[MPlayer-users] Re: Problems w/ AC3 pass-through on SB Live!

[Simo Salam]

Actually I too have a problem similar to this one. My soundcard is a SB
Live! 5.1 and I'm using alsa09 rc1. This is what my lspci output looks
like:

00:07.5 Multimedia audio controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. AC97 Audio
Controller (rev 50)
00:0c.0 Multimedia audio controller: Creative Labs SB Live! EMU10000
(rev 07)
00:0c.1 Input device controller: Creative Labs SB Live! (rev 07)

I'm also using kernel 2.4.18 and mplayer from cvs (currently maybe a
week old). My external receiver is a Sony.

The problem is strange and it goes like this. If I try to get ac3
passthrough either from dvd or a divx movie using a command similar to:

amixer sset "IEC958 Optical Raw" on
mplayer -ao alsa9:hw:0,3 -ac hwac3
 .
 .
 .
alsa-init: testing and bugreports are welcome.
alsa-init: requested format: 48000 Hz, 2 channels, AC3
alsa-init: soundcard set to hw:0,3
device: 3, subdevice: 0
hw:0
alsa-spdif-init: cant set spdif-trough automatically
Start playing...

it either starts playing sound in all 5+1 speakers for a while, but does
not 'light up' the blue light on the receiver which usually indicates
that the sony has detected an ac3 stream. But after a while, and usually
immediately after doing some seeking in the movie, the blue lights on
the receiver light up, and the receiver informs what kind of stream it
has detected, but at the same time mutes the sound on all the speakers.
So it's either no sound and proper lights or vice versa for me. xine, on
the other hand, works properly for me also regarding the ac3 passthrough
but otherwise sucks badly compared to mplayer so i'm using mplayer (btw.
thanks to all the developers of mplayer, its an awesome player).

I've connected my card to the receiver with a coaxial cable and I've
compiled mplayer with gcc-3.1. Can't think of anything else that might
have an influence on this. 

Anyhow, hope this information is of some use

--s

> 
> i will take a look at it. but i will be in holidays (without notebook;)
> for a few weeks, so don't expect fast solutions. maybe i get it to
> place some docs somewhere about how far i get till now with my
> rewriting ideas, so somebody could fix this.
> i thought that it would be really easy but currently i have no idea
> where the fscking bug could be that it doesn't work for you. basically the
> mechanism is the same as in ac3dec or lovely xine without setting the
> spdif-playback-switch automagically. most confusing is that the
> current routine seems to work for others also with a *'SBlive'*, 
> so if we start to make a new init it may work for you but the 
> other half will start to cry 'my digital out don't work'. 
> but we will see...
> 
> 
> -- 
> regards
> 
> ____-
> joy
> 
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