I thought that SB128 and 040 can play mp3s!!!

[MASACREWILL]

..well, I am quite dissapointed with the "results" I get on my A1240 with SB 128 in Mediator - AmigaAMP just can`t play mp3s properly!!! I thought it would not be a problem for a soundacrd correctly installed in system! Btw my Amiga doesnt want to boot just now for unknown reason.. great, it sux all..

[dillinger]

would help if you explained your problem a little better. "just can`t play mp3s properly!!!" doesn't tell us much. Is the sound quality low and grainy? Skipping and jittering?

If .mp3s play but quality is low then run sys:prefs/ahi (AHI prefs prog) and try increasing the card's frequency setting. default is usually quite low, so just whack it up fully (around 48KHz, i think). see if that helps.

if the quality is ok but you have pauses and skips try increasing the buffer settings in AmigaAMP.

[god64]

also check the mixer, i have installed a terratec recently and have to move the mixer volume sliders after each reboot to get sound (not noly master, there is a dropdown where you can adjust volume for each output)

than try AmiAMP instead of AmigaAMP (this are two different programs, you can get AmiAMP on aminet), AmiAMP works much better for me than AmigaAMP

[MASACREWILL]

dillinger wrote:
would help if you explained your problem a little better. "just can`t play mp3s properly!!!" doesn't tell us much. Is the sound quality low and grainy? Skipping and jittering?

If .mp3s play but quality is low then run sys:prefs/ahi (AHI prefs prog) and try increasing the card's frequency setting. default is usually quite low, so just whack it up fully (around 48KHz, i think). see if that helps.

if the quality is ok but you have pauses and skips try increasing the buffer settings in AmigaAMP.

..thanx, ok, I experience pauses and skipping while playing a song, changing buffer doesn`t seem to help as the best results I get with 64 KB or 32.. I thought, that playing mp3s with a soundcard is not so CPU time consuming! I almost got better results playing mp3s through Paula years ago.. IMO it is the mpega.library problem.. is there any other possibility or should I try a newer version?

[lempkee]

a soundcard use more resources than our little sound chip and also.. AHI is most of the reason why u are having problems.

[Karlos]

I thought, that playing mp3s with a soundcard is not so CPU time consuming! I almost got better results playing mp3s through Paula years ago..

I guess you thought wrong, then. All the soundcard does for you is to give you a better DAC. It *might* even accelerate some mixing stuff, depending on the driver and hardware.

One problem you might have is AHI. This can take some configuring for optimal performance. Its probably old news, but every version I tried after 4.12 (basically any AHI v5 revision I tested) sucked the life out of my CPU, no matter what I did with the settings - and that was just using paula for output.

I would hope that current versions are somewhat better in that regard, I've not updated it as I don't have a soundcard.

IMO it is the mpega.library problem.. is there any other possibility or should I try a newer version?

This could also be part of your problem. Frankly mp3 decoding can be heavy work for a 680x0. There were integer versions of this library that are supposed to be a lot faster if you don't have a 68060.

[Legerdemain]

My experience tells me, however, that you can not play MP3s in full quality on a 68040... I might be wrong here, but I haven't managed at least (and I do not think that my friends with 040 have managed either). Either way, playing MP3s on your 040 will most likely drain so much system resources that the OS will be more or less unusable.

[motorollin]

A Soundblaster won't assist the 040 with decoding of MP3s. The CPU will still be doing all of the work. If you want to play MP3s without using all of your CPU, then you will have to get a clockport sound card like Delphina or a parallel port MP3 decoder (MASPlayer).

--
moto

[Seiya]

MASACREWILL wrote:
..well, I am quite dissapointed with the "results" I get on my A1240 with SB 128 in Mediator - AmigaAMP just can`t play mp3s properly!!! I thought it would not be a problem for a soundacrd correctly installed in system! Btw my Amiga doesnt want to boot just now for unknown reason.. great, it sux all..

68040 can play mp3 only in 44khz in mono with 80% of cpu load.
Or 22,5 khz in stereo but always with 80% of cpu load..

I alwasy told, is not a limit of 040 power, but bad optimization of mpega.library

[Seiya]

This could also be part of your problem. Frankly mp3 decoding can be heavy work for a 680x0. There were integer versions of this library that are supposed to be a lot faster if you don't have a 68060.

on every version of mpega.library (fpu or integer) mp3 in high quality cannot be played with 68040

it can play at high quality only in mono...

On Amiga howerver you can install Delfina audio card, its DSP processor can play mp3 with no cpu load
With Soundblaster 128 we can get the best output quality.

[CLS2086]

The 040 lack of FPU power to decode on the fly MP3 stream... and if you use AHI you reduce its power too...

[swift240]

Something is wrong with what you have for sure.
As when I run Amp or AmigaAmp or even Songplayer latest version, I play MP3's with no problem.
I run a 1200 with Mediator SX, SB128 and Apollo Turbo at 40Mhz with 32 meg Fast ram.
AHI is setup correct.
I hope you get it up and running soon, as with your setup it should run MP3 with no real problem
If i can do it on my setup up, you should do it on yours.

Mike.

[lurkist]

This can depend on the 040 in question.  A 25 Mhz will most likely fail, a 40 (like the original poster's) should be fine (but don't expect to multitask).  Use mpega and Paula if the SB is too CPU intensive.  And I do mean mpega the program, not just mpega.library.  Don't bother with overblown packages like Amplifier etc which use AHI.

Cheers

[Tahoe]

Sorry, bit of a newbie on the Audio front...
But... Is it possible to use the Delfina as a co-pro for decoding it while the output runs through the Soundblaster?

This would give the best of both worlds....

[Framiga]

indeed! the 040@40 Mhz is the bare minimum for MP3 at full quality even if you'l get an expensive MP3 player box only then ;-)

IIRC (when i had a 040@28Mhz) i used the original plain 2.4 mpega.library and Paula (with 14bit driver/calibration). OR when i got the Repulse card, AHI 4.180 because it is the ligher(?) available.