound.conf:

pcm.myspdif {
    type iec958
    slave {
        pcm {
            type hw
            card 0
            device 0
            # whatever you like
        }
        format IEC958_SUBFRAME_BE
    }
    # the below should be corrected with 44.1kHz rates
    status [ 0x04 0x92 0x10 0x02 ]
}

I've created a PS3.conf file as follows:




[root@ps3 Surround-SDL-testfiles]# ac3dec -Dmyspdif -C dolby-canyon.ogg
Using PCM device 'myspdif'
Broken configuration for this PCM: no configurations availableOutput 
open failed

trying to create a SPDIF device has yeilded
[root@ps3 Surround-SDL-testfiles]# ac3dec -Dmyspdif -C dolby-canyon.ogg
Using PCM device 'myspdif'
snd_pcm_open: No such file or directory
Output open failed

(by an y of the following:)
pcm_slave.SPDIF {
       pcm iec958
}

pcm_slave.SPDIF {
       type hw
      card 0
       device 0
}

pcm_type.SPDIF {
        redirect  {
                name iec958
        }
}


the sytem-config-soundcard util is still able to play the test tones via 
AT3 over spdif.
the default device is as shown below...


GT




Takashi Iwai wrote:

>At Tue, 03 Jul 2007 11:50:34 -0700,
>GT Bradley wrote:
>  
>
>>yes,
>>  I am aware that AC3 is required,  I'm trying to get the AC3 
>>pass-through configured. From your response, I understand now that 
>>speaker-test is performing as expected, however I have tired other 
>>things also:
>> I have some AC3 encoded test files,  and I have also tried installing 
>>ffmpeg, and liba52.  and the ac3dec utility which I understand should 
>>pass through the AC3/DTS encoded files, but I recieve:
>>
>>[root@ps3 Surround-SDL-testfiles]# ac3dec -C dolby-canyon.ogg
>>Using PCM device 'plug:iec958:{AES0 0x2 AES1 0x82 AES2 0x0 AES3 0x2}'
>>ALSA lib conf.c:3939:(snd_config_expand) Unknown parameters {AES0 0x2 
>>AES1 0x82 AES2 0x0 AES3 0x2}
>>ALSA lib pcm.c:2145:(snd_pcm_open_noupdate) Unknown PCM iec958:{AES0 0x2 
>>AES1 0x82 AES2 0x0 AES3 0x2}
>>snd_pcm_open: Invalid argument
>>Output open failed
>>
>>However if I am planning to write ac3 to the linux driver, are you 
>>saying that I would be better to write directly to the driver rather 
>>than through the ALSA layer?
>>    
>>
>
>You need set up the configuration for alsa-lib.
>Otherwise the iec958 PCM isn't defined.
>Usually the card-specific configuration is stored in
>/usr/share/alsa/cards/*.conf.
>
>
>Takashi
>
>  
>

Re: PS3 - Surround sound on SPDIF set-up

[Takashi Iwai]

At Wed, 04 Jul 2007 18:23:09 -0700,
GT Bradley wrote:
> 
> right,
>   For my Fedora install, these files are at /etc/alsa/cards,   (although 
> the iec958.conf) is in /etc/alsa/pcm).
> 
> The iec958.conf seems resonable, although I don't fully understand the 
> syntax of the file, nor understand how the asoundrc file wires to 
> /etc/alsa/...  to the actual linux driver.   It seems to pass through to 
> the default device (which is what I want)
> 
> using the system-config-soundcard utility, I do get surround sound, and 
> is displays the card as PS3 whcih matches the output of aplay -l    I've 
> tryed createing a /etc/alsa/cards/PS3.conf file as follows:

It seems that the current PS3 driver doesn't support the passthru
properly yet.  For AC3, you'd have to set up the IEC958 status bits,
but the driver doesn't support it.  Some receivers are robust that
work even without non-audio bit, but many receivers require the proper
status bits.  I'll contact with SCE guys for fixing this issue.


Takashi

PS3 - Surround sound on SPDIF set-up

[gt bradley]

Crud   :(

 I had asked them and they said that the hypervisor should allow for AC3
pass-through.  In my inital review of the snd_ps3.c code, it looked like it
was basically a data-pump, handling the DMA & interupts to move data from
the passed in stream to the h/w (via the hypervisor).  I also assumed that
the iec bits (in headers in the SPDIF frames) were being set by higher
levels in the software stack.

If the bits are being set by the hardware and/or hypervisor then I'll have
to fall back to plan "B".

I've been programming for 20+ years, and have put kernel mods into
production, but the last kernel hacking/device driver I did was in SYSV.  I
can forward changes/fixes to Geoff, for inclusion rolling things
"upstream".  I don't have direct access to inside information other than the
source-code, but can forward the requests for more detailed info.

let me know if I can help
GT

p.s.  thanks for your time and patience.


On 7/5/07, Takashi Iwai <tiwai@suse.de> wrote:
>
> At Wed, 04 Jul 2007 18:23:09 -0700,
> GT Bradley wrote:
> >
> > right,
> >   For my Fedora install, these files are at /etc/alsa/cards,   (although
> > the iec958.conf) is in /etc/alsa/pcm).
> >
> > The iec958.conf seems resonable, although I don't fully understand the
> > syntax of the file, nor understand how the asoundrc file wires to
> > /etc/alsa/...  to the actual linux driver.   It seems to pass through to
>
> > the default device (which is what I want)
> >
> > using the system-config-soundcard utility, I do get surround sound, and
> > is displays the card as PS3 whcih matches the output of aplay -l    I've
>
> > tryed createing a /etc/alsa/cards/PS3.conf file as follows:
>
> It seems that the current PS3 driver doesn't support the passthru
> properly yet.  For AC3, you'd have to set up the IEC958 status bits,
> but the driver doesn't support it.  Some receivers are robust that
> work even without non-audio bit, but many receivers require the proper
> status bits.  I'll contact with SCE guys for fixing this issue.
>
>
> Takashi
>

Re: PS3 - Surround sound on SPDIF set-up

[Takashi Iwai]

At Thu, 5 Jul 2007 15:37:48 -0700,
gt bradley wrote:
> 
> Crud   :(
> 
>  I had asked them and they said that the hypervisor should allow for AC3
> pass-through.  In my inital review of the snd_ps3.c code, it looked like it
> was basically a data-pump, handling the DMA & interupts to move data from
> the passed in stream to the h/w (via the hypervisor).  I also assumed that
> the iec bits (in headers in the SPDIF frames) were being set by higher
> levels in the software stack.
> 
> If the bits are being set by the hardware and/or hypervisor then I'll have
> to fall back to plan "B".
> 
> I've been programming for 20+ years, and have put kernel mods into
> production, but the last kernel hacking/device driver I did was in SYSV.  I
> can forward changes/fixes to Geoff, for inclusion rolling things
> "upstream".  I don't have direct access to inside information other than the
> source-code, but can forward the requests for more detailed info.

I have a contact with the driver author, and he seems to have little
time right now because of the rewrite of PS3 network driver as a
higher priority, unfortunately.


Takashi

multi-channel set up on PS3

[gt bradley]

I'm running Fedora 7 on a PS3  (2.6.22 kernel, 1.0.14rc2 alsa).

I'm trying to create a multi-channel device by following the 
instructions at:
http://www.alsa-project.org/alsa-doc/doc-php/asoundrc.php

On the section on "virtual multi channel devices"

I also tried changing the slave b hardware number to 7 to match my set-up.
( and tried putting 7 -> 0 and 1->0 to make the snd_ps3 the "second" 
device w/o record).

attempting to run the test command yeilds:
[root@ps3 Surround-SDL-testfiles]# arecord -f S16_LE -r 44100 -c 4 -D 
multi | aplay -f S16_LE -r 44100 -c 4 -D multi
arecord: main:545: audio open error: No such file or directory
aplay: playback:2018: read error

to remove the record part of things, I've also tried :
[root@ps3 Surround-SDL-testfiles]#  aplay -f S16_LE -r 44100 -c 4 -D 
multi dolby-canyon.ogg
Playing raw data 'dolby-canyon.ogg' : Signed 16 bit Little Endian, Rate 
44100 Hz, Channels 4
aplay: set_params:878: Broken configuration for this PCM: no 
configurations available

(I also tried Big-endian).

Looking at 
http://bugtrack.alsa-project.org/main/index.php/Matrix:Module-usb-audio

the relevent part of my kernel config file is below: and the output of 
lsmod.
I notice that soundcore.o is in my build tree, but I'm unable to find a 
soundcore.ko file.  I'm assuming that this is being statically linked 
into the kernel.  (I can find .soundcore_open in the System.map file for 
my kernel).  this looks reasonable to me.


 From my various tries at this I believe I have a configuration issue, 
and would appriciate some pointers in the right direction.

thanks
GT



***********Config info: ******************
I'm able to run speaker-test -c 2 and get sound out of L&R for each of 
the two cards.


the output of aplay -l is
 [root@ps3 Surround-SDL-testfiles]# aplay -l
**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: PS3 [PS3], device 0: SPDIF [SPDIF]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 7: MP3 [Sound Blaster MP3+], device 0: USB Audio [USB Audio]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

The out-put of aplay -l is as follows:
[root@ps3 Surround-SDL-testfiles]# aplay -L
null
    Discard all samples (playback) or generate zero samples (capture)
default:CARD=MP3
    Sound Blaster MP3+, USB Audio
    Default Audio Device
front:CARD=MP3,DEV=0
    Sound Blaster MP3+, USB Audio
    Front speakers
surround40:CARD=MP3,DEV=0
    Sound Blaster MP3+, USB Audio
    4.0 Surround output to Front and Rear speakers
surround41:CARD=MP3,DEV=0
    Sound Blaster MP3+, USB Audio
    4.1 Surround output to Front, Rear and Subwoofer speakers
surround50:CARD=MP3,DEV=0
    Sound Blaster MP3+, USB Audio
    5.0 Surround output to Front, Center and Rear speakers
surround51:CARD=MP3,DEV=0
    Sound Blaster MP3+, USB Audio
    5.1 Surround output to Front, Center, Rear and Subwoofer speakers
surround71:CARD=MP3,DEV=0
    Sound Blaster MP3+, USB Audio
    7.1 Surround output to Front, Center, Side, Rear and Woofer speakers
iec958:CARD=MP3,DEV=0
    Sound Blaster MP3+, USB Audio
    IEC958 (S/PDIF) Digital Audio Output

>From 
http://bugtrack.alsa-project.org/main/index.php/Matrix:Vendor-Creative_Labs
I see that only analog output is supported


.configure file:

#
# Sound
#
CONFIG_SOUND=y

#
# Advanced Linux Sound Architecture
#
CONFIG_SND=m
CONFIG_SND_TIMER=m
CONFIG_SND_PCM=m
CONFIG_SND_HWDEP=m
CONFIG_SND_RAWMIDI=m
CONFIG_SND_SEQUENCER=m
# CONFIG_SND_SEQ_DUMMY is not set
# CONFIG_SND_MIXER_OSS is not set
# CONFIG_SND_PCM_OSS is not set
# CONFIG_SND_SEQUENCER_OSS is not set
# CONFIG_SND_DYNAMIC_MINORS is not set
CONFIG_SND_SUPPORT_OLD_API=y
CONFIG_SND_VERBOSE_PROCFS=y
# CONFIG_SND_VERBOSE_PRINTK is not set
# CONFIG_SND_DEBUG is not set

#
# Generic devices
#
# CONFIG_SND_DUMMY is not set
# CONFIG_SND_VIRMIDI is not set
# CONFIG_SND_MTPAV is not set
# CONFIG_SND_SERIAL_U16550 is not set
# CONFIG_SND_MPU401 is not set

#
# ALSA PowerMac devices
#

#
# ALSA PowerMac requires I2C
#

#
# ALSA PowerPC devices

***** loaded modules ****
[root@ps3 usb]# lsmod
Module                  Size  Used by
hidp                   27896  0
rfcomm                 59208  0
l2cap                  34312  6 hidp,rfcomm
snd_usb_audio         114200  0
snd_usb_lib            25544  1 snd_usb_audio
snd_rawmidi            34408  1 snd_usb_lib
snd_ps3                19128  0
hci_usb                23172  2
bluetooth              81524  8 hidp,rfcomm,l2cap,hci_usb
usb_storage            54236  0
snd_seq_device         11692  1 snd_rawmidi
snd_hwdep              14368  1 snd_usb_audio
snd_pcm               123132  2 snd_usb_audio,snd_ps3
usbhid                 28828  0
snd_page_alloc         10816  1 snd_pcm
sys_manager             7052  0 [permanent]
snd_timer              33872  1 snd_pcm
snd                    77328  7 
snd_usb_audio,snd_rawmidi,snd_ps3,snd_seq_device,snd_hwdep,snd_pcm,snd_timer
sg                     46816  0
ext2                   75584  5