Re: MP3 problems.

[Jim Jackson <nospam [at] scs.leeds.ac.uk>]

I have an AMD K5 166 based system. It handles MP3 just fine. I use the
mpg123 command line player, which is mostly fine - top reports it using
about 10% of my CPU when playing. 

How's your system at playing WAV files? There's no decoding to do with WAV
so that if you still get problems, it's not the MP3 decoding.

I have a crappy cheapo 16bit ISA 
<MAD16 WSS (AD1848)> at 0x534 irq 11 dma 3,3

I actually had fewer problems with my old 486DX2/80 with no external cache
(;-() and the same card. So I doubt it's anything to do with processor
power.


On Wed, 1 Mar 2000, R.A.Fletcher wrote:

> Here's a good one for you. Under Windows I have Winamp going 
> and it can be on the highest quality setting and play MP3's easily. 
> The system slows, but the sound is great! Under Linux Freeamp, 
> and many others play the MP3, even at reduced sound quality, 
> badley. The sound is garbled, and slow. Unlike Winamp where bits 
> of music are skipped if there is not enough CPU, they play the 
> MP3 slowley. There is a reduction in the frequency of the sound. I 
> have looked at possible problems and found a few but don't know 
> which I should tackle first.
> 
> Problem 1) Im running a Cyrix 220MMX cpu which I read 
> somewhere, (may well have been here) which isn't used as 
> efficiently as it could be under Linux, unless I install a patch. So 
> could this lack of efficiency slow down the processor enough to 
> explain the problem. Or...
> 
> Problem 2) My sound card is based upon the CMi8330 chips, 
> (which I did read about here) and under windows some games 
> sound terrible and slow down the system. Quake 2 has an option 
> to reduce the quality of the sound and with this enabled the game 
> runs well under my Voodoo2 board. (Indeed, it runs well under 
> software mode) The problem which I think I read about a long time 
> ago is that my Video card, which incidentally is also on the 
> motherboard, steals capacity on the bus from the soundcard. 
> Dungeon Keeper 2 is only playable with background music, which 
> is supplied by the cd. I am using the prepaid OSS on SuSE 6.3 for 
> sound. OR..
> 
> Problem 3) could it simply be that the MP3 decoding isn't as 
> advanced as that on Winamp and needs much more CPU power?
> 
> I expect its probably a combination of these, but I really am not 
> sure. Any help would be appreciated.
> _oOO-Richard Fletcher-OOo_
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------
> Sheffield Linux User's Group - http://www.sheflug.co.uk
> To unsubscribe from this list send mail to
> - <sheflug-request [at] vuw.ac.nz> - with the word 
>  "unsubscribe" in the body of the message. 
> 
>   GNU the choice of a complete generation.
> 
> 
> 


---------------------------------------------------------------------
Sheffield Linux User's Group - http://www.sheflug.co.uk
To unsubscribe from this list send mail to
- <sheflug-request [at] vuw.ac.nz> - with the word 
 "unsubscribe" in the body of the message. 

  GNU the choice of a complete generation.