ALSA and Surround Sound 5.1 Problems.

conn-fused · 2011-06-19 04:16:08

Hi all,

I've been arguing with my sound card(s) for months now trying to get working surround sound. Time to admit that I need some help. Ideally, I'd like to have full surround sound using the onboard device on my M4A87TD EVO mainboard played through a set of Logitech X530 speakers.

When I run "speaker-test -c6 -twav" I hear a voice from my front left and front right speakers only. Using "speaker-test -c2 -twav" works as expected. When I play music I do hear sound from all speakers, even if it's a stereo source, so something is upmixing stereo for me, although I'm not sure where this happening. I have no /etc/asound.conf or ~/.asoundrc files (although I have tried both without success). I have run alsaconf, and I'm reasonably sure that everything that should be unmuted in alsamixer is.

For a long time I suspected the VT1818S chip of being inadequately supported. I put in an old 4.0 (I think) soundblaster card, however, and the results were the same.

Here's some info that might help. First "cat /proc/asound/cards"

0 [SB             ]: HDA-Intel - HDA ATI SB
                      HDA ATI SB at 0xfbcf4000 irq 16
 1 [NVidia         ]: HDA-Intel - HDA NVidia
                      HDA NVidia at 0xfe97c000 irq 19
 2 [Live           ]: EMU10K1 - SB Live! Value [CT4830]
                      SB Live! Value [CT4830] (rev.7, serial:0x80261102) at 0xc880, irq 22

cat /proc/asound/modules

 0 snd_hda_intel
 1 snd_hda_intel
 2 snd_emu10k1

Here is the output of "aplay -l":

**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: SB [HDA ATI SB], device 0: VT1818S Analog [VT1818S Analog]
  Subdevices: 1/2
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
  Subdevice #1: subdevice #1
card 0: SB [HDA ATI SB], device 1: VT1818S Digital [VT1818S Digital]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: NVidia [HDA NVidia], device 3: HDMI 0 [HDMI 0]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: NVidia [HDA NVidia], device 7: HDMI 0 [HDMI 0]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: NVidia [HDA NVidia], device 8: HDMI 0 [HDMI 0]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: NVidia [HDA NVidia], device 9: HDMI 0 [HDMI 0]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 2: Live [SB Live! Value [CT4830]], device 0: emu10k1 [ADC Capture/Standard PCM Playback]
  Subdevices: 32/32
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
  Subdevice #1: subdevice #1
  Subdevice #2: subdevice #2
  Subdevice #3: subdevice #3
  Subdevice #4: subdevice #4
  Subdevice #5: subdevice #5
  Subdevice #6: subdevice #6
  Subdevice #7: subdevice #7
  Subdevice #8: subdevice #8
  Subdevice #9: subdevice #9
  Subdevice #10: subdevice #10
  Subdevice #11: subdevice #11
  Subdevice #12: subdevice #12
  Subdevice #13: subdevice #13
  Subdevice #14: subdevice #14
  Subdevice #15: subdevice #15
  Subdevice #16: subdevice #16
  Subdevice #17: subdevice #17
  Subdevice #18: subdevice #18
  Subdevice #19: subdevice #19
  Subdevice #20: subdevice #20
  Subdevice #21: subdevice #21
  Subdevice #22: subdevice #22
  Subdevice #23: subdevice #23
  Subdevice #24: subdevice #24
  Subdevice #25: subdevice #25
  Subdevice #26: subdevice #26
  Subdevice #27: subdevice #27
  Subdevice #28: subdevice #28
  Subdevice #29: subdevice #29
  Subdevice #30: subdevice #30
  Subdevice #31: subdevice #31
card 2: Live [SB Live! Value [CT4830]], device 2: emu10k1 efx [Multichannel Capture/PT Playback]
  Subdevices: 8/8
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
  Subdevice #1: subdevice #1
  Subdevice #2: subdevice #2
  Subdevice #3: subdevice #3
  Subdevice #4: subdevice #4
  Subdevice #5: subdevice #5
  Subdevice #6: subdevice #6
  Subdevice #7: subdevice #7
card 2: Live [SB Live! Value [CT4830]], device 3: emu10k1 [Multichannel Playback]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

And here's "aplay -L":

null
    Discard all samples (playback) or generate zero samples (capture)
default:CARD=SB
    HDA ATI SB, VT1818S Analog
    Default Audio Device
front:CARD=SB,DEV=0
    HDA ATI SB, VT1818S Analog
    Front speakers
surround40:CARD=SB,DEV=0
    HDA ATI SB, VT1818S Analog
    4.0 Surround output to Front and Rear speakers
surround41:CARD=SB,DEV=0
    HDA ATI SB, VT1818S Analog
    4.1 Surround output to Front, Rear and Subwoofer speakers
surround50:CARD=SB,DEV=0
    HDA ATI SB, VT1818S Analog
    5.0 Surround output to Front, Center and Rear speakers
surround51:CARD=SB,DEV=0
    HDA ATI SB, VT1818S Analog
    5.1 Surround output to Front, Center, Rear and Subwoofer speakers
surround71:CARD=SB,DEV=0
    HDA ATI SB, VT1818S Analog
    7.1 Surround output to Front, Center, Side, Rear and Woofer speakers
iec958:CARD=SB,DEV=0
    HDA ATI SB, VT1818S Digital
    IEC958 (S/PDIF) Digital Audio Output
hdmi:CARD=NVidia,DEV=0
    HDA NVidia, HDMI 0
    HDMI Audio Output
hdmi:CARD=NVidia,DEV=1
    HDA NVidia, HDMI 0
    HDMI Audio Output
hdmi:CARD=NVidia,DEV=2
    HDA NVidia, HDMI 0
    HDMI Audio Output
hdmi:CARD=NVidia,DEV=3
    HDA NVidia, HDMI 0
    HDMI Audio Output
default:CARD=Live
    SB Live! Value [CT4830], ADC Capture/Standard PCM Playback
    Default Audio Device
front:CARD=Live,DEV=0
    SB Live! Value [CT4830], ADC Capture/Standard PCM Playback
    Front speakers
rear:CARD=Live,DEV=0
    SB Live! Value [CT4830], ADC Capture/Standard PCM Playback
    Rear speakers
center_lfe:CARD=Live,DEV=0
    SB Live! Value [CT4830], ADC Capture/Standard PCM Playback
    Center and Subwoofer speakers
surround40:CARD=Live,DEV=0
    SB Live! Value [CT4830], ADC Capture/Standard PCM Playback
    4.0 Surround output to Front and Rear speakers
surround41:CARD=Live,DEV=0
    SB Live! Value [CT4830], ADC Capture/Standard PCM Playback
    4.1 Surround output to Front, Rear and Subwoofer speakers
surround50:CARD=Live,DEV=0
    SB Live! Value [CT4830], ADC Capture/Standard PCM Playback
    5.0 Surround output to Front, Center and Rear speakers
surround51:CARD=Live,DEV=0
    SB Live! Value [CT4830], ADC Capture/Standard PCM Playback
    5.1 Surround output to Front, Center, Rear and Subwoofer speakers
iec958:CARD=Live,DEV=0
    SB Live! Value [CT4830], Multichannel Capture/PT Playback
    IEC958 (S/PDIF) Digital Audio Output

And here's "lsmod | grep snd"

lsmod | grep snd
snd_seq_oss            29204  0 
snd_seq_midi            5424  0 
snd_emu10k1_synth       6061  0 
snd_emux_synth         35888  1 snd_emu10k1_synth
snd_seq_virmidi         4900  1 snd_emux_synth
snd_seq_midi_event      5636  3 snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_midi,snd_seq_virmidi
snd_seq_midi_emul       6175  1 snd_emux_synth
snd_seq_dummy           1503  0 
snd_seq                50785  9 snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_midi,snd_emux_synth,snd_seq_virmidi,snd_seq_midi_event,snd_seq_midi_emul,snd_seq_dummy
snd_hda_codec_hdmi     22784  4 
snd_emu10k1           137237  1 snd_emu10k1_synth
snd_hda_codec_via      53302  1 
snd_rawmidi            19466  3 snd_seq_midi,snd_seq_virmidi,snd_emu10k1
snd_ac97_codec        114295  1 snd_emu10k1
ac97_bus                1214  1 snd_ac97_codec
snd_hda_intel          22186  6 
snd_seq_device          5372  8 snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_midi,snd_emu10k1_synth,snd_emux_synth,snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq,snd_emu10k1,snd_rawmidi
snd_hda_codec          77703  3 snd_hda_codec_hdmi,snd_hda_codec_via,snd_hda_intel
snd_util_mem            2336  2 snd_emux_synth,snd_emu10k1
snd_hwdep               6342  3 snd_emux_synth,snd_emu10k1,snd_hda_codec
snd_pcm                73736  7 snd_hda_codec_hdmi,snd_emu10k1,snd_ac97_codec,snd_hda_intel,snd_hda_codec
snd_timer              19488  5 snd_seq,snd_emu10k1,snd_pcm
snd                    57384  23 snd_seq_oss,snd_emux_synth,snd_seq_virmidi,snd_seq,snd_hda_codec_hdmi,snd_emu10k1,snd_hda_codec_via,snd_rawmidi,snd_ac97_codec,snd_hda_intel,snd_seq_device,snd_hda_codec,snd_hwdep,snd_pcm,snd_timer
soundcore               6178  1 snd
snd_page_alloc          7161  3 snd_emu10k1,snd_hda_intel,snd_pcm

I'm flat out of ideas and can't find anything else constructive to read, so I'd appreciate any you have! Many thanks!

brebs · 2011-06-19 07:32:59

Sounds like your speaker system is doing the upmixing. Does it have a control panel, or anything to change its settings?

conn-fused · 2011-06-19 19:31:32

All the speakers have is a main volume dial and an LFE volume dial.

On the ALSA front, I should have mentioned that I know it must be possible to configure ALSA to run speaker-test successfully because I had another set of these speakers working properly with Mandriva a few years back.

garugaga · 2011-06-28 01:10:26

Me and a friend are a very similiar problem, we started a new post at:

https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=121683

Our 5.1 worked fine on Ubuntu but we can't get it to work in Arch. The only difference in symptoms is that our system isn't upmixing to stereo.

Arch Linux

#1 2011-06-19 04:16:08

ALSA and Surround Sound 5.1 Problems.

#2 2011-06-19 07:32:59

Re: ALSA and Surround Sound 5.1 Problems.

#3 2011-06-19 19:31:32

Re: ALSA and Surround Sound 5.1 Problems.

#4 2011-06-28 01:10:26

Re: ALSA and Surround Sound 5.1 Problems.

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