MoviX

Hi,

I use to above mentioned hardware and can't use the spdif-out. Jumper settings on the mainboard are ok. Is there anything I need to configure? Which module is used for the sound on this hardware?

Thanks in advance

LeeLooB

I found something interessting which helps me at my own question: http://ik3frodo.fzk.de/ralf/mp/aktuelles.html

There is some help about the S/PDIF digital ouput of the via epia me6000. But it's in german language. He mentions that it is all in the alsa-sound-driver. I'am not familiar with this stuff so any help would be great.

Somerone else around here who has MoviX running on Via Epia? I have also problems with mplayer. After about 20Minutes of playing it freezes. System can still be pinged but mplayer seems to be freezed because no keyboard input is possible. (MoviX 0.8.1rc1)

LeeLooB

Next Self-Answer! :-)

I found out, that mplayer only freezes while playing mp3-files. I watched a Divx movie without any problem. Somebody has a idea about that? What could be fixed in mplayer settings?

LeeLooB

Hi LeeLooB,
I did not understand whether you managed to use the S/PDIF with your MB.

About your mp3 problem: it looks like a very strange bug!
There are two things you can try:
1. change video driver (e.g. try 'vesa' and 'sdl')
2. get rid of the '-bgVideo' option (and of its arg)

Let me know if it keeps freezing!

Hello Roberto,

thanks a lot for your answer. I just started mplayer without the -bgVideo option. I'll see later today if it still crashes with this change.
The first thing in noticed with the new setting is that i have no output about the song title. I even can't see the mplayer-menu any more. I don' mind losing the -bgVideo but a menu to choose new files or a display about song title would be nice ;-).
By the way, how do i keep the mplayer settings permanent? Next of topic question: How do I change the hostname for movix permanently?

I know, lots of questions but please answer them

Greetings from Cologne/Germany

LeeLooB

> i have no output about the song title

Indeed, the bgVideo is exactly what allows you to have the info and the possibility to choose song from a menu.
Without bgVideo, you still can go up and down in a playlist with the '<' and '>' keys but you get no info at all.
This way though we may find out whether the problem comes from the bgVideo or not :-)

> how do i keep the mplayer settings permanent

Save your settings in a floppy (use the Edit menu) and burn a new CD after copying the movixrc file (you'll find it in the floppy) in the src/movix dir (of course you need the tar.gz package to do that, or you may edit the ISO with WinISO or similar).

> How do I change the hostname for movix permanently?

Are you talking about the hostname or the prompt? As far as I know, MoviX system is so skinny it has no hostname at all. To change the prompt just change the PS1 variable in src/movix/profile

Bye,
Roberto

1. Hostname means what the systems say when you enter "uname -n" in the console. By default it's slackware. I think that normaly this is controlled by a file /etc/hostname but I'm not sure.

2. After playing mp3's for last hours I am glad to say that without the -bgVideo option mplayer does not crash any longer! :-) Now that we know why it used to crash after a couple of songs, how can this be fixed? The bgVideo ist nice to have because the mplayer-menu makes using MoviX very easy.

3. Second thing is the spdif-out. I still have no digital output. According to what i said above I'd like to ask if you know how to bring up output at the spdif-connector. Using mplayer with -ac hwac3 does not work here because it is no ac3, just two way pcm. I also unmuted IEC958 Ouput but I cannot give more volume to it (using up-arrow). The scale is just blank but unmuted.

I hope that my questions are not to bad for you. :-)

Thanks in advance

LeeLooB

> uname -n

Funny, I had never tried that command in MoviX :-)
Most likely it tells you 'slackware' because there's such name inside /etc/HOSTNAME
BTW, why do you care about the name?

> how can this be fixed?

Now try re-activating the bgVideo with different vo drivers, maybe with 'vesa' or 'sdl' it will not die.
Since a 1.0 MPlayer version is close to get out and this problem showed up only on ME6000 MBs it seems wiser just wait a few weeks, hoping that the problem won't appear with the new MPlayer version.

> Using mplayer with -ac hwac3 does not work here because it is no ac3

Ok

> I also unmuted IEC958 Ouput but I cannot give more volume to it

I can't help you much because I don't have anything to plug to my optical out.
You may find help on this on the ALSA users ML.

BTW, I've made some search right now and I've found something you can find useful:
http://www3.sympatico.ca/howlettfamily/epia/epia_howto.pdf
Pls let me know if the hints contained in this document really work!

BTW, in short the doc suggests you to use
-ao alsa9:iec958
To accomplish this you should select 'alsa9' in the ao driver pop-up menu and then write ':iec958' at its right.

THAT'S IT! It works!
Thanks Roberto!

> THAT'S IT! It works!

Cool!
Would you pls be so kind to write a short list of the things you have to do to make spdif work on your MB?
I'd like to add this to the docs.

Sure:

1.) Install Movix
2.) Jumper the EPIA M6000 board to S/PDIF-out (Manual, page 2-18 / shorten 3-4)
3.) Connect the EPIA compsite-port to your amplifier's / receiver's coax-port
4.) Activated the coax-port in your amplifier / receiver (if necessary)
5.) enable iec958-output in movix:
- go to audio-setup (strg+alt+f2)
- unmute iec958-output
6.) change the mplayer audio-options:
- MENU: edit / mplayer-options
- select "alsa9" for the audio-output driver
- write ":iec985" in the ao-box
6.) save your settings

another EPIA tip:
you can built an optical-port (TOSLINK) for the EPIA M6000 in less than 10 minutes and for under 5 Euros:
http://www.andre-reichl.de/tutorials/000000940a1363429/index.html
I tried it and it works just great.

In addition to what Thomas wrote for the spdif-out I'd like to add that we get a sample-rate problem with these settings. I added -af resample=48000:0:0 to mplayer options. Otherwise it sounds like a smurf if someones sings.

(Ever heard A-Ha with -af resample=44100:0:0?? :-) )

Maybe someone else knows even better settings! I am not very good in these things......

I'd like to thank Roberto for the big help with this spdif-out problem.
@Thomas: Could you please write something more about the optical-out (TOSLINK). I am not good in "löten" and would like to know how difficult it is.

Great evening today!

LeeLooB

Sample-rate problem? I did not notice it.

löten = solder
For a solder-experienced person this is not a very big problem. You have to solder the tos-port to ground, +5V (you can get both from the floppy-cable) and to the spdif-out port. The spdif-out-port is the tricky one. You need a quality soldering-iron (smal tip with 0.5mm diameter - around 25 Euros) and your hand should not shake.
For a beginner it is not easy, maybe you should ask a pro.

Good Morning Thomas,

thanks for description about applying the TOSLINK to the epia. The TOSLINK information is really important for me because I have no free coaxial digital in free at the receiver, only optical in is available.

I'm using the epia with spdif-out together with a Denon AVR-1801 Digital Receiver. Maybe this sample-rate problem occurs only in this combination.

Greetings from Cologne

LeeLooB

@Thomas (again) ;-)

If you applied the TOSLINK to your epia could you please tell me two things?!?

The webpage of Andre Reichl has a picture (http://www.andre-reichl.de/mediacenter/689c2b911509c55bd/000000940a131f513/index.html) in it where the yellow cable goes to the VIA1616 Chip and an other grey cable comes from the SMD-Part (SPDIF Signal hier abgreifen, in der Beschreibung).
Do I need to connect the SMD-Part to the VIA1616 Chip?

My understanding ist that we take the signal from the smd-part and connect this to the TOSLINK. Take a 5V and a GND to the TOSLINK with a 100n codensator between. Right??

Thanks in advance

LeeLooB

The yellow cable does not go to the VIA1616. It is connected to the grey cable, which is connected to the SMD-Part (it could be a capacitor, I think).
You have to connect the yellow (signal) cable to this capacitor.

And your understanding is correct. The spdif-signal comes from the smd-part. +5V and GND come from the floppy-powerplug (or another 5V source). +5V and GND are connected by a 100n capacitor.
You can get all parts form a local dealer or (in germany) from Reichelt. It's cheaper than Conrad.

@Thomas,
thanks for the hint about reichelt. I've been at conrad yesterday because its just arround the corner but they did not have everything I need for the TOSLINK and the IR-receiver. The toslink without the bracket costs about 6€ at conrad and the toslink with the bracket is only 2,30€ at reichelt. Thank you man! :-)

@Roberto,
as I use MoviX mainly for playing mp3's, I found something strange. I have several mp3's which use a Bitrate of 320KBit. These mp3's make trouble in MoviX or better to say mplayer. (example http://www.home.bieselt.de/doof/test.mp3.gz) The example sounds like a gorilla but not like the famous british singer it should sound like. :-)

I nearly collected all parts for my epia-hifi-solution. Because of your great help I almost finished with the setup and building the hardware into the final case will be somewhere next week. When everything is finished I'll write a small abstract. Maybe this will be interessting for one of you out there.

Greetings

LeeLooB

Hi LeeLooB,
I've finally tested your mp3: I get the horrible gorilla sound when playing it with MPlayer 0.92 (the one included in MoviX 0.8.1*) but I get the correct sound when playing it with MPlayer 1.0pre3.
This means that this bug will be automatically fixed once MoviX will switch to MPlayer 1.0 (i.e. when a MPlayer 1.0rc1 version will be finally released, hopefully within a month or two).

> When everything is finished I'll write a small abstract.

I'd be happy to add it to the site docs!

Bye,
Roberto