Quote:
Originally posted by tktim
[B]Linux not able to keep up with Intel?
I may not understand this completely, but it looks like Linux or Linux Applications are not able to keep up with Intel.
Intel has released new chipsets that have graphics and 6 channel Dolby Digital sound included in them. There is no need for an external sound card or graphics card. It seems that the intent of Intel was to integrate all of this so cables would not be necessary, lower costs and more reliable functions, etc. I think the intent of Intel was to use the ribbon cables from the CD, and DVD. I think extra cables for these things are a thing of the past for Intel.
Right?
|
Completely wrong. The CD Audio cable continues to be the accepted way to play audio CDs. The CD ROM drive is able to handle reading and playing audio CDs independently, and the output is fully analogue and is passed through a CD audio cable to the sound card (or to the motherboard if you're using onboard sound). Some CD ROM drives also support digital sound output, although this is useful only if your sound card (or motherboard) supports digital sound input.
In this use, your CD ROM drive acts exactly like an audio CD player. Signals sent to the drive by the CPU act like the 'buttons' on the front of an ordinary audio CD player, and output is passed to the sound card to be mixed with other sound sources instead of to an amplifier. The advantage of this system is that the processor in your computer simply has to tell the drive which track to play, and then the drive handles this independently of the rest of the computer, meaning that while CD audio is playing the processor and IDE cable are unused and free to perform other tasks.
For many years, however, some PC manufacturers like Compaq have decided, in order to reduce costs by a small amount, not to provide an input for CD audio on their motherboards (which include onboard sound) and not to provide a CD audio cable. Instead, they provide drivers for Windows which simulate the usual functionality by using the main processor to read audio information from the CD (via the IDE cable), convert this into a format useful for the sound card, and send the resulting information to the sound card. Thus, without a CD audio cable, a tremendous and unnecessary load is placed on both the CPU and the IDE channel, slowing down the rest of the system whenever CD audio is played. On modern systems, this should be hardly noticable, but is still highly wasteful.
It should be noted that this is a non-standard way of playing audio CDs and that it is not officially supported by
any operating system; Windows included. You experience the expected functionality in Windows only because Compaq have provided software to reproduce functionality which would otherwise be far more effectively and inexpensively provided by a simple cable and analogue input on your motherboard. No such driver exists for Linux because Compaq have not provided one, and nobody else has seen fit to provide one. If you play audio CDs via XMMS, however, there is a plugin (xmms-cdread) that reads audio CDs using the same non-standard method supported on Compaq machines that may help you.
The integrated, onboard sound that you mention, by the way, is designed not to reduce the amount of cabling required but simply to reduce cost, the idea being that including sound functionality on the motherboard works out cheaper than using a seperate card. Owing to the lack of space and unspecialised nature of onboard sound, however, sound cards invariably produce higher quality output. The vast majority of motherboards that support onboard sound also feature at least one analogue input suitable for CD-audio; mine includes three. The vast majority of onboard sound systems are fully supported by Linux.
Quote:
Not sure if it's a Kernel or Application (KDE, GNOME) problem on Linux. I think the Kernel supports Intel 845 and ICH4 in general.
400Mhz Bus
Intel® 845GL chipset w/Intel® Extreme Graphics
Intel® 82801DB I/O Controller Hub 4 (ICH4)
AC97
|
It isn't a problem with any part of Linux or any of the software on your system, it's a probelm with your hardware. Compaq have elected not to provide an analogue input for your sound hardware and not to provide a cable to support an analogue transmission between your CD-ROM and sound hardware and thus CD audio does not function in the expected manner. It is possible to work around the problem by reading data digitally of the CD and playing it through the sound card in software, but this method is highly inefficient and not recommended, therefore nobody has bothered to implement it in the Linux kernel. My advice is, if you really need CD audio use the XMMS plugin I wrote about, or buy a sound card and a CD audio cable. In future, it's advisable to avoid Compaq hardware since it's produced at very low cost and many corners are cut - despite the high price which is charged to the customer.
