Problems with software speech

[Alex Snow]

I've seen lots of standard PCs with this built-in speaker, back when I 
worked in a primarily Dell shop, we had the option of ordering 
machines for clients with this option.  Also the ancient deskpro 4000 
I run as a server has one of these, and I've seen many more machines 
that do also.
On 
Sun, Mar 11, 2007 at 04:57:34PM +0000, Michael Whapples wrote:
> On Sun, 2007-03-11 at 09:08 -0400, Erik Heil wrote:
> > Hi their.  This isn't related to Intel hardware, but this is actually 
> > something in my opion they should implement.  It wouldn't require much 
> > cost up-front at all.  On my Sun workstation, their is actually a 
> > dedicated headphone output on the back of the machine.  Also, to make 
> > things better, their is actually a real speaker embedded in the front.  So 
> > this means that even if you didn't have a set of speakers, flite, 
> > festival, etc. will by default use /dev/audio which in this case by 
> > default accesses the system's speaker.  No of course if you want to use 
> > speakers, go right head, the capability is there.  No sorround sound, but 
> > certainly CD-quality audio.  Along with this, you have your standard 
> > line-in and MIC inputs.
> > That's interesting about the in built speaker, probably is useful.
> I question though the advantage of a headphone socket on the back,
> surely the front would be better. Some PC cases have front panel audio
> connectors for headphones, but I don't know if they automatically will
> turn off the speaker connection, and it does also require the soundcard
> has front panel connectors to accept the wires for these sockets.
> > On Sun, 11 Mar 2007, Michael Whapples wrote:
> > 
> > > Date: Sun, 11 Mar 2007 11:23:17 +0000
> > > From: Michael Whapples <mikster4 at msn.com>
> > > Reply-To: Speakup is a screen review system for Linux.
> > >     <speakup at braille.uwo.ca>
> > > To: Speakup is a screen review system for Linux. <speakup at braille.uwo.ca>
> > > Subject: Re: Problems with software speech
> > > 
> > > On Sat, 2007-03-10 at 23:08 -0600, Farhan wrote:
> > >> Hello, i'm not sure about your second question about the headphone issues, but most laptop soundcards now a days are cingle channel only, they don't do multichannel, sinse Windows xp has some weird kernel implementation to do that all for you, I think the only true multichannel soundcards you can get for laptops are the soundblaster external pcmcia cards.
> > >>
> > > Let's be helpful here, now the reason may be known, but how to solve it.
> > > Well as far as I know, alsa can do software mixing as well, you will
> > > need to use a dmix device in the alsa configuration files. All the
> > > possibilities with alsa configuration is quite wide, so it would be best
> > > to read about it in the alsa documentation or search the internet for a
> > > suitable solution. Also make sure that the software itself is really
> > > using alsa, some programs still use OSS (trplayer, realplayer, flite,
> > > freetts (so firevox plugin if you are using freetts), etc). If you need
> > > to use something which uses OSS then it is still possible to use
> > > software mixing, get it to use the alsa-OSS compatibility system by
> > > putting the aoss command at the beginning of your command for the app
> > > which uses OSS (eg. "aoss realplayer" will run realplayer with OSS
> > > output going through alsa-OSS compatibility layer).
> > >
> > > I don't actually know about your headphone issue, but it sounds like
> > > alsa doesn't know about configuring (or it isn't configuring) a setting
> > > for muting speakers when using headphones (it sounds like the switch is
> > > software based rather than being a simple switch system. I think due to
> > > the comment about the behaviour when using windows). Guesses at a
> > > possible fix:
> > > Check that alsa doesn't have a control for it somewhere.
> > > See if the problem is solved in updated versions of alsa (if you are not
> > > using the latest).
> > > Last resort might be to find out if headphone and speaker volume can be
> > > set separately (I know my laptop soundcard alsa gives a headphone
> > > volume), and then you create two scripts (or one which either takes
> > > options or knows how to toggle) that you run to mute speakers but not
> > > headphones and to unmute speakers, and then you run this/these when
> > > connecting and disconnecting headphones.
> > >
> > > Hope some (if not all) of this is useful.
> > >
> > > From
> > > Michael Whapples
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > _______________________________________________
> > > Speakup mailing list
> > > Speakup at braille.uwo.ca
> > > http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup
> > >
> > 
> > eheil at sdf.lonestar.org
> > SDF Public Access UNIX System - http://sdf.lonestar.org
> > 
> > 
> 
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Speakup mailing list
> Speakup at braille.uwo.ca
> http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup

-- 
I once witnessed a long-winded, month-long flamewar over the use of
mice vs. trackballs... It was very silly.
	-- Matt Welsh