[Feature Request] Display friendly name for audio devices when using PulseAudio/pipewire

[tmiw]

Contact Details

tmiw

Feature for this project

Currently, when FreeDV is compiled with PulseAudio support (the default), it displays the internal PulseAudio names for each audio device on the system (i.e. alsa_output.xxx). Other applications (such as pavucontrol) as well as FreeDV with PortAudio show a friendlier name (i.e. "Monitor of USB Audio Device"). FreeDV should show this friendly name when using PulseAudio too.

VHF/UHF

No

Deprecated features

No

Non-standard compiler

No

Non-standard compiler

No

Implementation assistance

TBD -- need to determine whether there's demand for this feature first.

Support assistance

TBD -- need to determine whether there's demand for this feature first.

[Tyrbiter]

I think this is a sensible change, however it would be useful to allow access to the ALSA name via something like a tooltip for cross-checking purposes. Some other tools will only display the ALSA names.

I don't know if the pipewire roadmap intends any of the device naming to change, it would be a good idea to try to find out.

[tmiw]

I think this is a sensible change, however it would be useful to allow access to the ALSA name via something like a tooltip for cross-checking purposes. Some other tools will only display the ALSA names.

I don't know if the pipewire roadmap intends any of the device naming to change, it would be a good idea to try to find out.

Out of curiosity, what other tools only show the ALSA names? Has that caused usability problems for those?

[Tyrbiter]

I looked to see if I could find what I expected but it seems that even the older sound tools appear to use the friendlier pulseaudio names now. If I find anything else I will update this FR.

I reckon it would be useful to have tooltip access to the old ALSA names as I'm sure that some of the /dev tree has these names embedded in the output of some commands.