[exiledone1]

Hey everyone,

I don't know much about home theater systems, sound settings and all of that so I was curious what the following settings do.

First off, whenever your watching a movie or tv show on xbmc and you enter the audio and subtitle settings menu I see the following options.

Output stereo to all speakers which isn't enabled
Audio output which is set to analog.

I'm curious to know should I change the output stereo to all speakers to enabled and changed the audio output to hdmi.

I currently have a plasma flatscreen and apple tv 2 hooked up to a 5.1 onkonyo receiver. The apple tv is connected to the receiver by hdmi and the tv is connected to the receiver by digital audio output and hdmi.

Now I have two front speakers, a center speaker, and a subwoofer, but I don't have my two surrounds installed yet because I need to get them mounted. So for the best sound possible what should I make these settings?

In addition, in the settings menu in the system submenu their is an option for audio output

The current settings are audio output is set to analog. Should I change this to hdmi?
Speaker configuration is set to 2.0 but should I change this to 5.1.

Boost volume level on down mix is enabled but I have no clue what it does.

Dolby digital ac3 capable receiver is enabled but have no clue what this means and dts capable receiver is enabled as well but have no clue what it means.

Could someone please explainsnthese to me and let me know the best settis to use for the best performance of sound using the my setup which I mentioned earlier in this post. Thanks

[Memphiz]

No time for explaining in detail. But best settings for you should be:

1. Output: HDMI or Optical (one of both should work - normally HDMI will do it)
2. Speakers 3.1 now (left, center, right, sub) and 5.1 later
3. ac3 and dts on (ac3 == dolby digital 5.1, dts == dts 5.1)
4. Boost volume level on downmix isn't used then because you allways passthrough 5.1 channels. Its needed if have 5.1 sound in the video but only a stereo set of speakers. Then the 5.1 channels are merged into a stereo signal and there by the loudness gets lost - so you can boost it up back with this option...

[exiledone1]

Okay cool. So your saying I can turn the boost level on down mix off right?or just leave it on. I wasn't clear on this one. Oh and should I leave output stereo to all speakers on or off.

[Memphiz]

the boost option can be turned off for you. Output stereo to all speakers does exactly what it says. If you have music or a movie without 5.1 sound (either ac3 or dts) but only a 2 channel stereo signal - this option will output the 2 channels on all your boxes and not only the left and right front speakers ... normally your receiver has this feature built in already.

[exiledone1]

I think I have it lol. I don't even know what channels are lol...since not all my movies are 5.1 I guess its best just to leave this option ticked correct? So at least when a movie is played without 5.1 i get the full effect? I really have no clue since I'm still trying to understand this.

Thanks

[Memphiz]

channels ... stereo - channel 1 ist what comes out on your left speaker ... channel 2 is what comes out on your right speaker ... i'm stopping this here ... because this is xbmc and not a hifi forum. If you are interested in this stuff there might be better places for getting more detailed and easier answers. The terms i used are common ones and not special to xbmc...

[bradpaulp]

That really made me laugh. Lol.
Im all about helping people out and having a community of helpers in a forum world...

But really, if you cannot understand the phrase : "STEREO", then you probably will never understand the phrase or phrases : "XBMC", DTS, AC3, HTPC, or Brain for that matter... and I missing any?

:p

channels ... stereo - channel 1 ist what comes out on your left speaker ... channel 2 is what comes out on your right speaker ... The terms i used are common ones and not special to xbmc...

[exiledone1]

Thanks for the help Memphiz. That was exactly the answer I was looking for. That actually helps me to understand some of the other post I've been reading lately on thie forum.

When it comes to marketing and building businesses I'm the man, but this subject is very overwhelming and new to me. Thanks for all your help. Im sure your busy so thanks.

[scl23enn4m3]

Shoot me a PM if you have any specific questions if people don't want to go into detail here. I'm new to XBMC, but I grew up around AV.