[pulseaudio-tickets] [PulseAudio] #624: need proper support for Terratec EWS88-MT (ice1712)

[PulseAudio]

#624: need proper support for Terratec EWS88-MT (ice1712)
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  Reporter:  aelschuring  |       Owner:  lennart          
      Type:  defect       |      Status:  reopened         
 Milestone:               |   Component:  module-alsa-*    
Resolution:               |    Keywords:  ews88 profile-set
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Comment(by tanuk):

 Replying to [comment:34 cyberpatrol]:
 > Alsa is already able to do stereo playback and capture out-of-the box
 without a alsa.conf file. The problem is that those cards are not stereo
 sound cards but audio cards with two or more independent input and output
 channels which can be flexibly mixed. Pulseaudio can't handle this while
 alsa can, even if envy24control from alsa-tools is needed for mixing and
 setting the volume. Of course these independent channels can be set to
 just play and capture plain stereo, but they can do a lot more.
 >
 > Setting such an alsa.conf which imitates a stereo sound card on those
 audio cards is just a dirty workaround for pulseaudio, but definitely not
 a fix for pulseaudio. This needs to be fixed in pulseaudio itself, not in
 alsa.
 >
 > Btw., this alsa.conf hack probably removes some of the features of those
 cards.

 No, it doesn't remove any features. The alsa configuration patch only
 affects what happens when an application tries to open the card using the
 device name "front" ("surround40" and "surround51" seem to be affected too
 in some way), which is defined to open a stereo stream. If you want to
 open the card in some other mode, then don't use the "front" device name.

 If you're not happy with stereo playback and capture, please explain what
 exact configurations should be made available. Depending on what you want,
 the alsa configuration may need further tweaking. If the changes are not
 applicable to all ICE1712 cards, then I fear alsa's configuration system
 may not be flexible enough to implement that, but I don't know for sure.
 I'm not an expert on the alsa configuration system.

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Ticket URL: <http://pulseaudio.org/ticket/624#comment:35>
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