[alsa-devel] iec958 switch uneffective while playing ac3 stream

[Dag Lem]

Takashi Iwai <tiwai at suse.de> writes:

[...]

> Or, it's simply some missing setup by apps.  The app sending the
> non-audio streams like AC3 over SPDIF is supposed to set up the IEC958
> status bits appropriately at opening the stream.  The IEC958 bits can
> be passed via arguments for the "spdif" (or "iec958") PCM.  For
> example, ac3dec in alsa-tools openes like
> 
> 	plug:iec958:{AES0 0x.. AES1 0x..... AES3 0x..}
> 
> where the hex numbers represent status bits.  These numbers can be
> shown via iecset utility with -x option.  So, you can check via iecset
> whether the parameters are set up properly when you start an app
> accessing SPDIF.

Thanks for taking an interest in this.

I've been scratching my head here for a while, and we seem to have
initialization problems with the Realtek ALC88x chips (mine is marked
ALC882M). One workaround for AC3/DTS, as mentioned in today's reply to
Dominique, is to turn the IEC958 switch off, start playing, then turn
the IEC958 switch on while playing. Opening the (first) stream while
the IEC958 switch is on simply doesn't work - the connected amplifier
doesn't detect the AC3/DTS stream.

The more serious problem, for which I have no workaround, is that it
doesn't seem to be possible to lock the S/PDIF output frame rate to
anything but 48kHz. I am using hw:0,1 and not the default device
(which resamples to 48kHz). Can you confirm that it is possible to
achieve e.g. 44.1kHz frame rate over S/PDIF using the HDA driver
(using any chip)?

Do you happen to have any contacts at Realtek who may be able to sort
out the S/PDIF frame rate problem? I tried contacting Realtek, but the
reply I got unfortunately didn't answer any of my questions.

-- 
Best regards,

Dag Lem