Sound / Edmund

[Edmund Laugasson]

Hi, Ash!

> I managed to figure out 99% of the sound problems.

Well, we all would like to know, what you did and how solved the problem and then we can learn about 
your problem and its solving. I mean - which of my advices did help you or you figured out it 
somehow else.

> I cannot "listen" to the music / video playback online.

If you use Firefox or Konqueror, then you can type onto address bar about:plugins to see, what 
plugins are installed inside web browser.

In Firefox you can change settings by typing about:config but you must be careful. If something goes 
wrong - just delete the file prefs.js from your profile directory and you can start over.

About profiles and its folder locations:
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_folder
http://support.mozilla.com/en-US/kb/Profiles
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_folder_-_Firefox

If you use e.g. mplayerplug-in inside Firefox, then you can configure it so - 
http://mplayerplug-in.sourceforge.net/config.php

Also when some video or music is playing - at that time right-click with mouse on that video/sound 
display inside Firefox and choose configure.

Also there is useful if you have installed w32codecs (or w64codecs if you have 64-bit Linux) pack 
from medibuntu repository - https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Medibuntu

I mean - it's also important, that there is known the sound/video codec, what you would like to 
play. If it's Windows-specific, then these w32/64 codecs are especially meaned for that.

You can also test from command line:
mplayer <URL>

...where instead of <URL> write some real internet address, what points to sound/video source.

Some audio testing addresses for you (or everyone), which I have written in the file ~/.bash_aliases 
in my PC (these are most used web radiostations in Estonia):
$ alias | grep mplayer
alias elmar='mplayer mms://wms3.neti.tv/elmar'
alias energy='mplayer mms://81.20.146.22/energyfm'
alias energy128='mplayer http://streamer.sotovik.ee:8500/energyfm_hi.ogg'
alias energy64='mplayer http://streamer.sotovik.ee:8500/energyfm_low.ogg'
alias kl='mplayer mms://213.35.156.21/klassikaraadio'
alias kp1='mplayer -playlist http://raadio.tt.ee:8002/listen.pls'
alias kp2='mplayer mms://wms4.neti.tv/kurpre'
alias kuku='mplayer mms://wms3.neti.tv/kuku'
alias marta='mplayer mms://wms2.neti.tv/marta'
alias power128='mplayer http://81.20.146.22:8500/powerhit_hi.ogg'
alias power64='mplayer http://81.20.146.22:8500/powerhit_low.ogg'
alias r2='mplayer mms://213.35.156.21/raadio-2'
alias r2.2='mplayer mms://213.35.156.21/radio2'
alias r3='mplayer mms://81.20.146.22/raadio3'
alias r3128='mplayer http://streamer.sotovik.ee:8500/raadio3_hi.ogg'
alias r364='mplayer http://streamer.sotovik.ee:8500/raadio3_low.ogg'
alias r4='mplayer mms://213.35.156.21/raadio-4'
alias r7='mplayer mms://WMS4.neti.tv/Raadio7'
alias rfm='mplayer mms://213.35.156.19/ruutfm'
alias rr='mplayer mms://wms4.neti.tv/raadioring'
alias rt='mplayer mms://wms5.neti.tv/raadiotallinn'
alias sky='mplayer mms://81.20.146.22/skyplus'
alias sky128='mplayer http://streamer.sotovik.ee:8500/skyplus_hi.ogg'
alias sky64='mplayer http://streamer.sotovik.ee:8500/skyplus_low.ogg'
alias star='mplayer mms://81.20.146.22/starfm'
alias star128='mplayer http://81.20.146.22:8500/starfm_hi.ogg'
alias star64='mplayer http://81.20.146.22:8500/starfm_low.ogg'
alias sun='mplayer mms://WMS4.neti.tv/Tartumaa'
alias tp28='mplayer mms://wms5.neti.tv/pereraadio'
alias tp96='mplayer mms://wms3.neti.tv/tartupereraadio'
alias tre='mplayer -playlist http://raadio.tre.ee/listen.pls'
alias uuno='mplayer mms://wms3.neti.tv/uuno'
alias uunopop='mplayer mms://wms4.neti.tv/uunopop'
alias vr='mplayer mms://213.35.156.21/vikerraadio'

"64" means 64 kbps stream and "128" the 128 kbps stream but there are also 28 kbps and 96 kbps streams.

These "mms://" addresses are in Windows Media Audio (WMA) formats, .pls files are usually in MP3 
format and .ogg is Ogg Vorbis, what should play natively in Linux.

You have to copy between ' the mplayer ... into your command line and press enter.

OR

1) if you write these aliases into file ~/.bash_aliases
2) uncomment the following rows in file ~/.bashrc
if [ -f ~/.bash_aliases ]; then
     . ~/.bash_aliases
fi
3) save and quit once from Konsole in KDE and then reopen it. Now these aliases are effective - just 
type alias and press enter to see active aliases. Now you can just type e.g. tre and it will run the 
command mplayer -playlist http://raadio.tre.ee/listen.pls and start play one of the most popular 
youth radio in Estonia :)


mplayer -vo help gives you possible video output possibilities
mplayer -ao help gives you possible audio output possibilities

Then you can just test output options:
mplayer -ao alsa <URL>
mplayer -vo xv <URL>

Sometimes there is also problem, that you have too much plugins at the same time installed.

Or is that problem with multimedia players, that cannot play music/video over internet? I mean e.g. 
VLC Media Player, MPlayer, Amarok? These players has each its own configuration files and menus to 
choose e.g. between available sound servers. Usually ALSA should work in KDE. I see very often these 
messages at command line, when I run mplayer with those URL-s above:
....
AO: [pulse] Failed to connect to server: Connection refused
AO: [alsa] 48000Hz 2ch s16le (2 bytes per sample)
....

It means, that Pulse sound server doesn't work but ALSA does.


Best Regards,
Edmund