Convergence, or Watching Doctor Who XviDs on a TV

Dapper Drake is finally all set up on my desktop. Thanks to samba, I can move files between my PowerBook and desktop with ease. My portable drives work with both. It's pretty darn nice at this point.I also have the TV-out on my old crappy nVidia FX5500 working the way I want. Took a few tries to get right, but it's quite good. So now, in addition to having a DVD player that will play nearly every video file you can throw at it, both the Mac and the PC can send video to the TV. Convergence. It's not quite perfect yet, but it all works. That's a Good Thing (TM). So, in honor of the fact that the last time I had TV out going, it was for Doctor Who, that's what I've thrown up on here. I'm even getting the episode I was missing and the Christmas special that bridges the first and second series. I've also set up the Remove Wonder II with the desktop. Watching The Office and My Name is Earl with the remote was great. Now all I need is a hardware TV tuner, and I've got a perfect PVR setup. Digital audio is also working, but thanks to what I've come to call the Linux Audio Conundrum, I don't get audio from my browsers. There's two major Linux sound systems, and a few ancillary ones. OSS, or the Open Sound System, was first. It's antiquated, but it still tends to work. There are a few problems though: only one application can use it at once and it doesn't work properly with digital audio outputs. ALSA (Advanced Linux Sound Daemon), on the other hand, can do plenty great software mixing, works with digital outs and surround sound setups with ease. Application support for it, however, is messy as all hell. There's a nifty trick for my setup, thanks to the fact that I'm using onboard audio with software mixing, that I can route everything through the Enlightenment Sound Daemon, ESD. ESD feeds everything to ALSA, which talks to my sound hardware. Basically, it allows for proper software mixing. The only things that conk this up are appilctions that only work correctly with OSS. Quake IV, browsers, etc. It's a pain in the ass. There's means of routing OSS through alsa, but they're not great. I'm pretty sure I can get Firefox working properly (for flash and whatnot), but probably not Opera. Quake IV works okay, but it locks up my X-server on exit. We're getting there, I promise. I'll keep you cats posted. More on Dapper when it goes final. I need to get laid.

Tom