Re: (full-duplex) Re: KDE media players

[Randy Kramer <rhkramer@fast.net>]

On Wednesday 16 April 2003 07:27 am, Lucas Moulin wrote:
> On Wed, 16 Apr 2003 11:45:14 +0100 (WET DST)
> Joao Pedro Clemente <jpcl@rnl.ist.utl.pt> wrote:
> 
> > Are you sure about this? I was pretty confident that "full duplex"
> > meant being able to send & receive simultaneously... Like speaking 
to
> > mic and listening to onother sound...
> 
> Yes I am. Full duplex allows many things through 2 independent 
channels
> :

I'd like to ask the original question a little differently -- is "full 
duplex" an accepted phrase in the industry for this capability?

It seems a definite migration from the more traditional meaning of full 
duplex, and I think we (everybody -- consumers, producers, alike) would 
benefit from using some different terminology, which would include the 
term "mixing".

If full duplex is already an accepted industry term for this capability, 
that's unfortunate (IMHO).  

BTW: Re: "Full duplex allows many things through 2 independent channels" 
-- those many things ususally mean send and receive simultaneously.  
The capability being described here is to send (to the speakers) 
multiple things simultaneously on one of the channels, which is more of 
a mixing function.  (I have no idea whether "ordinary" sound cards can 
also accept sound input from the mike and send that to the computer 
simultaneously with transmitting sounds from the computer to the 
speakers, nor whether, if not, a "new" "full duplex" sound card would 
have that capability.

PS: I know in the above I am mixing two concepts of "channel" -- one 
being where the two channels are in opposite directions (send vs. 
receive), and one where a sound device, like a mixer, may have a large 
number of channels.  

Don't know if I've helped at all -- I guess I'm just trying to avoid 
more confusion of terminology.  Maybe someone who knows more about 
those cards and that capability can provide more information.  In the 
end, I guess all the sound comes out of one set of speakers, so by 
then, the signals are mixed.  (Even if you have stereo or some five 
channel surround sound.)

regards,
Randy Kramer