Handbook WG - multimedia

[carlavilla]

Summary

Rework of the multimedia chapter

Result: https://www.carlavilla.es/freebsd/multimedia.html
Image: https://www.carlavilla.es/freebsd/pwcview.png

[arrowd]

documentation/content/en/books/handbook/multimedia/_index.adoc

105

A lot of extra spaces in the driver.

109

In the previous sentence you talk about snd_driver and here about specific snd_hda. This might be confusing for a inexperienced reader.

178–189

Typo loadedl.

196

How about cat /dev/random > /dev/dsp? This produced soft white noise and doesn't require a file.

219

kmix is sort of deprecated, but I don't know what to recommend here. @tcberner @adridg ?

[fernape]

documentation/content/en/books/handbook/multimedia/_index.adoc

191–192

s/executint/executing

[emaste]

Great start to reworking this! I looked at your rendered version and started commenting on later sections, but they haven't had an update so I'll stop at Troubleshooting.

documentation/content/en/books/handbook/multimedia/_index.adoc

53–54

Multimedia implies more than just sound cards

81

This is a comma splice. Can make two sentences.

FreeBSD supports a wide variety of sound cards.
The list of supported sound cards can be consulted in man:sound[4].

196

Even better, just use beep(1)

251–252

the gus driver is gone

251–252

this driver is gone in main

251–252

this error message came from sys/dev/sound/isa/sbc.c which is gone in main

[carlavilla]

Fix some typos.
Add some new parts and remove old parts

[emaste]

Scanners are still referenced in the introduction but removed below, why?

So far I've reviewed (and am happy with) the changes up to "Modern graphics cards often come with..."

[carlavilla]

Add conferences section, based on [1], I got a laptop with a webcam to do the tests

Restore scanners section. I'm currently updating this section, I have got a scanner and I am trying to configure it

[1] https://vermaden.wordpress.com/2021/05/26/freebsd-desktop-part-26-configuration-conferencing-and-meetings/

[fernape]

documentation/content/en/books/handbook/multimedia/_index.adoc

200–201

I think this is a remnant of some previous text.

594–597

Or alternatively, kldload cuse

690–691

Note here that if this is a plug-and-play USB webcam, changing the USB port to which it is connected, will change the output from webcamd -l, hence the entry in rc.conf might need updating. For laptos (that use USB integrated webcams) this won't be an issue though.

713

pwcview uses /dev/video0 by default.

[carlavilla]

Add scanner section and add some more sections related to sound.
Only the Synopsis need to be updated

[fernape]

documentation/content/en/books/handbook/multimedia/_index.adoc

169

often come with their own sound driver --> often come with their own integrated sound devices

191–192

the graphics card -> The graphics card

Also, punctuation: (Realtek(R)) -> (Realtek(R)).

198–199

Suggestion:

To make this change be loaded at boot -> To make this change permanent

211

... the outputs ... -> ... the audio outputs ...

313–314

I would add at least one TUI option as it was done with the mixers above.
We could use audio/moc (Music On Console) for instance.

495

Rephrasing to sound more natural:
To allow FreeBSD to access the webcam ... -> To allow FreeBSD access to the webcam ...

496–497

... that enables use ... -> ... that enables the use ...

497

I don't think this port is necessary. It is a development port. I use my webcam regularly (kind of) and I don't have this port installed.

498

This one is not necessary either. Could be useful, but in the rest of the document we don't mention any of the utilities this port installs.

The one that is necessary is multimedia/libv4l. It is a dependency of several multimedia programs including pwcview, firefox, mplayer, etc.

556–557

man:webcamd[8] service... -> The man:webcamd[8] service...

556–557

We could also add how to start the daemon at boot time. From webcamd(8):

To start webcamd automatically at system startup, place the following line in rc.conf(5):

webcamd_enable="YES"

558

Typo:

For laptos ... -> For laptops ...

607

I would change:

Not work -> Does not work

689

Rephrasing to sound more natural:

... to allow FreeBSD to access the scanner. -> ... to allow FreeBSD access to the scanner.

[carlavilla]

Fix typos and improvements and add new synopsis

[fernape]

Just a couple of suggestions that I missed before. Otherwise LGTM.

documentation/content/en/books/handbook/multimedia/_index.adoc

563

I would change this second sentence to something like:

Once installed, execute:

570

And here just:

The program will show the image coming from the webcam: