The state of surround sound in Ubuntu 6.06

[Johann Gile]

 Hello,
  
  I just did a little research about the state of surround sound on
  Ubuntu 6.06 Dapper Beta. I would like to share the results on
  this list in order to get some feedback, statements, comments,
  fixes, thoughts etc. Thank you.
  
  I have also filed this as abug in launchpad, see
  https://launchpad.net/distros/ubuntu/+source/totem/+bug/40732
  
  So here it goes -- the steps to reproduce the problem:
  
  Get a file with 5.1 surround sound. I'm using the Dolby City
  trailer which comes as MPEG 2 with AC-3 audio equivalent to a DVD
  as well a surroung ogg testing file. Both can be downloaded free
  charge from
  http://gstreamer.freedesktop.org/media/large/dolby.vob and
  http://www-personal.usyd.edu.au/%7Egmonro/download/cid_ind.ogg .
  
  Make sure your 5.1 speaker set is correctly plugged in, a 5.1
  switch is active and volume is set to a sane value.
  Activate the Gnome Mixer Applet.
  Go to Edit->Preferences and make sure Surround, Surround Jack
  Mode, LFE, and Channel Mode are active.
  Go to Playback, set Master, PCM, Surround, Center, and LFE to
  100%, then go to Options choose Surround jack mode according to
  your setup and set Channel Mode to 6ch.
  Open a console and execute "speaker-test -c 6 -D
  plug:surround51", if everything is set up correctly you should be
  able hear static noise from all 6 speakers.
  
  Use synaptic or apt-get to install these additional packages for
  the test, make sure universe/multiverse are enabled:
  gstreamer0.10-plugins-ugly (for MPEG 2/AC-3 support)
  xine-ui
  libxine-extracodecs (for MPEG 2/AC-3 support)
  mplayer
  
  Start totem, go to Edit->Preferences->Audio, set Audio output
  type to 5.1-channel.
  Open the Ogg test file and observe that you will not get correct
  surround output.
  Open the Dolby test file and observe that you will only get
  stereo output.
  
  Start xine, right click on the ui and select Settings->Setup->GUI,
  set Configuration experience level to Master of the known
  universe, click Apply, select Audio, set Speaker arrangement to
  Surround 5.1, then click Apply.
  Open the Ogg test file and notice you are getting no correct
  surround sound.
  Open the Dolby test file and notice you are getting correct 5.1
  surround sound from all 6 speakers.
  
  Start mplayer with "gmplayer -channels 6" from a console.
  Open the Ogg test file and notice you are getting correct 5.1
  surround sound from all 6 speakers.
  Open the Dolby test file and notice you are getting correct 5.1
  surround sound from all 6 speakers.
  
  Start vlc.
  Open the Ogg test file and observe that you will only get stereo
  output.
  Open the Dolby test file and observe that you will only get
  stereo output.
  
  Use synaptic or apt-get to install the totem-xine package in
  order to get the xine backend for totem, totem-gstreamer will be
  deinstalled automatically.
  
  Start totem, go to Edit->Preferences->Audio, set Audio output
  type to 5.1-channel.
  Open the Ogg test file and observe that you will not get correct
  surround output.
  Open the Dolby file and observe that you will now also get
  correct 5.1 sorround sound with totem.
  
  Conclusions:
  
  totem-gstreamer does neither play Ogg surround nor AC-3 surround
  sound correctly.
  totem-xine does play AC-3 surround but not Ogg surround sound
  correctly.
  xine plays AC-3 surround but not Ogg surround sound correctly.
  mplayer plays AC-3 surround sound as well as Ogg surround sound
  correctly.
  vlc does neither play Ogg surround nor AC-3 surround sound
  correctly.
  
  totem-gstreamer is the default media player and should support
  5.1 surround sound.
  
  Guilty parties involved:
  
  A fresh install of the Ubuntu Dapper Beta from 04/20/2006, no
  modification except the ones described here.
  
 xine-ui                                          0.99.4-0ubuntu5
 libxine-extracodecs                              1.1.1+ubuntu1-2
 libxine-main1                                    1.1.1+ubuntu2-6
  
  mplayer
  0.99+1.0pre7try2+cvs20060117-0ubuntu6
  
  vlc
  0.8.4.debian-1ubuntu5
  vlc-plugin-alsa
  0.8.4.debian-1ubuntu5
  
 totem                                            1.4.0-0ubuntu2
 totem-gstreamer                                  1.4.0-0ubuntu2
 totem-xine                                       1.4.0-0ubuntu2
  
 gstreamer0.10-alsa                               0.10.5-0ubuntu3
 gstreamer0.10-esd                                0.10.2-2ubuntu2
 gstreamer0.10-gnomevfs                           0.10.5-0ubuntu3
 gstreamer0.10-plugins-base                       0.10.5-0ubuntu3
 gstreamer0.10-plugins-base-apps                  0.10.5-0ubuntu3
 gstreamer0.10-plugins-good                       0.10.2-2ubuntu2
 gstreamer0.10-plugins-ugly                       0.10.3-0ubuntu1
 gstreamer0.10-tools                              0.10.4-1ubuntu1
 gstreamer0.10-x                                  0.10.5-0ubuntu3
 libgstreamer-plugins-base0.10-0                  0.10.5-0ubuntu3
 libgstreamer0.10-0                               0.10.4-1ubuntu1
  
  -- 
  Johann Gile
  jgile_linux at yahoo.de