Hi!
I have the Sonos Playbar and Play:1, which doesn't support DTS, and I would like XBMC to transcode DTS to AC3 5.1. This worked perfectly with Frodo 12.2, but with the new Gotham beta 1 released last week, I don't understand what settings I should choose to get the transcoding working. I've tried Fixed, Optimized, and Best Match and I only get stereo output from DTS tracks. I have enabled passthrough and only selected AC3 capable receiver. I doesn't matter if I choose WASAPI or DirectSound, same thing.
Am I doing something wrong or has this not been implemented yet in Gotham? If I play a movie with 5.1 AC3 audio, I get 5.1 audio to the Sonos system. My setup is XBMC running on Windows 8.1 64-bit, with an HDMI-cable connected to the TV. The TV passes the audio to the Playbar using an optical cable.
I did search the forums and read a lot about the new audio engine, but I still can't figure it out. I did see that there should be an option called "Enable Dolby Digital transcoding" in the audio settings menu according to this wiki page:
http://wiki.xbmc.org/index.php?title=Aud...gure_audio
But I don't see that option. So, does anyone know how to get DTS 5.1 transcoded to AC3 5.1 in Gotham?
Thanks!
Set "number of channels" to 2.0.
"Output configuration" to optimised.
"Enable Passthrough" on
"AC3 capable receiver" on
" - Enable Dolby Digital transcoding" on
"DTS capable receiver" off
Thank you! I will try it tonight
It worked, thanks!
I don't understand why the option to transcode is not there unless I set "number of channels" to 2.0 though...
It doesn't show because there's a dependency on only 2 channels being available as that is the normal use case.
It most common usage is sending multichannel 5.1 over SPDIF to an AVR where you've only got 2.0 PCM channels available.
For HDMI you either connected to an AVR where 5.1 PCM or greater channels is available so it's best to decode to 5.1 PCM in order to keep the original quality, or to a TV which where again the transcode option it might be useful because only 2.0 PCM is available.
The setting system for audio has been redesigned to only present options where it makes sense to show them, thus various things will appear and disappear depending on what's selected.
Thanks for explaining that
(2014-03-10, 17:16)popcornmix Wrote: [ -> ]Set "number of channels" to 2.0.
"Output configuration" to optimised.
"Enable Passthrough" on
"AC3 capable receiver" on
" - Enable Dolby Digital transcoding" on
"DTS capable receiver" off
Where id you get all these settings from?? I'm using Gotham beta2 and I don't have the following settings:
AC3 capable receiver" on
" - Enable Dolby Digital transcoding" on
"DTS capable receiver" off
or can you just show me where can I set in xbmc to make 5.1 pass through works? Thanks
(2014-03-19, 23:24)buhohitr Wrote: [ -> ]Where id you get all these settings from?? I'm using Gotham beta2 and I don't have the following settings:
AC3 capable receiver" on
" - Enable Dolby Digital transcoding" on
"DTS capable receiver" off
You need to change the "Settings level" to Advanced or Expert. The option is in the bottom left corner.
(2014-03-19, 23:33)sialivi Wrote: [ -> ] (2014-03-19, 23:24)buhohitr Wrote: [ -> ]Where id you get all these settings from?? I'm using Gotham beta2 and I don't have the following settings:
AC3 capable receiver" on
" - Enable Dolby Digital transcoding" on
"DTS capable receiver" off
You need to change the "Settings level" to Advanced or Expert. The option is in the bottom left corner.
I did that and same thing (tried standard, advance and expert), are these options available for xbmc on PC only?? Mine is on Android.
They are only available if a passthrough capable audio device was deteced. I don't think android supports such stuff over hdmi.
(2014-03-20, 16:14)Memphiz Wrote: [ -> ]They are only available if a passthrough capable audio device was deteced. I don't think android supports such stuff over hdmi.
i hope it doesnt, or there is a work around. i just got my Nuvola NP-1 4k streamer. it is based off of android kitkat. and i havent been able to get anything more than pcm 2 channel from xbmc. when i try to pass-through my audio i get super loud static.
i think you are right about the auto detect. it shows as android, audiotrack. which i have a pioneer elite reciever. anyway to override?
Android has no common API for passthrough capable HDMI - it is up to the hardware vendor / firmware provider to make it work. Some boxes can do it - some others don't. But there is no official API from google for it so its all hacks over hacks.
This is just a lack in android and google needs to address it to allow hardware vendors to easily support this kind of audio modes.
(2014-07-22, 10:27)Memphiz Wrote: [ -> ]Android has no common API for passthrough capable HDMI - it is up to the hardware vendor / firmware provider to make it work. Some boxes can do it - some others don't. But there is no official API from google for it so its all hacks over hacks.
This is just a lack in android and google needs to address it to allow hardware vendors to easily support this kind of audio modes.
Also let me preface this with that we were able to get passthrough working through their native media player app. but i wanted to use XBMC since it is much more robust.
It's a new box, so i'll go back to the vendor and see if they can help.
Thanks for the reply.
(2014-03-11, 12:03)jjd-uk Wrote: [ -> ]It doesn't show because there's a dependency on only 2 channels being available as that is the normal use case.
It most common usage is sending multichannel 5.1 over SPDIF to an AVR where you've only got 2.0 PCM channels available.
For HDMI you either connected to an AVR where 5.1 PCM or greater channels is available so it's best to decode to 5.1 PCM in order to keep the original quality, or to a TV which where again the transcode option it might be useful because only 2.0 PCM is available.
The setting system for audio has been redesigned to only present options where it makes sense to show them, thus various things will appear and disappear depending on what's selected.
Hi.
I had the same issue with AAC -> AC3 transconding and I did what popcornmix says. In fact, once transcoding is enabled, you can come back to set channels to 5.1 and still the transcoding is working.
The question is: I prefer that my Yahama AVR receives the AC3/DTS bitstream so it applies some filters/enhancers and the HTPC does not need to use CPU in decoding the audio to PCM. I rely entirely on the AVR. Why XBMC team considers that in 5.1-speaker configuration 5.1 PCM is better than transcoding to AC3? In Frodo and and earlier Gotham versions (I think), this transcoding functionality could be done with any channel configuration. The user could choose by himself between AC3 transcoding or PCM.
Thanks.
You seem to be under a misconception on how transcoding works.
It is not possible to convert from AAC to AC3 directly, in the digital domain all audio manipulation is done using PCM, therefore when transcoding the AAC the intermediate step of first decoding to PCM MUST always be done, that PCM stream is then used to fed the AC3 encoder. So by using transcoding you are not saving any CPU effort, in fact the complete reverse is happening and by using transcoding you're giving the CPU more work to do, as the CPU must process both the decode to PCM step and then the encode to AC3 step.
Further more the PCM will keep the original sample rate of the audio however the AC3 is encoded at 48kHz, therefore any audio stream having a different sample rate will be resampled resulting in a slight degradation in quality as it's no longer a bit perfect match of the original audio.
The extra effort required for transcoding and degradation in quality is why we prefer to send PCM, which is a bit perfect match of the original audio, where the HDMI can handle the PCM stream.
As for the choice, in Gotham for the first time there is an explicit choice as transcoding previously was very much a hidden feature that didn't work at all over HDMI, although admittedly we only show the setting where we think it makes sense.