Re: [Vorbis-dev] libao problem (Re: No dmix/dsnoop on Intel ICH4/5 by default?)

[email protected] wrote:
>> The only thing I personally had an actual issue with is using "front" for
>> stereo rather than "default". I don't seem able to come up with a compelling
>> reason why it should be "front" myself, so one tweak could perhaps be to
>> only change the stereo device back to "default"?
>
> Because then you can't guarantee or even discover what the playback
> rate and bitdepth are. There's no way to ensure bit-exact playback in
> a plug device, where 'front' is usually a non-plug alias.

The SND_PCM_NO_AUTO_* flags are there for exactly this reason:
http://www.alsa-project.org/alsa-doc/alsa-lib/group___p_c_m.html#ga64fa40b556374dabe40d4874242fee19


Regards,
Clemens