Hi,
On Tue, Mar 17, 2009 at 08:57:06AM +0100, Takashi Iwai wrote:
At Mon, 16 Mar 2009 22:22:27 +0100, Andreas Mohr wrote:
Hi,
On Mon, Mar 16, 2009 at 09:28:39PM +0100, Takashi Iwai wrote:
The question is whether the left / right channels recorded from digital mic are really raw data, or they are for modified data (for differential, etc)... It's hard to guess without the actual data.
I don't quite follow you here. Is there anything I could do about this?
The mic array on a laptop is used for beam forming and noise suppressions. These require the software manipulation, of course. The question is what kind of data is read from the hardware. Thus, providing the raw streams for both mic inputs makes sense.
Makes sense indeed.
Obviously the stream read from the codec chip is a PCM while usually the digital mic gives the output as PDM. So PDM -> PCM isn't needed here. But, still a question is why a phase inversion in the second channel. Whether it's intentional (e.g. to make the further conversion easier) or not.
Would be interesting if you can figure out which digital-mic component is used on your laptop (and if we can have any chip information by luck).
Well, as some manufacturers/types of digital microphones I found Akustica (AKU 1126 / 2000 / 2001 / 2002 / 2004 / 2103), Analog Devices (ADMP421), National Semiconductor (digital microphones, amplifiers LMV1024, LMV1026) [1], [2], [3] and Andrea Digital Array Microphones.
ALC268 specs [4] say that they actually support interfacing LMV1024/1026, SPD0205ND (what the heck is this one?), AKU2000.
Umm wait, Aspire One has ALC269. ALC269 datasheet doesn't say anything about microphone manufacturers.
Note that eeepc models 901++ have ALC269 as well and - surprise, surprise - an inverted noise cancellation issue as well!!!!!: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/331130
"Dreamcom 10 Laptop" [7]: " integrated Realtek HD audio processor, two built-in Akustica digital microphones and two built-in stereo speakers"
This was the only reference up and down that I could find to _any_ notebook's microphone manufacturer listing. I suspect that Aspire One has an Akustica microphone array as well since Akustica seems to be the leading brand (hmm, any ideas about where the second microphone is located if at all existing, but it must exist!!? - probably at the front bottom?). Note that I found that the 16bit inverted data is NOT exactly a sum of 0x10000, IOW those _are_ two _separate_, inverted streams of audio data (for noise cancellation somehow I guess). OH WAIT!! If most Acer models have _both_ microphones at the screen bezel (left and right side) yet Aspire One has them (as I'd guess) at the top of the bezel (known) and at the front bottom, then this would mean - hold your breath - that the microphone array's physical properties (regarding noise cancellation) are moved by 90 degrees, possibly exactly explaining the malfunctioning (this would explain why Aspire One and eeepcs have issues whereas other Aspire models probably don't have them!?!?). Hmm OTOH providing an audio source from somewhere on the left side / right side of the netbook doesn't suddenly provide any audio, thus it's probably a nice theory ;) But OTOH the fact remains that those netbooks have a drastic microphone geometry design change versus the normal Acer notebooks, thus it likely is the reason for this issue somehow, somewhere.
Another very widely used brochure phrase was "Acer PureZone technology with two built-in stereo microphones featuring beam forming, echo cancellation, and noise suppression technologies" I couldn't locate more pointers to details here though.
Insightful Apple OS X ALC269 adaptation descriptions: [5].
Windows Vista (ick!) microphone array discussions: [6].
[1]. http://www.national.com/nationaledge/apr03/article.html (background explanations!) [2]. https://www.national.com/appinfo/amps/microphone.html [3]. http://www.national.com/GER/news/item/1,4300,50,00.html [4]. https://nmso.mdg.ca/specsheets/Intel_ALC268_Sound.pdf [5]. http://ipis-osx.wikidot.com/internal-sound [6]. http://windowsteamblog.com/blogs/windowsvista/archive/2007/11/09/microphone-... [7]. http://www.lcr-europe.org/meter/12/stereo+speaker.html
Andreas