[pulseaudio-discuss] The CD mixer element.

[Luke Yelavich]

Hi all,
A bug was recently filed in Ubuntu from a user who wants to record audio input from the audio CD connection on his motherboard, and the user couldn't find the CD input as an option in the GNOME volume control preferences. Of course I replied back about using a CD ripping app to copy audio CD tracks, however the user was aware of that. The use case here is someone who has a video capture card, that uses an internal analog audio connection via a legacy CD audio cable for audio input.

Whilst looking into addressing this, I noticed a comment in src/modules/alsa/mixer/paths/analog-input.conf.common, that clearly states we don't want to wrap the CD mixer element. I personally think that this element should be exposed for such uses, but I would like to hear other people's views about this. So far as I understand it, most video capture cards these days have their own audio input hardware on board, which is generally recognised and used by ALSA, thereby making it available to pulse. On the other hand, I myself still own such a capture card with analog audio output. I don't use this card any more, but if I was in the same position, I would have to jump through hoops using alsamixer to record from this device.

Thoughts welcome.

Luke