5.1 surround plays without center

[Dietje]

Hey,

I am looking for an answer to this question for a very long time, but till now it has been unanswered.

My surround-card is working properly, I set everything up so it should be fine, but my center won't give any sound. I checked if this box works properly and it's not broken.
In 'volume-control' in 'switches' I checked 'four channel model' because otherwise it would only play like a 2.1 system. This doesn't seems correct, but I have no idea how to set this up any other way.

Also, if everything is complete, is there a program to set the volume of every single box seperately?

Thanks,
Dieter

[Carme]

Try running speaker-test -c 6, as explained here:

http://www.cse.ohio-state.edu/~bondhugu/alsamch.shtml

[brebs]

Originally Posted by Dietje

I checked 'four channel model'

Completely wrong.

You want 5.1 sound, not 4.0

4.0 does not have a Centre (it's just left&right x2 = 4), which is why you're not having a Centre.

Every soundcard is different, annoyingly, so state in detail which soundcard you have.

[Dietje]

Try running speaker-test -c 6, as explained here:

http://www.cse.ohio-state.edu/~bondhugu/alsamch.shtml

I edited ~/.asoundrc and /etc/rc.local, but got the error

[Dieter@DieterPC ~]$ sudo /etc/rc.local
Setting 5.1 Channel volumes...
amixer: Unable to find simple control 'PCM',0

amixer: Unable to find simple control 'Surround',0

amixer: Unable to find simple control 'Center',0

amixer: Unable to find simple control 'LFE',0

amixer: Unable to find simple control 'Surround Jack Mode',0

amixer: Unable to find simple control 'Mic select',0

amixer: Unable to find simple control 'Mic',0

amixer: Unable to find simple control 'Channel mode',0

amixer: Unable to find simple control 'Center/LFE Down mix',0

amixer: Unable to find simple control 'Duplicate Front',0

[Dieter@DieterPC ~]$ speaker-test -c 6 -D surround51

speaker-test 1.0.17

Playback device is surround51
Stream parameters are 48000Hz, S16_LE, 6 channels
Using 16 octaves of pink noise
Rate set to 48000Hz (requested 48000Hz)
Buffer size range from 12 to 5461
Period size range from 6 to 2730
Using max buffer size 5460
Periods = 4
was set period_size = 1365
was set buffer_size = 5460
0 - Front Left

The test always stops there, I don't hear anything and it kinda hangs there, it won't test another output.

Every soundcard is different, annoyingly, so state in detail which soundcard you have.

It can't find the exact model, but here's everything I know from the box:
Icidu 7.1 soundcard pci
c-media chipset
digital spdif in/out
supports dolby digital ex & dts es
supports ad3 & eax 1.0/2.0
...
although I suppose the only usefull information is icidu 7.1 soundcard pci with c-media chipset

[Carme]

The sound cards you have are listed in /proc/asound/cards; the drivers used in /proc/asound/modules.

Undo the changes you made to ~/.asoundrc and /etc/rc.local. You probably don't want them.

Back at square one, run just "speaker-test -c 6", no further arguments. If you had 4 working speakers before, then it should work (at least -c 4). This will tell you which speakers are accessible by ALSA.

This page looks more appropriate for Fedora 10, try doing what it says;

http://www.cse.ohio-state.edu/~bondh...nd-pulse.shtml

Note that the /etc/rc.local changes suggested there only change volume and such, you can do everything manually through your mixer application (or alsamixer).

[Dietje]

If I folow the instructions on
http://www.cse.ohio-state.edu/~bondh...nd-pulse.shtml
it fails when I open the volume control with alsamixer -c 0. I can't uncheck surround/..., these options aren't here.

When I try to run the speaker test now it givess *** PULSEAUDIO: Unable to create stream. I googled the problem but coudn't find an answer.

[Carme]

I don't know, sorry.

But you said you had 4 speakers working and just the center missing. Undo all the changes you made, go back to that original configuration and without changing anything try speaker-test to see which speakers are working.

Also, when you ask further questions about audio, make sure to post the contents of /proc/asound/cards and /proc/asound/modules.

[Dietje]

But you said you had 4 speakers working and just the center missing. Undo all the changes you made, go back to that original configuration and without changing anything try speaker-test to see which speakers are working.

That was when I checked 'four channel mode'.

[Dieter@DieterPC ~]$ cat /proc/asound/cards
0 [CMI8768 ]: CMI8738-MC8 - C-Media CMI8768
C-Media CMI8768 at 0xcc00, irq 16


[Dieter@DieterPC ~]$ cat /proc/asound/modules
0 snd_cmipci

My other soundcar (onboard) is unchecked in the bios.

[Dietje]

I have no idea what I did exactly but I have everything working. Is there a nice GUI to set the volume of every box seperately?

[Vouters]

$ alsamixergui ?

[Dietje]

I was looking for something else, but alsamixergui did the trick too.

Thanks all of you for the advice

[Dietje]

Another question here: how can I make sure the settings of alsamixergui still are the same after I reboot? Currently they reset, and it's a real pain in the ass to edit them each time.

only way i can think of is to edit the alsamixer config ( not by gui ) an save your settings

[Dietje]

Looks like it saves the settings in the config-file (just thinking, I´m not behind my computer right now) but at startup they get rewritten by another application or something?