Successful 4.0 install on z50; issue playing mp3s

[Thomas Miller-9]

hi!

i installed netbsd-hpcmips 4.0 on a z50 which has the extra memory
card. i could not get the pbsdboot supplied with netbsd 4.0 to run
under wince on this z50, but hpcboot worked. now my z50 successfully
has compiled lots of software with pkgsrc. i thank all the developers
who have made netbsd so terrific!

a major issue i am experiencing is that when i tried to play an mp3
the music was recognizable, but there are lots of hesitations and wow
and flutter. for what it is worth, the problems seem significantly
worse using mpg321 compared to either madplay or sox (play), both of
which seem to work about equally poorly on my z50 here. the fractional
load figures displayed by top while playing the mp3 suggest that the
problems are not being caused by overloading. i found in the archives
for this list both reports of success and reports of failure playing
music on the z50 with different versions of netbsd-hpcmips.

has anyone been successful playing mp3s on a z50 using the generic
kernel supplied with netbsd-hpcmips 4.0? if yes, what player works for
you?

are there kernel options not enabled in generic that might be enabled
to play mp3s better?

i don't have one, but has anybody tried a pcmcia audio card, for
example the audigy 2 zs, on a z50 with hpcmips 4.0?

thanks again!

tom

[Khoa Tran]

Unfortunately, I've never been able to play mp3 audio successfully on my z50. Also, I highly doubt a pcmcia audio card will work, as I've not seen anything in the kernel config in terms of drivers, and also, I highly doubt they were 16-bit, non-cardbus cards.

But if anyone has had success playing mp3s, I'd love to hear about it too!


~k

> Date: Tue, 23 Sep 2008 14:32:29 -0400
> From: tilakkhana@...
> To: port-hpcmips@...
> Subject: Successful 4.0 install on z50; issue playing mp3s
>
> hi!
>
> i installed netbsd-hpcmips 4.0 on a z50 which has the extra memory
> card. i could not get the pbsdboot supplied with netbsd 4.0 to run
> under wince on this z50, but hpcboot worked. now my z50 successfully
> has compiled lots of software with pkgsrc. i thank all the developers
> who have made netbsd so terrific!
>
> a major issue i am experiencing is that when i tried to play an mp3
> the music was recognizable, but there are lots of hesitations and wow
> and flutter. for what it is worth, the problems seem significantly
> worse using mpg321 compared to either madplay or sox (play), both of
> which seem to work about equally poorly on my z50 here. the fractional
> load figures displayed by top while playing the mp3 suggest that the
> problems are not being caused by overloading. i found in the archives
> for this list both reports of success and reports of failure playing
> music on the z50 with different versions of netbsd-hpcmips.
>
> has anyone been successful playing mp3s on a z50 using the generic
> kernel supplied with netbsd-hpcmips 4.0? if yes, what player works for
> you?
>
> are there kernel options not enabled in generic that might be enabled
> to play mp3s better?
>
> i don't have one, but has anybody tried a pcmcia audio card, for
> example the audigy 2 zs, on a z50 with hpcmips 4.0?
>
> thanks again!
>
> tom

_________________________________________________________________

[Thomas Miller-9]

hi!

i think you may be right about the audigy 2 zs being 32 bit. the
picture on this page

     http://www.soundblaster.com/products/product.asp?category=1&subcategory=205&product=10769&nav=3

shows the gold grounding strip characteristic of 32 bit cards

i think there is or was an emuxki driver for the audigy cards

have you tried a music .wav file on your netbsd z50? the voice
recorder application in wince will play .wav files.

cheers!

tom

On Tue, Sep 23, 2008 at 2:41 PM, Khoa Tran <piper_the@...> wrote:

>
> Unfortunately, I've never been able to play mp3 audio successfully on my z50. Also, I highly doubt a pcmcia audio card will work, as I've not seen anything in the kernel config in terms of drivers, and also, I highly doubt they were 16-bit, non-cardbus cards.
>
> But if anyone has had success playing mp3s, I'd love to hear about it too!
>
>
> ~k
>
>
>> Date: Tue, 23 Sep 2008 14:32:29 -0400
>> From: tilakkhana@...
>> To: port-hpcmips@...
>> Subject: Successful 4.0 install on z50; issue playing mp3s
>>
>> hi!
>>
>> i installed netbsd-hpcmips 4.0 on a z50 which has the extra memory
>> card. i could not get the pbsdboot supplied with netbsd 4.0 to run
>> under wince on this z50, but hpcboot worked. now my z50 successfully
>> has compiled lots of software with pkgsrc. i thank all the developers
>> who have made netbsd so terrific!
>>
>> a major issue i am experiencing is that when i tried to play an mp3
>> the music was recognizable, but there are lots of hesitations and wow
>> and flutter. for what it is worth, the problems seem significantly
>> worse using mpg321 compared to either madplay or sox (play), both of
>> which seem to work about equally poorly on my z50 here. the fractional
>> load figures displayed by top while playing the mp3 suggest that the
>> problems are not being caused by overloading. i found in the archives
>> for this list both reports of success and reports of failure playing
>> music on the z50 with different versions of netbsd-hpcmips.
>>
>> has anyone been successful playing mp3s on a z50 using the generic
>> kernel supplied with netbsd-hpcmips 4.0? if yes, what player works for
>> you?
>>
>> are there kernel options not enabled in generic that might be enabled
>> to play mp3s better?
>>
>> i don't have one, but has anybody tried a pcmcia audio card, for
>> example the audigy 2 zs, on a z50 with hpcmips 4.0?
>>
>> thanks again!
>>
>> tom
>
> _________________________________________________________________
>
>

[elijah rutschman]

On Tue, Sep 23, 2008 at 1:32 PM, Thomas Miller <tilakkhana@...> wrote:
[...]
> a major issue i am experiencing is that when i tried to play an mp3
> the music was recognizable, but there are lots of hesitations and wow
> and flutter. for what it is worth, the problems seem significantly
> worse using mpg321 compared to either madplay or sox (play), both of
> which seem to work about equally poorly on my z50 here. the fractional
> load figures displayed by top while playing the mp3 suggest that the
> problems are not being caused by overloading. i found in the archives
> for this list both reports of success and reports of failure playing
> music on the z50 with different versions of netbsd-hpcmips.

Hello,
It sounds like issues with audio latency.  If you check the CVS
history for 2008-07-31 05:58:06 @ http://pkgsrc.se/audio/jack-devel,
the author mentions some "changes to audio_poll() and the pause
attribute handling", in the netbsd sources to fix audio latency
issues.  You could try building your own kernel from the latest
sources if the kernel you are using is older than July 31st.  If you
were going to do that though, I'd recommend setting up a cross-build
environment on some more powerful computer.

Regards,
Elijah
--
http://elijahr.blogspot.com/

[Thomas Miller-9]

what an interesting, helpful, and relevant comment! thank-you!

On Wed, Sep 24, 2008 at 9:41 AM, elijah rutschman <elijahr@...> wrote:

> On Tue, Sep 23, 2008 at 1:32 PM, Thomas Miller <tilakkhana@...> wrote:
> [...]
>> a major issue i am experiencing is that when i tried to play an mp3
>> the music was recognizable, but there are lots of hesitations and wow
>> and flutter. for what it is worth, the problems seem significantly
>> worse using mpg321 compared to either madplay or sox (play), both of
>> which seem to work about equally poorly on my z50 here. the fractional
>> load figures displayed by top while playing the mp3 suggest that the
>> problems are not being caused by overloading. i found in the archives
>> for this list both reports of success and reports of failure playing
>> music on the z50 with different versions of netbsd-hpcmips.
>
> Hello,
> It sounds like issues with audio latency.  If you check the CVS
> history for 2008-07-31 05:58:06 @ http://pkgsrc.se/audio/jack-devel,
> the author mentions some "changes to audio_poll() and the pause
> attribute handling", in the netbsd sources to fix audio latency
> issues.  You could try building your own kernel from the latest
> sources if the kernel you are using is older than July 31st.  If you
> were going to do that though, I'd recommend setting up a cross-build
> environment on some more powerful computer.
>
> Regards,
> Elijah
> --
> http://elijahr.blogspot.com/
>

[Thomas Miller-9]

On Wed, Sep 24, 2008 at 9:41 AM, elijah rutschman <elijahr@...> wrote:

> On Tue, Sep 23, 2008 at 1:32 PM, Thomas Miller <tilakkhana@...> wrote:
> [...]
>> a major issue i am experiencing is that when i tried to play an mp3
>> the music was recognizable, but there are lots of hesitations and wow
>> and flutter. for what it is worth, the problems seem significantly
>> worse using mpg321 compared to either madplay or sox (play), both of
>> which seem to work about equally poorly on my z50 here. the fractional
>> load figures displayed by top while playing the mp3 suggest that the
>> problems are not being caused by overloading. i found in the archives
>> for this list both reports of success and reports of failure playing
>> music on the z50 with different versions of netbsd-hpcmips.
>
> Hello,
> It sounds like issues with audio latency.  If you check the CVS
> history for 2008-07-31 05:58:06 @ http://pkgsrc.se/audio/jack-devel,
> the author mentions some "changes to audio_poll() and the pause
> attribute handling", in the netbsd sources to fix audio latency
> issues.  You could try building your own kernel from the latest
> sources if the kernel you are using is older than July 31st.  If you
> were going to do that though, I'd recommend setting up a cross-build
> environment on some more powerful computer.
>
> Regards,
> Elijah
> --
> http://elijahr.blogspot.com/
>

a few days ago i upgraded one of my z50s to to the daily build of
NetBSD 4 200810030002Z

then i ran

  # cd /usr
  # export CVS_RSH=ssh
  # cvs -d anoncvs@...:/cvsroot co -r netbsd-4 -P src/sys

which got me a src/sys/dev/audio.c identifying itself as version
1.215.2.4 20080203 19:08:41

audio.c seems presently at version 1.243, two bumps ahead of the
version 1.241 referenced in the pkgsrc commit message to which elijah
referred, and which i think i found here:

  http://cvsweb.se.netbsd.org/cgi-bin/bsdweb.cgi/pkgsrc/audio/jack-devel/Attic/Makefile

it looks like i can upgrade audio.c to version 1.243, compile a new
kernel and enjoy the benefit of the changes to audio.c. i'll try it
and post the results . . . eventually . . . since it might be a few
days before i get around to starting the compilation, and also 'cuz it
takes awhile to compile on the z50 :-). of course, as we all know,
anticipation is a big part of the fun!! :-)

if anybody is aware of a reason why my proposed audio.c upgrade will
not work, or if anybody has a better fix for the mp3 problem, please
post it! thanks!!

cheers!!

tom