[MPlayer-dev-eng] Practical outcomes of the ALSA thread

[Vladimir Mosgalin]

Hi Reimar Döffinger!

 On 2007.05.05 at 09:22:20 +0200, Reimar Döffinger wrote next:

> > How about the behavior, where using an OSS device will block other
> > applications to use the same (if it's not a hardware mixer one, 
> > allowing multiple streams ..).
> 
> Not relevant, if OSS is blocked MPlayer will try ALSA, too. Other
> applications that support both can do this too.
> Or do you mean ALSA apps are blocked when OSS is used? I don't know

Of course.

> since I don't have any sound cards that suck as much that I couldn't
> open /dev/dsp at least three times at once.

Well lucky you. However, cards with hardware mixing are basically dead.
Linux world of oss emulation layer in alsa is a only world were some
people desperately want it and benefit from it, everything else already
went past this. Creative card still support hardware mixing, that's
true, but solely for different purpose: to free some cpu when mixing 60
streams in game and make fps higher. But they suck, quality-wise.
And they don't work in linux anymore - X-Fi still isn't supported and
original Live / Audigy / Audigy 2 / Audigy 4 models are no more! They
are replaced by a pack of "Value" models, based on "Live 24-bit" design
and don't support hardware mixing too.

In other words, you won't be able to go into the shop and buy a card
with hardware mixing that does work in linux, unless they still haven't
sold out some old models. In most shops, however, you won't be able to
find a single card. So just forget about hardware mixing once and for
all..

Btw, I wrote on this subject once (creative was still selling original
audigy 2 and 4 with hardware mixing back then):
http://www.mail-archive.com/alsa-user@lists.sourceforge.net/msg19055.html

-- 

Vladimir