[Jack-Devel] I'm confused about latency

[Alexandre BIQUE]

On 4/4/19 8:41 PM, Thomas Brand wrote:
> I just tried with the same setting to start jackd, and it only works for
> n<=2<=4. Anything above 4 will not start server ("ALSA: got smaller
> periods 4 than 5 for capture"). However changing n is reflected on ports:
> jack_lsp -l -L
> 
> system:capture_1
> 	port playback latency = [ 0 0 ] frames
> 	port capture latency = [ 2048 2048 ] frames
> 	total latency = 2048 frames
> ...
> system:playback_1
> 	port playback latency = [ 4096 4096 ] frames
> 	port capture latency = [ 0 0 ] frames
> 	total latency = 4096 frames
> ..
> 
> I think latency in a graph is confusing per se. The points you made for
> "shortest path" etc. make sense to me. I'm not sure if the semantics of
> latency for ports and latency ranges are well enough documented. It can
> get very complicated considering a graph with many ports each of which can
> have another latency and a mixture of different latencies depending on
> routing etc. I want to say you're not the only one confused here.
> 
> On the search of example clients or clients that make use of the latency
> features inside jack, I didn't find anything quickly. I speculate that
> this API isn't used much and could probably be a candidate to remove. It's
> not unlike the session API that's sitting there but isn't used (much).
> 
> Did I understand your use case correctly: you want to be able to tell
> (from a client's perspective) how long it will take from *now* (this
> cycle) until the start of the buffer is played out (eg. the first sample
> of buffer hits the DAC) ~ ??

To get back to the port's latency configuration here a simple case:

[HW Input] -> [App] -> [HW Output]

Should the App set its input and output port latency to 0?

Or should the App set its port latency as follow:
 app.in.latency = hw_in.out.latency;
 app.out.latency = app.in.latency + app.internal_latency;

Or something else?

And internally the application would use the hw input latency and hw
output latency.

Is that all correct? Are my questions clear?

Thank you very much!

Alex.