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<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; widows: 2; orphans: 2">
<font color="#000000"><font face="arial"><font size="3">Is it possible
with ALSA to get 5.1 surround sound with the Extigy with either
analog or AC3 hardware decoding? I have been unable to get 5.1
surround sound to work with the system I have set up for MythTV. I
can get stereo music, DVD, and TV in quality ranging from excellent
to barely recognizable, but only in 2 channels. I've tried all of
the versions of the ".asoundrc" file I can find and
rechecked my ALSAMIXER settings. I know that the Extigy hardware
works great in standalone mode. </font></font></font>
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; widows: 2; orphans: 2"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium; ">I've
been using the Extigy for a few years in standalone mode to decode
digital output from a DVD player (spdif coax) and DirecTV-TIVO series
II (via TOSLINK). I have it connected to my old analog amplifier
that has discrete 5.1 analog inputs, but no digital inputs. While in
standalone mode, the Extigy will decode AC3 streams from either input
and upmix stereo to 5.1 when needed. When the Extigy is connected to
the MythBuntu system, I can only get stereo. I get the same results
from MPLAYER, MythTV, and VLC.</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; widows: 2; orphans: 2"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium; ">I have a fresh
install of MythBuntu 11.04 that I'm trying to finish setting up.
I've had no problems configuring my 2 ASTC tuners, an OnAir Sasem USB
and a Hauppauge WinTV-HVR-1800 PCI-X that are working great. I've
had no problems configuring LIRC to work with a Creative SB0540 USB
IR receiver and Creative RM-900 remote control. I've got a NVIDIA
8500GT PCI-X16 to replace the motherboard video, which provides
S-Video-out for my SD-TV. I also have a VGA-CRT display connected for
administration on the system when using the keyboard and mouse. This
is all installed in an old eMachine t3418 (AMD Sempron 3400+ / 2.0
GHz) with 1.5 GHz RAM. It is a very eclectic assortment of hardware
I've collected cheaply from yard sale parts and stuff people have
thrown away.</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; widows: 2; orphans: 2"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium; ">I can get poor
quality surround sound from the Realtek (Intel A97 compatible)
motherboard sound. I discovered an odd aspect of the motherboard
sound that might help some people. My motherboard has only 3 jacks
for headphone, mic, and line-in, but these will produce 6 channel
sound output. The microphone and line-input jacks are used for
output rather than input when 5.1 surround sound is chosen.</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; widows: 2; orphans: 2"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium; ">Since I'm not
wanting to use both sound devices, I greatly simplified my
configuration of the Extigy by turning off the motherboard sound in
CMOS setup. The "/etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base.conf" file can
then be modified to comment out the "options snd-usb-audio
index=-2" line that forces USB sound devices into the second
slot. If the USB sound device is the only sound device in use,
loading the USB sound device as the default simplifies many
configurations issues, so that many applications will work by simply
selecting ALSA as the sound output option.</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; widows: 2; orphans: 2"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium; ">The EXAUDIO
driver for OSS supported compressed 5.1 for AC3. I've tried
compiling the EXAUDIO driver and replacing ALSA with OSS, but it is
going to require me to compile a new kernel, which I've never tried
before. If there is a way to get the Extigy to work with ALSA, I
would prefer this to trying to get the OSS driver working. If anyone
can let me know if it possible to get 5.1 surround sound from the
Extigy under ALSA, I would greatly appreciate the help. </span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; widows: 2; orphans: 2"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3">Thanks,</font></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; widows: 2; orphans: 2"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3">Greg</font></p></div>