Ben Stanley wrote:
Dear List,
Hello. I'm new here. This is my first attempt to hack an alsa driver.
I recently purchased a "Sound Blaster Audigy Value!" card for use in a MythTV box. As I have a digital receiver, I was mainly concerned with getting a working S/PDIF output (coax or optical) and not too much more.
Summary: I can make 44.1kHz digital output work, but I think that the driver model of the card having 3 or 4 digital output channels is incorrect. I believe the card only has 1 digital output channel.
The ca0106 chip has 3 or 4 digital outputs. These outputs may or may not be present on the output connectors of the card. I know that one of the SB cards does in fact work with 3 digital outputs using the 4 pin jacks because I have tested it myself. I GPIO is programmed to switch it between 3 digital outputs and 1 in, 1 out.
Details:
The card I have is characterised by the following: http://www.soundblaster.com/products/product.asp?category=1&subcategory=... Model: SB0570 serial: 100a1102 Also known as: Sound Blaster Audigy SE
During initial testing, I noticed that 44.1kHz playback was not implemented. Subsequent testing shows that speaker-test works fine with 48kHz, 96kHz and 192kHz. (I only tested 16bit output so far.)
I noticed in the source code that 44.1k was explicitly disabled. I added code in snd_ca0106_pcm_prepare_playback to set up this rate for S/PDIF output as per the comments in ca0106.h . Initial tests using hw:0,0 at 44.1kHz produced recognisable signals with some noisy corruption. Later I accidentally discovered that serially opening hw:0,2 , hw:0,1 and hw:0,0 at 44.1kHz then produces perfectly good 44.1kHz sampled digital audio output. Removing hw:0,1 or hw:0,2 from this sequence causes noisy corruption. It seems that channels 0-2 in reg40 must all be set to the same sampling frequency for S/PDIF to work where 44.1kHz is concerned. Conversely, to sucessfully output 48kHz again, I have to open hw:0,2 , hw:0,1 and hw:0,0 at 48kHz to restore proper output. I do not have such troubles with 96kHz and 192kHz, for which it suffices to just open hw:0,0 at the relevant sampling rate.
The ca0106 can do 44.1kHz for digital output ONLY. The ca0106 cannot output 44.1kHz to the DACs so it will only work in Digital mode. It is a hardware restriction. You are correct, all the inputs and outputs have to be at the same rate.
Anyway, this is speculation. I'd love to have the docs. I haven't tried to get them. Is it likely/unlikely that I would get them?
You can sign an open-source NDA and get the datasheets. It lets me write drivers like the current ca0106 and E-Mu drivers. If you are interested in a NDA, priv-email me.
Kind Regards
James