yes, I am aware that AC3 is required, I'm trying to get the AC3 pass-through configured. From your response, I understand now that speaker-test is performing as expected, however I have tired other things also: I have some AC3 encoded test files, and I have also tried installing ffmpeg, and liba52. and the ac3dec utility which I understand should pass through the AC3/DTS encoded files, but I recieve:

[root@ps3 Surround-SDL-testfiles]# ac3dec -C dolby-canyon.ogg Using PCM device 'plug:iec958:{AES0 0x2 AES1 0x82 AES2 0x0 AES3 0x2}' ALSA lib conf.c:3939:(snd_config_expand) Unknown parameters {AES0 0x2 AES1 0x82 AES2 0x0 AES3 0x2} ALSA lib pcm.c:2145:(snd_pcm_open_noupdate) Unknown PCM iec958:{AES0 0x2 AES1 0x82 AES2 0x0 AES3 0x2} snd_pcm_open: Invalid argument Output open failed

However if I am planning to write ac3 to the linux driver, are you saying that I would be better to write directly to the driver rather than through the ALSA layer?

thanks GT

Takashi Iwai wrote:

At Mon, 02 Jul 2007 19:17:35 -0700, gt bradley wrote:

...

Hi, I've been beating my had against this for several weeks now. (started with fedora 6, tried adding in the plugings etc (version 1.0.12) -- also tried upgrading to the current 1.0.14 version, without success (couldn't produce surround-sound on teh spdif output). I have now switched to fedorea 7 and was able to have rythmbox play surround sound via spdif, but have since lost that ability. (but I'm convinced the hardware and low-level drivers support it). In order to limit the number of moving parts, I have reduced to just trying to get speaker-test to play on all 6 speakers.

SPDIF is basically only for a two-channel PCM stream. For 5.1 outputs, you'll have to encode the raw multi-channel PCM to some compressed format such as AC3 or DTS and embed in SPDIF frames. And, that's not the driver job, so far -- at least the current driver doesn't do any conversion. Thus a software has to do it.

You can try a52 plugin for the on-the-fly encoding, found in alsa-plugins package. The plugin seems working for some apps but for some not yet well, unfortunately...

Takashi

right, For my Fedora install, these files are at /etc/alsa/cards, (although the iec958.conf) is in /etc/alsa/pcm).

The iec958.conf seems resonable, although I don't fully understand the syntax of the file, nor understand how the asoundrc file wires to /etc/alsa/... to the actual linux driver. It seems to pass through to the default device (which is what I want)

using the system-config-soundcard utility, I do get surround sound, and is displays the card as PS3 whcih matches the output of aplay -l I've tryed createing a /etc/alsa/cards/PS3.conf file as follows:

I've added the following to my /etc/asound.conf:

pcm.myspdif { type iec958 slave { pcm { type hw card 0 device 0 # whatever you like } format IEC958_SUBFRAME_BE } # the below should be corrected with 44.1kHz rates status [ 0x04 0x92 0x10 0x02 ] }

I've created a PS3.conf file as follows:

[root@ps3 Surround-SDL-testfiles]# ac3dec -Dmyspdif -C dolby-canyon.ogg Using PCM device 'myspdif' Broken configuration for this PCM: no configurations availableOutput open failed

trying to create a SPDIF device has yeilded [root@ps3 Surround-SDL-testfiles]# ac3dec -Dmyspdif -C dolby-canyon.ogg Using PCM device 'myspdif' snd_pcm_open: No such file or directory Output open failed

(by an y of the following:) pcm_slave.SPDIF { pcm iec958 }

pcm_slave.SPDIF { type hw card 0 device 0 }

pcm_type.SPDIF { redirect { name iec958 } }

the sytem-config-soundcard util is still able to play the test tones via AT3 over spdif. the default device is as shown below...

GT

Takashi Iwai wrote:

At Tue, 03 Jul 2007 11:50:34 -0700, GT Bradley wrote:

...

yes, I am aware that AC3 is required, I'm trying to get the AC3 pass-through configured. From your response, I understand now that speaker-test is performing as expected, however I have tired other things also: I have some AC3 encoded test files, and I have also tried installing ffmpeg, and liba52. and the ac3dec utility which I understand should pass through the AC3/DTS encoded files, but I recieve:

[root@ps3 Surround-SDL-testfiles]# ac3dec -C dolby-canyon.ogg Using PCM device 'plug:iec958:{AES0 0x2 AES1 0x82 AES2 0x0 AES3 0x2}' ALSA lib conf.c:3939:(snd_config_expand) Unknown parameters {AES0 0x2 AES1 0x82 AES2 0x0 AES3 0x2} ALSA lib pcm.c:2145:(snd_pcm_open_noupdate) Unknown PCM iec958:{AES0 0x2 AES1 0x82 AES2 0x0 AES3 0x2} snd_pcm_open: Invalid argument Output open failed

However if I am planning to write ac3 to the linux driver, are you saying that I would be better to write directly to the driver rather than through the ALSA layer?

You need set up the configuration for alsa-lib. Otherwise the iec958 PCM isn't defined. Usually the card-specific configuration is stored in /usr/share/alsa/cards/*.conf.

Takashi

I'm running Fedora 7 on a PS3 (2.6.22 kernel, 1.0.14rc2 alsa).

I'm trying to create a multi-channel device by following the instructions at: http://www.alsa-project.org/alsa-doc/doc-php/asoundrc.php

On the section on "virtual multi channel devices"

I also tried changing the slave b hardware number to 7 to match my set-up. ( and tried putting 7 -> 0 and 1->0 to make the snd_ps3 the "second" device w/o record).

attempting to run the test command yeilds: [root@ps3 Surround-SDL-testfiles]# arecord -f S16_LE -r 44100 -c 4 -D multi | aplay -f S16_LE -r 44100 -c 4 -D multi arecord: main:545: audio open error: No such file or directory aplay: playback:2018: read error

to remove the record part of things, I've also tried : [root@ps3 Surround-SDL-testfiles]# aplay -f S16_LE -r 44100 -c 4 -D multi dolby-canyon.ogg Playing raw data 'dolby-canyon.ogg' : Signed 16 bit Little Endian, Rate 44100 Hz, Channels 4 aplay: set_params:878: Broken configuration for this PCM: no configurations available

(I also tried Big-endian).

Looking at http://bugtrack.alsa-project.org/main/index.php/Matrix:Module-usb-audio

the relevent part of my kernel config file is below: and the output of lsmod. I notice that soundcore.o is in my build tree, but I'm unable to find a soundcore.ko file. I'm assuming that this is being statically linked into the kernel. (I can find .soundcore_open in the System.map file for my kernel). this looks reasonable to me.

From my various tries at this I believe I have a configuration issue, and would appriciate some pointers in the right direction.

thanks GT

***********Config info: ****************** I'm able to run speaker-test -c 2 and get sound out of L&R for each of the two cards.

the output of aplay -l is [root@ps3 Surround-SDL-testfiles]# aplay -l **** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices **** card 0: PS3 [PS3], device 0: SPDIF [SPDIF] Subdevices: 1/1 Subdevice #0: subdevice #0 card 7: MP3 [Sound Blaster MP3+], device 0: USB Audio [USB Audio] Subdevices: 1/1 Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

The out-put of aplay -l is as follows: [root@ps3 Surround-SDL-testfiles]# aplay -L null Discard all samples (playback) or generate zero samples (capture) default:CARD=MP3 Sound Blaster MP3+, USB Audio Default Audio Device front:CARD=MP3,DEV=0 Sound Blaster MP3+, USB Audio Front speakers surround40:CARD=MP3,DEV=0 Sound Blaster MP3+, USB Audio 4.0 Surround output to Front and Rear speakers surround41:CARD=MP3,DEV=0 Sound Blaster MP3+, USB Audio 4.1 Surround output to Front, Rear and Subwoofer speakers surround50:CARD=MP3,DEV=0 Sound Blaster MP3+, USB Audio 5.0 Surround output to Front, Center and Rear speakers surround51:CARD=MP3,DEV=0 Sound Blaster MP3+, USB Audio 5.1 Surround output to Front, Center, Rear and Subwoofer speakers surround71:CARD=MP3,DEV=0 Sound Blaster MP3+, USB Audio 7.1 Surround output to Front, Center, Side, Rear and Woofer speakers iec958:CARD=MP3,DEV=0 Sound Blaster MP3+, USB Audio IEC958 (S/PDIF) Digital Audio Output

_From http://bugtrack.alsa-project.org/main/index.php/Matrix:Vendor-Creative_Labs I see that only analog output is supported

.configure file:

# # Sound # CONFIG_SOUND=y

# # Advanced Linux Sound Architecture # CONFIG_SND=m CONFIG_SND_TIMER=m CONFIG_SND_PCM=m CONFIG_SND_HWDEP=m CONFIG_SND_RAWMIDI=m CONFIG_SND_SEQUENCER=m # CONFIG_SND_SEQ_DUMMY is not set # CONFIG_SND_MIXER_OSS is not set # CONFIG_SND_PCM_OSS is not set # CONFIG_SND_SEQUENCER_OSS is not set # CONFIG_SND_DYNAMIC_MINORS is not set CONFIG_SND_SUPPORT_OLD_API=y CONFIG_SND_VERBOSE_PROCFS=y # CONFIG_SND_VERBOSE_PRINTK is not set # CONFIG_SND_DEBUG is not set

# # Generic devices # # CONFIG_SND_DUMMY is not set # CONFIG_SND_VIRMIDI is not set # CONFIG_SND_MTPAV is not set # CONFIG_SND_SERIAL_U16550 is not set # CONFIG_SND_MPU401 is not set

# # ALSA PowerMac devices #

# # ALSA PowerMac requires I2C #

# # ALSA PowerPC devices

***** loaded modules **** [root@ps3 usb]# lsmod Module Size Used by hidp 27896 0 rfcomm 59208 0 l2cap 34312 6 hidp,rfcomm snd_usb_audio 114200 0 snd_usb_lib 25544 1 snd_usb_audio snd_rawmidi 34408 1 snd_usb_lib snd_ps3 19128 0 hci_usb 23172 2 bluetooth 81524 8 hidp,rfcomm,l2cap,hci_usb usb_storage 54236 0 snd_seq_device 11692 1 snd_rawmidi snd_hwdep 14368 1 snd_usb_audio snd_pcm 123132 2 snd_usb_audio,snd_ps3 usbhid 28828 0 snd_page_alloc 10816 1 snd_pcm sys_manager 7052 0 [permanent] snd_timer 33872 1 snd_pcm snd 77328 7 snd_usb_audio,snd_rawmidi,snd_ps3,snd_seq_device,snd_hwdep,snd_pcm,snd_timer sg 46816 0 ext2 75584 5