[mythtv-users] Grrrr, I can't figure out if I hate alsa or Creative!!!

William H. Gilmore whgi at gms-online.com
Wed Nov 12 18:13:32 EST 2003


If I have learned nothing else, I have learned that the folks who said audio was the toughest part of MythTV know what they are talking about.  

 

I am a 6+ year veteran of Linux with another ½ dozen years of experience with UNIX prior to that.  So I ain't no rookie! (though I am a MythTV rookie:-))  Trying to get sound cards working in my machine with alsa has been a real pain.  This note is meant to offer up what I have found as well as to help me vent.  So be warned before you read further.

 

What I have learned:

 

1.	The onboard VIA8233 audio on my Athlon XP 2200 MBO possesses a high pitch whine when watching certain channels with MythTV.  I posted an earlier note on this and received two responses that corroborated this observation.

 

2.	So I exercised humility and asked for recommendations for sound cards.  Jason was nice enough to offer the Creative Audigy as a good middle of the road card.  So, I ran out to Micro Centre and bought an Audigy LS.  BAD MOVE!!!!  This card's PCI ID (1102:0007) is not in the Linux PCI DB on SF.  I received a whole slew of errors when I tried to insert the kernel module. I scanned the source code thinking that I would hack it in, but decided that I just wasn't man enough for the job.

 

3.	So I decided to back down the quality curve a little and swapped the SB Live! (rev 7) card from my production desktop and put it in the MythTV box thinking that a card 3 years old would be a cakewalk!  WRONG AGAIN!!!!  Same errors as in debacle 2!  While the PCI ID on this card is as documented on SF (1102:0002), the sub-device number (8032) wasn't.  So, I was foiled again!!!

 

4.	But being the glutton for punishment that I am, I remembered that I had an Ensoniq Audio PCI 3000 (ES1370 chip) in the basement.  So, I dug it out and slapped it in.  Voila!!!!  The Red Hat Hardware Detection God Kudzu recognized the card!!!!  And you know what, I can play wave files thought it.  And you know what, I can hear the audio from xawtv thought it.  And you know what else, the DSP interface doesn't wwwooorrrrkkkkk!!!!!!!!!!!!   Aaaaarrrrgggghhhh.  What am I, a geek version of Rodney Dangerfield!!

 

5.	I then got down on my knees, called Uncle, pulled out my AMEX card, and ordered Jason's top of the line recommendation, an M-Audio Revolution 7.1 from Nutrend.  It should arrive early next week!  In the mean time, its back to the VIA 8233 which does work.  The whine doesn't both me now because my whine is louder!!!!

 

What is the moral of the story?  I don't know!!!  Buy a Macintosh?  Just joking at least I didn't say Window$

 

On a more serious note, while the alsa project has made substantial headway, its quality is not what I have come to expect from other Open Source projects.  At least three different people had reported my problem with the Audigy LS to the project, but there was no response.  I think this is extremely unfortunate, because the minimal fix is likely simple (add the PCI ID to the code), but the lack of documentation in the driver and the complexity of the driver architecture makes it difficult for passing do gooders like me to help.

 

On a positive note, I have found the installation documentation for MythTV to be great.  I have been amazed at the speed in which changes are integrated both into the code and better yet, the documentation.  User documentation can improve.  For example, while I installed pre-built binaries (I know boo hiss, you damn lazy geek, I am) I couldn't find out what keys did what until I found the keys.txt file outside of the gorgeous HTML documentation!  But all in all, thanks to all of you who have taken the time to make this happen.

 

If you got this far and are entertained, then please do one of the following:

 

1.	Post your story of Linux/MythTV pain!
2.	Offer an opinion about the best OS is for MythTV.  As you can tell from above, I am currently using RedHat and am facing the dilemma of where to go.  Is Fedora the right answer or should I consider ...

 

Have a great day!!!

 

William

 

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