Baslinux mailing list

[sindi keesan <keesan AT sdf.lonestar.org>]

On Thu, 19 May 2005, David Moberg wrote:

> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "sindi keesan" <keesan AT sdf.lonestar.org>
>
> > > > I have not tried playing the library DVD.  Hopefully DVD sound is
> > > > .wav not .mp3.  I can play .wav with play or mplayer on here, just
> > > > not mp3s.
> > >
> > > If it is the CPU, you will likely have major problems with DVD output.
> >
> > If someone can explain how to play a DVD in one easy lesson I will
> > try that tonight.  I got a DVD.  How do I start at track 1 and play
> > sound and video?
>
> mplayer -vo x11 -dvd-device /dev/hdd dvd://1
>
> /dev/hdd should be the name of your DVD drive. For maximum speed (if
> your graphics card supports VESA 2.0) you may use the vesa output
> driver instead of x11. You may improve performace by using the
> "-framedrop" option, and/or the "-vc ffmpeg" option. That's DVDs
> with MPlayer 101.

vesa instead of x11?

I just tried a third SB16 card which apparently is not PlugNPlay because 
Windows refuses to change the IRQ or DMA settings, and now it won't change 
the settings on the AWE64 card either, probably thinking it is the 
previous card (?).  I deleted the card and rebooted.

(First I tried to play the DVD with RealAudio, which would not play it 
because I don't have the driver for Nvidia so have only 16 colors and it 
wants 256 and some additional software from online as well.)

Windows just had the good sense to set this card to IRQ7 DMA3 and 5, io 
220 and 300, all by itself!  No conflicts with the parport card.  It would 
not actually play sounds but nobody had remembered to plug the radio 'aux' 
into the line out.

Works in DOS.

Linux insmod sb io=0x220 irq=7 dma=3  Plays a wav with play and the first 
mplayer (for p2).




> The PII version should play sound if everything else is OK. I
> doubt it will until you can resolve the problem which is
> hampering MP3 playback.
>
> > > Can you tell mpg123 to write out to a wave file? Use the "-w
> > > audiodump.wav" option to make it behave like MPlayer -ao pcm.
> >
> > I will try that next.
>
> I don't think you said what the result of this was. Did I miss it?

No, I got sidetracked putting the parport card in and out and changing 
settings on sound cards to avoid conflict with printer card.

The above test also says
Sound:  DMA (output) timed out - IRQ/DRQ config error?

DOS and Windows both think DMA 3 and 5 are free and the card plays MP3s 
for them.  They are both set to 220 and 300 (rather than default 330).

Does playing MP3s require a second DMA?  Should I try to specify the high 
DMA?  Or the 300 instead of 330 and if so how?

I tried io=0x220,0x300 - too many values for io (max 1) or io=0x300 
(resource busy).

But even with no parport card I got this message (when DMA 1 worked in 
DOS).

/proc/dma   4: cascade


I just typed:

mplayer -vo vesa -dvd-device /dev/hdd dvd://1

It plays nice quality video and skips all the introductory warnings and 
menus and previews.  I cannot switch vts to see what processes are in use, 
whether it is trying to play wav or mp3.  There is no sound at all.  The 
radio is still turned on.  The screen size needed enlarging over the 
640x480 that Windows and DOS were using, and this made people rather tall 
and skinny.  The video card can do 1400 res in Xvesa on this monitor (or 
1600 but it goes out of the monitor's range).  I am using the default 
resolution, whatever it is.  It looks a lot nicer than on a TV.  I will 
find some 'foreign language' DVDs so I can read the subtitles while I keep 
working on the sound problem.  Or do DVDs provide closed caption?

I tried to specify -ao oss besides -vo vesa and now I don't get video 
either - the sound is causing problems (it got stuck, as when trying to 
play mp3 or ogg or convert them).  Ctr-C gets me back out.

If I omit the -vo vesa line and add -ao oss I see:
Starting playback...
A:  0.2 V:  0.3  A-V:  -0.127 ct: -0.005 6/ 5 0% 0% 0.0% 0 0 0%

Similarly to when I try to play an mp3 with mplayer.

Same thing happens if I omit both -vo and -ao - it gets stuck on
Starting playback...

It tried to open X11, then fb0, then said VDec:  using Mpeg PES as output 
csp (no 0).  Movei-Aspect is 178:1.  VO:  720x480 => 854x480 MPeg PES
Does this mean I was viewing at 854x480?

I would have needed to start the player from X to use -vo x11, or booted 
with a framebuffer kernel to use fb0.  I will try those once sound works.

> I can play any wav file I tried with both play and mplayer on this
> > 600MHz computer.
>
> Are any of these CD-quality? Does play give any warnings?

Play works perfectly on this computer with all wav files now that I 
eliminated the conflict with the parport by resetting the sound card.  It 
was the two ASUS computers that had a the DRQ/IRQ problem with 'play' and 
wav.  But I cannot play mp3s on this computer due to a DRQ/IRQ problem.

Or maybe due to the bug with SB in this kernel, which I will try to figure 
out.  There is, I think, a patch for it, which I would need help with. 
DOS has no problems with the card any more (except for awe64 not playing 
midi with the awe32 drivers) nor does Windows.

> > > You may want to get a newer kernel with bells and whistles. ALSA is
> > > superior to OSS for sound. For those with minimal sound needs, OSS
> > > works just fine. If you want an easy installation or more features,
> > > ALSA is better.
> >
> > Do you think a newer kernel will work with this board to play mp3s?
>
> No. It may be worth a try, but I suspect that a newer kernel will not
> help. The problem appears to be whatever is causing MPlayer to stumble.
>
> > Would I have to switch to ALSA?
>
> No. Newer kernels still offer OSS. In fact, many do not even come with
> ALSA drivers. My main point was that a newer kernel would probably
> require less effort to get audio working in general.

But I have audio working to play mp3 files on two older computers already 
- it is just the three newest ones that I know won't play mp3s (or 
sometimes wav files).

Maybe a PCI sound card, or a non-SB16, will work better.  My SB16s are 
mostly 1995 - the newer ones might also work better, as perhaps linux does 
not support the older ones.

I wonder how to STOP the DVD player other than Ctrl-Alt-Del.  Good thing 
you included the documentation.  Ctrl-C does not do it.

Maybe Mplayer #3 will work where the first two did not, and play mp3s on 
the PIII?

Thanks for all your compiling and all your help.