DigitalOut
From the ALSA wiki
These instructions apply to digital connections using either electrical coax or optical connections.
Contents[hide] |
[edit] Special terms
Terms used when dealing with digital outputs are:
- IEC958 - The name of the IEC standards document and often seen in the alsamixer controls
- S/PDIF or SPDIF - Stands for Sony/Philips Digital Interface Format, a specification for digital audio communication
[edit] Check Your Mixer
Mixer settings will affect your testing later on, so check them now. Run alsamixer. Check that Playback or All is selected for View (top of screen). Look for the following channels and take action as noted.
- IEC958 Output: Press M to unmute.
- IEC958, IEC958 1 or similarly named channels: Set to "PCM Out". <-- HOW do you do this?? Added sample image, but thumbnail creation doesn't work... For now: [1]
When referring to a digital output, setting it to "PCM Out" instructs the card to pass through the audio bytestream exactly as it is received from an application without applying any mixer settings. This is important, since a main point of having a digital audio output is to extract raw data from the PC to a device that may be more capable. Many people, apparently including hardware designers, my regard digital outputs purely as a noise-free version of analog outputs. However, the interface is really a separate (if unidirectional) interface. This is important to keep in mind when passing AC3 surround data streams through the card to an external decoder. In that case, modifications of the stream would make it completely invalid.
TODO: Tell people how to set "PCM out" mode. Add more common mixer settings, try to keep it simple and as general as possible.
[edit] Find Your Device
There are different ways by which the digital output may be exposed to the system by ALSA: as an independent device of a soundcard, or as an alias. The ways to find either one are described below.
[edit] Separate Playback Device
On most cards the digital out is a specific audio playback device. To see which ALSA playback devices you have, you can use this command:
aplay -l
Sample output:
[jranders@chickadee ~]$ aplay -l **** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices **** card 0: T71Space [Terratec Aureon 7.1-Space], device 0: ICE1724 [ICE1724] Subdevices: 1/1 Subdevice #0: subdevice #0 card 0: T71Space [Terratec Aureon 7.1-Space], device 1: IEC1724 IEC958 [IEC1724 IEC958] Subdevices: 0/1 Subdevice #0: subdevice #0 card 0: T71Space [Terratec Aureon 7.1-Space], device 2: ICE1724 Surrounds [ICE1724 Surround PCM] Subdevices: 3/3 Subdevice #0: subdevice #0 Subdevice #1: subdevice #1 Subdevice #2: subdevice #2
The device is specified as hw:(card),(device). The sample above shows device 1 is labeled "IEC1724 IEC958". That is the digital output device on this card, so it would be called hw:0,1. If your card does not show an IEC958 device, look for S/PDIF or digital.
If you get errors about "invalid arguments", etc, then try substituting "plughw" for "hw" in the above examples.
[edit] Device Aliases
On some cards digital out is already -- or even exclusively -- defined as an alias. See aplay -L for available playback devices. On a system with nForce 4 chipset onboard audio and an M-Audio Delta Audiophile 2496, this results in:
$ aplay -L default:CARD=CK804 NVidia CK804, NVidia CK804 Default Audio Device front:CARD=CK804,DEV=0 NVidia CK804, NVidia CK804 Front speakers surround40:CARD=CK804,DEV=0 NVidia CK804, NVidia CK804 4.0 Surround output to Front and Rear speakers surround41:CARD=CK804,DEV=0 NVidia CK804, NVidia CK804 4.1 Surround output to Front, Rear and Subwoofer speakers surround50:CARD=CK804,DEV=0 NVidia CK804, NVidia CK804 5.0 Surround output to Front, Center and Rear speakers surround51:CARD=CK804,DEV=0 NVidia CK804, NVidia CK804 5.1 Surround output to Front, Center, Rear and Subwoofer speakers null Discard all samples (playback) or generate zero samples (capture) default:CARD=M2496 M Audio Audiophile 24/96, ICE1712 multi Default Audio Device front:CARD=M2496,DEV=0 M Audio Audiophile 24/96, ICE1712 multi Front speakers surround40:CARD=M2496,DEV=0 M Audio Audiophile 24/96, ICE1712 multi 4.0 Surround output to Front and Rear speakers surround41:CARD=M2496,DEV=0 M Audio Audiophile 24/96, ICE1712 multi 4.1 Surround output to Front, Rear and Subwoofer speakers surround50:CARD=M2496,DEV=0 M Audio Audiophile 24/96, ICE1712 multi 5.0 Surround output to Front, Center and Rear speakers surround51:CARD=M2496,DEV=0 M Audio Audiophile 24/96, ICE1712 multi 5.1 Surround output to Front, Center, Rear and Subwoofer speakers iec958:CARD=M2496,DEV=0 M Audio Audiophile 24/96, ICE1712 multi IEC958 (S/PDIF) Digital Audio Output
If you see iec958 or S/PDIF in that list you can use the complete identification including the CARD and DEV parameters as a playback device instead of ```hw:x,y```.
Important Note: The OSSEmulation uses devices ```hw:0,0``` and ```hw:0,1``` for /dev/dsp and/dev/adsp. See the page OSSEmulation.
[edit] Alternate Method to Find Device
If you did not find your digital device with the above command, keep reading. Otherwise, skip to the Use Your Device section.
This is another command to show ALSA devices on your sound card:
cat /proc/asound/devices
Here is an example:
tapas@mango:~$ cat /proc/asound/devices 1: : sequencer 0: [0- 0]: ctl 8: [0- 0]: raw midi 18: [0- 2]: digital audio playback 17: [0- 1]: digital audio playback 16: [0- 0]: digital audio playback 24: [0- 0]: digital audio capture 33: : timer
There are three audio playback devices:
18: [0- 2]: digital audio playback 17: [0- 1]: digital audio playback 16: [0- 0]: digital audio playback
One of these is the digital out. We can test all outputs using the aplay command, or alternatively alsaplayer or mplayer. If you want to use aplay for this test, you need to have a.wav file. The numbers inside the square brackets ("[x- y]") are indexes for the soundcard (x) and the device (y) on that soundcard. So to play using the first playback device on the first card ("[0- 0]") you could use
aplay -D hw:0,0 file.wav
For the second and third you could use
aplay -D hw:0,1 file.wav aplay -D hw:0,2 file.wav
Or with mplayer on [0- 0]:
mplayer file.wav -ao alsa:device=hw=0,0
If you hear sound when running one of these commands, you have found your digital device. If not, check your connection, receiver volume, and mixer settings described in the section above.
[edit] Use Your Device
To utilize the digital output, connect your sound card to something with a digital cable (possibly a stereo or surround receiver). Tell your program to send sound to 'hw:x,y' or 'plughw:x,y', where x is the card number and y is the device number shown by 'aplay -l'. For my card, this is hw:0,1.
Examples
- Mplayer can be set with '-ao alsa:device=plughw=0.1' (beware it's a dot, not a comma)
- XMMS can be set in Preferences->Audio I/O Plugins->Output Plugin by choosing ALSA, then Configure and set Audio device to 'plughw:0,1'
- MythTV can be set in Utilities/Setup->Setup->General, on the third page, by typing 'ALSA:plughw:0,1' into Audio output device
- xine can be set on the audio tab in setup by setting any output you like to 'pcm.plughw:0,1' and the audio driver to alsa
If you hear screeching or modem-like sounds using 'hw', try 'plughw'. (TODO: Explain why.)
If neither of these work for you, it may be due to the driver and card's support of sample rates and formats. This might be the case if you see errors about "invalid arguments". This is one reason to use the dmix mixer plugin. Look for user notes on your card at http://alsa-project.org/alsa-doc/, ALSA modules and Sound cards. Read about dmix and .asoundrc(asound.conf).
[edit] Set your default
You can set the default playback device by using .asoundrc or /etc/asound.conf, you need to add this to set the defaults:
pcm.!default { type hw card <the card number you worked out above> device <the device number you worked out above> }
[edit] Digital Surround Passthrough
While the setup thus far allows you to use the digital connection, it doesn't enable Dolby Digital or dts passthrough, where the complete signal is sent to your receiver for decoding. Without that, you don't get surround. Please note, not all sources have digital surround in them. DVDs and digital TV signals commonly do.
[edit] mplayer
In Mplayer, use -ac hwac3 or -ac hwdts. Do not specify channels, because history dictates channels be set to 2, the default. Make sure channels is not in your config file. To find the desired audio track, run with -v and look for 'aid'. English Dolby 5.1 is sometimes 128. Then run mplayer with '-aid 128'. If the audio track is dts, use hwdts.
[edit] MythTV
MythTV can pass through digital surround from digital TV. Go to Utilities/Setup->Setup->General, on the third page, and select "Enable AC3 to S/PDIF passthrough".
[edit] xine
In xine, go to the audio tab in setup and set speaker arrangement to Pass Through and 5.1 output (alsa passthrough) to your digital ALSA pcm, like 'pcm.plughw:0,1'.
Setting 5.1 output (alsa passthrough) to 'plug:iec958' worked for me. Now my AV Receiver reports the Dolby/DTS modes correctly, not just PCM sound
The settings below work for me with an M-Audio Delta Audiophile (ICE1712 chip) to get passthrough to work in xine. Note the syntax for card specification, which is taken straight from aplay -L. The card only offers the IEC958 link as an alias, while only exposing a single device to the system. Those lines are supposed to go in the ~/.xine/config file:
audio.device.alsa_passthrough_device:iec958:CARD=M2496,DEV=0 audio.device.alsa_surround40_device:surround40:CARD=M2496,DEV=0 audio.device.alsa_surround51_device:surround51:CARD=M2496,DEV=0 audio.output.speaker_arrangement:Pass Through
When you start watching the actual movie (not previews or menu), your receiver should show that it's receiving digital surround.
[edit] Testing Your Setup
[edit] Raw Digital Output
A good test for "bit-perfect" digital passthrough (or S/PDIF passthrough) is to play these
to your receiver decoder through a single TOSlink or analog digital connection. The DD of DTS light should come on and it should sound amazing. You can use aplay for playback, since that is rather easy to use if you just want to dump data into the card. The command may look like that:aplay -D iec958:CARD=M2496,DEV=0 Norrlanda.wav
The parameters:
- -D iec958:CARD=M2496,DEV=0: Set the output device. You use the device names from aplay -L.
- The files provided at the site have proper headers that set up the data stream. If you get garbled results with other source material, you may try -f dat to use 48kHz sample rate, 16 bit little endian sample format, which is often used on DVDs.
[edit] Analog Surround Output
An alternative method would be to let ffmpeg decode the ac3 or dts and send it through 5.1(6) or 6.1(7) separate analog channels to an amplifier of amplified computer speakers using 3 RCA cables. At least with the files from the site above, mplayer seems to properly recognize DTS encoded autio and chooses a decoder library (libdca in my case), so playback is trivial:
Untested command (no 5.1-capable hardware, tested with -ao null)
$ mplayer -channels 6 Norrlanda.wav Playing Norrlanda.wav. Audio file file format detected. ========================================================================== Opening audio decoder: [libdca] DTS decoding with libdca AUDIO: 44100 Hz, 6 ch, s16le, 1411.2 kbit/33.33% (ratio: 176400->529200) Selected audio codec: [dts] afm: libdca (DTS-libdca) ========================================================================== AO: [null] 44100Hz 6ch s16le (2 bytes per sample) Video: no video Starting playback... A: 26.7 (26.7) of 265.0 (04:25.0) 12.8%
R-Mobile S1
********************************cn16************************************************* insmod /lib/modules/2.6.35.7/rtapi.ko /usr/local/bin/mpro & mount -t vfat /dev/mmcblk1p1 /mnt cd /mnt/ insmod dmamem.ko which amixer which aplay amixer cset name='OUT Mixer DACL' on amixer cset name='DAC Playback Volume' 200 date aplay -C -t wav -c 2 -r 48000 -f S16_LE -d 3600 -v -D hw:0,0 /mnt/3600s_5_4.wav