[mythtv-users] nForce4 Audio on FC4, it plays some of the time....

Jason Sharpe mythtv.list at gmail.com
Wed Nov 2 16:01:30 EST 2005


Hey All!

I have been playing with FC4 a couple of months now just learning and
playing. Something I wanted to tackle was getting spdif optical output on my
MOBO working so I can run Myth.

I have been partially successful, but I am sure I am missing something.
First off my stats:

-FC4 x86 (latest kernel installed with yum update on a fresh install)(Sorry
at work, not in front of the box)
-AMD64 4200+ (Dual Core)
-MSI K8N Platinum Mobo
-2 Gig of Ram
-Gigabyte GeForce 6800 Vid Card
-Plenty of HD Space!
-Running KDE

I hooked up an coax optical cable from my on-board sound to my receiver and
I followed the instructions at
:http://www.mythtv.info/moin.cgi/DigitalSoundHowTo

I had a hard time getting the nForce4 audio to work. After searching online
for a while I was able to find other people that selected OSS in the KDE
Sound Control Center. Then after locking the frequency to 48k I was about to
get the optical port on the mobo to light up.

On the HOW TO there is a link for a test .au file. I downloaded that file
and if I double click it it opens the default audio player. I can't remember
the name of it, but I believe it starts with "a" and is only 4 or 5 letters
long. (I couldn't find a default package list for FC4 online to try to
remember what the name is.) It plays just fine if I just play the audio file
that way.
#aplay -l shows this:

# aplay -l
**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: CK804 [NVidia CK804], device 0: Intel ICH [NVidia CK804]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: CK804 [NVidia CK804], device 2: Intel ICH - IEC958 [NVidia CK804 -
IEC958]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0 [/CODE]

I used the .asoundrc listed below as suggested by the HOWTO:

# 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).
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 nForce2/4 (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 nForce2/4
pcm.analog {
type plug
slave.pcm "analog-hw"
}

# Control device (mixer, etc.) for the nForce2 card
ctl.analog {
type hw
card 0
}

# Alias for (rate-converted) mixed analog output on the
# nForce2 (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 nForce2 card
ctl.mixed-analog {
type hw
card 0
}

# Alias for (rate-converted) digital (S/PDIF) output on the
# nForce2 (hw:0,2)
# - 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 nForce2 card
ctl.digital {
type hw
card 0
}

# Alias for mixed (rate-converted) digital (S/PDIF) output on the
# nForce2/4 (hw:0,2)
# - 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 nForce2 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 nForce2 (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 nForce2/4 card
ctl.analog-hw {
type hw
card 0
}

# Alias for digital (S/PDIF) output on the nForce2/4 (hw:0,2)
# Do not use this directly--it requires specific rate,
# channels, and format
pcm.digital-hw {
type hw
card 0
device 2
}

# Control device (mixer, etc.) for the nForce2/4 card
ctl.digital-hw {
type hw
card 0
}

# Direct software mixing plugin for analog output on
# the nForce2/4 (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 nForce2/4 card
ctl.dmix-analog {
type hw
card 0
}

# Direct software mixing plugin for digital (S/PDIF) output
# on the nForce2/4 (hw:0,2)
# 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 nForce2/4 card
ctl.dmix-digital {
type hw
card 0
}

Following the instructions on the HOWTO I test the audio output with

"aplay -D digital /mythtv/Desktop/english.au"

It reports that it is playing the audio file and goes back to a prompt, but
I don't hear anything. I have also tried "mixed-digital" as the device but
still no audio.

However if I just double click the .au file, it plays in the default player
just fine.

Also "ALSA:default" or "ALSA:hw:0,2" as the device doesn't produce sound
either.
The same thing happens with MythMusic, if I put "ALSA:digital" for the sound
device for MythMusic the visualization start and the time counter starts,
but no sound...
 I must be missing something here, but I can't find it.
 I can provide more info when I get home (Kernel Version, The Default
Program that is playing the AU file and producing sound, etc) but I thought
if anyone knew what to try based on what I have provided, it might point me
the right way.

Thanks in advance!

Jason
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