[mythtv-users] Maudio Dio 2496 S/PDIF

[Mike]

I also have the DIO 2496 and spent months trying to get AC3 to work.  Using 
mplayer and specifying the command line with: -ao alsa9 -ac hwac3 will get it 
to "try" to output ac3 but the sound cuts in and out.  I say try because my 
receiver does switch to DD 5.1 mode.  I finally had a close look at the 
Audiophile 2496 and DIO 2496 manuals and I noticed that the DIO 2496 does not 
actually say it is AC3 capable whereas the Audiophile 2496 does.  Therefore I 
concluded it was a hardware issue. 

As far as I can tell the ICE 1712 driver does not create a specific alsa 
driver (/dev/adsp) so I think it has to be used in the OSS emulation mode.  
BTW, don't bother trying the OSS commercial drivers as they are worse for 
pops/clicks and did the exact same thing when I tried AC3.  The popping is 
due to the card having a rather small buffer.  Checking the "extra audio 
buffering" option in Mythtv helps but it will inevitably start popping if you 
try to record and watch something at the same time.

I finally gave up and switched to a Soundblaster Audigy.  Now I use the DIO 
2496 in one of my frontends using the analog output.  Sorry I don't have a 
solution but hopefully I saved you some time.  

Mike

On Wednesday 03 March 2004 12:15 pm, Brian Huffman wrote:
> All,
>
>     Sorry to cross-post, but I have spent quite some time trying to figure
> this out (and a lot of googling too).  I'm trying to setup the Maudio DiO
> 2496 using the S/PDIF Optical outputs...mainly I'm trying to get mythtv to
> work, but I"ve been unsuccessful with ALSA on this card for anything
> ranging from mythtv to mplayer to xine.
>
>     If I just point to /dev/dsp it uses the OSS emulation and it works
> (even with the optical), but trying to specify the alsa drivers in mplayer
> or xine, I get anything ranging from no sound to errors on alsa_init.  I've
> tried to play with the alsamixer commandline but I'm very confused by the
> options here.  I've also used the envy24control with no good results.
>
>     In addition, MythTV doesn't seem to allow me to specify anything like
> "ALSA:hw:0,0" or "ALSA:default" or really anything other than what's in the
> pulldown box on the frontend setup...so even if I can get xine or mplayer
> working from the commandline, I'm not quite sure what to do here.  Can
> anyone help?
>
>     The reason that I'm trying to use ALSA instead of the OSS emulation is
> that #1 I'm assuming the quality may be better....I'm currently getting
> some pops / clicks in mythtv using the OSS.  And I am also trying to get
> the ac3 out to my receiver - which I'm not sure can be done with the OSS
> emulation.
>
> Thanks in advance!
> Brian

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