[mythtv-users] SPDIF on Turtle Beach Riviera/CMI8738-MC6

[Darren Richards]

On Apr 5, 2005 8:15 PM, Arron King <kinga8 at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hello,
> 
> I have been working on my setup for a while now, and the only thing
> that has been troublesome has been the sound.  Many thanks to this
> list and to Jarod for his guide!
> 
> I picked up a TB Riviera card, and can't seem to get the Myth to put
> sound out the SPDIF.  I can play sounds/music through the SPDIF  at
> the shell (either via aplay or mplayer).
> 
> I have been using the Digital Sound HowTo at -
> http://www.mythtv.info/moin.cgi/DigitalSoundHowTo.  This document has
> been tremedously helpful.    I am acutally using the .asoundrc file
> listed on that site.   I believe even though I have different
> hardware, that  the SPDIF for the Riviera is on device 2 of card 0
> (hw:0,2)
> 
> Here is the output of my aplay -l
> 
> aplay -l
> **** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
> card 0: CMI8738MC6 [C-Media PCI CMI8738-MC6], device 0: CMI8738-MC6
> [C-Media PCI DAC/ADC]
>  Subdevices: 1/1
>  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
> card 0: CMI8738MC6 [C-Media PCI CMI8738-MC6], device 1: CMI8738-MC6
> [C-Media PCI 2nd DAC]
>  Subdevices: 1/1
>  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
> card 0: CMI8738MC6 [C-Media PCI CMI8738-MC6], device 2: CMI8738-MC6
> [C-Media PCI IEC958]
>  Subdevices: 1/1
>  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
> 
> What I am hoping is that someone would either
> 
> A) share a .asoundrc file that allows them to use the SPDIF on a
> Turtle Beach Riviera (or similar chipset:  C-Media CMI8738-MC6) card.
> 
> or
> 
> B) help me understand how to figure out which audio device is the
> SPDIF so I can modify the asoundrc I have.
> 
> I've been lurking for a few days, searching the archives and google
> trying to find out what I am missing.  I've learned a lot - and hope
> someone can save me more head trauma  !!
> 
> Thanks!
> 
> Arron

I've got the Riviera working.  I had to tweak some settings in
alsamixer to get the optical output to work.  I can't remember which
ones, but I just fired up live TV, and toggled each input on and off
separately until I heard something...   I set my audio output device
to alsa:digital.   Here's my .asoundrc file:

# Override the default output used by ALSA.
# If you do not override the default, your default
# device is identical to the (unmixed) analog device
# shown below.  If you prefer mixed and/or digital
# output, uncomment the appropriate four lines below
# (only one slave.pcm line).
### Currently set w/digital-hw as the default output,
### comment out this entire section to use unmixed
### analog as your default
### -jarod
pcm.!default {
  type plug
## Uncomment the following to use mixed analog by default
#  slave.pcm "dmix-analog"
## Uncomment the following to use unmixed digital by default
  slave.pcm "digital-hw"
## Uncomment the following to use mixed digital by default
#  slave.pcm "dmix-digital"
}

# Alias for analog output on the Audigy (hw:0,0)
# - This is identical to the device named "default"--which
# always exists and refers to hw:0,0 (unless overridden)
# - Therefore, we can specify "hw:0,0", "default", or "analog"
# to access analog output on the Audigy
pcm.analog {
 type plug
 slave.pcm "analog-hw"
}

# Control device (mixer, etc.) for the Audigy card
ctl.analog {
 type hw
 card 0
}

# Alias for (rate-converted) mixed analog output on the
# Audigy (hw:0,0)
#  - This will accept audio input--regardless of rate--and
# convert to the rate required for the dmix plugin
# (in this case 48000Hz)
pcm.mixed-analog {
 type plug
 slave.pcm "dmix-analog"
}

# Control device (mixer, etc.) for the Audigy card
ctl.mixed-analog {
 type hw
 card 0
}

# Alias for (rate-converted) digital (S/PDIF) output on the
# Audigy (hw:0,0)
#  - This will accept audio input--regardless of rate--and
# convert to the rate required for the S/PDIF hardware
# (in this case 48000Hz)
pcm.digital {
 type plug
 slave.pcm "digital-hw"
}

# Control device (mixer, etc.) for the Audigy card
ctl.digital {
 type hw
 card 0
}

# Alias for mixed (rate-converted) digital (S/PDIF) output on the
# Audigy (hw:0,0)
#  - This will accept audio input--regardless of rate--and
# convert to the rate required for the S/PDIF hardware
# (in this case 48000Hz)
pcm.mixed-digital {
 type plug
 slave.pcm "dmix-digital"
}

# Control device (mixer, etc.) for the Audigy card
ctl.mixed-digital {
 type hw
 card 0
}

# The following devices are not useful by themselves.  They
# require specific rates, channels, and formats.  Therefore,
# you probably do not want to use them directly.  Instead use
# of of the devices defined above.

# Alias for analog output on the Audigy (hw:0,0)
# Do not use this directly--it requires specific rate,
# channels, and format
pcm.analog-hw {
 type hw
 card 0
 # The default value for device is 0, so no need to specify
}

# Control device (mixer, etc.) for the Audigy card
ctl.analog-hw {
 type hw
 card 0
}

# Alias for digital (S/PDIF) output on the Audigy (hw:0,0)
# Do not use this directly--it requires specific rate,
# channels, and format
pcm.digital-hw {
 type hw
 card 0
# device 0
 device 2
}

# Control device (mixer, etc.) for the Audigy card
ctl.digital-hw {
 type hw
 card 0
}

# Direct software mixing plugin for analog output on
# the Audigy (hw:0,0)
# Do not use this directly--it requires specific rate,
# channels, and format
pcm.dmix-analog {
 type dmix
 ipc_key 1234
 slave {
   pcm "analog-hw"
   period_time 0
   period_size 1024
   buffer_size 4096
   rate 48000
 }
}

# Control device (mixer, etc.) for the Audigy card
ctl.dmix-analog {
 type hw
 card 0
}

# Direct software mixing plugin for digital (S/PDIF) output
# on the Audigy (hw:0,0)
# Do not use this directly--it requires specific rate,
# channels, and format
pcm.dmix-digital {
 type dmix
 ipc_key 1235
 slave {
   pcm "digital-hw"
   period_time 0
   period_size 1024
   buffer_size 4096
   rate 48000
 }
}

# Control device (mixer, etc.) for the Audigy card
ctl.dmix-digital {
 type hw
 card 0
}