> I'm not sure which way round an internet telephone program would prefer
> -- 16 bit recording might produce a clearer encoding to send, but 16 bit
> playback permits better filtering on the reconstructed signal at the
> receiver.
Why? You can always internally use a higher resolution to do the filtering.
Also, you could use software AGC techniques to fully use the available
8bits on playback. You usually cannot do this on recording (other
than writing on the screen "please come nearer/go farther away from the
microphone :-))
> A game with atmospheric sound effects and also a chat capability between
> players would surely prefer 16 bit playback, so that the subtle effects
> produced by the sound generator can be heard.
The program can open the sound device with O_WRONLY to make it
possible for the driver to use 16 bits for output. Otherwise,
it might be more easy to buy a soundcard with decent
PCM section 8-)
Remember: THe problem case is only programs that open the sound
device with O_RDWR and only on SB16. No other card I know of
has this silly limitation.
Tom
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