[pulseaudio-discuss] Resampling, Duplicate Front to Rear, and few other questions

[Pierre Ossman]

Hofmann, Laurent wrote:
> 
> I think it is not only a nice feature but a key feature ! All modern
> soundcards are able to do resampling in a better way than any other program,
> without costing any CPU time. When I read a sound not resampled, pulseaudio
> takes 20% CPU. If it must be resampled, even with the most basic algorithm,
> pulsaudio takes more than 50% CPU (On my box).

Well, ALSA, EsounD and even Microsoft Windows has had this for ages and
I haven't seen the angry mobs with pitch forks quite yet. ;)

The problem is that it cannot be done in a generic manner. It's an
optimization that can be used when you have only one sound stream (or
all the streams have the same rate).

> 
> Even with a powerfull computer, resampling for nothing costs a lot. Let's
> imagine a video game with nice sound FX and music at 48Khz whereas pulsaudio
> is set up at 44Khz : depending on the priority, either the 3D image or the
> sound will be hashed...
> 

On a machine capable of modern games, the cost of resampling is
negligible. The problem is on really low end stuff (embedded and things
like it).

> Since I can switch the sample rate in the conf and stop/start pulseaudio,
> why this couldn't be done automatically ?

Because you need to completely restart the device. It's not a trivial
operation and it adds (unknown) latency. Again, it's doable but the
complexity is high enough that it isn't a priority. It would be better
to spend time optimizing the resampler.

> 
>> If you have two sound devices representing front and back, then combining
> them with the default channel map should work.
>> In the longer run, the internal channel remapper should be taught how to
> handle such cases.
> 
> I Have not two sound devices, I have one with 6 channels...
> 

Then the remapper needs to be fixed for things to behave as you want.

> 
> Apart from that, seeing support of ESD in VLC (ESD is already supported in
> unix version but not on the win32 version) or a native pulseaudio support in
> VLC (both unix and win32) would be a good start.
> 

Indeed. As usual, it's a question of having the time.

Rgds
-- 
Pierre Ossman            OpenSource-based Thin Client Technology
System Developer         Telephone: +46-13-21 46 00
Cendio AB                Web: http://www.cendio.com

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