Problems with vlc 0.2.80

[David Haworth]

On Mon, Jul 02, 2001 at 07:27:24AM +0200, Tom wrote [Re: sound server]:
> but that's not an OS design problem. it's a user problem if he runs
> more than one at once. as a matter of fact, one of the things I love
> about Linux is is that there are many window managers, so everyone can
> choose the one he likes best instead of being forced into conformity.
> sound is not yet that refined, but in a while, I'd be surprised if it
> doesn't work he same - several choices, all of them playing nice with
> each other.

I was poking around in the Solaris-8 sound driver the other day (making
a quick hack for the ogg player to select the output port on startup).
Solaris now has a PCM mixer. If I understand correctly, programs that
want to output sounds open /dev/audio, and get a handle to a pseudo-device.
The sound server converts the audio stream to 16-bit stereo PCM from
whatever stream type the program selects, and mixes it with all other
pseudo-device streams before passing it on to the real device. The relative
levels on the PCM inputs can be controlled through another device
(/dev/audioctl or similar). Unfortunately, as far as I can tell, there
isn't a mixer program provided. I think the sound server is a kernel
module.

Surely this could be done for Linux - if it hasn't already... The
mixer program could mix together all the hardware sources (CD, Line, Mic
etc). along with the software sources from the pseudo-devs.

Dave

-- 
David Haworth
Baiersdorf, Germany
david.haworth at altavista.net