[mythtv-users] 5.1 surround sound and two mixer controls

[Achim Hofmann]

Jean-Yves Avenard <jyavenard at gmail.com> wrote:
> On 5 December 2010 22:30, Achim Hofmann <news at achim-hofmann.com> wrote:
>>
>> Because MythTV setup woun't let you set these new output device and
>> mixer control, you'll have to set them directly in the database by hand:
> 
> course you can !
> 
> Just type the value instead of selecting one of the pre-populated device.

Oh, good to know that. Shame on me...

>> Now my remote makes use of the new SoftVol mixer control which is
>> responsible for all six channels.
> 
> BTW, you would have achieved the same result by selecting
> ALSA:surround51 for the output device
> and in the mixer you select "software"
> 
> Then it's just a matter of setting all the mixer to maximum level in
> the alsamixer application

You're right. Of course, this is another possibility to solve this
problem. But using the software mixer provided by mythtv I encountered a
significant loss of quality while by using the softvol plugin provided
by alsa the sound quality still is fine. The user manual also confirms
this: 'Setting the mixer device to "software" lets MythTV control the
volume of all audio at the expense of a slight quality loss.'