Replace ALSA/Pulseaudio with OSS4

[hifihere]

That is correct, none of the analog outputs are necessary, just digital and USB. I will try your file tomorrow.

Vortexbox uses MPD as a local player but the GUI is Squeeze Center so I'm not sure how things are routed. The routine that has worked with ALSA is to set output to "hw" in the Vortexbox GUI and putty in to alsamixer and turn on my SPDIF output.

MPD makes these suggestions: http://mpd.wikia.com/wiki/Configuration#OSS

I'm not sure how our changes are going to affect network music streaming. When I have "hw" as output SPDIF sounds great on hard drive music but the built in Internet radio develops frequent ticks that sound like very high jitter. The internet radio works without ticks with output set to "default" but the SPDIF output is reduced to pure mud with very poor sound on hard drive music. The "hw" setting also introduces gaps between tracks that you do not have on USB output.

These are the problems that are pushing me to try OSS4.

[hifihere]

OK, I replaced default.pa with your file. I ran osstest and got sound from SPDIF with the tests marked with smilies below. The SPDIF-1 test emits a very ugly distortion from the right channel and clean audio from the left. Since I'm only concerned with SPDIF-0 I'm OK.


*** Scanning sound adapter #-1 ***
/dev/oss/oss_hdaudio0/pcm0 (audio engine 0): HD Audio play front
- Performing audio playback test...
<left> OK <right> OK <stereo> OK <measured srate 47987.00 Hz (-0.03%)>
/dev/oss/oss_hdaudio0/pcm1 (audio engine 1): HD Audio play rear
- Performing audio playback test...
<left> OK <right> OK <stereo> OK <measured srate 47987.00 Hz (-0.03%)>
/dev/oss/oss_hdaudio0/pcm2 (audio engine 2): HD Audio play center/LFE
- Performing audio playback test...
<left> OK <right> OK <stereo> OK <measured srate 47984.00 Hz (-0.03%)>
/dev/oss/oss_hdaudio0/spdout0 (audio engine 3): HD Audio play spdif-out
- Performing audio playback test...
<left> OK <right> OK <stereo> OK <measured srate 47987.00 Hz (-0.03%)>
/dev/oss/oss_hdaudio0/spdout1 (audio engine 4): HD Audio play spdifout
- Performing audio playback test...
<left> OK <right> OK <stereo> OK <measured srate 47987.00 Hz (-0.03%)>
/dev/oss/oss_hdaudio0/pcmin0 (audio engine 5): HD Audio rec mix
- Skipping input only device
/dev/oss/oss_hdaudio0/pcmin1 (audio engine 6): HD Audio rec mix
- Skipping input only device

*** All tests completed OK ***

Still no sound from Vortexbox though.

[hifihere]

Hi Cesium,

Now that we know my hardware is working what can we do to get my sound applications to output?

[hifihere]

Cesium, I wonder if I could interest you in trying Vortexbox? The ISO download is here:

Code: Select all

http://vortexbox.org/downloads/

It is a fantastic way to create a NAS and music server on any old computer. In five minutes it will wipe a drive and set up a system that will autorip, store and playback music up to 24/192. The user interfaces are second to none. I use iPeng on an Apple Touch and also can control and stream from any computer on the network.

The only flaws that I seek to polish are the lack of gapless playback and the possibility of superior sound with OSS. Many of us would benefit if you had time and interest in testing the installation of OSS4 and documenting the instructions.

I am sure you would find a rapid solution hands on instead of me blindly experimenting.

[igorzwx]

The problem that faces all Linux users is chopped up, gapped music playback.

Are you going to say that I am facing this problem? I have a very good sound quality on my computers with ALSA and OSS4.

The only flaws that I seek to polish are the lack of gapless playback and the possibility of superior sound with OSS.

What do you mean by "the lack of gapless playback", and what is "the possibility of superior sound with OSS"?

If you cannot explain your problems in terms of understandable human language, nobody can help you.

[hifihere]

I have fully explained in perfect detail what my current problems are with Vortexbox and ALSA in this long thread. If you don't understand then let Cesium or someone else chime in.

[igorzwx]

I have fully explained in perfect detail what my current problems are with Vortexbox and ALSA in this long thread. If you don't understand then let Cesium or someone else chime in.

It is not true. For example, you told this:

The problem that faces all Linux users is chopped up, gapped music playback.

I asked you to explain this problem. Is it so difficult to explain?

[hifihere]

You can Google gapless playback and have many explanations from others on this topic. I do not think that OSS4 is going to change my gaps between FLAC tracks since it has been cited that MPD (the core music player in Vortexbox can not do gapless playback of FLAC files) but I have listed that as one of my problems here in an effort to be complete.

Regarding my other problems, I fully expect that OSS4 can make a difference. I have spent weeks researching what others have reported on the internet regarding the use of OSS4 vs. ALSA and I am intrigued by the possibility.

To repeat myself from above, with ALSA I have to set my playback options to "hw" or "SPDIF" to get bit perfect playback on an external DAC. That is a basic performance minimum that I will require. Unfortunately that setting introduces new problems for Internet radio playback that are not acceptable.

Having followed the instructions from Cesium up until his last post here I currently have no sound output from anything on Vortexbox. I am waiting for the next steps. That should be simple to understand.

[igorzwx]

I do not think that OSS4 is going to change my gaps between FLAC tracks since it has been cited that MPD (the core music player in Vortexbox can not do gapless playback of FLAC files) but I have listed that as one of my problems here in an effort to be complete.

If I understood you correctly, you have gaps between FLAC files with MPD, ALSA and PulseAudio. Right?
And your magic Vortexbox is, perhaps, installed on a very old computer of the last century. Right?

[hifihere]

You sound like an argumentative individual who has hijacked many threads here.

[igorzwx]

You sound like an argumentative individual who has hijacked many threads here.

You may try to be more polite. If you think that it is MPD problem, it might be tested with OSS4.