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Date:      Thu, 17 Feb 2000 20:08:39 -0600 (CST)
From:      Ryan Thompson <freebsd@sasknow.com>
To:        Bill Trost <trost@cloud.rain.com>
Cc:        freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject:   Re: problems playing back high-quality mp3's
Message-ID:  <Pine.BSF.4.10.10002171957230.81829-100000@sasknow.com>
In-Reply-To: <38299.950838104@cloud.rain.com>

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On Thu, 17 Feb 2000, Bill Trost wrote:

> I assume this is a well-known phenomenon, but I have not been able to
> figure it out: If I try to use something like mpg123 to play back a
> 192 kbit/s mp3, the sound quality comes out *awful* -- as though too
> many samples were being stuffed through too slow a decoder.  Is this
> a limitation of the pcm driver, mpg123, my hardware, or a combination
> thereof?
> 
> $ cat /dev/sndstat
> FreeBSD Audio Driver (newpcm) Feb 14 2000 21:05:31
> Installed devices:
> pcm0: <CS461x PCM Audio> at irq 10 (1p/1r channels duplex)
> pcm1: <(null)>  (mixer only)
> $ dmesg | grep csa
> csa0: <Crystal Semiconductor CS4614/4622/4624 Audio accelerator/4280 Audio controller> mem 0xfea00000-0xfeafffff,0xfebfd000-0xfebfdfff irq 10 at device 11.0 on pci0
> pcm0: <CS461x PCM Audio> on csa0

You haven't mentioned what sort of processor and storage medium you're
using. You may notice problems if you're reading off of a potentially slow
or lagged medium, like an older CD-ROM, or laggy NFS.  You may also notice
problems under some load with a slow processor.  FWIW, I play 192 or 256
kbit/sec, and variable bitrate (typically 96-384 kbit/sec) mp3s fine on a
somewhat loaded PII 400 with 1/4 gig of ram with mpg123.  Playback has
survived daily run outputs, backups, build/installwords, and a few IO
benchmarks without a burp. I have played MP3s on slower systems (mid-range
Pentiums, mostly), and have really only noticed problems under heavy disk
and/or processor load (Read: Windows NT with Winamp :-).

It's possible that your sound card or motherboard (BUS) is to blame, as
well, but I am not familiar with the card you mentioned.  

--
  Ryan Thompson <ryan@sasknow.com>	50% Owner, Sysadmin
  SaskNow Technologies     		http://www.sasknow.com
  #106-380 3120 8th St E   		Saskatoon, SK  S7H 0W2



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