[MPlayer-users] -ac hwac3 with non SB Live/C-Media soundcards?

[Andreas Lange]

Am 2002.04.17 19:56 schrieb(en) Arpi:
> [Automatic answer: RTFM (read DOCS, FAQ), also read
> DOCS/bugreports.html]
> Hi,
> 
> > I would like to use the digital output of my soundcard.
> > My card has a Trident 4D wave nx chip. When I try to play
> > some DVD or avi with ac3 sound with the -ac hwac3 switch,
> > I only get awful clicking noises from the analog output
> here is the problem ------------------------^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
> 
> hwac3 emans sending teh compressed ac3 frames to the output, so
> by connecting hardware ac3 decoder/amplifier to teh card will
> procude audible sound (the external device will decode the ac3).
> so, no wonder if you get noise without external decoder...
> 
> note again: hwac3 doesn't mean decoding using the soundcard
> (even if for example sb live has DSP maybe capable to do it),
> it mean passing the comperred sound to teh output, to eb decoded
> by _external_ decoder.

You're probably thinking of cards that use the same output plug
for analog and digital signals. My card has a normal 3.5 mm stereo
line-out plug connected to the analog input of my amplifier and
a cinch coaxial spdif output connected to the digital input of
the amplifier. So the clicking noise might be the digital ac3 signal
that should normally come out of the spdif and not the analog output.

When I use xine's ac3 passthrough my amplifier correctly detects
and decodes the signal on its digital input. so my hardware and
driver setup should not be the problem...

> > Is there any hope to get it working?
> it should.. if it doesn't and other programs does, then try
> to find and fix teh bug...
> also check if the mixers are set to teh maximum, soem drivers
> doesn't do it automatically and sw mixer trashes the ac3 sound
> 

Sorry, but I'm not a programmer, so it's not so easy for me to find
and fix the bug. I'll try to play around with the mixer, maybe it
helps. Is there anything else I could do as a normal user with
absolutely no knowledge about c and programming?

Thanks,
Andreas Lange