[mythtv-users] Sound issue that I can't seem to figure out

[James Crow]

On Tue, 2008-10-28 at 19:52 -0400, Harry Devine wrote:
> OK, now that my video issue is resolved (via another post/thread), I'm 
> moving onto my sound issue.  On my combined FE/BE Mythbuntu setup, if I 
> go into Utilities/Setup->Setup->General->Audio (3rd screen), I have the 
> following settings:
> 
> Audio output device: ALSA:default
> Passthrough output device:   Default
> Max audio channels:   Stereo
> Upmix:   Passive
> Enable AC3 to SPDIF passthrough (checked)
> Enable DTS to SPDIF passthrough (checked)
> Aggressive sound ca (unchecked - not sure what the full wording is; it's 
> off the right of the screen)
> Use internal volume (checked)
> Mixer Device:   /dev/mixer
> Mixer Controls:   PCM
> Master Mixer Volume:   100
> PCM Mixer Volume:   100
> Independent Muting of Left and Right Audio Channels (unchecked).
> 
> When I tune to LiveTV, I get no sound, and the following in my frontend log:
> 
> 2008-10-28 19:35:54.678 Opening audio device 'default'. ch 2(2) sr 48000
> 2008-10-28 19:35:54.678 Opening ALSA audio device 'default'.
> ALSA lib control.c:909:(snd_ctl_open_noupdate) Invalid CTL /dev/mixer
> 2008-10-28 19:35:54.699 AudioOutput Warning: Mixer attach error -2: No 
> such file or directory
>                         Check Mixer Name in Setup: '/dev/mixer'
> 
> I can play music from within Myth fine, as well as get sounds from a 
> terminal from outside of Myth.  I just can't get any audio for the TV.  
> I have a pcHD5500 card and have it set to use /dev/dsp as it's audio 
> device in the Capture Card setup for it.
> 
> Any ideas?
> Harry
> 
Harry,

  You have two parts to getting sound for TV. Sound on the recording and
sound on playback. To check if you are getting it on the recording you
can copy one of the Myth recorded files to another machine and play it
back with mplayer or such. On Mythbuntu the recorded files default
to /var/lib/mythtv/recordings.

  It seems you have sound output working from Myth so that would point
to a sound failure during the recording part of the process. Watching a
file from another machine should let you know if it has audio recorded.

  I don't have a pc-HD5500 so I am not sure of the specifics of it, but
I think it has both an analog and a digital part. On my Pinnacle 800i
(analog and digital card) I can configure either tuner or both. The
digital side gives me OTA ATSC (USA) from an antenna and the analog can
give me OTA NTSC. If you configure the digital side it will most likely
appear to Myth as a DVB card while the analog side will appear as a v4l
device.

  One last thing, on my Mythbuntu box the onboard audio card (what I use
for audio out) is /dev/dsp. I have a total of three analog tuners and
they are /dev/dsp1, /dev/dsp2, and /dev/dsp3. You may want to try
setting the audio device for your card to /dev/dsp1.

Cheers,
James