[MPlayer-users] ALSA device mangling rules?

[Christian Jaeger]

Hi

What are the exact rules to apply to an ALS device string to get a string that

  mencoder -tv driver=v4l2:alsa:adevice=

or

  mplayer -ao alsa:device=

are accepting?

I've tried both s/:/./sg and tr/:,/=./ to no avail. An example with
the latter for mplayer, with ALSA device (works with aplay -L):
default:CARD=C1100

Failed to initialize audio driver 'alsa:device=default=CARD=C1100'

man mplayer says: "For ALSA devices use it in the form hw=<card>.<device>."

So why does that form contain "hw" as if I could only use hw accesses?
(Note: "default" works, thus it's really not tied to specifying hw!) I
don't intend to use those lowlevel blocking hw accesses, but the
'higher level' ALSA device descriptors. Another advantage of a device
string like 'default:CARD=C1100' is that it names the card in a way
that tends to tie it to a particular headset/whatever, which makes
more sense to store as a configuration for me. I don't claim to
entirely understand ALSA, feel free to point me to some specific
docs...

Thanks
Christian.