[mythtv] ALSA and redhat

[Cedar McKay]

Recent discussion about ALSA and Redhat have raised some questions for 
me. Right now I'm running a stock RH8 install with it's default sound 
management and drivers (I'm not sure, but I don't think RH8 uses ALSA 
by default). Myth, however, has been working fine for me (it rocks in 
fact). However on my slowish PIII 800 I can only run rtjpeg and only 
without sound compression. If I use sound compression or mpg4 (even at 
low resolution) I get very slight sound lag, and occasional dropped 
frames. Previously I chalked this up to a slow machine. But could it 
(particularly the sync issue) be  because I'm not using the recommended 
ALSA drivers? So:

1)Would I realize any benefit to installing ALSA, despite having a 
working (with rtjpeg and no sound compression) myth system?

2)If I did install ALSA would I have do anything to remove and/or 
disable the default sound system that ships with RH8? How(specifics 
please)?

3)If I did install ALSA, and things didn't work out do you think I 
could gracefully backtrack without undue struggle?


I can claim to be asking this in the interest of humanity because 
though I'm quite satisfied with my setup right now, I intend to 
contribute to the documentation effort that seems to be picking up 
steam. I want to make sure that the RH8 sections of the documentation 
don't lead anyone astray (or cause them extra work).


regards,
Cedar