FAQ entry updates for common sound problems [completed]

CVS patchset: 4130 CVS date: 2003/02/11 15:11:58
author: Michael Roitzsch <mroi@users.sourceforge.net> 2003-02-11 15:11:58 +0000
committer: Michael Roitzsch <mroi@users.sourceforge.net> 2003-02-11 15:11:58 +0000
commit: 9896a9d84ace574f0a4efa27912639249cefe036 (patch)
tree: b1b138d78a37d94400ad643ea87be8d422bcd6e3
parent: a744de12cebcb20eb459669ca3560f0e9c2a559a (diff)
download: xine-lib-9896a9d84ace574f0a4efa27912639249cefe036.tar.gz
xine-lib-9896a9d84ace574f0a4efa27912639249cefe036.tar.bz2
3 files changed, 163 insertions, 29 deletions
diff --git a/doc/faq/faq.html b/doc/faq/faq.html
index 81faaed8f..2c7e6eab3 100644
--- a/doc/faq/faq.html
+++ b/doc/faq/faq.html
@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@
 >The xine engine FAQ</TITLE
 ><META
 NAME="GENERATOR"
-CONTENT="Modular DocBook HTML Stylesheet Version 1.77+"></HEAD
+CONTENT="Modular DocBook HTML Stylesheet Version 1.7"></HEAD
 ><BODY
 CLASS="BOOK"
 ><DIV
@@ -319,12 +319,12 @@ HREF="#SBLIVESPDIF"
 ><DL
 ><DT
 ><A
-HREF="#AEN357"
+HREF="#AEN358"
 >Requirements</A
 ></DT
 ><DT
 ><A
-HREF="#AEN369"
+HREF="#AEN370"
 >The OSS driver is maintained by creative and can be downloaded at
              <A
 HREF="http://opensource.creative.com/"
@@ -334,12 +334,12 @@ TARGET="_top"
 ></DT
 ><DT
 ><A
-HREF="#AEN391"
+HREF="#AEN392"
 >Setting up xine for SPDIF (AC3_passthrough) output</A
 ></DT
 ><DT
 ><A
-HREF="#AEN396"
+HREF="#AEN397"
 >The cable used for the SBLive can easily be self-made 
               or buy a stereo 3.5mm jack to dual RCA cable.</A
 ></DT
@@ -355,6 +355,11 @@ HREF="#VOLUMECONTROL"
 HREF="#STUTTERING"
 >Audio is stuttering and i see a lot of "metronom: fixing sound card drift by -2115 pts" on the console output</A
 ></DT
+><DT
+><A
+HREF="#SOUNDLOSS"
+>xine seems to lose sound arbitrarily during playback, especially with DVDs</A
+></DT
 ></DL
 ></DD
 ><DT
@@ -1587,7 +1592,7 @@ WIDTH="100%"
 ><TD
 ><PRE
 CLASS="PROGRAMLISTING"
->        cat stream.mpg | gxine stdin://
+>        cat stream.mpg | gxine stdin:/
       </PRE
 ></TD
 ></TR
@@ -1604,9 +1609,7 @@ NAME="AVISUBTITLES"
 ></A
 >How can I watch files with external AVI subtitles?</H2
 ><P
->      This is not supported in current xine 1.0.x releases (but it is being
-      actively worked on, so please be patient :) ). In xine 0.9.13
-      this used to be:
+>      In xine 0.9.13 this used to be:
       <TABLE
 BORDER="0"
 BGCOLOR="#E0E0E0"
@@ -1622,6 +1625,30 @@ CLASS="PROGRAMLISTING"
 ></TABLE
 >    
     </P
+><P
+>      Latest xine-lib modules (1-beta3 or newer) support external subtitles
+      for any media file, not only AVI. In order to use it you can pass an
+      special MRL construction like:
+
+      <TABLE
+BORDER="0"
+BGCOLOR="#E0E0E0"
+WIDTH="100%"
+><TR
+><TD
+><PRE
+CLASS="PROGRAMLISTING"
+>        xine test.mpg#subtitle:file.sub
+      </PRE
+></TD
+></TR
+></TABLE
+>    
+
+      The external subtitles support can also be used by any xine
+      frontend. Currently, just xine-ui implements this feature with a
+      subtitle selection dialog (press control+shift+s to see it).  
+    </P
 ></DIV
 ></DIV
 ><DIV
@@ -2303,14 +2330,12 @@ NAME="SBLIVESPDIF"
       going with xine. Some parts of it may applicable to other 
       configurations (cards that use the EMU10k1 chip) as well.
     </P
-><P
->&#13;    </P
 ><DIV
 CLASS="SECT2"
 ><HR><H3
 CLASS="SECT2"
 ><A
-NAME="AEN357"
+NAME="AEN358"
 ></A
 >Requirements</H3
 ><P
@@ -2345,7 +2370,7 @@ CLASS="SECT2"
 ><HR><H3
 CLASS="SECT2"
 ><A
-NAME="AEN369"
+NAME="AEN370"
 ></A
 >The OSS driver is maintained by creative and can be downloaded at
              <A
@@ -2560,7 +2585,7 @@ CLASS="SECT2"
 ><HR><H3
 CLASS="SECT2"
 ><A
-NAME="AEN391"
+NAME="AEN392"
 ></A
 >Setting up xine for SPDIF (AC3_passthrough) output</H3
 ><P
@@ -2591,7 +2616,7 @@ CLASS="SECT2"
 ><HR><H3
 CLASS="SECT2"
 ><A
-NAME="AEN396"
+NAME="AEN397"
 ></A
 >The cable used for the SBLive can easily be self-made 
               or buy a stereo 3.5mm jack to dual RCA cable.</H3
@@ -2677,9 +2702,32 @@ NAME="STUTTERING"
 >      Might be a soundcard problem, if it only comes in longer intervals.
       Your soundcard does not keep it's sampling frequency accurately 
       enough, which results in audio and video
-      getting out of sync and xine has to compensate. 
-      Maybe switching to different drivers (alsa to oss or vise-versa)
-      can help here.
+      getting out of sync and xine has to compensate. If you see the message
+      only from time to time, you might remedy it by using the resampling sync
+      method. You can do this by setting the configuration entry
+      <TT
+CLASS="PARAMETER"
+><I
+>audio.av_sync_method</I
+></TT
+> to <TT
+CLASS="PARAMETER"
+><I
+>resample</I
+></TT
+>.
+    </P
+><P
+>      If you receive the metronom message more often,
+      maybe switching to different drivers (alsa to oss or vise-versa)
+      can help here. It has also been reported that setting the configuration
+      entry <TT
+CLASS="PARAMETER"
+><I
+>audio.force_rate</I
+></TT
+> to the native sampling
+      rate of your soundcard (try 44100 and 48000) helps sometimes.
     </P
 ><P
 >      Another, whole different possibility is that you have some background
@@ -2692,6 +2740,59 @@ NAME="STUTTERING"
       nothing to worry about.
     </P
 ></DIV
+><DIV
+CLASS="SECT1"
+><HR><H2
+CLASS="SECT1"
+><A
+NAME="SOUNDLOSS"
+></A
+>xine seems to lose sound arbitrarily during playback, especially with DVDs</H2
+><P
+>      You are using the OSS audio output plugin, right? In order to keep video and audio
+      in sync, xine regularly queries the audio driver for the amount of delay induced by
+      the current length of the driver's audio buffer. Unfortunately some OSS drivers seem
+      to be broken because the can return strange values here. This confuses the xine audio
+      subsystem and makes it drop audio.
+    </P
+><P
+>      You should try the various settings of the
+      configuration entry <TT
+CLASS="PARAMETER"
+><I
+>audio.oss_sync_method</I
+></TT
+>. The options
+      <TT
+CLASS="PARAMETER"
+><I
+>getodelay</I
+></TT
+> and <TT
+CLASS="PARAMETER"
+><I
+>getoptr</I
+></TT
+> ask the driver and
+      might therefore show the problem. But chances are that only one is broken and the other
+      works, so you should try them both first, since they are the most accurate.
+      The option <TT
+CLASS="PARAMETER"
+><I
+>probebuffer</I
+></TT
+> does not ask the driver directly but
+      tries to determine the buffer length from outside. This should work with any driver
+      and is the way to go, of the driver dependent methods fail.
+      <TT
+CLASS="PARAMETER"
+><I
+>softsync</I
+></TT
+> is the least accurate and should be used only in
+      emergency situations.
+    </P
+></DIV
 ></DIV
 ><DIV
 CLASS="CHAPTER"
@@ -3411,4 +3512,4 @@ HREF="mailto:xine-user@lists.sourceforge.net"
 ></DIV
 ></BODY
 ></HTML
->
-\ No newline at end of file
+>
diff --git a/doc/faq/faq.sgml b/doc/faq/faq.sgml
index 68b681d03..fcbe01343 100644
--- a/doc/faq/faq.sgml
+++ b/doc/faq/faq.sgml
@@ -1200,7 +1200,7 @@
       The following explains how to get the above configuration 
       going with xine. Some parts of it may applicable to other 
       configurations (cards that use the EMU10k1 chip) as well.
-    <para>
+    </para>
 
     <sect2>
 
@@ -1395,7 +1395,7 @@
       method. You can do this by setting the configuration entry
       <parameter>audio.av_sync_method</parameter> to <parameter>resample</parameter>.
     </para>
-    <pata>
+    <para>
       If you receive the metronom message more often,
       maybe switching to different drivers (alsa to oss or vise-versa)
       can help here. It has also been reported that setting the configuration
@@ -1414,7 +1414,7 @@
     </para>
   </sect1>
 
-  <sect1>
+  <sect1 id="soundloss">
     <title>xine seems to lose sound arbitrarily during playback, especially with DVDs</title>
     
     <para>
diff --git a/doc/faq/faq.txt b/doc/faq/faq.txt
index 84644784d..c4261df7a 100644
--- a/doc/faq/faq.txt
+++ b/doc/faq/faq.txt
@@ -86,6 +86,7 @@ Table of Contents
     Changing the volume with the GUI control has no effect! What's up!?
     Audio is stuttering and i see a lot of "metronom: fixing sound card drift
         by -2115 pts" on the console output
+    xine seems to lose sound arbitrarily during playback, especially with DVDs
    
 6. Video related questions
    
@@ -595,18 +596,26 @@ in xine. The number of supported cards is pretty limited at the moment. See doc
 How do I play streams from STDIN?
 
 Use something like:
-        cat stream.mpg | gxine stdin://
+        cat stream.mpg | gxine stdin:/
       
 
 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
 How can I watch files with external AVI subtitles?
 
-This is not supported in current xine 1.0.x releases (but it is being actively
-worked on, so please be patient :) ). In xine 0.9.13 this used to be:
+In xine 0.9.13 this used to be:
         xine foo.avi%bar.sub
       
 
+Latest xine-lib modules (1-beta3 or newer) support external subtitles for any
+media file, not only AVI. In order to use it you can pass an special MRL
+construction like:
+        xine test.mpg#subtitle:file.sub
+      
+The external subtitles support can also be used by any xine frontend.
+Currently, just xine-ui implements this feature with a subtitle selection
+dialog (press control+shift+s to see it).
+
 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
 Chapter 4. Running xine
@@ -886,8 +895,6 @@ The following explains how to get the above configuration going with xine. Some
 parts of it may applicable to other configurations (cards that use the EMU10k1
 chip) as well.
 
- 
-
 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
 Requirements
@@ -1025,8 +1032,15 @@ Audio is stuttering and i see a lot of "metronom: fixing sound card drift by
 
 Might be a soundcard problem, if it only comes in longer intervals. Your
 soundcard does not keep it's sampling frequency accurately enough, which
-results in audio and video getting out of sync and xine has to compensate.
-Maybe switching to different drivers (alsa to oss or vise-versa) can help here.
+results in audio and video getting out of sync and xine has to compensate. If
+you see the message only from time to time, you might remedy it by using the
+resampling sync method. You can do this by setting the configuration entry
+audio.av_sync_method to resample.
+
+If you receive the metronom message more often, maybe switching to different
+drivers (alsa to oss or vise-versa) can help here. It has also been reported
+that setting the configuration entry audio.force_rate to the native sampling
+rate of your soundcard (try 44100 and 48000) helps sometimes.
 
 Another, whole different possibility is that you have some background process
 running which is messing with the clock (like some ntp client - chronny, ntpd,
@@ -1038,6 +1052,25 @@ worry about.
 
 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
+xine seems to lose sound arbitrarily during playback, especially with DVDs
+
+You are using the OSS audio output plugin, right? In order to keep video and
+audio in sync, xine regularly queries the audio driver for the amount of delay
+induced by the current length of the driver's audio buffer. Unfortunately some
+OSS drivers seem to be broken because the can return strange values here. This
+confuses the xine audio subsystem and makes it drop audio.
+
+You should try the various settings of the configuration entry
+audio.oss_sync_method. The options getodelay and getoptr ask the driver and
+might therefore show the problem. But chances are that only one is broken and
+the other works, so you should try them both first, since they are the most
+accurate. The option probebuffer does not ask the driver directly but tries to
+determine the buffer length from outside. This should work with any driver and
+is the way to go, of the driver dependent methods fail. softsync is the least
+accurate and should be used only in emergency situations.
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
 Chapter 6. Video related questions
 
 I can hear the audio - but I don't see a picture!
author	Michael Roitzsch <mroi@users.sourceforge.net>	2003-02-11 15:11:58 +0000
committer	Michael Roitzsch <mroi@users.sourceforge.net>	2003-02-11 15:11:58 +0000
commit	9896a9d84ace574f0a4efa27912639249cefe036 (patch)
tree	b1b138d78a37d94400ad643ea87be8d422bcd6e3
parent	a744de12cebcb20eb459669ca3560f0e9c2a559a (diff)
download	xine-lib-9896a9d84ace574f0a4efa27912639249cefe036.tar.gz xine-lib-9896a9d84ace574f0a4efa27912639249cefe036.tar.bz2