[Alsa-user] ALSA and USB SoundBlaster Audigy 2 NX

[Raffael H. <her...@ra...>]

Hi,

I have bought a Audigy 2 NX USB sound card in order to get 5.1 sound and 
AC3 pass-through with my Dell Inspiron 8200. However, the card doesn't 
really work... :(

This is what I get when I try to just play a sound with aplay:

$ aplay SomeWav.wav
Playing WAVE 'SomeWav.wav' : Unsigned 8 bit, Rate 8000 Hz, Mono
underrun!!! (at least 1.350 ms long)
underrun!!! (at least 0.068 ms long)
underrun!!! (at least 0.035 ms long)
underrun!!! (at least 0.273 ms long)

There's some sound, but it's too fast and very choppy.


If I try to play something with XMMS (using the ALSA output plugin), this 
is what I get:

** CRITICAL **: udp_establish_listener(): unable to create socket
Message: output format: 7


Trying to start alsaplayer, I hear strange sounds (periodically) and it 
outputs "short_mask = 0x5" for each of these sounds. No UI appears.


MPlayer doesn't play any sound and prints lots of messages like 
"alsa-space: xrun of at least 43.338 msecs. resetting stream 0.0% 0 0 0%". 
If I start it using "-ac hwac3" it prints:

alsa-init: requested format: 48000 Hz, 2 channels, AC3
alsa-init: soundcard set to iec958:AES0=0x2,AES1=0x82,AES2=0x0,AES3=0x2
ALSA lib pcm.c:1812:(snd_pcm_open_conf) Invalid type for PCM 
iec958:AES0=0x2,AES1=0x82,AES2=0x0,AES3=0x2 definition (id: iec958, value: 
cards.pcm.iec958)
alsa-init: playback open error: Invalid argument


Xine exits immediately with "xine: simple.c:1464: 
snd_mixer_selem_get_playback_volume: Assertion `elem->type == 
SND_MIXER_ELEM_SIMPLE' failed." - is this a problem with Xine? BTW: Of 
course it would be nice to get the card fully working, but the only thing 
I *really* need is AC3 pass-through (or at least 5.1 output) with Xine. 
With OSS emulation I can start Xine, but I only hear some audio garbage. 
Enabling 5.1 sound works, but the sound is the same, the Dolby Digital LED 
of the Receiver isn't lit.


Any ideas how I could get this card working? It would be just too nice... 
:) I didn't include the output of "lsusb -vv" yet as it's *very* long. But 
of course, I'll be happy post it if requested, or any other output you 
need.

Please tell me if alsa-devel is the better list to post this. :)


TIA,
    Raffi

-- 
The difference between theory and practice is that in theory, there is no 
difference, but in practice, there is.

Raffael Herzog - he...@ra... - www.raffael.ch - ICQ #67961355