On Tue, Sep 26, 2017 at 11:33 AM, Garrett D'Amore <[email protected]> wrote:
> Under the hood, you’re using the Boomer audio subsystem. This is the > kernel audio you’re using, and it only understands very simple PCM and ULAW > formats. (ULAW is required for compatibility reasons; it’s a simple low > quality format.) > [..snip..] ULAW compatibility for what? Granted, preserving the current version of the Au format requires it. But future final version of Au would not require it. The Boomer audio subsystem is likely not using the 48 kHz sample frequency at the heart of Opus CELT. I am guessing Boomer is using the MIDI 44.1 kHz standard adopted for CD Audio PCM. MIDI 44.1 kHz audio quality will always be worse than the 48 kHz design. Perpetual resampling between the two by the subsystem will be a needless waste of CPU time. That is why I suggest removing the old telecom ULAW and upgrading the PCM. Why allow low-quality audio anymore? Simply integrate the best two forms of audio format into one final audio system. Might as well retain the name Sun Au to attract burgeoning interest specifically to illumos. I’d actually like to see the Sun audioplayer and audiorecord utilities go > the way of the dodo. They are really old and crufty, written in a quite > old dialect of C++, and difficult to extend. There are vastly superior > alternatives available, such as gstreamer based utilities, etc. It would > be trivial to implement an audioplay / audiorecord workalike on top of > those utilities. (The audiotest and audioctl programs are much newer — > delivered with Boomer, and need to remain in order to test and control the > underlying audio drivers and hardware, however.) > [..snip..] Agreed. Opus CELT provides commandline audio player and recorder tools which were used to test improvements during its development. Simply use these two and upgrade the kernel handling of PCM to eliminate the resampling between 48 kHz CELT & PCM. CELT supports multichannel HD sound systems. And CELT offers that in realtime Internet audio for live music broadcasting. Consider how the iPod MP3 iTunes craze sustained Apple long enough to develop the iPhone. Successful products are stepping stones into the future. (illumos-based Internet Radio servers using CELT and PCM Au would be an improvement. Initially, there are few clients to receive in that format. This is why I suggested reusing the familiar Real media container formats.) I just thought it would be easiest to replace the Sun Audio at the kernel level with a one-time upgrade. It’s kind of sad, but in truth boomer is sort of abandonware. Meaning I’m > not working on it anymore, and I don’t know of anyone else that is. This > is as much as or more from lack of demands as lack of interest on my part. > Truthfully almost nobody uses illumos on the desktop/laptop, and for those > that do the software we have (boomer wise) is normally adequate. > > - Garrett > This is why it needs to be finalized, at the kernel level, by someone who knows where to change it. I agree there are currently few users of Sun Audio. Ideal time to change it if it is going to be changed at all. Few PC users are aware of illumos. Many are confused into thinking LInux is Unix. Most are unconcerned because their PC is pre-installed with Windows. Genuine Unix as a stepping stone must appeal to the personal side. For example, Epson provides an opensource Linux driver that generically controls all their Home Office printers using their ESC/P language. Increasingly, people are working from their homes. Simply having the generic driver from Epson pre-installed would open opportunities for illumos-based distros that align with personal trends. The same idea applies to pre-install support for the best opensource multimedia services, which has much wider appeal. Added directions to use illumos don't prevent its traditional uses. So, yeah, I want to direct a unique distro with wide appeal to PC users. -- John On Tue, Sep 26, 2017 at 8:27 AM John Howard <[email protected]> wrote: >> I would like CELT integrated or plugged into Sun Audio player/recorder >> and the AU format. CELT is better than proprietary MP3 and a considerable >> innovation. Opus consists of CELT, Microsoft (Skype) SILK, and SILK + CELT >> hybrid. SILK is designed for a congested Internet causing Realtime Audio >> packet loss, which is irrelevant to non-Skypers. Safely ignore the hybrid >> mode support and SILK. OPUS CELT is the current improved version and >> sufficient for Realtime Audio play and record. I used Opus alot on FreeBSD >> to record better-than-CD-quality audio. CELT is the best open source audio >> codec available. >> >> In illumos I have only tested using the AudioHD device driver and the Sun >> Audio player of the sample PCM AU files. Sounds great on my desktop PC. I >> don't know what sound system is being used underneath. All the obsolete >> telecom codecs supported by Sun AU should be removed, leaving only fast >> paths for PCM and CELT handling. >> >> Another needed innovation is Dirac video codec accelerated by the GPU. >> Dirac got a bad rap from a college kid writing a Signal/Noise Ratio >> critique to graduate, and a publish-or-perish person trying to move up. >> Its reputation was sabatoged before it got off the ground because it >> competes with proprietary MPEG4. Dirac is the best open source video codec >> available. Some specialized tweaks can make it even better. It is still >> available from GStreamer despite its corporate abandonment. >> >> Heirloom Toolchest at SourceForge modernized Sun tools and Caldera tools >> under the CDDL. Heirloom replaces many of the CLOSED BINS such as pax, od, >> sed, tail, tr. Its troff tool produces excellent PDF with micro-typography >> taken from TeX. Heirloom Unix commands can be used without interfering >> with existing Unix commands (or GNU tools). All the Heirloom Tools were >> upgraded to use UTF-8 and can be extended to use Big Endian UTF-32. This >> changes the fundamental unit of Information Technology. It potentially >> affects the design of Text Devices, and any program event loop. System >> software and User software will be affected by it. >> >> Ideally, the Real Audio and Real Video and Real Text formats should be >> upgraded with these three innovations to multimedia along with JPEG2000 >> Real Image. Real Time Streaming Protocol using these formats is still >> available from GStreamer despite widespread abandonment of the proprietary >> Real Networks codecs in favor of MPEG4 and MP3. It is the proprietary Real >> container format that is still useful. Their Helix project opens it to >> future innovation. Here it is. >> >> -- John >> ------------------------------------------ illumos-discuss Archives: https://illumos.topicbox.com/groups/discuss/discussions/T83f198c8597cf8e3-Mf68f8b2126a527c4541e3e97 Powered by Topicbox: https://topicbox.com
