On Wednesday, 20 October 2004 03.55, Dom Incollingo wrote:
Hello,
I've been using SuSE (9.1, and 9.0 before that) on a desktop computer, and have routinely played music CDs using KsCD. A few weeks ago, my CD RW went bad, and I took the computer to a shop to have a new CD RW installed. The shop didn't connect the CD RW to the sound card, so KsCD no longer works. (It detects the CD and "plays" it, but there is no sound.) Totem plays music CDs fine, even without the audio cord connecting the CD RW to the sound card. (Because it uses the IDE interface?) I'm trying to decide if I should install an audio cable or if I should do without it.
Are there any major disadvantages to using software like Totem to play music CDs rather than using KsCD with an audio cable? For example, are players like Totem more CPU-intensive? Also, is it fairly common for newer desktop computers to ship without an audio cable and to rely on players like Totem to play CDs?
You can get kscd to do it too. Extras->Configure kscd and check the "Use direct digital playback". I guess totem is set to use that by default. What that does is it will rip the audio data from the CD using the same technique as you use when you rip to ogg or mp3 before it plays it. The benefit is that you can use a CD player that is not directly connected to the sound card, the drawback is that it will consume CPU and IO bandwidth when you play. With a cable between the CD and sound card, the data never enters the CPU.