Has anyone got Surround Sound working?

[dixonpete]

I never been able to get 3 of my 5 speakers working under Linux. I just bought new 5.1 speakers and so have revisited the issue with continued lack of joy.

I had the two speakers and subwoofer working, then went into PCC and Sound and turned on PulseAudio and 5.1 support and then rebooted as suggested. Now not a peep from SMPlayer or DeadBeef.

Test under Phonon - System Systems works fine for the two options shown under Music and Video, HDA Intel, ALC887 ( Default Audio Device) and HDA Intel ( ALC887 Analog).

[Just17]

Use PulseAudio Volume Control  (pavucontrol in repository) to set up the sound devices and their options as well as to what devices the sound streams are sent.

[dixonpete]

Just tried pavucontrol:

"Connection failed: Connection refused"

in a notification box.

[Just17]

PulseAudio is not working correctly .....

Try these to correct it

http://www.pclinuxos.com/forum/index.php/topic,108933.msg931123.html#msg931123

http://www.pclinuxos.com/forum/index.php/topic,111242.msg949935.html#msg949935

[dixonpete]

Copying over that Pulse file got rid of the error, still no sound from the 3 speakers though.

Is it possible that the stuff I'm listening to simply isn't 5.1 encoded sound so they shouldn't be emitting sound anyway?

[Just17]

Copying over that Pulse file got rid of the error, still no sound from the 3 speakers though.

Is it possible that the stuff I'm listening to simply isn't 5.1 encoded sound so they shouldn't be emitting sound anyway?

You should be able to find a test file on line somewhere to check.

I don't have a 5.1 set up so have no real idea what might be the cause.

Is the configuration of the audio device set up for 5.1?

[dixonpete]

>Is the configuration of the audio device set up for 5.1?

Smplayer was. Still no joy, not even in the sample 5.1 files I was able to find.

Think I'll give 5.1 another year. Too bad. Everything in my PCLOS install is working perfectly besides that one flaw. Oh well..

[Just17]

>Is the configuration of the audio device set up for 5.1?

Smplayer was. Still no joy, not even in the sample 5.1 files I was able to find.

Think I'll give 5.1 another year. Too bad. Everything in my PCLOS install is working perfectly besides that one flaw. Oh well..

You have not said whether the sound device is configured properly  ......  SMPlayer is an application.

Post a pic of the Configuration tab of PulseAudio Volume Control

[Just17]

Give Clementine and VLC a try ......  I recall that someone had some little success with them ......  but maybe over the digital output, not sure.

[dixonpete]

>Post a pic of the Configuration tab of PulseAudio Volume Control



I tried to show the SMPlayer and Multimedia settings as well.

I've been trying Clementine and VLC along the way, nada ( just the two channels).

[µT6]

most sound cards will replicate sound form front left and right on the back  channels

this also depends on some apps, how they handle the extra channels

a dvd with 5.1 audio in vlc will help you setup the audio, in the audio menu under tools you will find how it exports audio and the mixer audio levels, atm i don't have a 5.1 audio setup so can't play with levels much

if you change in vlc form simple settings to all, in alsa you will see stereo, 4.0, 4.1, 5.0 and 5.1

other apps handle audio differently but listen to normal music, 2.0 music in 2.1 speakers is normal, even if you have more speakers unless you force the app to replicate same channels on the other speakers

[dixonpete]

Can anyone with a 5.1 speaker system vouch for it working?

[trustytrev]

Hello,
      Yes 5.1 sound does work.The problem is that sound output is dependent on Pulse audio and settings in different applications.Also you have different devices available in pulse audio and Alsa mixer .The channels may or may not be muted in the Alsa mixer channel settings also.
The whole thing is a bit of a minefield and far to complicated due to the many optional variations available.
I find one of the most helpful things is to run the alsa mixer command

Code: [Select]

speaker-test -Dplug:surround51 -c6 -twav
in the console while trying different settings.You might try looking atwww.alsa-project.org/
trustytrev.

[dixonpete]

Neat command. All I hear is front right.. front left.. Thanks

[µT6]

and what soundcard do you have?

what channels do you have available in alsa mixer?