Talk:Music Player Daemon/Tips and tricks

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Some thoughts avout the section titled "Example configuration: Output with 44.1 KHz at e. g. 16 bit depth, multiple programs at once"

> "If one wants to leave the bit depth decision to ALSA resp. MPD, comment out resp. omit the dmix.format line and change the one for mpd with format to "44100:*:2"."

This is not true; one should omit the `format` mpd configuration parameter inside a `audio output` section, or the global parameter `audio_output_format` (or set them to `*.*.*`) to leave the decoding up to alsa.

When specifying a audio putput independant fixed format using `audio_output_format`, the sample rate converter mpd uses can be specified with the `samplerate_converter` global configuration parameter for mpd, from 0 ("Best Sinc Interpolator"), 1 ("Medium Sinc Interpolator"), 2 ("Fastest Sinc Interpolator"), 3 ("ZOH Interpolator") to 4 ("Linear Interpolator"), in descending order of quality.

> "What is the downside? These settings cause everything (if necessary) to be resampled to this format, such as material from DVD or TV which usually is at 48 KHz. But there is no known way to have ALSA dynamically change the format, and particularly if you listen to far more CDs than anything else the occasional 48 → 44.1 is not too great a loss."

Alsa does dynamically change to any format, as long as the attached dac supports it (external or inside the sound card), following the encoding of the source.


> "Note: Crossfading between files decoded at two different bit depths (say, one mp3 and one 16 bit flac) does not work unless conversion is active."

Maybe its a good idea to mention that "gapless playback" is possible however using different encoded files with mpd configured for bit perfect thoughput.

--Ronalde (talk) 14:44, 10 December 2015 (UTC)Reply[reply]