[MPlayer-users] [error in the html docs] 2.2.2.1: software ac3 decoding

[gabor]

1.

it says:
"To use more than 2 output channels, you will need to use OSS.........
(ALSA CVS is also supposed to work)."

as you see this sentence simple isn't correct:
a. you don't need oss, alsa is also fine
b. you don't need alsa cvs, a normal alsa release is enough from the 0.9
series

2.

"Use the -channels option to select the number of output channels. "
well, it's correct, but it's not enough for alsa.
in case of oss, a "mplayer -ao oss -channels 4 my.avi" is enough,
but in case of alsa, you need:
"mplayer -ao alsa9:surround40 -channels 4 my.avi" or
"mplayer -ao alsa9:surround51 -channels 6 my.avi".
at least on my sb-live.

i think this is very important, because i personally had to search for
this info for DAYS.


btw.
in chapter 2.2.1.1: divx4/divx5

"The new generation of this codec is called DivX4 and can even decode
movies made with the infamous DivX codec! In addition it is much faster
than the native Win32 DivX DLLs but slower than libavcodec. Hence its
usage as a decoder is DISCOURAGED. However, it is useful for encoding"

so, it's slower than libavcodec so don't use it to decode files. that's
ok.
bot afaik it doesn't compress better or faster than libavcodec, so why
should anyone use it for encoding? => i don't think that this "it is
useful for encoding" is a good idea. what about "it can be used for
encoding, but libavcodec encodes faster/better"?


i'm thinking:

are these kinds of bugreports useful?
or the docs maintainers already know about these problems?

i'm asking because i was thinking about reading thru the docs and trying
to find the errors and report them, but if it doesn't help, then i won't
dao it. i know i should send patches, but as you know, it's easier to
read than to write :) ( ok, i'll try to create patches )

gabor

-- 
That's life for you, said McDunn.  Someone always waiting for someone 
who never comes home.  Always someone loving something more than that 
thing loves them.  And after awhile you want to destroy whatever 
that thing is, so it can't hurt you no more.
                -- R. Bradbury, "The Fog Horn"