[Mplayer-cvslog] CVS: main/DOCS sound.html,1.65,1.66
Diego Biurrun CVS
diego at mplayerhq.hu
Sat Jan 25 02:22:45 CET 2003
Update of /cvsroot/mplayer/main/DOCS
In directory mail:/var/tmp.root/cvs-serv10847
Modified Files:
sound.html
Log Message:
Some updates and rewordings as well as a much better table design by
Nilmoni Deb, Daniel Carter and Philip Jägenstedt.
Index: sound.html
===================================================================
RCS file: /cvsroot/mplayer/main/DOCS/sound.html,v
retrieving revision 1.65
retrieving revision 1.66
diff -u -r1.65 -r1.66
--- sound.html 20 Jan 2003 10:46:32 -0000 1.65
+++ sound.html 25 Jan 2003 01:22:26 -0000 1.66
@@ -22,7 +22,7 @@
<DD>OSS (ioctl) driver (supports hardware AC3 passthrough)</DD>
<DT>sdl</DT>
- <DD>SDL driver (supports <B>ESD</B>, <B>ARTS</B> etc)</DD>
+ <DD>SDL driver (supports sound daemons like <B>ESD</B> and <B>ARTS</B>)</DD>
<DT>nas</DT>
<DD>NAS (Network Audio System) driver</DD>
@@ -43,18 +43,21 @@
<DD>native ESD driver (mostly for GNOME users)</DD>
</DL>
-<P>Fact is, Linux sound card drivers have compatibility problems. The cause
- is that MPlayer uses a feature that well coded audio drivers implement to
- maintain audio/video sync. Regrettably, some driver authors do not care about
- this function, it is not needed for playing MP3s or for sound effects.</P>
-
-<P>Other media players like aviplay or xine possibly work out-of-the-box with
- these drivers because they use "simple" methods with internal timing. A note:
- time showed their methods aren't AS efficient as MPlayer's.</P>
-
-<P>With a correctly written audio driver MPlayer will never create audio related
- A/V desynchronisation, unless your file is badly broken. Some options to work
- around these problems are described in the man page).</P>
+<P>Linux sound card drivers have compatibility problems. This is because MPlayer
+ relies on an in-built feature of <EM>properly</EM> coded sound drivers that
+ enable them to maintain correct audio/video sync. Regrettably, some driver
+ authors don't take the care to code this feature since it is not needed for
+ playing MP3s or sound effects. </P>
+
+<P>Other media players like <A HREF="http://avifile.sourceforge.net">aviplay</A>
+ or <A HREF="http://xine.sourceforge.net">xine</A> possibly work
+ out-of-the-box with these drivers because they use "simple" methods with
+ internal timing. Measuring showed that their methods are not as efficient
+ as MPlayer's. </P>
+
+<P>Using MPlayer with a properly written audio driver will never result
+ in A/V desyncs related to the audio, except only with very badly created
+ files (check the man page for workarounds).</P>
<P>If you happen to have a bad audio driver, try the <CODE>-autosync</CODE>
option, it should sort out your problems. See the man page for detailed
@@ -67,94 +70,160 @@
default). If you experience glitches, halts or anything out of the
ordinary, try <CODE>-ao sdl</CODE> (NOTE: You need to have SDL libraries
and header files installed). The SDL audio driver helps in a lot of cases
- and also supports ESD and ARTS. (ESD is the sound daemon
- from GNOME, ARTS is from KDE.)</LI>
+ and also supports ESD (GNOME) and ARTS (KDE).</LI>
<LI>If you have ALSA version 0.5, then you almost always have to use
<CODE>-ao alsa5</CODE> , since ALSA 0.5 has buggy OSS emulation code, and
will <B>crash MPlayer</B> with a message like this:<BR>
<CODE>DEMUXER: Too many (945 in 8390980 bytes) video packets in the buffer!</CODE></LI>
-</UL>
-
-<P>On <B>Solaris</B>, use the SUN audio driver with the
- <CODE>-ao sun</CODE> option, otherwise neither video nor audio will work.</P>
+ <LI>On Solaris, use the SUN audio driver with the <CODE>-ao sun</CODE> option,
+ otherwise neither video nor audio will work.</LI>
+ <LI>If the sound clicks when playing from CD-ROM, turn on IRQ unmasking, e.g.
+ <CODE>hdparm -u1 /dev/cdrom</CODE> (<CODE>man hdparm</CODE>). This is
+ generally beneficial and described in more detail in the
+ <A HREF="cd-dvd.html#drives">CD-ROM section</A>.</LI>
+ </UL>
<H4><A NAME="experiences">2.3.2.2 Sound Card experiences, recommendations</A></H4>
-<TABLE BORDER="0" WIDTH="100%">
- <TR><TD COLSPAN=3><B>VIA onboard chipset (via82cxxx) 48kHz only</B></TD></TR>
- <TR><TD></TD><TD>Driver:</TD><TD> from the
- <A HREF="http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=3242&release_id=59602">gkernel project</A></TD></TR>
-
- <TR><TD COLSPAN=3><B>Aureal Vortex 2</B></TD></TR>
- <TR><TD> </TD><TD>OSS:</TD><TD>no driver</TD></TR>
- <TR><TD></TD><TD>OSS/Pro:</TD><TD>OK</TD></TR>
- <TR><TD></TD><TD>ALSA:</TD><TD>no driver</TD></TR>
- <TR><TD></TD><TD>Max kHz:</TD><TD>48</TD></TR>
- <TR><TD></TD><TD>Driver:</TD><TD><A HREF="http://aureal.sourceforge.net">aureal.sourceforge.net</A></TD></TR>
- <TR><TD></TD><TD>Driver2:</TD><TD> from <A HREF="http://makacs.poliod.hu/~pontscho/aureal/au88xx-1.1.3.tar.bz2">Pontscho's page</A>
- (<I>buffer size increased to 32k</I>)</TD></TR>
-
- <TR><TD COLSPAN=3><B>GUS PnP</B></TD></TR>
- <TR><TD></TD><TD>OSS:</TD><TD>no driver</TD></TR>
- <TR><TD></TD><TD>OSS/Pro:</TD><TD>OK</TD></TR>
- <TR><TD></TD><TD>ALSA:</TD><TD>OK</TD></TR>
- <TR><TD></TD><TD>Max kHz:</TD><TD>48</TD></TR>
-
- <TR><TD COLSPAN=3><B>SB Live!</B></TD></TR>
- <TR><TD></TD><TD>OSS:</TD><TD>Analog OK, SP/DIF not working</TD></TR>
- <TR><TD></TD><TD>ALSA:</TD><TD>Both OK</TD></TR>
- <TR><TD></TD><TD>Max kHz:</TD><TD>192</TD></TR>
-
- <TR><TD COLSPAN=3><B>SB AWE 64</B></TD></TR>
- <TR><TD></TD><TD>OSS:</TD><TD>max 44kHz</TD></TR>
- <TR><TD></TD><TD>ALSA:</TD><TD>48kHz sounds bad</TD></TR>
- <TR><TD></TD><TD>Max kHz:</TD><TD>48</TD></TR>
-
- <TR><TD COLSPAN=3><B>Gravis UltraSound ACE</B></TD></TR>
- <TR><TD></TD><TD>OSS:</TD><TD>not OK</TD></TR>
- <TR><TD></TD><TD>ALSA:</TD><TD>OK</TD></TR>
- <TR><TD></TD><TD>Max kHz:</TD><TD>44</TD></TR>
-
- <TR><TD COLSPAN=3><B>Gravis UltraSound MAX</B></TD></TR>
- <TR><TD></TD><TD>OSS:</TD><TD>OK</TD></TR>
- <TR><TD></TD><TD>ALSA:</TD><TD>OK (?)</TD></TR>
- <TR><TD></TD><TD>Max kHz:</TD><TD>48</TD></TR>
-
- <TR><TD COLSPAN=3><B>ESS 688</B></TD></TR>
- <TR><TD></TD><TD>OSS:</TD><TD>OK</TD></TR>
- <TR><TD></TD><TD>ALSA:</TD><TD>OK (?)</TD></TR>
- <TR><TD></TD><TD>Max kHz:</TD><TD>48</TD></TR>
-
- <TR><TD COLSPAN=3><B>C-Media cards (which ones?)</B></TD></TR>
- <TR><TD></TD><TD>OSS:</TD><TD>not OK (hissing) (?)</TD></TR>
- <TR><TD></TD><TD>ALSA:</TD><TD>OK (?)</TD></TR>
- <TR><TD></TD><TD>Max kHz:</TD><TD>?</TD></TR>
-
- <TR><TD COLSPAN=3><B>Yamaha cards (*ymf*)</B></TD></TR>
- <TR><TD></TD><TD>OSS:</TD><TD>not OK (?) (maybe <CODE>-ao sdl</CODE>)</TD></TR>
- <TR><TD></TD><TD>ALSA:</TD><TD>OK only with ALSA 0.5 with OSS emulation <B>AND</B> <CODE>-ao sdl</CODE> (!) (?)</TD></TR>
- <TR><TD></TD><TD>Max kHz:</TD><TD>?</TD></TR>
-
- <TR><TD COLSPAN=3><B>Cards with envy24 chips (like Terratec EWS88MT)</B></TD></TR>
- <TR><TD></TD><TD>OSS:</TD><TD>?</TD></TR>
- <TR><TD></TD><TD>OSS/Pro:</TD><TD>OK</TD></TR>
- <TR><TD></TD><TD>ALSA:</TD><TD>?</TD></TR>
- <TR><TD></TD><TD>Max kHz:</TD><TD>?</TD></TR>
-
- <TR><TD COLSPAN=3><B>PC Speaker or DAC</B></TD></TR>
- <TR><TD></TD><TD>OSS:</TD><TD>OK (Use the SDL driver: <CODE>-ao sdl</CODE>)</TD></TR>
- <TR><TD></TD><TD>ALSA:</TD><TD>no driver</TD></TR>
- <TR><TD></TD><TD>Max kHz:</TD><TD>The driver emulates 44.1, maybe more.</TD></TR>
- <TR><TD></TD><TD>Driver:</TD><TD><A HREF="ftp://ftp.infradead.org/pub/pcsp">ftp://ftp.infradead.org/pub/pcsp</A></TD></TR>
-</TABLE>
-
<P>On Linux, a 2.4.x kernel is highly recommended. Kernel 2.2 is not tested.</P>
-<P>If the sound clicks when playing from CD-ROM, turn on IRQ unmasking, e.g.
- <CODE>hdparm -u1 /dev/cdrom</CODE> (<CODE>man hdparm</CODE>). This is
- generally beneficial and described in more detail in the
- <A HREF="cd-dvd.html#drives">CD-ROM section</A>.</P>
+<P>Linux sound drivers are primarily provided by the free version of OSS. These
+ drivers have been superceded by <A HREF="http://www.alsa-project.org">ALSA</A>
+ (Advanced Linux Sound Architecture) in the 2.5 development series. If your
+ distribution does not already use ALSA you may wish to try their drivers if
+ you experience sound problems. ALSA drivers are generally superior to OSS in
+ compatibility, performance and features. But some sound cards are only
+ supported by the commercial OSS drivers from
+ <A HREF="http://www.opensound.com/">4Front Technologies</A>. They also support
+ several non-Linux systems.</P>
+
+<TABLE BORDER="1" WIDTH="100%">
+
+ <TR>
+ <TD ROWSPAN="2"><B>SOUND CARD</B></TD>
+ <TD COLSPAN="4"><B>DRIVER</B></TD>
+ <TD ROWSPAN="2"><B>Max kHz</B></TD>
+ </TR>
+
+ <TR>
+ <TD><B>OSS/Free</B></TD>
+ <TD><B>ALSA</B></TD>
+ <TD><B>OSS/Pro</B></TD>
+ <TD><B>other</B></TD>
+ </TR>
+
+ <TR>
+ <TD><B>VIA onboard (686/A/B, 8233, 8235)</B></TD>
+ <TD><A HREF="http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=3242&release_id=59602">via82cxxx_audio</A></TD>
+ <TD>snd-via82xx</TD>
+ <TD> </TD>
+ <TD> </TD>
+ <TD>4-48 kHz or 48 kHz only, depending on the chipset</TD>
+ </TR>
+
+ <TR>
+ <TD><B>Aureal Vortex 2</B></TD>
+ <TD>none</TD>
+ <TD>none</TD>
+ <TD>OK</TD>
+ <TD><A HREF="http://aureal.sourceforge.net">Linux Aureal Drivers</A><BR>
+ <A HREF="http://makacs.poliod.hu/~pontscho/aureal/au88xx-1.1.3.tar.bz2">buffer size increased to 32k</A></TD>
+ <TD>48</TD>
+ </TR>
+
+ <TR>
+ <TD><B>GUS PnP</B></TD>
+ <TD>none</TD>
+ <TD>OK</TD>
+ <TD>OK</TD>
+ <TD> </TD>
+ <TD>48</TD>
+ </TR>
+
+ <TR>
+ <TD><B>SB Live!</B></TD>
+ <TD>Analog OK, SP/DIF not working</TD>
+ <TD>Both OK</TD>
+ <TD> </TD>
+ <TD> </TD>
+ <TD>192</TD>
+ </TR>
+
+ <TR>
+ <TD><B>SB AWE 64</B></TD>
+ <TD>max 44kHz</TD>
+ <TD>48kHz sounds bad</TD>
+ <TD> </TD>
+ <TD> </TD>
+ <TD>48</TD>
+ </TR>
+
+ <TR>
+ <TD><B>Gravis UltraSound ACE</B></TD>
+ <TD>not OK</TD>
+ <TD>OK</TD>
+ <TD> </TD>
+ <TD> </TD>
+ <TD>44</TD>
+ </TR>
+
+ <TR>
+ <TD><B>Gravis UltraSound MAX</B></TD>
+ <TD>OK</TD>
+ <TD>OK (?)</TD>
+ <TD> </TD>
+ <TD> </TD>
+ <TD>48</TD>
+ </TR>
+
+ <TR>
+ <TD><B>ESS 688</B></TD>
+ <TD>OK</TD>
+ <TD>OK (?)</TD>
+ <TD> </TD>
+ <TD> </TD>
+ <TD>48</TD>
+ </TR>
+
+ <TR>
+ <TD><B>C-Media cards (which ones?)</B></TD>
+ <TD>not OK (hissing) (?)</TD>
+ <TD>OK (?)</TD>
+ <TD> </TD>
+ <TD> </TD>
+ <TD>?</TD>
+ </TR>
+
+ <TR>
+ <TD><B>Yamaha cards (*ymf*)</B></TD>
+ <TD>not OK (?) (maybe <CODE>-ao sdl</CODE>)</TD>
+ <TD>OK only with ALSA 0.5 with OSS emulation <B>AND</B>
+ <CODE>-ao sdl</CODE> (!) (?)</TD>
+ <TD> </TD>
+ <TD> </TD>
+ <TD>?</TD>
+ </TR>
+
+ <TR>
+ <TD><B>Cards with envy24 chips (like Terratec EWS88MT)</B></TD>
+ <TD>?</TD>
+ <TD>?</TD>
+ <TD>OK</TD>
+ <TD> </TD>
+ <TD>?</TD>
+ </TR>
+
+ <TR>
+ <TD><B>PC Speaker or DAC</B></TD>
+ <TD>OK (Use the SDL driver: <CODE>-ao sdl</CODE>)</TD>
+ <TD>none</TD>
+ <TD> </TD>
+ <TD><A HREF="http://www.geocities.com/stssppnn/pcsp.html">Linux PC speaker OSS driver</a></TD>
+ <TD>The driver emulates 44.1, maybe more.</TD>
+ </TR>
+
+</TABLE>
<P>Feedback to this document is welcome. Please tell us how MPlayer
and your sound card(s) worked together.</P>
@@ -474,7 +543,7 @@
<DL>
<DT><CODE>g1:g2:g3...g10</CODE></DT>
- <DD>are floating point numbers between <CODE>-12<CODE> and <CODE>+12</CODE>
+ <DD>are floating point numbers between <CODE>-12</CODE> and <CODE>+12</CODE>
representing the gain in dB for each frequency band.</DD>
</DL>
@@ -591,8 +660,8 @@
<H4><A NAME="plugins">2.3.2.4 Audio plugins (deprecated)</A></H4>
-<P>MPlayer has support for audio plugins. Audio plugins can be used for
- changing the properties of the audio data before the sound reaches the sound
+<P>MPlayer has support for audio plugins. Audio plugins can be used to
+ change the properties of the audio data before it reaches the sound
card. They are enabled using the <CODE>-aop</CODE> switch which takes a
<CODE>list=plugin1,plugin2,...</CODE> argument. The <CODE>list</CODE> argument
is required and determines which plugins should be used and in which order they
@@ -614,7 +683,7 @@
<P>would set the output frequency of the resample plugin to 44100Hz and the
output format of the format plugin to AFMT_U8.</P>
-<P>Currently audio plugins can not be used in MEncoder.</P>
+<P>Currently audio plugins cannot be used in MEncoder.</P>
<H5><A NAME="resample">2.3.2.4.1 Up/Downsampling</A></H5>
@@ -622,11 +691,10 @@
<P>MPlayer fully supports up/downsampling of the sound. This plugin can
be used if you have a fixed frequency sound card or if you are
stuck with an old sound card that is only capable of max 44.1kHz.
- Whether is usage of this plugin is necessary or not, is <B>autodetected</B>.
- This plugin has one switch:
- <CODE>fout</CODE> which is used for setting the desired output sample
- frequency. It defaults to 48kHz, and is given in
- <Hz>.</P>
+ MPlayer <EM>autodetects</EM> whether or not usage of this plugin is necessary.
+ This plugin has one switch, <CODE>fout</CODE>, which is used for setting the
+ desired output sample frequency. The value is given in Hz, and defaults to
+ 48kHz.</P>
<P>Usage:<BR>
<CODE>mplayer media.avi -aop list=resample:fout=<required
@@ -634,7 +702,7 @@
<P>Note that the output frequency should not be scaled up from the default value.
Scaling up will cause the audio and video streams to be played in slow motion
- in addition to audio distortion.</P>
+ and cause audio distortion.</P>
<H5><A NAME="surround_decoding">2.3.2.4.2 Surround Sound decoding</A></H5>
@@ -669,6 +737,10 @@
new plugins. It can not be used for anything useful from a users perspective
and is mentioned here for the sake of completeness only. Do not use this
plugin unless you are a developer.</P>
+
+<P>If you have a file with a consistent A/V sync fault, use the <CODE>+/-</CODE>
+ keys to adjust timings on-the-fly instead. Usage of the OSD is recommended
+ to make this easier.</P>
<H5><A NAME="volume">2.3.2.4.5 Software volume control</A></H5>
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