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LPC: Linux audio: it's a messLPC: Linux audio: it's a messPosted Sep 19, 2008 15:00 UTC (Fri) by nim-nim (subscriber, #34454)Parent article: LPC: Linux audio: it's a mess
> too much power to be acceptable to battery-life-watching desktop users
Please don't conflate desktop with laptop like PA's authors like to do. There is a large proportion of desktop users that do not use laptops (and use wired audio peripherals you absolutely do not want to mute at every possible occasion like PA likes to do).
PA is laptop-oriented. Laptop does not equal desktop.
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laptop and desktop Posted Sep 19, 2008 18:33 UTC (Fri) by dmarti (subscriber, #11625) [Link] Non-laptop desktop machines are getting more power-aware, though, in order to get the "Energy Star" sticker needed to sell to government and big companies. So the nifty buffer-management features are going to be relevant to people who aren't on battery.Jim Gettys mentioned this project: AudioFile : a network-transparent system for distributed audio applications. It look as if PulseAudio is picking up on AF's buffering model.
laptop and desktop Posted Sep 20, 2008 13:41 UTC (Sat) by nim-nim (subscriber, #34454) [Link]
> Non-laptop desktop machines are getting more power-aware, though
Sure, and so are non-desktops. However making power and device hot-plugging core priorities, while at the same time dismissing multichannel sound and the ecosystem built around jack, show the "desktop" PA authors like to talk of is a laptop with simple stereo usb devices, with everything else retrofitted as an afterthought.
laptop and desktop Posted Sep 22, 2008 0:01 UTC (Mon) by mezcalero (subscriber, #45103) [Link]
Uh? PA supports surround sound just fine. Even does automatic upmixing/downmixing from/to stereo for you.
Also, I don't "dismiss" JACK and the community around it. It's great stuff. But solves a different problem as PA. That's all.
laptop and desktop Posted Sep 23, 2008 5:04 UTC (Tue) by foom (subscriber, #14868) [Link]
> Uh? PA supports surround sound just fine. Even does automatic upmixing/downmixing
> from/to stereo for you.
Sure, but doesn't transparently support the most common source/sink of surround sound: AC3
If PA automatically supported AC3 encoding of surround sound to my SPDIF output, without
If PA could allow routing of AC3 audio through to the SPDIF port without the decoding/encoding
But, if it could do that, *and* transparently fall-over to doing a decode/mix/encode when it
Also, volume control is an interesting trick when not decoding the ac3 stream locally; I dunno
One can always dream...
laptop and desktop Posted Sep 23, 2008 13:45 UTC (Tue) by mezcalero (subscriber, #45103) [Link]
PA focuses on PCM right now. Support for pass-thru codecs is on our TODO list.
However, please note that we will probably never support on-the-fly AC3 decoding or encoding due to patents.
Lennart
laptop and desktop Posted Sep 23, 2008 14:52 UTC (Tue) by foom (subscriber, #14868) [Link] Sad to hear that about the patents...but is there really any issue with using an AC3 encoder/decoder library if the user happens to have one installed already? (maybe they've already paid the licensing fee to Dolby, e.g. through buying a Dell with Ubuntu preinstalled).
laptop and desktop Posted Sep 23, 2008 20:07 UTC (Tue) by mezcalero (subscriber, #45103) [Link]
I am happy to merge patches for that.
LPC: Linux audio: it's a mess Posted Sep 22, 2008 0:04 UTC (Mon) by mezcalero (subscriber, #45103) [Link]
Dunno how you come to the conclusion that PA is laptop oriented. In fact I do all of my development on PA on a desktop machine. And that's where I run it on most of the time.
Sure power saving is not as important for desktops as it is for laptops, but power saving is not all what PA is about. And power saving is good for desktops too .. and the environment. (and also for your power bill)
Lennart
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