[nas] Exporting audio output]

[Jon Trulson]

On Fri, 13 Feb 2004, Paul Fox wrote:

> From: Paul Fox <pgf at foxharp.boston.ma.us>
> Date: Fri, 13 Feb 2004 15:28:05 -0500
> Subject: Re: [nas] Exporting audio output]
> To: nas at radscan.com
> X-Spam-Status: No, hits=-4.9 required=5.0 tests=AWL,BAYES_00 autolearn=no
> 	version=2.60
>
>  > >>	You should use this lib on apps that do not grok NAS, but use
>  > >>direct OSS access instead.
>  > >
>  >
>  > I prefer to use mplayer instead of xmms.
>  > I have tried running mplayer with the following option along with libaudiooss
>  >  $ mplayer foobar.avi -ao oss:/dev/dsp
>  > which tells it to use oss with the device /dev/dsp but it did not work.
>  > Anyway, I am looking for a generic solution which is not confined to a
>  > particular application.
>
> i don't think you'll find one.  the choices are to use an app
> with NAS support built-in, or to use the audiooss pre-load trick.
> there's no kernel-based sound driver which implements a NAS
> client-side (which would obviously be cool).
>
> (i keep hearing rumors of alternate remote audio protocols (i.e.,
> reinventing NAS), but don't know any details, or whether the rumors
> represent anything more than vaporware.)
>

	There are a couple.  XAudio, which I think we all know is pretty
much dead.

	The latest appears to be MAS (Media Application Server).

	http://www.mediaapplicationserver.net/

	This one has support from X.Org and SAI.  It looks pretty powerful
- I have not tried it out yet.  I subscribed to their lists some months
ago, and have only ever seen one message, so it does not appear to be too
active (or maybe I just subscribed to the wrong lists).

	One thing seems unclear to me - one of the benefits of MAS is
synchronisation to an Xserver.  But the implication is that for this to
really work, MAS would need to be implemented as an extension within the
Xserver.  This does not seem like such a good idea to me,
implementation-wise...

	It would be interesting to know if it would be possible to add
XSYNC extension support into nas, thereby possibly allowing an AV app to
sync with nas and an XSYNC capable X server.

	I just prefer the seperation of audio and video servers myself.

	MAS does come with a standalone server.

-- 
Jon Trulson    mailto:jon at radscan.com
ID: 1A9A2B09, FP: C23F328A721264E7 B6188192EC733962
PGP keys at http://radscan.com/~jon/PGPKeys.txt
#include <std/disclaimer.h>
"I am Nomad." -Nomad