[MPlayer-users] Solved debian wmv Video used to play but Doesn't now.

[Mike Hodson]

On Thu, Sep 13, 2018 at 7:24 AM Martin McCormick <martin.m at suddenlink.net>
wrote:

>         With no audio device specified in config, I had a flash
> of brilliance and tried a popular usb sound card that I normally
> use for recording audio as a playback device.
> mplayer -quiet kosovo.wmv -ao alsa:device=hw=1.0
>
>         It worked perfectly.

Sweet :)


> The mystery is solved.  That
> CS4237B is part of the mother board and gives fairly decent audio
> but it is a bear-bones sound card and there are lots of ways for
> it not to work.  If I don't put the module in /etc/modules and
> use udev rules, the usb device and the on-board sound system
> trade places as Card 1 and Card 0 about 50% of the time after
> each boot.
>
> Personally I'm a fan of pulseaudio and its high quality resampling
options, and the ability to record either the input of the card, or a
mirror of its output via pavucontrol.

 As it would appear you have a 48KHz-only fairly oldschool Cirrus/Crystal
card with no in-chip resampling like its newer and more featured sibling
the cs46xx series (Turtle Beach Santa Cruz was my favorite soundcard ever),
you might just want to add the resample option to your mplayer config
instead, if using pulse is a non-starter.  This would allow you to just
keep one cord plugged into the back of your computer for audio to speakers,
and use the USB device for recording, or on the go.  I for one hate extra
things attached to my computer; I bump things all the time, and have broken
both flash drives and knocked spinning USB disks off of my desk before..

Glad you've found a solution, and I hope you check into resampling either
in mplayer, or in the audio subsystem(s) underneath of it. As my 20 years
with Linux keeps proving, there are many paths leading to the same goal -
any goal. ;)

Mike