[MPlayer-users] Mplayer and Alsa 0.9 pre 5/6 and locking of devices

[AG]

AG> I'm also using ALSA 0.9 and Mplayer 0.90 rc2. Not experiencing these
AG> problems tho.

AG> You've got to make sure that you've done the following:

AG> 1) Properly compliled ALSA and Mplayer to take advantage of your 
AG> hardware (ie souncard, video card)
AG> 2) FWIW /dev/audio is simply one of many devices that are used for
AG> sound apps..  You also have /dev/dsp, /dev/mixer , etc..

AG> Last word.. I believe you may also be having an aRts or esd problem.
AG> If you're using KDE or Gnome Desktops, make sure it's sound server
AG> is releasing the sound devices I mentioned above. I've found that I
AG> must kill artsd or run 'artdsp 'programname'.

AG> Hope this helps..

<-snip->

Has anyone else experienced some problems using
MPLayer with ALSA sound.

For example if I watch a video using Mplayer it
doesn't always give up a lock on the sound device it
uses (/dev/audio?) which means other sound apps can't
work.

Usually this means apps like xmms hang, although using
grip to play a CD does work.

The worst problem is the bloody flash plugin. If I hit
a flash webpage after using mplayer i'm locked out of
the browser. I usually have to drop root and reload
the alsa support using the init.d script. Then things
work again.

FYI - RH 7.2 on a Athlon 2k+, 7VAXP Mb with onboard
6ch sound.

Steve


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