Ubuntu and Multimedia (audio, in particular)

[Michael Richter]

I've just found with the "killer app" for Ubuntu.  And by "killer app" I
mean "the app that kills any chance of widespread adoption".  That
application is multimedia.

Let me first explain my setup.  I have a laptop -- a Sony -- with a built-in
sound system.  It stinks, so I also have an external Sound Blaster (USB).
Ubuntu recognises both sound systems and loads drivers for them.  It then
plays setup games so damned frustrating that it basically renders my system
completely worthless as a multimedia platform.  Here's what happens.

1) Despite my setting the default sound card in System->Preferences->Sound
to my Sound Blaster, the only thing that reliably plays sounds out to the
Sound Blaster are the system event notifications.  I get nice, loud, clear
sound events going out to my speakers for GAIM and for menus opening and
closing, not to mention sporadically (yes, sporadically) getting sounds when
windows open and close.

2) Totem, in particular, will play at random to my Sound Blaster or to my
internal sound card (and crappy laptop speakers, of course.)  There doesn't
seem to be any rhyme nor reason to which one it chooses.  I can click on the
same movie file a dozen times and half the time it will play to the Sound
Blaster and half the time it will play to the crappy system.  And it's not
alternating either.  It may play to one three times in succession and then
play to the other once and back again.  It's ridiculous.

3) This point #2 applies only, of course, when Totem bothers to play sounds at
all.  Because on some files it will complain that the audio device is "busy"
and ask me if another application is using it.  Here it is reliably on
individual files.  I can play one file, get the random switching behaviour
described above and then click on one of the "death" files and have it
complain that the audio device -- note: the audio device it was just
using!-- is "busy" and "in use by another application".  Needless to
say I can't
persuade it that the device in question is not, in fact, busy.  It just pops
up the dialog and refuses... well, dialogue.  And what is the difference
between the movies that it can't play and the movies that it can (at random,
albeit)?  Well, you got me.  They're all -- every single one -- AVIs encoded
in Xvid.  No tools I have access to show any kind of difference between
them.

Now for comparison, let me explain to you how these files worked under
Windows -- going all the way back to Windows 98.  (Yes,  back to an OS that
was released seven years ago.)

1)  I set up my system by installing the appropriate codecs (just like I had
to in Ubuntu) and telling it which sound card is used by default.
2)  I play the movies.
3)  The audio invariably goes out the correct sound card and never complains
about the device being busy.

When I demonstrate Ubuntu to people I'm hoping to persuade to use, how
persuasive do you think that dialog that claims the sound card is busy is
going to be?  Or the random switch between sound systems?

Now some practical questions:

   - How do I tell Ubuntu to ignore the damned internal sound card once
   and for all?  You know, to pretend the thing isn't even there?  To not even
   load the drivers for it?  I suspect that would save me from the "randomly
   switching between sound cards" problem.
   - How do I persuade Totem that the sound card it just used a few
   seconds ago without any difficulties isn't suddenly unavailable?
   - How do I find out what the big difference is between the files that
   make Totem choke and the files which only make Totem randomly switch between
   sound cards?
   - Where can I get multimedia players for Linux that work without the
   headaches and hassles -- kind of like I've been finding under Windows since
   Win98?  (I thought the bazaar was supposed to be more responsive and
   flexible than the cathedral!)
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