Re: smart and automatic use of dmix and dsnoop - feature suggestion.

[Takashi Iwai <tiwai@suse.de>]

At Mon, 17 Nov 2003 19:18:49 +0100,
Peter Kirk wrote:
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> Am Montag, 17. November 2003 15:33 schrieb Takashi Iwai:
> > At Mon, 17 Nov 2003 14:34:14 +0100,
> >
> > Peter Kirk wrote:
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> > > Am Montag, 17. November 2003 11:32 schrieb Takashi Iwai:
> > > > At Mon, 17 Nov 2003 01:37:02 +0000,
> > > >
> > > > Mark Hubbard wrote:
> > > > > On Friday 14 Nov 2003 15:31, Takashi Iwai wrote:
> > > > > > At Fri, 14 Nov 2003 15:11:22 +0000, Mark Hubbard wrote:
> > > > > > > On Friday 14 Nov 2003 13:20, Takashi Iwai wrote:
> > > > > > > > as a future plan, we'll define dmix as default for el-cheapo
> > > > > > > > soundcards, but e.g. not for sb live, which supports such a
> > > > > > > > function on hardware.
> > > >
> > > > ok, let me correct:  which users most likely want as dmix plugin :)
> > >
> > > Hmmm,
> > >
> > > sorry if I cant realy follow your reasoning. I have understood that using
> > > dmix on every device is stupid - since some applications like jack want
> > > low level access to the hardware. But these applications should use the
> > > hw: device, if I understand everything right. If this is so, you have yet
> > > to come up for any reason why a user would NOT want a smartdmix running
> > > behind devices like "default" "rear" front" (and all others that I dont
> > > know about, but that are consumer application devices) ?
> > >
> > > Please enlighten me on this.
> >
> > i personally think using dmix would be nice even for such "high-end"
> > cards.  but the smart dmix can still result in resampling or format
> > conversion if the first and the second applications use different
> > sample rates or formats.  in the case of cheap soundcards, it's not a
> > big problem because the quality is anyway cheap, too.  however, in the
> > case of high-end cards, people might not like that it happens.
> 
> if I understand it right, then "high-end" cards should be able to play 
> multiple streams in hardware...meaning the smart dmix wouldnt even do 
> anything else than pass on the streams to the soundcard (no resampling, no 
> mixing, no nothing). Only if you play two streams on a soundcard that can 
> only handle playing one, then it would mix (and resample if necessary for the 
> mixing).

well, my concern is that with the high-end cards, people tend to stick
with the quality of sounds.  that means, any reason to reduce the
quality wouldn't be acceptable for some people.  since dmix will do it
silently (if needed), it might be unacceptable.

anyway, it's just a concern.  the answer for this question would be
just a questionary to users (and a good documentation or user-friendly
GUI tool to configure).


Takashi


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