Re: [gentoo-user] Re: What is the best audio system?

[Canek Peláez Valdés]

On Mon, Feb 27, 2012 at 9:11 PM, Nikos Chantziaras <realnc@×××××.de> wrote:
> On 28/02/12 04:30, Frank Steinmetzger wrote:
>>
>> On Mon, Feb 27, 2012 at 08:07:21PM -0600, Canek Peláez Valdés wrote:
>>
>>>>>> Isn't dmix pretty much automatic in als these days? I suspect that's
>>>>>> how KDE supports multiple audio streams by default.
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> Yep, I think it's automatic since alsa 1.0.9 or so.
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Yeah, when you wrote dmix the light turned on about how KDE (and I
>>>> suspect most desktop managers) is likely doing it.
>>>
>>>
>>> GNOME uses PulseAudio by default, and since 3.0 is actually mandatory.
>>> I believe Xfce uses PA also, and (please, tell me if I'm wrong) KDE
>>> also by default uses PA.
>>
>>
>> KDE has the phonon layer, which features a PA useflag, but also a flag for
>> gstreamer and vlc.
>
>
> These are not related though.  PA is not a substitute for gstreamer or vlc.

Indeed, but both GStreamer and VLC can run on top of PulseAudio. They
can also (of course) run on top of ALSA, but then you loose all the
nice things PA provides. At least with GStreamer (directly on top of
ALSA) you don't get per-application volume, seamlessly changing sound
cards or easy integration with USB soundcards and bluetooth headsets;
I don't use VLC, but I believe is the same.

ALSA is the bottom of the stack, PulseAudio goes above it, and then
you can have GStreamer, VLC, ffmpeg, Xine-lib or whatever, which are
the high-level libraries. All of the high-level libraries cantalk to
ALSA directly; but none of them provide by themselves the features
that PulseAudio has.

Regards.
-- 
Canek Peláez Valdés
Posgrado en Ciencia e Ingeniería de la Computación
Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México