[svlug] Wish there was a program that..

[Scott Hess]

On Thu, 17 Apr 2003, Joe Buck wrote:
> On Wed, Apr 16, 2003 at 08:53:32PM -0700, Scott Hess wrote:
> > On Wed, 16 Apr 2003, Joe Buck wrote:
> > > Here's my suggestion for a quick project: a CD player program that
> > > works on machines that have no hardware connection between the CD
> > > and the sound card.
> > 
> > _No_ hardware connection would be a tough nut to crack :-).
> 
> But this is becoming common.

How does it work - Wireless?  Telepathic rays?  :-).

> In the old days, you could just flip a bit and the CD player would play
> out through the sound card.  Increasingly, modern PCs don't have such
> any direct path between the CD player and sound card, and most Linux
> CD-player programs don't work.  To play a CD, you have to have the CPU
> extract samples and then shoot them out to the sound card, and Windows
> CD-player programs generally work this way now.

Aha.  I see.  For some reason, I assumed this was _already_ how it worked.  
I've never bothered to connect the CD->sound card cable.  I'm sure there's
a pile of them at the bottom of a box, somewhere in my closet.  But,
indeed, when I get down and check the only machine I recall ever playing a
CD directly on (no mp3 rip), I see that it has the cable. The main issue
with doing something like this is that players seem to fall out into
CD-type players (which won't know how to talk to the sound card)  and
mp3-type players (which won't know how to talk to the CD).

The problem I was considering was somewhat different.  I want to put my 
computers in a remote closet with a Epia (or somesuch) as a console.  I 
can remote X, I think I can remote sound via esound, but you start getting 
more sketchy when you remote CD-ROM and floppy devices...

Later,
scott