[NTLUG:Discuss] Sound Problems

[Peter A. Koren]

On Mon, 2005-07-11 at 11:41 -0500, Peter A. Koren wrote:
> On Sun, 2005-07-10 at 21:58 -0500, Stuart Johnston wrote:
> > Peter A. Koren wrote:
> > > On Sun, 2005-07-10 at 17:51 -0500, Stuart Johnston wrote:
> > > 
> > >>Peter A. Koren wrote:
> > >>
> > >>>I got my DVD/CD player/burner working for DVD's (video and sound), but
> > >>>playing audio CD's produces no sound running KsCD. KsCD shows that the
> > >>>Music is playing and even gets the correct information from servers on
> > >>>the net to add to the cddb data base. Double clicking on a wav file on a
> > >>>data CD works, but regular audio CDs do not work. I'm running a RHEL
> > >>>(Fedora 3) derived distribution on an AMD 64 based system. Sound seems
> > >>>to work for everything but normal CD playing.
> > >>>
> > >>>Any hints?
> > >>
> > >>Make sure that you have an audio cable connected from your cd drive to 
> > >>your sound card (or motherboard).  Also go into your audio mixer and 
> > >>check the volume of the CD audio inputs.
> > > 
> > > 
> > > I assume that since I was able to play wave files from a data CD that my
> > > cable is properly installed. Am I wrong? 
> > 
> > Yes.
> > 
> > > Is .wav data sent digitally As
> > > a file over the EIDE ribbon cable or does the drive firmware decode it
> > > and send it along over the analog 4-pin sound cable? I just do not know.
> > 
> > It will be sent digitally over the IDE cable.  The Audio cable (can be 
> > digital or analog) is only used when playing CD-Audio discs.
> > 
> > > And since DVDs work (video and sound), I have to ask, "does analog sound
> > > go over the analog cable or digitally over the EIDE cable?" If the
> > > former, the cable must be OK.
> > 
> > I believe that DVD does not use the Audio cable.
> > 
> > If you have XMMS installed, go to Options -> Preferences (Ctrl-P). 
> > Select "CD Audio Player" and click Configure.  Now select "Digital audio 
> > extraction" under Play mode.  This should allow you to play audio CDs 
> > without the Audio cable.
> 
> 
> Yes!!!! It worked. It took a while downloading (56k modem) the xmms
> files, but it was worth it. I will still make a stab at replacing the
> analog cable (I have an old working one with the right plugs), but it is
> no longer important. BTW, I've had previous distributions that had xmms
> installed, but they all used the fancy skins that hid the functionality
> of the product. I guess it is like real life. Glitz too often wins over
> grit -- in this case eye candy destroys an effective user interface.
> 
> Thanks for the winning hint.
> 
> -- Pete

The replacement cable also failed, so the the problem may be in the
DVD/CD burner/player. Oh, I also found the KsCD switch for digital (over
the EIDE interface) playback. So I do not really care if analog CD audio
works or not. BTW, the hardware is the 16X Emprex unit Fry's has been
hawking at $50.

-- Pete