[pulseaudio-discuss] Using pulseaudio with surround sound for DVD playing

[Jan-Benedict Glaw]

Hi!

The HAL module as well as Debian's default configuration (as of
0.9.6-2) started me with a basically useable setup. I already
played a bit with RTP streaming, too. 

I'd like to play a bit with surround sound (watching DVDs) a bit. I've
got three cards in my PC:

jbglaw at d2:~$ lspci | grep Mul
00:0a.0 Multimedia audio controller: Creative Labs SB Live! EMU10k1 (rev 08)
00:0b.0 Multimedia audio controller: C-Media Electronics Inc CM8738 (rev 10)
00:0c.0 Multimedia audio controller: C-Media Electronics Inc CM8738 (rev 10)

jbglaw at d2:~$ lspci -n | grep 0401
00:0a.0 0401: 1102:0002 (rev 08)
00:0b.0 0401: 13f6:0111 (rev 10)
00:0c.0 0401: 13f6:0111 (rev 10)

jbglaw at d2:~$ cat /etc/modprobe.d/local-alsa 
options snd cards_limit=3
options snd_cmipci index=0,1 id=cmipci71,cmipci51
options snd_emu10k1 index=2 id=soundblaster

jbglaw at d2:~$ cat /proc/asound/cards
 0 [cmipci71       ]: CMI8738-MC8 - C-Media PCI CMI8738-MC8
                      C-Media PCI CMI8738-MC8 (model 68) at 0x1800, irq 17
 1 [cmipci51       ]: CMI8738-MC6 - C-Media PCI CMI8738-MC6
                      C-Media PCI CMI8738-MC6 (model 55) at 0x1c00, irq 18
 2 [soundblaster   ]: EMU10K1 - SBLive! Value [CT4832]
                      SBLive! Value [CT4832] (rev.8, serial:0x80271102) at 0x2c00, irq 16

First of all, I tried to simply add them to default.pa with more
channels. The two CMI cards accept 8 (or 6 resp.) channels, but the
Soundblaster doesn't. (Switched down to two--I don't care about it
right now.)

However, if I now play something (eg. with amarok), the sound is
played quuuiiiiittteee ssslllooowww. (I guess the two stereo channels
from Amarok are upmixed to 8 channels, but the data is then send to
only one stereo pair or something like that.)

I'm quite sure somebody has working setups like this, with surround
sound for DVD playing apps. Would anybody describe me his/her setup?
What players are you using? Ogle? Mplayer? Xine? Totem? Something else?

...and if anybody has a hint for the Soundblaster, that would be nice,
too. It has two plugs for analog line out, so I think it should do at
least 4.0 sound. Maybe somebody also owns this card and already found
those other channels.

Once the setup works, I'd like to document that in the Pulseaudio
wiki. That could be helpful to others, too...

Thanks, JBG

-- 
      Jan-Benedict Glaw      jbglaw at lug-owl.de              +49-172-7608481
 Signature of:                            If it doesn't work, force it.
 the second  :                   If it breaks, it needed replacing anyway.
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