ALSA driver for raop_play
=========================

Compile and Install:
--------------------

	Get source code and extract tar.gz file.
	(the deb package doesn't include this module.)
	
	cd drivers
	make
	(become the root user)
	make install


How to play:
------------

	* Become the root user and run "driver_start" script, which is in "drivers" directory.
	* Run "aexcl_play" and play "alsadev.pls", which is in "raop_play" direcotry.
	* Then play any audio player which can be configured to use a user defined alsa device.
	Most likely your alsa_raoppcm becomes the second sound device which is hw:1,0

	e.g.
	  * mplayer: mplayer -ao alsa:device=hw=1.0 song_file
          * mpg321:  mpg321 -o alsa09 -a hw:1,0 song_file

	If you don't want to use the gui, you can run raop_play from the command line, but
	you need to know the ip address of your AEX.
	  * raop_play your_aex_ip /tmp/pcmout

	To use as KDE sound system, go to 'Control Center' - 'Sound System' - 'Hardware',
	check 'Override device loaction' and set the device name like 'hw:1,0'


Known issues:
-------------

	* Alsa controller is not yet written, so all controls from audio player software have
	a big latency.

	* Sometimes, a little noise at the top of play.

	* Under bad network conditions, song play becomes somehow strange.

	* need a small systray-kind of gui.

	* kernel 2.4 is not yet supported.

	* the final period of song data may not be transfered.


Short description about the program:
------------------------------------

	alsa_raoppcm is a simple alsa pcm driver, which gets sound data from the upper alsa
	layer and feed the data to a character device instead of audio hardware.

	The character device is also created in the same driver and which has dynamically
	assigned major node. It can be seen in /proc/devices once the module is successfully
	installed.

	raop_play reads pcm data from that character device.  When there is no data from the
	device, raop_play keeps sending a small silent data and tries not to be disconnected.


12/16/2005
Shiro Ninomiya <shiron_AT_snino_DOT_com>
