[mythtv-users] FC3, MythTV 0.16, no sound; FC3, MythDVD 016, sound. ? ALSA/OSS?

[W C Travis]

I admit that I am confused about what to do with FC3, ALSA, OSS, and 
Myth{TV,DVD,*}.

MythDVD plays DVDs fine, and the sound is what one would expect.

MythTV, however, cannot set the bit rates for the device no matter how 
many FAQs and mixers I try, disable, enable, etc. It invariably puts up 
the alert about continuing without audio, or returning to the menus. 
"mythfrontend -v video" logs

...
Opening OSS device /dev/snd/pcmC0D0p
Unable to set audio device (/dev/snd/pcmC0D0p) to 48000 kHz [sic] / 16 
bits / 2 channels
...

I'm weak on Linux sound and not sure what details I should provide to 
anyone willing to assist me here. I'll lay out what I can tell so far:

+ Linux Fedora Core 3 on a P4 2.4GHz (Northwood?) with hyperthreading.
+ The system is an Abit VI7 (vee eye seven) with the VIA8233 (via82xx) 
sound on-board.
+ Latest and greatest Abit BIOS update is in place.
+ New PVR-250, not sure if it is a Rev 1 or not.
+ Radeon9600 DVI out card (using the analog RGB for now).
+ Using KDE, not GNOME.
+ Video looks fine. Just no sound, as described.
+ MythTV 0.16 and MythDVD 0.16 all wonderfully found and binary 
installed thanks to Axel and the mythtv-suite .
+ Running mythbackend as a daemon, mythfrontend from the shell, and no 
other applications myself (KDE, however, may well have some exclusive 
lock on my audio; how can I be certain?)
+ 'aplay' works as expected on local wave files.
+ The system boots with no /dev/dsp but it never has listed one. I can 
"make" one with an explicit, manual modprobe.
+ If it matters, there may be a device ID (major node) conflict with 
the i2c_sensors (lm_sensors) module and ivtv's I2C?
+ Not loading lirc yet because of that possible conflict.
+ I'm not trying to use SPDIF (yet). Right now it's just to my desktop 
speakers for testing.
+ I'm confused by the significance of lit-red and lit-green "LEDs" in 
Kmix, and so have tried nearly every combination excluding those I 
accidentally missed (yes, I do mean powers of two combinations here).
+ Kmix shows four VIA DXS channels and I believe I have them all at 
highest gain. PCM is on and full volume; "aplay" sounds in this 
configuration are loud enough to be distorted. And again, MythDVD 
movies have flawless sound.
+ I am not sure how to force FC3 to use only OSS or only ALSA. I 
believe ALSA is in effect.
+ I have configured (mythtvsetup, mythfrontend) Myth to use 
/dev/snd/pcmC0D0p . Using pcmC0D1p gets me the exact ssame symptoms.
+ For lack of /dev/dsp I tried specifying /dev/snd/controlC0 to no 
benefit.

I've spent a few nights after work reading FAQs and forums; I'm sorry 
if I have just described some common cockpit error. If I can do any 
beta testing in repayment for the advice that turns my sound on, I'll 
try to make time to repay the debt in this way.

Thanks for reading this and thanks in advance if you know the answer 
and can share it!