[Windows] AudioEngine testers - Windows platform only

(2012-05-01 19:20)DDDamian Wrote:  @Hasu0bs - PAP is meant more for adding in third-party software as DSPs and other sound-processing elements into the Windows audio layer, an ideal place for a virus and thus the protected status. The GF9300 is not hardware-compatible with bitstream formats.

You cannot bitstream HD audio formats through DirectSound - it is only capable of spdif formats like AC3 (Dolby).

Your HD5750 will bitstream just fine. You don't mention the driver version/date for the RealTek driver, but I'd start by removing that in the Control Panel under Device Manager, then downloading the latest Catalyst Control Center v12.3 and installing it. Be sure that the driver now listed in Device Manager is the AMD/ATI HDMI High Definition Device, and that you have set it's properties correctly, especially checking the two boxes on the Advanced tab and disabling any enhancements.

Select this as your audio device in XBMC-AE and everything should work fine. Again, do not use DirectSound for TrueHD/DTS-MA - it won't work.

Ah thanks, i got it now! So far I got no glitches, this is perfect!!

(2012-05-01 21:28)DDDamian Wrote:  

(2012-05-01 20:46)DDDamian Wrote:  

(2012-05-01 19:58)wints Wrote:  Hi yeah volume is up using "+" key and no music mp3s dont play either

Ah hah! You might have a hang-over from a rather useless setting causing the issue here. Open your guisettings.xml file with NotePad or NotePad++. Search for the following entries:

Code:

<passthroughmp1>false</passthroughmp1>
<passthroughmp2>false</passthroughmp2>
<passthroughmp3>false</passthroughmp3>

Ensure they are all false. If the mp3 one is true it will cause exactly what you are seeing.

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They all read as true can i just edit them to false?

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Yep - just edit and save

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D'oh still the same no sound on mp3 files

Did you restart XBMC? This is the only cause I can see for that issue, and it would certainly cause that. You might want to do a full search from Windows Explorer and make sure that is the only guisettings.xml on your system. I have the same card and mp3's play fine here as both audio and video soundtracks.

Cheers DDDamian did a search and found another guisettings.xml so deleted it started XBMC again it had changed all settings and skin back to default re-did the settings and pow all is fine again many thanks for taking the time to sort this lets all goes well for the merge

@Hasu0bs & @wints:

(2012-04-29 09:39)ix400 Wrote:  I think I found a bug in the recent AE build:

When I pause video playback and switch to a different receiver input (e.g. BD-Player) and then switch back to the XBMC-HDMI input, XBMC crashes.

http://db.tt/tNywT8jc

After quitting and re-starting XBMC afterwards, XBMC can't find the HDMI-output for audio anymore. In the settings it says then 'Error: No device found'.

Starting a new playback results in problems then:

http://db.tt/bxb3VhhI

Hope the log files help.

Chris

Chris, sorry missed responding to this. Unfortunately it's the classic handshaking issue. Your receiver should re-init a handshake when switching back to your HTPC - if it was then restarting XBMC would find the device.

The best we can do here (assuming there's no receiver firmware updates that fix this) is fail gracefully back to another device, but that may be of no use to many users e.g. switching to internal speakers, etc.

But once that handshake is lost and not re-initialized by the receiver there's nothing we can do to force it to happen.

Thanks. I thought this is a bug, since it never happened in previous XBMC versions, including the patched Eden-HD version.

Chris

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... Or might the problem be related to the one described in posts 214 / 215?

(2012-05-02 06:05)ix400 Wrote:  Thanks. I thought this is a bug, since it never happened in previous XBMC versions, including the patched Eden-HD version.

Chris

Windows has lost (or more accurately not re-received) the handshake from the receiver, so the device appears absent to Windows, which ultimately means from the audio driver/hardware.

If it's a bug, rebooting XBMC would find the device again, but Windows itself no longer sees it. Perhaps a test - if you can reproduce the error, and exiting and re-starting XBMC still reports that it can't find the device, exit again and try play a test tone using any other player over HDMI.

If that doesn't work, try unplug the device and re-plug, and see if that picks it up again. In theory, that should for sure re-init the handshake.

(2012-05-02 06:05)ix400 Wrote:  Thanks. I thought this is a bug, since it never happened in previous XBMC versions, including the patched Eden-HD version.

Chris

Windows has lost (or more accurately not re-received) the handshake from the receiver, so the device appears absent to Windows, which ultimately means from the audio driver/hardware.

If it's a bug, rebooting XBMC would find the device again, but Windows itself no longer sees it. Perhaps a test - if you can reproduce the error, and exiting and re-starting XBMC still reports that it can't find the device, exit again and try play a test tone using any other player over HDMI.

If that doesn't work, try unplug the device and re-plug, and see if that picks it up again. In theory, that should for sure re-init the handshake.

It often happens with some TV's when they go into a sleep mode as well, or receivers put into stand-by.

I will do some more testing in the next days.

(2012-05-02 06:23)ix400 Wrote:  I will do some more testing in the next days.

thx

Well,

I've read this very long 32-page thread tonight and I'll try the latest XBMC-AE-20120425.exe this weekend. Today is very late ;-)

Thanks to all the efforts of AE-Team (and, well, DanielaE in the HD patch I'm using actually).

I hope my setup (I've updated my signature) will be OK for this build. I'll update Catalyst to latest version too 12.4.

My questions now are:

- Any Catalyst settings that I must change from a default installation? (actually I only change the Overscan for having a full 1920x1080 picture in my TV)
- Any best settings to start with in XBMC? (video/audio, or are the default ones good)

As I always use portable mode I'll try to recreate my config from scratch (add the video folders, change the scrappers, etc.) so nothing was left behind. As I've exported NFO/Thumbnails to the same video folders the scan will be fast ;-)

Any other tip/advice for a transition from DanielaE HD Patch to this AE build will be very appreciated.

Thanks.

Edit: missed a question: what about skins? I'm using right now "NEON" from the main repository because of the ability of having smartlist in the main screen, Can I use it with this build? (I suppose it doesn't have any spam problems like Aeon but ... ;-)