On Apr 12, 2013, at 05:36 10, Alan Smith wrote: > 1) Aside from hardware mpeg decoding, what features does an ASI 6xxx > have in Rivendell that cannot be utilized with ALSA sound cards?
A) Hardware MPEG *En*coding -- arguably more important than the decoding side inasmuch as it is much more CPU-intensive. B) Timescaling - the ability to set a forced length on a cart and have that length enforced upon playout. C) Buffering - ASI cards all have huge hardware data buffers, which can be especially important when working in central server environments. D) AES3 Compatibility - Many models offer true AES3 digital compatibility. This can be hard to find on the ALSA side; even interfaces that offer generic IEC958 support often can't generate true AES3 data headers. E) RF Immunity - All ASI cards are mu-metal shielded and utilize true balanced I/O. As such, they can operate sitting next to 50 kW broadcast transmitters generating fields on the order of 10s of V/m. This alone is enough to wipe out many if not most pro-sumer cards. Cheers! |-------------------------------------------------------------------------| | Frederick F. Gleason, Jr. | Chief Developer | | | Paravel Systems | |-------------------------------------------------------------------------| | A room without books is like a body without a soul. | | -- Cicero | |-------------------------------------------------------------------------| _______________________________________________ Rivendell-dev mailing list [email protected] http://lists.rivendellaudio.org/mailman/listinfo/rivendell-dev
