XBMC PulseAudio passthrough support (including Nvidia) is available

sjongele · 2011-11-16 18:16

cbxbiker61, just to try it out I have completely disabled Pulse (autospawn=0, processes killed). The Pulse devices are gone, as expected. With the passthrough device configured as "HDA Nvidia hdmi (ALSA)" again, the behavior is exactly the same as with Pulse switched on. Are you sure the bandwidth problem is really in Pulse?

cbxbiker61 · 2011-11-17 02:42

sjongele Wrote:cbxbiker61, just to try it out I have completely disabled Pulse (autospawn=0, processes killed). The Pulse devices are gone, as expected. With the passthrough device configured as "HDA Nvidia hdmi (ALSA)" again, the behavior is exactly the same as with Pulse switched on. Are you sure the bandwidth problem is really in Pulse?

No, it may not be a Pulse issue. I'm working right now on getting the DTS-HD (some movies) issue sorted. I've done some preliminary tests without XBMC and I've got the bandwidth issue sorted. Now it's just a matter of rolling it into XBMC.

cbxbiker61 · 2011-11-18 00:35

For those of you that have waited patiently for DTS-HD to work properly with pretty much any file you throw at it, the wait is over. I have updated my AudioFilter and Xbmc repositories with the changes. To handle the higher data rates I also had to make a patch for PulseAudio (1.1 in particular). So here is the patch.

Configure xbmc with "Digital Surround 7.1 (HDMI)" selected in System Settings/Audio as passthrough device.

Code:

--- ./src/modules/alsa/mixer/profile-sets/default.conf.orig    2011-10-20 06:54:16.000000000 -0600

+++ ./src/modules/alsa/mixer/profile-sets/default.conf    2011-11-17 02:16:00.038900536 -0700

@@ -173,6 +173,12 @@ channel-map = left,right

 priority = 4

 direction = output

+[Mapping hdmi-surround-71]

+device-strings = hdmi:%f

+channel-map = front-left,front-right,rear-left,rear-right,front-center,lfe,side-left,side-right

+priority = 5

+direction = output

+

 ; An example for defining multiple-sink profiles

 #[Profile output:analog-stereo+output:iec958-stereo+input:analog-stereo]

 #description = Foobar

--- ./src/modules/alsa/alsa-mixer.c.orig    2011-10-20 06:54:16.000000000 -0600

+++ ./src/modules/alsa/alsa-mixer.c    2011-11-17 02:15:38.168035216 -0700

@@ -3700,7 +3700,8 @@ static int mapping_verify(pa_alsa_mappin

         { "iec958-passthrough",     N_("Digital Passthrough  (IEC958)") },

         { "iec958-ac3-surround-40", N_("Digital Surround 4.0 (IEC958/AC3)") },

         { "iec958-ac3-surround-51", N_("Digital Surround 5.1 (IEC958/AC3)") },

-        { "hdmi-stereo",            N_("Digital Stereo (HDMI)") }

+        { "hdmi-stereo",            N_("Digital Stereo (HDMI)") },

+        { "hdmi-surround-71",       N_("Digital Surround 7.1 (HDMI)") }

     };

     pa_assert(m);

neoflex · 2011-11-18 20:43

7.1 ? even if you have a 5.1 system ?

sjongele · 2011-11-18 23:00

Wow, great work!
And again, Pulse disabled and passthrough set to "HDA Nvidia hdmi (ALSA)" does the job as well :-)
Thanks!

cbxbiker61 · 2011-11-19 03:44

neoflex Wrote:7.1 ? even if you have a 5.1 system ?

Yeah, it's a bit confusing.

When you do pass-through the audio amplifier decides what to do with the multiple channels. So the PC-side configuration will always be set to an 8 (7.1) channel configuration. Your amp setup should have a configuration for your speaker layout.

ZyntaX · 2011-11-19 09:07

I feel very stupid but how do i apply the patch? Make a .patch file and run patch in git folder? But what command? patch -?

Edit: Thank you sjongele for the answer!

sjongele · 2011-11-19 10:30

There seems to be a little regression; DTS-HD MA and DTS-HRA work. Normal DTS and Dolby Digital lead to stuttering video and no sound (at least in my setup).
This is with the patch applied, using the "GF108 High Definition Audio Controller Digital Surround 7.1 (HDMI) (PulseAudio)" passthrough device, as well as with "HDA Nvidia hdmi (ALSA)".

sjongele · 2011-11-19 13:03

ZyntaX, from the pulseaudio source dir, patch -p0 < patch_file would be a good starting point. patch complains when it cannot find the correct files.

neoflex · 2011-11-19 19:32

sjongele Wrote:There seems to be a little regression; DTS-HD MA and DTS-HRA work. Normal DTS and Dolby Digital lead to stuttering video and no sound (at least in my setup).
This is with the patch applied, using the "GF108 High Definition Audio Controller Digital Surround 7.1 (HDMI) (PulseAudio)" passthrough device, as well as with "HDA Nvidia hdmi (ALSA)".

same pb for me with DTS and Dolby Digital, no sound.
ion platform

sjongele Junior Member Posts: 30 Joined: Nov 2011 Reputation: 0	2011-11-16 18:16 Post: #121 cbxbiker61, just to try it out I have completely disabled Pulse (autospawn=0, processes killed). The Pulse devices are gone, as expected. With the passthrough device configured as "HDA Nvidia hdmi (ALSA)" again, the behavior is exactly the same as with Pulse switched on. Are you sure the bandwidth problem is really in Pulse?
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neoflex Senior Member Posts: 120 Joined: May 2011 Reputation: 0	2011-11-18 20:43 Post: #124 7.1 ? even if you have a 5.1 system ?
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sjongele Junior Member Posts: 30 Joined: Nov 2011 Reputation: 0	2011-11-18 23:00 Post: #125 Wow, great work! And again, Pulse disabled and passthrough set to "HDA Nvidia hdmi (ALSA)" does the job as well :-) Thanks!
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cbxbiker61 Senior Member Posts: 148 Joined: Nov 2010 Reputation: 1	2011-11-19 03:44 Post: #126 neoflex Wrote:7.1 ? even if you have a 5.1 system ? Yeah, it's a bit confusing. When you do pass-through the audio amplifier decides what to do with the multiple channels. So the PC-side configuration will always be set to an 8 (7.1) channel configuration. Your amp setup should have a configuration for your speaker layout.
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ZyntaX Junior Member Posts: 18 Joined: May 2010 Reputation: 0	2011-11-19 09:07 Post: #127 I feel very stupid but how do i apply the patch? Make a .patch file and run patch in git folder? But what command? patch -? Edit: Thank you sjongele for the answer! (This post was last modified: 2011-11-22 19:25 by ZyntaX.)
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sjongele Junior Member Posts: 30 Joined: Nov 2011 Reputation: 0	2011-11-19 10:30 Post: #128 There seems to be a little regression; DTS-HD MA and DTS-HRA work. Normal DTS and Dolby Digital lead to stuttering video and no sound (at least in my setup). This is with the patch applied, using the "GF108 High Definition Audio Controller Digital Surround 7.1 (HDMI) (PulseAudio)" passthrough device, as well as with "HDA Nvidia hdmi (ALSA)".
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sjongele Junior Member Posts: 30 Joined: Nov 2011 Reputation: 0	2011-11-19 13:03 Post: #129 ZyntaX, from the pulseaudio source dir, patch -p0 < patch_file would be a good starting point. patch complains when it cannot find the correct files.
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