[mythtv-users] Mplayer No Digitial Audio with MP3 or PCM SOLVED

[Kirk Bocek]

On 4/25/2010 10:13 PM, Kirk Bocek wrote:
>
>
> Nick Rout wrote:
>> On Mon, Apr 26, 2010 at 4:27 PM, Kirk Bocek <t004 at kbocek.com> wrote:
>>> I finally got digital audio working with my GT-220 thanks to Axel and
>>> his
>>> newly working alsa 1.0.23 modules for CentOS 5. Thanks Axel.
>>>
>>> MythTV playback sounds great with a simple .asoundrc file:
>>>
>>> pcm.!default {
>>> type hw
>>> card 1
>>> device 3
>>> }
>>>
>>> And mplayer works great with a couple of lines in the ~/.mplayer/config
>>> file:
>>>
>>> ao=alsa:device=hw=1.3
>>> ac=hwac3,hwdts,
>>
>> Are you sure you have the final comma? The final comma means "if the
>> hwac3 and hwdts don't work, fall back through the other options until
>> something works" - if you missed the comma off, or perhaps if you left
>> a space before it, it'll stop trying after hwdts
>>
>> Also some digital setups do not like anything other than 48k sampling
>> rate. However while most purely audio files are 44.1k, video files
>> with mp3 tend to be at 48k, so this is perhaps a red herring.
>>
>> Have you looked at your mplayer output? Easiest way might be to ssh in
>> as the user that runs mythtv with your laptop, set
>>
>> export DISPLAY=:0
>>
>> Then run your mplayer commands and watch the output.
>>
>> Finally I note mp3s work through mythmusic, have you tried the
>> Internal player on your files? Again you can try that by running from
>> ssh and running:
>>
>> mythtv filename.avi (<=0.21 )
>> mythavtest filename.avi (>=0.22)
>>

Guess I just gotta RTFM. :) Installing the ALSA config file from here:

http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/Configuring_Digital_Sound

solved my issue. After setting my ~/.mplayer/config as:

ao=alsa:device=mixed-digital

My MP3/PCM video files are now playing over the HDMI interface and I 
still have AC3 and DTS pass-through. Joy.

I also installed the second half of the config file on that page that 
enabled simultaneous analog and digital output. That solved *another* 
issue I was having driving an amplifier for secondary room speakers that 
needed an analog source. Double joy.