[alsa-devel] HDA: Sound mutes when combination is below -48 dB

[David Henningsson]

On 2010-12-03 12:59, Takashi Iwai wrote:
> At Fri, 03 Dec 2010 12:30:02 +0100,
> David Henningsson wrote:
>>
>> I'm trying to nail down a strange behaviour. I have one "Master" and one
>> "Speaker" (or "Headphone") volume control, each ranging from -48 dB to 0
>> dB. Whenever the sum of "Master" and "Speaker" is below -48 dB, the
>> output mutes. Codec is attached.
>>
>> "Master" is a "Virtual master" control, and both "Master" and "Speaker"
>> control amp-out on nid 0x13. Nid 0x13 does not have amp-out caps, but
>> the AFG specifies a range of -96 dB to 0 dB in 0.75 dB steps.
>>
>> There is some strange things here. First, in
>> patch_sigmatel:create_controls_idx, there is this comment:
>>
>> 		/* if dB scale is over -64dB, and finer enough,
>> 		 * let's reduce it to half
>> 		 */
>> Hmm? Removing half of the volume slider?
>>
>> Second, assuming we actually buy this decision, wouldn't it make sense
>> for people to be able to combine Master and Speaker to get the full -96
>> to 0 dB range? Instead, "Master" is just working over the range defined
>> by "Speaker".
>
> Well, the problem was fairly old.  You must think of the world before
> anything dB evaluation was introduced in the mixer apps.  They just
> took a percentage value, so we got to cut it off to give some "usable"
> interface for them.
>
> The biggest problem right now is that you can't take it back so easily
> "just for PA".  The PCM softvol is also the same.  There is no perfect
> solution, and PA isn't by 100% people here.  However, we must not give
> a regression in 100% manner.

Ok. I'm not certain I agree, but I see your point.

>
> OK, let's back to the bug point...
>
>> Third, there is an interesting condition in hda_codec.c:update_amp_value:
>>
>> 	if (val>  0)
>> 		val += ofs;
>>
>> Now this is in practice turning all volume controls which have ofs (e g
>> those being "reduced to half") to a minimum-is-mute error: I can set the
>> amp value to either 0 (-96 dB) or the 65 - 127 range (~ -48 dB - 0 dB).
>> So it isn't really mute, it's -96 dB signal, but I can't hear that anyway.
>
> OK, this looks really like a bug that the driver gives min-mute flag.
> The min-mute flag should be given only for the STAC codecs with lower
> resolution, such as STAC9200.  It seems that STAC925x (and STAC9202)
> are also in this category, while STAC9205 and other IDT codecs have
> higher resolutions.
>
> Since both STAC9200 and STAC925x have own Master definition, the
> simplest solution is to remove TLV_DB_SCALE_MUTE for vmaster like
> below...

I've tried it, but it doesn't help. Test case is simple: run the codec 
attached to the previous mail in hda-emu [1]. Then turn "Master" down 
from 64 to 60, or anything that makes the combination of "Master" and 
"Speaker" less than -48 dB, and notice that the amp value sent to the 
codec is 0x0 (i e -96 dB).

[1] If I never thanked you for that program, I do so now, it is a really 
great tool!

-- 
David Henningsson, Canonical Ltd.
http://launchpad.net/~diwic