[MPlayer-users] Large delay before video begins playing

[Dominik 'Rathann' Mierzejewski]

On Thursday, 07 April 2005 at 10:54, Kevin Gilbert wrote:
> > > On Thu, 7 Apr 2005 13:16, RC wrote:
> > > > > [AO OSS] audio_setup: Can't open audio device /dev/dsp: Device or
> > > > > resource busy
> > > > > alsa-init: got device=0, subdevice=0
> > > > > alsa-init: 1 soundcard found, using: default
> > > >
> > > > Your problem appears to be related to your soundcard, and not to that
> > > > specific type of file.
> > > >
> > > > Are you specifying "-ao oss" or "-ao alsa"?  Do you have esd (esound) or
> > > > arts running?
> > > 
> > > Yes - I am running arts. So, after a little bit of experimentation and 
> > > Googling, I've put "ao=arts" in by .mplayer/config file all's fine.
> > > 
> > > Thx for your help - a _very_ annoying problem is now fixed. :)
> > 
> > That's great, but do you understand what the problem was now and
> > why there was a delay?
> > 
> > R.
> 
> To be quite honest, no, I do not know why there was a delay. I'm not
> exactly a n00b when it comes to Linux in general. Yes, I run
> "roll-your-own" kernels, I have a various hacks into a few parts of KDE.
> But it would be true to say that I'm not exactly an expert in the audio
> and video fields.

Neither am I, IMHO, but I'll try to explain how I understand this issue.

> If you can explain why there was a delay that would be great. Not only
> for my benefit, but for others that may follow in my footsteps. There is
> nothing more frustrating that to find a discussion like this via, say,
> Google, and then to find that that last _vital_ piece of information is
> missing.

When you have some sort of sound mixing server running, like esound or
arts, it keeps the sound device locked all the time and all sound must be
played through it. So when you tried ao=alsa, it couldn't open the sound
device right away, because it was locked by arts. In fact, I'm a bit
surprised alsa has succeeded in opening it eventually, but maybe arts is
able to release the device after some idle period, I don't know.

I hope that makes sense to you.

Regards,
R.

-- 
MPlayer RPMs maintainer: http://rpm.greysector.net/mplayer/
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