On Sun, Sep 07, 2003 at 12:58:48PM -0700, Tupshin Harper wrote:
Agreed, that remote audio already exists, and works fine.
However...there are disadvantages to using a system that doesn't ride
within the X protocol. These include:
1) Prolifiration of APIs
2) Complexity of configuration (particularly firewalls, etc.)
3) Most importantly, strong synchronization. Unless the audio and
display information travel through the same stream, and go through the
same event handling API, there is no way to guarantee tight
coupling(e.g. <20 milliseconds) between audio and display events.
3) MAS (www.mediaapplicationserver.net) does this. There's no need to
reinvent the wheel, MAS integrates with X already. I don't think it
needs to be part of X, synchronization issues for audio/video
aren't really the domain of X.
Another nice feature of MAS is that it allows you to transfer compressed
audio (and in the future video) through the network that gets decoded on
the target box.
P.S.: I don't have much experience with MAS, it just seems to be a
project with exactly the goals needed for network transparent sound and
video. I don't think that should be integrated into X.