audio pain

Rich Cloutier richc at sysupport.com
Wed Aug 14 22:23:04 EDT 2002


----- Original Message -----
From: "Bill Mullen" <moonmullen at attbi.com>
To: "GNHLUG Mailing List" <discuss at gnhlug.org>
Sent: Wednesday, August 14, 2002 7:47 PM
Subject: Re: audio pain


> On Wed, 14 Aug 2002, Ken Ambrose wrote:
>
> > Your problem (and, frankly, the one regarding the user who couldn't get
> > CDs to play without skipping) have almost nothing to do, IIRC, with the
> > soundcard, per-se.  Unless I'm -VERY- mistaken, the soundcard does
> > *NOTHING* with the CD Audio except take the CD-ROM's line-out and point
> > it to a speaker.  It doesn't see bits, data, digital, nothing.  Just a
> > straight analog audio stream from the CD drive to the speaker.
>
> Under Linux, this appears to be an accurate description.
>
> > (Which is why I think that the Windows box is probably functioning
> > okay-ish, and that the user is mistaken in how stuff functions.  A busy
> > system won't impact an audio stream that it doesn't really even deal
> > with.)
>
> But Windoze's CD-playing apps generally read the audio data on the CD
> digitally and send it down the ribbon cable for further processing, which
> is why it is so common to find folks who have been frustrated in their
> attempts to get CD sound working on systems that were originally sold as
> Wintendo boxes, only to discover that the all-important (to Linux) CD
> audio cable was never installed in the first place, as Windoze didn't need
> it. Note: this shouldn't apply to laptops/notebooks.
>
> This likely explains the "skipping" encountered by the Windoze user in the
> other thread, as there _is_ processing of the data stream going on there.
>

Um, the CD audio works the same way in both Windows and Linux. There is no
digital processing of CD audio tracks by Windows.

The mention of CD skipping in the other thread was made by me, but on
further consideration of this, I realize I must have misunderstood the
storyteller and that he was trying to play MP3 tracks and THEY were
skipping, as they are digitally handled by the OS.

Sorry for any confusion I've caused, but I did want to clarify this and
straighten it out. :-/

Rich Cloutier
SYSTEM SUPPORT SERVICES
President, C*O
www.sysupport.com






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