[bongo-devel] Re: Add TODO item: Implement support for crossfading

[Daniel Jensen]

Daniel Brockman <address@hidden> writes:

> I never intended to attempt to solve the mixing problems
> that you describe.  My idea was to implement crossfading by
> assuming that the sound system can do the necessary mixing,
> running multiple players at once, and changing their volumes.

Yes, I agree with that the user should have to turn on crossfading and
know when it's appropriate.

I never thought of the volume, though. See, I have never done any
crossfading in my life. After a little reading on the subject, it
appears obvious that you want to change the volume too.

> Maybe it's possible to tell VLC to add a gain stage, much like
> one can tell mplayer to add various audio and video filters?
> Maybe it's possible for mplayer?  Maybe for both of them?

I don't know. It is at least potentially possible. ALSA does support
different gain levels for separate mixer channels, and that should
work out of the box.

> In other news, RMS suggested we rip out the mplayer backend
> code altogether, due to mplayer's many copyright problems.
> He made the point that free media players ``is a major area of
> weakness of will in our community, so strengthening the demand
> for freedom in that area is important.''  Therefore, he thinks
> we should support ``only players that are 100% free software.''

I support the general idea, but in this case I'm confused. It seems to
me that mplayer really is 100% free. It is listed in the Free Software
Directory, and GNU includes software similar to Bongo with mplayer
support. The Wikipedia article on mplayer mentions that it's
"completely free". Is there something I'm missing?

> I cannot other than sympathize with that sentiment.  The fact
> that it appears almost impossible to install mplayer in Debian
> does indicate a ``weakness of will'' on the part of the mplayer
> developers who won't sort out the copyright problems.

I realise that mplayer has been excluded from many distributions in
the past and present. Isn't that about to change, though? I read that
Debian will include mplayer in future releases.