[Mageia-discuss] Xine has better sound quality than vlc, why?

[AL13N]

Op dinsdag 12 maart 2013 18:11:04 schreef Marja van Waes:
> On 12/03/13 16:46, Diego Bello wrote:
> > Hi all,
> > 
> > Short version: why is that the Xine backend has a waaaay better sound
> > than the vlc backend?
> > 
> > Long version:
> > I sued VLC as backend on KDE since the Xine backend was broken when
> > Mageia 2 came out. Then a couple of weeks ago I tried Xine again and
> > it worked, which is good.
> > 
> > After doing that, I noticed that the sound quality was just great. I
> > have a Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS sound card and Sennheizer headphones
> > because I like good sound, but I wasn't enjoying music for a while
> > until I switched back to Xine. The sound was not good, not good bass
> > or highs, but now all sounds clear and great.
> > 
> > Is this difference because of the actual sound engine or is it
> > something in phonon or something else? Has anybody else noted a
> > difference? Trying with laptop speakers doesn't count, of course ;)
> 
> I've noticed differences that drove me crazy when testing login, logout
> etc. sounds for Mageia: what I heard depended on the player I used and,
> for at least one player, also on whether I played or replayed a sound. I
> don't remember having tried Xine, though, but at least vlc, audacity,
> amarok and totem.
> 
> Reading your story makes me glad I didn't hurry to buy an expensive
> "real" sound card to try to solve the problem ;)
> 
> I don't have a clue what causes the differences.

perhaps it's the backend of those phonon-backends that makes the differences?

or it could be the way the players work. threaded vs non-threaded and taking 
into account dropping frames due to slower processing or whatnot.

it's too bad phonon-xine isn't that much supported, because i think it's 
great.

in any case, i would try to find out if vlc uses a native pulseaudio, or if 
xine does...

there could be an equalizer or automatic sound-volume adjuster, or whatnot....