[nabsltd]

In order to see if a bug in 11.0 was fixed, I downloaded a nightly, and although the bug was fixed, video now plays back very slowly.

HD files play back so slowly that they appear not to play at all, while SD plays back at about 16% of correct speed.

Here is the debug log from 11.0 when everything works,

Here is the debug log from the nightly.

[jjd-uk]

You're using Realtek drivers for the graphics, for version 12 you need to use the official AMD drivers due to the new audio system used in Frodo.

[nabsltd]

You're using Realtek drivers for the graphics, for version 12 you need to use the official AMD drivers due to the new audio system used in Frodo.

No, I'm using AMD drivers for graphics.

For sound, I'm using Realtek because there's no other choice in the XBMC menu, even though the AMD HDMI audio driver is installed.

In any case, if you would point us to documentation that lists this change in requirements and the steps required to make XBMC work with very much industry standard hardware, I'm sure there will be a lot fewer posts like mine.

[wsnipex]

usually this happens with incorrect audio config. double check that your speaker setup is correct and that your AVR supports whatever you selected for passthrough.

if that does not help, post a debug log.

[jjd-uk]

You're using Realtek drivers for the graphics, for version 12 you need to use the official AMD drivers due to the new audio system used in Frodo.

No, I'm using AMD drivers for graphics.

For sound, I'm using Realtek because there's no other choice in the XBMC menu, even though the AMD HDMI audio driver is installed.

In any case, if you would point us to documentation that lists this change in requirements and the steps required to make XBMC work with very much industry standard hardware, I'm sure there will be a lot fewer posts like mine.

You need to uninstall the Realtek drivers and use the AMD audio driver, the new AudioEngine uses event mode for wasapi which the Realtek drivers do not support. Search for AMD Realtek on here and you'll find numerous posts describing similar problems where Realtek has been in use, everytime it's been fixed by installing the AMD HD audio driver for HDMI.

[nabsltd]

You need to uninstall the Realtek drivers and use the AMD audio driver, the new AudioEngine uses event mode for wasapi which the Realtek drivers do not support. Search for AMD Realtek on here and you'll find numerous posts describing similar problems where Realtek has been in use, everytime it's been fixed by installing the AMD HD audio driver for HDMI.

The AMD HDMI driver is installed, but there is no way to use it from XBMC.

If I uninstall the Realtek drivers, then I lose the ability to use any of the other sound features, like optical digital input, so that's not an option.

A search for "AMD Realtek" mostly shows problems with Realtek ethernet and video cards, not sound, and the few sound issues seem to be "no sound", not poor video playback, as well as lots of issues with Dharma, which is the version before the one that works fine.

Again, this is bog-standard hardware with all the latest drivers for it installed. If XBMC wants to do something non-standard, then it needs to be in the documentation at the very least (and this site is not documentation...even the wiki barely qualifies, but it's better than the non-existant in-app help).

Better than just documenting, the XBMC installer should detect the issue and notify the user. To be really useful, though, the installer should run whatever configuration program needs to be run to make things work.

[Ned Scott]

It's not XBMC's installer's job to make Realtek stops making shitty drivers. A shitty standard is still shit.

EDIT: oh, and documentation is community generated, just like XBMC itself. That's why it's on a wiki. We're not a company, and no one gets paid to document stuff.

[jjd-uk]

Again, this is bog-standard hardware with all the latest drivers for it installed. If XBMC wants to do something non-standard, then it needs to be in the documentation at the very least (and this site is not documentation...even the wiki barely qualifies, but it's better than the non-existant in-app help).

XBMC does follow the standards, it just using a newer form of WASAPI that not all hardware or drivers supports, although anything in the last 3 years should support this newer Event mode. Eden used the older push mode for WASAPI but with the new AudioEngine an effort was made to get the best possible audio and this means using Event mode.

The problem is that Realtek have not updated their drivers to include event mode operation even though the hardware is capable of supporting it, as proved by the fact that the AMD audio drivers work fine.

You're also using a development build not a stable release, so new features won't be fully documented at this stage
unless somebody takes the trouble to update the wiki.This type of issue in particular only comes to light through user experiences so needs to community to keep the wiki updated.

See these posts showing problems with Realtek fixed by using the AMD driver:

Post #591 & Post #596 @ http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid...pid1143757
Post #706 http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid...pid1197004
http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=144082
Post #332 http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid...pid1195981
Post #392 & #398 http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid...pid1219082

If you don't want to uninstall the Realtek drivers then you'll have to use the Directsound mode.

[nabsltd]

The problem is that Realtek have not updated their drivers to include event mode operation even though the hardware is capable of supporting it, as proved by the fact that the AMD audio drivers work fine.

Except that a default install of drivers on a motherboard with Realtek sound (95%) and an AMD video card (50% or more) will cause XBMC to not work correctly. I find it hard to believe that no XBMC developer has this combination of hardware.

You're also using a development build not a stable release

I was advised to try out a nightly because no bugs will ever be fixed in 11.0 stable.

, so new features won't be fully documented at this stage unless somebody takes the trouble to update the wiki.This type of issue in particular only comes to light through user experiences so needs to community to keep the wiki updated.

I suspect the XBMC developers are also XBMC users, and they should have hit this problem very quickly when testing the new audio system. Obviously, the XBMC developers did not solve this problem through code, but rather through configuration changes to their system. Since they were obviously the first to encounter this bug, they are the ones who should document it, instead of having half the Windows XBMC users all have to post here after they upgrade.

See these posts showing problems with Realtek fixed by using the AMD driver:

None of those threads show up in the first 5 pages of results on a search for "AMD Realtek", so your advice to "Search for AMD Realtek on here and you'll find numerous posts" is pretty useless.

If you don't want to uninstall the Realtek drivers then you'll have to use the Directsound mode.

What XBMC audio features are lost by making that change in the XBMC config?