[MPlayer-users] What output driver for USB DAC?

[Erik Auerswald]

Hi John,

On 02/04/2018 01:21 PM, John Long wrote:
> On Sun, 2018-02-04 at 12:56 +0100, Erik Auerswald wrote:
>> On 02/04/2018 12:41 PM, John Long wrote:
>>> On Sun, 2018-02-04 at 11:59 +0100, Erik Auerswald wrote:
>>>> On 02/04/2018 09:32 AM, John Long wrote:
>>>>> Does anybody know how to get mplayer to send the correct signal
>>>>> to
>>>>> a
>>>>> USB DAC?
>>>>
>>>> I've never done this and don't have that kind of device, so I
>>>> cannot
>>>> give you a definitive answer.
>>>
>>> Thank you for the suggestions! I feel I am on the right track.
>>>
>> [...]
>> Please note that you may have PulseAudio interfering by hijacking
>> calls
>> to ALSA. I used to use the Hi-Fi DAC via ALSA back before PulseAudio
>> was
>> a thing...
> 
> Pulse audio is definitely running. I don't know how to send anything to
> it from mplayer (seems to be using alsa) or how it interacts with
> anything else. I am pretty lost...

I never looked into this, but using PulseAudio directly from MPlayer 
(-ao pulse instead of -ao alsa) seems to work better than outputting to 
ALSA since PulseAudio crept onto my system in 2012. Before, -ao alsa was 
the way to go for me. AFAIK PulseAudio "emulates" ALSA (partly and not 
very well) to automatically add PulseAudio greatness to every ALSA using 
application. Of course this does not include all unusual use cases.

Thanks,
Erik