Getting SPDIF stable with snd_ctxfi using IEC958 device

DarksideEE7 · 2010-09-18 23:47:10

Well I've managed to get DTS and AC3 streaming over SPDIF on my Auzentech Prelude in VLC, however the stream often crashes, losing SPDIF passthrough. I normally just watch movies and TV shows using PCM by unchecking 'Use SPDIF when available' and selecting ALSA device Front/Wave In as my audio output.

Does anyone have any tips on keeping this stable? So far I have these backends installed for testing (KDE 4.5 as DE):
Gstreamer
VLC
Xine
Here are the relevant packages, let me know if I'm missing anything:

gstreamer0.10 0.10.30-1
gstreamer0.10-bad 0.10.19-1
gstreamer0.10-bad-plugins 0.10.19-1
gstreamer0.10-base 0.10.30-1
gstreamer0.10-base-plugins 0.10.30-1
gstreamer0.10-ffmpeg 0.10.10-1
gstreamer0.10-good 0.10.24-1
gstreamer0.10-good-plugins 0.10.24-1
gstreamer0.10-python 0.10.18-1
gstreamer0.10-ugly 0.10.15-4
gstreamer0.10-ugly-plugins 0.10.15-4

phonon-vlc 0.2.0-1
vlc 1.1.4-2

lib32-libxinerama 1.1-3
libxinerama 1.1-1
phonon-xine 4.4.2-1
xine-lib 1.1.19-1
xineramaproto 1.2-1
xinetd 2.3.14-5

alsa-lib 1.0.23-1
alsa-oss 1.0.17-1
alsa-plugins 1.0.23-1
alsa-utils 1.0.23-2
lib32-alsa-lib 1.0.23-4
lib32-alsa-plugins 1.0.23-5

I have SMplayer installed as well.
I haven't tried Pulseaudio on this system, but I suppose it's worth a shot. It would be really nice to get this working, as I have to reboot into Windows 7 if I want to have an optimal watching experience. I have a nice Denon reciever and Polk audio surround going to waste if I don't have DTS or AC3 with bit perfect playback!

Thanks in advance.

EDIT:

I also have read this page and I'm able to play the sample DTS file without any problems.

http://alsa.opensrc.org/index.php/Digit … your_mixer

I've also found that if the bitstream fails while playing, it will not recover by simply restarting VLC. If I try again later on sometimes it will work, but not always. I suppose I could modprobe -r the kernel module then readd it, but that's not a practical fix.

Last edited by DarksideEE7 (2010-09-18 23:49:56)

ctxfi-user · 2010-10-31 17:42:57

There was a patch posted in the Alsa Bug Tracker (there is also a guest login):
https://bugtrack.alsa-project.org/alsa- … hp?id=5147

Works for me:
- wget alsa-driver-1.0.23.tar.bz2
- tar xjf alsa-driver-1.0.23.tar.bz2
- patch -p 0 < xfispdif.patch
- ./configure --with-debug=full --enable-dynamic-minors --with-cards=ctxfi
- make
- make install-modules
- restart & enjoy

You get the original module by reinstalling kernel26-package.

DarksideEE7 · 2010-10-31 19:55:13

ctxfi-user wrote:

There was a patch posted in the Alsa Bug Tracker (there is also a guest login):
https://bugtrack.alsa-project.org/alsa- … hp?id=5147
Works for me:
- wget alsa-driver-1.0.23.tar.bz2
- tar xjf alsa-driver-1.0.23.tar.bz2
- patch -p 0 < xfispdif.patch
- ./configure --with-debug=full --enable-dynamic-minors --with-cards=ctxfi
- make
- make install-modules
- restart & enjoy
You get the original module by reinstalling kernel26-package.

Excellent....I'll try that. I would love to be able to use passthrough without worrying about it crashing.

I'm getting errors on make.....

Hunk #11 succeeded at 803 (offset 1 line).
make[3]: Leaving directory `/home/l33/DLs/ctxfi.patch/alsa-driver-1.0.23/usb/usx2y'
make[2]: Leaving directory `/home/l33/DLs/ctxfi.patch/alsa-driver-1.0.23/usb'
make[2]: Entering directory `/home/l33/DLs/ctxfi.patch/alsa-driver-1.0.23/pcmcia'
make[3]: Entering directory `/home/l33/DLs/ctxfi.patch/alsa-driver-1.0.23/pcmcia/pdaudiocf'
make[3]: Leaving directory `/home/l33/DLs/ctxfi.patch/alsa-driver-1.0.23/pcmcia/pdaudiocf'
make[3]: Entering directory `/home/l33/DLs/ctxfi.patch/alsa-driver-1.0.23/pcmcia/vx'
make[3]: Leaving directory `/home/l33/DLs/ctxfi.patch/alsa-driver-1.0.23/pcmcia/vx'
make[2]: Leaving directory `/home/l33/DLs/ctxfi.patch/alsa-driver-1.0.23/pcmcia'
make[1]: Leaving directory `/home/l33/DLs/ctxfi.patch/alsa-driver-1.0.23'
make -C /lib/modules/2.6.35-ARCH/build SUBDIRS=/home/l33/DLs/ctxfi.patch/alsa-driver-1.0.23  CPP="gcc -E" CC="gcc" modules
make[1]: Entering directory `/usr/src/linux-2.6.35-ARCH'
  CC [M]  /home/l33/DLs/ctxfi.patch/alsa-driver-1.0.23/acore/memory_wrapper.o
  CC [M]  /home/l33/DLs/ctxfi.patch/alsa-driver-1.0.23/acore/memalloc.o
  CC [M]  /home/l33/DLs/ctxfi.patch/alsa-driver-1.0.23/acore/sgbuf.o
  CC [M]  /home/l33/DLs/ctxfi.patch/alsa-driver-1.0.23/acore/pcm.o
  CC [M]  /home/l33/DLs/ctxfi.patch/alsa-driver-1.0.23/acore/pcm_native.o
/home/l33/DLs/ctxfi.patch/alsa-driver-1.0.23/acore/pcm_native.c: In function 'snd_pcm_hw_params':
/home/l33/DLs/ctxfi.patch/alsa-driver-1.0.23/acore/pcm_native.c:489:2: error: implicit declaration of function 'pm_qos_remove_requirement'
/home/l33/DLs/ctxfi.patch/alsa-driver-1.0.23/acore/pcm_native.c:492:3: error: implicit declaration of function 'pm_qos_add_requirement'
make[3]: *** [/home/l33/DLs/ctxfi.patch/alsa-driver-1.0.23/acore/pcm_native.o] Error 1
make[2]: *** [/home/l33/DLs/ctxfi.patch/alsa-driver-1.0.23/acore] Error 2
make[1]: *** [_module_/home/l33/DLs/ctxfi.patch/alsa-driver-1.0.23] Error 2
make[1]: Leaving directory `/usr/src/linux-2.6.35-ARCH'
make: *** [compile] Error 2

Ran as root as well as user

Last edited by DarksideEE7 (2010-10-31 20:18:33)

ctxfi-user · 2010-10-31 23:32:00

My bad. Currently i am using the kernel26-lts (i686) because a bug in Kernel .35 related to my NIC.

Try it with the latest snapshot (i've just tested and it works; don't forget to patch):
http://www.alsa-project.org/snapshot/files/

You need kernel26-headers also.

Last edited by ctxfi-user (2010-10-31 23:32:45)

DarksideEE7 · 2010-11-01 01:01:27

ctxfi-user wrote:

My bad. Currently i am using the kernel26-lts (i686) because a bug in Kernel .35 related to my NIC.
Try it with the latest snapshot (i've just tested and it works; don't forget to patch):
http://www.alsa-project.org/snapshot/files/
You need kernel26-headers also.

Great, I'll give it a shot. I just updated to 2.6.36 today, so the snapshot works with that?

ctxfi-user · 2010-11-01 08:49:25

I'm not sure. Just tested it with 2.6.32.25-2 (kernel26-lts) 2.6.35.8 (kernel26) from the core repo. But the latest snapshot from the Alsa drivers should do it (http://www.alsa-project.org/snapshot/).

Last edited by ctxfi-user (2010-11-01 08:50:12)

DarksideEE7 · 2010-11-01 08:50:49

ctxfi-user wrote:

I'm not sure. Just tested it with 2.6.32.25-2 (kernel26-lts) 2.6.35.8 (kernel26) from the core repo. But the latest snapshot from the Alsa drivers should do it (http://www.alsa-project.org/snapshot/).

I see. Well I'll give it a shot tomorrow and see how it goes. Many thanks

DarksideEE7 · 2010-11-02 22:22:09

All right I haven't had enough time to test until now. Hopefully all will go well!

Arch Linux

#1 2010-09-18 23:47:10

Getting SPDIF stable with snd_ctxfi using IEC958 device

#2 2010-10-31 17:42:57

Re: Getting SPDIF stable with snd_ctxfi using IEC958 device

#3 2010-10-31 19:55:13

Re: Getting SPDIF stable with snd_ctxfi using IEC958 device

#4 2010-10-31 23:32:00

Re: Getting SPDIF stable with snd_ctxfi using IEC958 device

#5 2010-11-01 01:01:27

Re: Getting SPDIF stable with snd_ctxfi using IEC958 device

#6 2010-11-01 08:49:25

Re: Getting SPDIF stable with snd_ctxfi using IEC958 device

#7 2010-11-01 08:50:49

Re: Getting SPDIF stable with snd_ctxfi using IEC958 device

#8 2010-11-02 22:22:09

Re: Getting SPDIF stable with snd_ctxfi using IEC958 device

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