DynamicAudioRateSpec
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Launchpad entry: none yet
Packages affected:
Summary
Currently esound runs at a fixed sample rate (44100 samples per second). For both quality and performance reasons, esound (or whatever other sound server Ubuntu might migrate to) should dynamically negotiate the sample rate based on the rates of the active clients and the actual capabilities of the audio hardware.
Rationale
Esound runs at a fixed sample rate of 44100. However, audio hardware that supports at least up to 48000 is extremely common, and at least one common desktop use case is natively at 48000, DVD playback. In this case, the application (say Totem) must downsample the from 48000 to 44100. Downsampling is fairly computationally intensive and causes quality loss. This extra CPU time raising the minimum computing power required to play a DVD without dropping any frames, and causes quicker battery drain on portables.
High definition audio is starting to become more common. A desktop user should not be required to choose between utilizing a sample rate higher than 44100 and having software mixing available.
Use cases
1. Single
Scope
Design
Implementation
Code
Data preservation and migration
Unresolved issues