[Trlog] SBDVP - Arrrrrrrrg

[Pete Smith]

At 08:29 AM 3/12/03 -0500, you wrote:
>I just can't get sbdvp to work. Here's where I am:
>Latest and greatest SBDVP program & TR.
>Creative Technology Vibra-16 [model CT4180] sound card (2 DMAs 1 & 5)
>I've tried every SET BLASTER= string that I can think of... incl H1, H5, etc.
>SBDVPB gives the same results as below.....
>
>TR records FB. I can play the files back using Goldwave or by going to the
>Alt-P menu and using Ctrl-R. Audio quality is quite good.
>Mic is full-duplex, and works correctly through TR.
>Pressing the F-keys while TR is running will NOT play anything.
>Pressing the Ctrl-F-keys records like it's supposed to.
>DVP is on - and Alt-K toggles it on/off.
>SBDVPCFG.DAT is OK.
>DVK works in WriteLog..... I'd MUCH rather use TR though.
>
>What in the world am I doing wrong????
>

Don, W9CF told me that the SBDVP software is written to use only one DMA -- 
he suggested at the time that the 2 DMA's being used by the PCI cards in a 
DOS window were used one for recording and the other for playback.  I found 
that seemed to describe what was going on in my case -- I could play files 
with SBDVP that were already recorded (such as his cqf10.dvp sample file) 
but when I tried to record all I got were empty files with a faintly 
audible rhythmic thump.

I'm a little puzzled, though, because the device manager entries for the 
SB16 PCI card I use, which also requires 2 DMA's in "legacy" (DOS) mode, 
describes the two DMA's as 8-bit and 16-bit, not record and 
playback.  There does not appear to be any way, at least under Win98SE, to 
run an SB16 PCI in the DOS window with only one DMA.  The only problem may 
be the way that SBDVP detects and hooks up to a particular DMA; if it could 
select, for example, the 16-bit DMA and use it in both directions, we might 
be set.  I run out of knowledge at this point.

If my hypothesis is correct, then MAYBE when Kevin gets back to the US and 
gets his hands on a Windows PC again, he may be able to fix SBDVP 
relatively quickly.  Until then, we may need to revert to ISA cards, unless 
we can find a PCI card that uses only a single DMA when in a DOS window.

73, Pete N4ZR
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