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  • From: sindi keesan <keesan AT sdf.lonestar.org>
  • To: baslinux AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [BL] playmidi and aumix
  • Date: Thu, 2 Jun 2005 04:03:47 +0000 (UTC)

On Wed, 1 Jun 2005, David Moberg wrote:

----- Original Message -----
From: "sindi keesan" <keesan AT sdf.lonestar.org>

Perhaps you are not insmodding it with the proper settings? Would
you like a copy of SB16 diagnose to determine the settings and then
use them in linux?

I have tried various settings. It only insmods correctly _after_ I
have loaded ISA PnP. If I try to specify DMA, it only insmods at
all after I choose the "correct" one, and then it still doesn't
work quite right.

I was having the problem with DMA warning and
IRQ/DRQ errors when playing mp3s until I also specified high dma on
my three newest computers. dma16=5 (try also 6 and 7 if 5 is
taken). insmod sb io=0x220 irq=5 dma=1 (or 0 or 3) dma16=5

Perhaps the AWE32 works differently than the plain Vibra16? Do
you have any plain Vibra16s?

I have two, but I have not tried them out. Plain SB16 works without any DOS or isapnp initialization in several computers. Today I tried out the second AWE64 and awe won't initialize in DOS. (The first one would not either but did initialize in Windows 98FE and then could be used in a DOS box to play midi files). AWE64 worked in linux without DOS initialization (until it suddenly stopped the computer from booting into Windows).

My third AWE32 type card (SB32, CT3600) won't initialize awe either but the other two do - I may try moving them between computers. This one also won't play FM synthesized sound so I guess the individual chips can go bad. An SB16 lost FM synthesis and amplification. Maybe the SB32 lost AWE? I see an EMU8000 chip on it. AWE64 has a slightly later EMU80** chip. I have only found reference to it working in DOS under Windows, but it works fine in linux. Have not tried midi yet, need to compile first.

SBlive apparently works in straight DOS. I just downloaded sbldos.zip drivers. You are supposed to use sbeset.com and sbinit.com to set and initialize the card. I got a second one of these and hope to have it working in all three OSes (once I upgrade to WinSE).

What does high DMA do?

It appears to be for 16-bit audio.

How does 16-bit audio differ from 8-bit audio?

Audio files have 65536 choices of volume levels for each sample, versus
256 for 8-bit. It sounds crisper to some ears (not mine). It is
absolutely useless if you're only using 8-bit audio files.

Sound like 8-bit versus 16-bit color, you can notice the difference if you see them side by side.

I am happy with one volume level for my music so won't worry about high DMA being the same as low DMA. Is streaming mp3 16-bit?


Is it needed for stereo?

No.

Is mplayer using the hard drive once it starts?

Not if you have plenty of memory (so that Linux doesn't need
to swap).

Finally a use for the 256MB of RAM we put into that computer, or is that overkill? I think I checked while playing a DVD and it used about 100% of cpu time (if you added back the 39% that would be used by Xvesa) but only a small part of the memory.

I think you said vidix works on GeForce2. It did not on my PCI
Nvidia GeForce2.

It's not a sure thing if you haven't initialized the Geforce. It
works better with other cards.

I have never heard of initializing a video card, or do you mean to use the nvidia X driver? I could try it on a PCI VooDoo with 16MB RAM - would that work better? The VooDoo does not work too well except in fb mode (resizecons and Xvesa are not happy with it) whereas the Nvidia is very generic vesa.


Is scaling used in games rather than movies?

No. If you're resizing the DVD at all (if MPlayer is changing the
aspect ratio by default, or if you have an X window and you are
resizing it to something bigger or larger than the DVD) you are
using scaling. If you don't have proper drivers, this is being
done in software, which is very slow.

When running in vesa mode am I scaling? I will test the two latest cards with -noaspect in X. I read a review in which someone compared the same card in PCI and AGP versions and the latter was 2-5% faster, but the Ti version was about 50% faster (in certain games).


Would I be better off avoiding graphics cards with heat sinks and fans if
not playing games?

Yes.

The PCI Nvidia has no fan, the AGP models do, but another review said you ought to add cooling to the PCI model without a fan. So I will just choose whichever plays the DVD better and if it burns itself up, switch to the next best model.


Do they work better on DVDs movies?

Not significantly.

Other than your 30 fps test on a video clip, or trying to play a DVD in X, is there a way I should compare them for speed?


Any of the ATI cards (Radeon, Rage(128), Mach64) should work with
both -vo xvidix and -vo vesa:vidix. The nvidia may need a full-size
X server. But just in case, try -vo cvidix with the nvidia.
Everything else should work like an ATI card.

We may have a dead ATI Rage. I will try cvidix some time. There
are three ways to use vidix? vesa:vidix cvidix xvidix? The xvidix
did not work with our Nvidia card. I should read up on this.

The Rage will _not_ work with cvidix at all. Only the NVidia will
work with it, and only _after_ you have used full-size X with the
proprietary nvidia driver.

This may not be worth the bother. I will stick with vesa unless the GeForce2 Ti works in X. I think by initialize you meant load Nvidia X server.


Do these cards generate a lot of heat all the time, or just while
playing games?

Usually the fan only cranks up when playing games.

Since we don't play games, we will not worry about heat. The cards with fans are vesafb and work with Xvesa so we may use both (if not dead).
My partner is happy with the nice-looking 132 columns using your fb kernel. I will use the faster of the three Nvidia's for DVDs.

We have a very hot overclocked 600>750MHz board
with three heat sinks on the slot - should we choose a cool
(non-heat-sinked) video card for it?

Definitely. You should keep computers as cool as possible.

We have a couple of older AGP cards without big heat sinks - Trio3D and ATI - which he can use instead in the overclocked model.

Is AGP advantageous if you are not playing games or DVDs?

Somewhat. It make a noticable difference in X, however you
probably won't miss it.

We use X primarily for graphical browsing and the bottleneck is the modem speed.


Any idea if our 'new' $4 15GB hard drive is fixable if it lights up
and whirs for a couple of seconds then the light goes off and the
MB does not boot?

None. Good luck. It may be on one of the controller chips, and you
can probably forget about repairing that.

Someone suggested this is a short. Yesterday we were given two working 6GB drives by a friend who is moving (along with two fixable computers and a few sound cards etc.) along with things to recycle. I think we should stop accepting for a while and digest what we have. Too many toys.


David

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