Re: [Alsa-user] Re: Welcome to the "Alsa-user" mailing list (Digest mode)

[Bill U. <un...@ph...>]

On Tue, 1 Nov 2005, Lee Revell wrote:

> On Tue, 2005-11-01 at 22:45 +0000, Dick Middleton wrote:
>>> Anyway, my problem is this:
>>>
>>> 1. the intel8x0 onboard sound (device 1,0) works fine
>>> for everything I try (XINE, XMMS,
>>> and etc.) but if I try to play MP3's with XMMS while
>>> viewing a DVD in XINE, I can
>>> only hear sound out of the first program that accessed
>>> that soundcard.

The intel 8x0 does not do harware mixing of streams. Thus the first steam
to grab it gets it. (why you would want to listen to an mp3 over top of the
sound from a DVD I have no idea.)

It is possible to get software mixing of streams (eg under kde, artsd is
supposed to make that possible, but exactly how I have never bothered to
find out. )


>>>
>>> Could someone tell me how (or point me to a good,
>>> easy-to-understand source) to get
>>> multiple audio streams working so I can have multiple
>>> programs access the soundcard
>>> at the same time?
>>
>> ~/.asoundrc is your friend.  You have to tell xine to use the other
>> card.  The best way is to set up an pcm alias in .asoundrc and then set
>> xine to use it (under Audio - device used for stereo output).
>>
>> You might want to pre-define the card number for your two drivers by
>> setting the modules options (e.g. options snd-ice1712 index=1).
>>
>> So in .asoundrc you could put
>>
>> xine.pcm { type hw card 1 }
>>
>> which you refer to in xine as xine.
>>
>> The docs are not great but there's some stuff you can get some ideas
>> from via alsa-project.org.  You might want to consider using plug to get
>> automatic rate conversion.
>
> No, that's WRONG!  .asoundrc is not your friend, it should only be
> needed in exceptional circumstances, like trying to merge two devices
> into one.  It's utter insanity to create custom .asoundrc PCMs for each
> app.
>
> If xine doesn't easily allow you to change the audio device it's a bug
> in xine.  Please don't encourage broken application behavior by working
> around it at the ALSA level.
>
> You should NEVER have to use the hw:x devices directly.  Xine should
> have a dialog like qjackctl does, where it lets you select the human
> readable name of the audio device to use.
>
> Basically if multiple soundcards don't work easily out of the box then
> you need to file a bug report with your Linux distribution.  It's crazy
> that in 2005 the distros can't get this right.

Distros? The distros do not write the applications.

But as far as I can see from the above the OP wanted ONE sound card to
handle both streams at the same time, not two streams to two cards.

Note, that I doubt that the intention of the OP is to either encourage or
discourage the writers of xine. He just wants to make it work. Now, you,
not caring if it works or not, can take the moral high ground and advise
the OP to sacrifice himself on the altar of encouragement. Of course he (
and I ) would have a hard time figuring out how his not listening to what
he wants to listen to would encourage or be noticed at all by the writers
of xine. (" And exactly whom do you think that would inconvenience" to
quote Hitchhiker's guide).


>
> Lee
>
>
>
> -------------------------------------------------------
> SF.Net email is sponsored by:
> Tame your development challenges with Apache's Geronimo App Server. Download
> it for free - -and be entered to win a 42" plasma tv or your very own
> Sony(tm)PSP.  Click here to play: http://sourceforge.net/geronimo.php
> _______________________________________________
> Alsa-user mailing list
> Als...@li...
> https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/alsa-user
>

-- 
William G. Unruh   |  Canadian Institute for|     Tel: +1(604)822-3273
Physics&Astronomy  |     Advanced Research  |     Fax: +1(604)822-5324
UBC, Vancouver,BC  |   Program in Cosmology |     un...@ph...
Canada V6T 1Z1     |      and Gravity       |  www.theory.physics.ubc.ca/