[mythtv-users] Audio trouble with MythMusic

Michael T. Dean mtdean at thirdcontact.com
Sat Aug 20 15:46:41 UTC 2005


Steve Hodge wrote:

>Dave <dbadia at gmail.com> wrote:
>  
>
>>I looked over the DigitalSoundHowTo which
>>walked through setting up a  .asoundrc.
>>However, I ended up finding (what seems to be) an easier way:  I just
>>set Output Device to ALSA:plug:iec958 in the Music settings and dig
>>out is working now.
>>    
>>
>You might want to set up the rate conversion anyhow. I found that my
>soundcard only outputs to SPDIF if the sample is in certain formats
>(16bit 44.1KHz, 48KHz). I believe this is pretty common. It means that
>without the rate conversion any music or video file you play which has
>audio at a different rate or sample size will not play sound (at least
>not through SPDIF).
>  
>
Actually, Dave's format above is doing the conversion.  By slaving the 
iec958 device to the plug plugin (which does sample, rate, and format 
conversion), he has basically specified--manually--the "digital" (not 
the "mixed-digital") device defined in the .asoundrc.

However, if he were using the .asoundrc, he could use an 
easy-to-remember name for the device instead of having to remember/look 
up ALSA's format every time he needs to specify an ALSA device.  Also, 
by using the .asoundrc, he could specify a default output device, so 
that even non-ALSA-aware applications use the desired device.  And, 
finally, IMHO, it's easier for people to understand when to use which 
named device (because they are given understandable (perhaps even 
meaningful) names) than to understand why/when/how to specify 
conversions to every program.

So, I agree with you, Steve...  The .asoundrc is probably a better 
long-term solution.  (Or, if you don't want to specify the info in each 
user's home directory, put the contents of the .asoundrc in the file 
/etc/asound.conf instead.)

Mike


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