[mythtv-users] Lost audio on Pundit SPDIF audio out.

[Gary Raposo]

At 02:02 am 25/10/2003, you wrote:
>On Friday, Oct 24, 2003, at 22:36 US/Pacific, Gary Raposo wrote:
>
>>I'm about ready to give up here so I thought I'd shoot my situation out 
>>over the list to see if anyone else has experienced this.  Had MythTV 
>>v.011 up and running and all was great!  Then all of a sudden... no 
>>sound!  The system was "in production" so it's not like I was tinkering 
>>with it at the time so this was a little bit of a shock.
>
>Ah, but you were indeed tinkering. You just installed a new version of ALSA.

You got me!  But in my defence, it was only after the problem surfaced.  So 
for all intents and purposes, the problem occured at ALSA 0.9.7.  I 
upgraded to 0.9.8 to see if that would help solve the problem.

>>I've got the SPDIF out from the front of the Pundit connected to my home 
>>theatre receiver.  The receiver has been detecting the PCM stereo stream 
>>up until now and has had no problems decoding it.  Now it's as if the 
>>receiver does not see the optical input (autodetect does not work and 
>>forcing the receiver to optical does not work either).
>>
>>I can see the red light coming from the SPDIF out port so I know that 
>>something is happening on the Pundit side.  I've tested the receiver 
>>input port and cable using a known good cable and my DVD player.  I went 
>>through all the permutations and isolated it down to the Pundit.
>>Now... I'm not sure if this is a hardware problem or a software problem.
>
>Software problem.

I was hoping someone would say that :)

>>I checked alsamixer and the settings were unchanged (unmuted master, 
>>master m, and PCM).  The interesting thing is that if I plug in some 
>>headphones or computer speakers I can hear the audio so it really seems 
>>like it's not a hardware problem.
>
>They're changed. But only very slightly. I had something similar happen 
>when I bumped up from 0.9.7 with my Audigy. Everything looked the same in 
>the settings, but the digital output was disabled. Look in alsamixer for a 
>digital output setting toward the far right. I betcha it is set to mute/off.

I looked and I believe that I've unmuted all the necessary options... still 
no joy!  Here's the output of amixer info and amixer scontents... so you 
see anything wrong?

[root at mythtv root]# amixer info
Card default 'SI7012'/'SiS SI7012 at 0x9400, irq 15'
   Mixer name    : 'Realtek ALC650 rev 2'
   Components    : 'AC97a'
   Controls      : 51
   Simple ctrls  : 34
[root at mythtv root]# amixer scontents
Simple mixer control 'Master',0
   Capabilities: pvolume pswitch pswitch-joined
   Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
   Limits: Playback 0 - 31
   Front Left: Playback 22 [71%] [on]
   Front Right: Playback 22 [71%] [on]
Simple mixer control 'Master Mono',0
   Capabilities: pvolume pvolume-joined pswitch pswitch-joined
   Playback channels: Mono
   Limits: Playback 0 - 31
   Mono: Playback 31 [100%] [on]
Simple mixer control '3D Control - Center',0
   Capabilities: volume volume-joined
   Playback channels: Mono
   Limits: 0 - 15
   Mono: 0 [0%]
Simple mixer control '3D Control - Depth',0
   Capabilities: volume volume-joined
   Playback channels: Mono
   Limits: 0 - 15
   Mono: 0 [0%]
Simple mixer control '3D Control - Switch',0
   Capabilities: pswitch pswitch-joined
   Playback channels: Mono
   Mono: Playback [off]
Simple mixer control 'PCM',0
   Capabilities: pvolume pswitch pswitch-joined
   Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
   Limits: Playback 0 - 31
   Front Left: Playback 31 [100%] [on]
   Front Right: Playback 31 [100%] [on]
Simple mixer control 'Surround',0
   Capabilities: pvolume pswitch
   Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
   Limits: Playback 0 - 31
   Front Left: Playback 0 [0%] [off]
   Front Right: Playback 0 [0%] [off]
Simple mixer control 'Surround Down Mix',0
   Capabilities: pswitch pswitch-joined
   Playback channels: Mono
   Mono: Playback [off]
Simple mixer control 'Center',0
   Capabilities: pvolume pvolume-joined pswitch pswitch-joined
   Playback channels: Mono
   Limits: Playback 0 - 31
   Mono: Playback 31 [100%] [off]
Simple mixer control 'Center/LFE Down Mix',0
   Capabilities: pswitch pswitch-joined
   Playback channels: Mono
   Mono: Playback [off]
Simple mixer control 'LFE',0
   Capabilities: pvolume pvolume-joined pswitch pswitch-joined
   Playback channels: Mono
   Limits: Playback 0 - 31
   Mono: Playback 0 [0%] [off]
Simple mixer control 'Line',0
   Capabilities: pvolume pswitch pswitch-joined cswitch cswitch-joined 
cswitch-exclusive
   Capture exclusive group: 0
   Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
   Capture channels: Front Left - Front Right
   Limits: Playback 0 - 31
   Front Left: Playback 0 [0%] [off] Capture [off]
   Front Right: Playback 0 [0%] [off] Capture [off]
Simple mixer control 'Line-In As Surround',0
   Capabilities: pswitch pswitch-joined
   Playback channels: Mono
   Mono: Playback [off]
Simple mixer control 'CD',0
   Capabilities: pvolume pswitch pswitch-joined cswitch cswitch-joined 
cswitch-exclusive
   Capture exclusive group: 0
   Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
   Capture channels: Front Left - Front Right
   Limits: Playback 0 - 31
   Front Left: Playback 0 [0%] [off] Capture [off]
   Front Right: Playback 0 [0%] [off] Capture [off]
Simple mixer control 'Mic',0
   Capabilities: pvolume pvolume-joined pswitch pswitch-joined cswitch 
cswitch-joined cswitch-exclusive
   Capture exclusive group: 0
   Playback channels: Mono
   Capture channels: Front Left - Front Right
   Limits: Playback 0 - 31
   Mono: Playback 0 [0%] [off]
   Front Left: Capture [on]
   Front Right: Capture [on]
Simple mixer control 'Mic As Center/LFE',0
   Capabilities: pswitch pswitch-joined
   Playback channels: Mono
   Mono: Playback [off]
Simple mixer control 'Mic Boost (+20dB)',0
   Capabilities: pswitch pswitch-joined
   Playback channels: Mono
   Mono: Playback [off]
Simple mixer control 'Mic Select',0
   Capabilities:
   Mono:
Simple mixer control 'Video',0
   Capabilities: pvolume pswitch pswitch-joined cswitch cswitch-joined 
cswitch-exclusive
   Capture exclusive group: 0
   Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
   Capture channels: Front Left - Front Right
   Limits: Playback 0 - 31
   Front Left: Playback 0 [0%] [off] Capture [off]
   Front Right: Playback 0 [0%] [off] Capture [off]
Simple mixer control 'Phone',0
   Capabilities: pvolume pvolume-joined pswitch pswitch-joined cswitch 
cswitch-joined cswitch-exclusive
   Capture exclusive group: 0
   Playback channels: Mono
   Capture channels: Front Left - Front Right
   Limits: Playback 0 - 31
   Mono: Playback 0 [0%] [off]
   Front Left: Capture [off]
   Front Right: Capture [off]
Simple mixer control 'IEC958',0
   Capabilities: pswitch pswitch-joined cswitch cswitch-joined
   Playback channels: Mono
   Capture channels: Mono
   Mono: Playback [on] Capture [off]
Simple mixer control 'IEC958 Input Monitor',0
   Capabilities: pswitch pswitch-joined
   Playback channels: Mono
   Mono: Playback [on]
Simple mixer control 'IEC958 Playback AC97-SPSA',0
   Capabilities: volume volume-joined
   Playback channels: Mono
   Limits: 0 - 3
   Mono: 3 [100%]
Simple mixer control 'PC Speaker',0
   Capabilities: pvolume pvolume-joined pswitch pswitch-joined
   Playback channels: Mono
   Limits: Playback 0 - 15
   Mono: Playback 0 [0%] [off]
Simple mixer control 'Aux',0
   Capabilities: pvolume pswitch pswitch-joined cswitch cswitch-joined 
cswitch-exclusive
   Capture exclusive group: 0
   Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
   Capture channels: Front Left - Front Right
   Limits: Playback 0 - 31
   Front Left: Playback 0 [0%] [off] Capture [off]
   Front Right: Playback 0 [0%] [off] Capture [off]
Simple mixer control 'Mono Output Select',0
   Capabilities:
   Mono:
Simple mixer control 'Capture',0
   Capabilities: cvolume cswitch cswitch-joined
   Capture channels: Front Left - Front Right
   Limits: Capture 0 - 15
   Front Left: Capture 0 [0%] [off]
   Front Right: Capture 0 [0%] [off]
Simple mixer control 'Mix',0
   Capabilities: cswitch cswitch-joined cswitch-exclusive
   Capture exclusive group: 0
   Capture channels: Front Left - Front Right
   Front Left: Capture [off]
   Front Right: Capture [off]
Simple mixer control 'Mix Mono',0
   Capabilities: cswitch cswitch-joined cswitch-exclusive
   Capture exclusive group: 0
   Capture channels: Front Left - Front Right
   Front Left: Capture [off]
   Front Right: Capture [off]
Simple mixer control 'Analog to IEC958 Output',0
   Capabilities: pswitch pswitch-joined
   Playback channels: Mono
   Mono: Playback [on]
Simple mixer control 'Duplicate Front',0
   Capabilities: pswitch pswitch-joined
   Playback channels: Mono
   Mono: Playback [off]
Simple mixer control 'Exchange Center/LFE',0
   Capabilities: pswitch pswitch-joined
   Playback channels: Mono
   Mono: Playback [off]
Simple mixer control 'External Amplifier Power Down',0
   Capabilities: pswitch pswitch-joined
   Playback channels: Mono
   Mono: Playback [off]
Simple mixer control 'Swap Surround Slot',0
   Capabilities: pswitch pswitch-joined
   Playback channels: Mono
   Mono: Playback [off]

>>My question is... does ALSA have some control over directing audio out 
>>over the SPDIF interface or is the SPDIF just a slave managed bu the 
>>hardware that mirrors the audio to all available outbound ports on the box?
>
>ALSA controls whether the SPDIF interface is active or not.
>
>>Any help would be greatly appreciated.  I've looked through the list 
>>archived and googled around but I can't find anyone that's using the 
>>optical out on the Pundit that's having the same problem.  I'd like to 
>>stay with the optical audio since my next mini-project will be to install 
>>a DVD player so having the digital 5.1 sound would be nice.
>>Maybe I have a bad SPDIF out port on the Pundit?  Who knows?
>>Hopefully, it's just a software setting that I have to change.
>
>I have a feeling you just need to turn the digital output back on, and all 
>should be well. I believe this is a recent change in ALSA, because 
>previous ALSA updates didn't do quite the same for me (it often liked to 
>re-mute everything, rather than just disabled digital out).
>
>--Jarod
>
>--
>Jarod C. Wilson, RHCE
>
>Got a question? Read this first...
>     http://catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html
>MythTV, Red Hat Linux 9 & ATrpms documentation:
>     http://pvrhw.goldfish.org/tiki-page.php?pageName=rh9pvr250
>MythTV Searchable Mailing List Archive
>     http://www.gossamer-threads.com/archive/MythTV_C2/
>
>
>
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Thanks for the help, Jarod.  I hope you're right because I really miss my 
MythTV :(


Gary Raposo                                              gary at raposo.ca
Eschew obfuscation...                              http://www.raposo.ca