Hello Takashi.
On Wednesday 30 July 2008 18:33:36 Takashi Iwai wrote:
What is this "initial volume problem"? Could you compare /proc/asound/card0/codec#* outputs between patched and non-patched cases?
I've attached it for both unpatched and patched alsa 1.0.17. I haven't closely tested it this time but last time my impression was that the volume was not as loud as it should have been. Patching patch_realtek.c fixed it for me.
BTW- for both I've used exactly the same mixer settings.
- Sound distortions only appear on the center channel while playing back multi channel content. They sound like voltage sizzling noise. Hard to explain. Muting all channels but the center channel makes those
distortions disappear.
Hm, is it via 5.1 channel output with real 6 channels?
Yes. Simple 2.0 material that's just being duplicated to the other speakers by alsa works fine... at least for my ears. :-)
A test under Vista revealed no distortions or anything like it. So a faulty chip is actually pretty unlikely.
A good news, at least :)
More or less. A faulty board would have been really bothersome but at least after the swap the problems would have been gone.
In the recent patch_realtek.c, there are bunch of magical initial sequences found, e.g. in alc888_coef_init() or in alc_subsystem_id(). Can any of them change the output quality? alc_fix_pll*() is another magical code, too...
I've seen those... but you are asking the wrong guy here. :-) Open specs would be really nice to have.
HDA codecs are often so delicate. You must care with love :)
Or replace them with something substantially better and that's what I did. Since it seems that this won't be fixed any time soon, I have decided to order an Asus Xonar DX and hopefully I won't regret it. For the future, I'll keep away from Realtek HD audio chips- at least from those that don't have their specs available.
Somewhat off-topic but does SPDIF output properly work on the Xonar DX and do the front panel header mic-in and headphone out work _in addition_ to the rear panel jacks? Because that's about the only thing I currently worry and the card is already ordered. ;-)
Thanks again.
Have a nice day, matthew.