[NTLUG:Discuss] Sound Problems

[Steve Baker]

Peter A. Koren wrote:

> I assume that since I was able to play wave files from a data CD that my
> cable is properly installed. Am I wrong?

Yes - you are.

Wav files (just like text files or MP3's or whatever) are read as literal
files off disk.

But putting the CD into a mode where it's just an audio player with an
analog output that plugs into your sound card is something completely
different.  That's what that cable is for - and if it's not plugged in,
you can't head CD's played that way.

> Is .wav data sent digitally As
> a file over the EIDE ribbon cable

Yes, it's sent via EIDE...it's just another file as far as the CD
player is concerned.

> ...or does the drive firmware decode it
> and send it along over the analog 4-pin sound cable?

No - but when you play a simple music CD (which is *not* a bunch of
WAV files - but a special data format that's quite unlike a normal
"computer disk"), it does use the analog cable.

> I just do not know.
> And since DVDs work (video and sound)

DVD's are not like music CD's.  The DVD recording is just a bunch
of files on disk.

If you 'mount' a DVD disk, then 'cd /mnt/whatever' and do an 'ls',
you'll see a bunch of files on the disk.

That's also true if you mount a CD-ROM computer disk.

But if you try to mount an audio CD, the 'mount' command will complain
and you won't see any files.

> I have to ask, "does analog sound
> go over the analog cable or digitally over the EIDE cable?" If the
> former, the cable must be OK.

No - because playing 'WAV' file is not playing analog sound.

> Also, you mention the audio mixer. Kmix was set with zero volume, but
> setting it for fairly high volume did nothing.

Well, that was a necessary step towards making this work - but maybe
not the only step.

---------------------------- Steve Baker -------------------------
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