[cw-kid]

In short: not doable with that static alsa configuration as its force to 6 channels.

Hi

So there is no way to change the asound.conf file to get Dolby Prologic II back on the AVR rather than Multi Ch In when playing movies with a 2.0 audio track?

If not that's going to be a real shame.

Many thanks for your help and advice!

[nickr]

Dolby Pro Logic II is nothing to do with XBMC. It is a function of your amplifier (AVR if you want to call it that) which processes a stereo (2 channel) audio signal into 5.0 channels. It will also process a four-channel Dolby Surround track to 5 channels - but I don't think you'll find any video files with that sort of soundtrack anyway.

Usually if your amplifier has a stereo signal, you can switch it to do various things with the signal - play it a straight stereo, process it with Dolby Pro Logic II to get a sound out of each speaker (IMHO this sounds pretty manufactured), make it sound like a concert hall etc etc.

TL : DR you need to switch your AVR to whatever processing you want for the signal it is getting.

[cw-kid]

Dolby Pro Logic II is nothing to do with XBMC. It is a function of your amplifier (AVR if you want to call it that) which processes a stereo (2 channel) audio signal into 5.0 channels. It will also process a four-channel Dolby Surround track to 5 channels - but I don't think you'll find any video files with that sort of soundtrack anyway.

Usually if your amplifier has a stereo signal, you can switch it to do various things with the signal - play it a straight stereo, process it with Dolby Pro Logic II to get a sound out of each speaker (IMHO this sounds pretty manufactured), make it sound like a concert hall etc etc.

TL : DR you need to switch your AVR to whatever processing you want for the signal it is getting.

Hi

Thanks for the reply!

I understand Dolby Prologic II is a processing feature on the amp. And that before when I played movies with a 2,0 audio track and the amp was set to Dolby Prologic II I'd hear sound on the front left/right speakers and also the center speaker and in some cases even sound on the rear speakers.

Since doing this hack and using the asound.conf file in the first post, now when I play movies with a 2,0 track I am unable to change the amp to Dolby Prologic II any more. The amps info says Multi Ch IN and I only hear sound on the front left/right speakers only and not on any of the others. The only other thing I can change the amp to is DIRECT but again only the front two speakers work.

Using this hack for dual audio output, I was wondering if it was possible to use the HDMI port on the HTPC connected to the AVR and to still be able to play the 2.0 audio track movies and have the AVR process the signal with the Dolby Prologic II ? Which currently I can't seem to do.

The 3.5mm analogue port is being used with a second stereo amp to run two speakers in my kitchen and that is working fine.

Thanks

[Leopold]

Looks like I will need a newer AVR amp then. Something that can also send the HDMI audio signal to an additional speaker B channel, when that button is pressed, I am assuming some AVR's can do that?

Some Yamaha AVRs, e.g. the RX-V577, can do that with the "Zone B" feature. See page 69 here.

Some other AVRs, e.g. Onkyo, can only output to an additional zone from an analog source

[cw-kid]

Looks like I will need a newer AVR amp then. Something that can also send the HDMI audio signal to an additional speaker B channel, when that button is pressed, I am assuming some AVR's can do that?

Some Yamaha AVRs, e.g. the RX-V577, can do that with the "Zone B" feature. See page 69 here.

Some other AVRs, e.g. Onkyo, can only output to an additional zone from an analog source

Hi

So presumably if you have an AVR with this feature you wouldn't even need to do this hack for dual audio. As you could just select Speaker A and B on the AVR and the HDMI audio from the HTPC would then also be heard in to the second room as well as the living room. Reading that user manual on pages 69 and 70 it doesn't say anything about not being able to do the Zone B thing with an HDMI input source, so it would work I guess. Only downside is that's a £500 AVR.

"Some other AVRs, e.g. Onkyo, can only output to an additional zone from an analog source" Yes that is correct I've seen that limitation before myself when trying to use an HDMI input source for a Zone 2 you couldn't do it, it had to be an analog input source for Zone 2 not an HDMI one. In which case you would then need to use this hack.

[cw-kid]

I've just noticed my Denon AVR-1513 says MULTI CH IN on the front display as soon as XBMC loads up. It changes from Dolby ProLogic II to MULTI CH IN as soon as XBMC gets up and running. When nothing is even playing in XBMC it says MULTI CH IN on the AVR.

I've dug out the original Denon remote control as I was using my Logitech Harmony. On the original remote if I toggle through the surround options Dolby Prologic II or DTS NEO:6 now never appear and are not selectable.

I have other options I can select however like: Multi Channel Stereo / Virtual / Stereo / Direct.

If I select Multi Channel Stereo whilst XBMC is playing a movie with a 2.0 audio track then the center speaker can be heard again, along with the two front speakers.

It seems what ever the asound.conf file has done and when the virtual "Default" audio output device is selected in the XBMC settings, has totally prevented the AVR from being able to use either the Dolby Prologic II or DTS NEO:6 options with the XBMC PC.

[fritsch]

I told you above. You force your output to 6 channels with that asound.conf.

[cw-kid]

I told you above. You force your output to 6 channels with that asound.conf.

So would using a modified asound.conf file like this one here help?

"I hacked the asound.conf from puntloos to make it work for a both analog & hdmi stereo (2 channels) configuration"

And then when I play a movie with a 2.0 track it would be sent as 2 channels to the AVR and then I might be able to select the Dolby Prologic II option again?

Also when I play a movie with a 5.1 track, that would use the Passthrough audio device which in the XBMC settings is set to the Denon AVR on HDMI1 and not the virtual "Default" device, so the AVR would process or bit-stream the DD / DTS audio as normal.

Might give it a try see what happens?

Thanks

[cw-kid]

That 2 channel config is working! Now when I play movies with 2.0 audio tracks, I can select Dolby Prologic II on the AVR and the center speaker works properly and I also get some sound on the rears. If I play a movie with a 5.1 DD or DTS track they are bit-streamed to the AVR and the AVR lights up with either DD or DTS as it should. Didn't test Blu-ray HD audio however.

The music works in both rooms still, so everything now seems to be working as I wanted.

Thanks again.

EDIT: Blu-ray ISO Playback - Dolby Digital True-HD and DTS-MA HD both still bit-stream to the AVR fine.

Here is a screen shot of my audio settings in XBMC:



I've tested playing the following types of files:

.M2TS - DD 5.1 - (Bit-streams DD to AVR)
.MOV - AAC 2 Channels - (PL II Cinema on AVR)
.M4V - AAC 2 Channels - (PL II Cinema on AVR)
.MP4 - AAC 2 Channels - (PL II Cinema on AVR)
.AVI (DIVX-HD) - MPEG / MP3 2 Channels - (PL II Cinema on AVR)
.AVI - DD 5.1 - (Bit-streams DD to AVR)
.DVR-MS - DD 5.1 - (Bit-streams DD to AVR)
.FLV - MPEG / MP3 2 Channels - (PL II Cinema on AVR)
.MKV - DD 5.1 - (Bit-streams DD to AVR)
.MKV - DTS 5.1 - (Bit-streams DTS to AVR)
.MKV - MPEG / MP3 2 Channels - (PL II Cinema on AVR)
.MPG (MPEG2) - DD 5.1 - (Bit-streams DD to AVR)
.MPG (MPEG2) - 2 Channels MPEG audio - (PL II Cinema on AVR)
.VOB (MPEG2) - DD 5.1 - (Bit-streams DD to AVR)
.WMV - 2 Channels WMV (Version2) - (PL II Cinema on AVR)
.WTV - 2 Channel MP2 - (PL II Cinema on AVR)
.ISO (Blu-ray) DD TrueHD (Bit streams TrueHD to the AVR)
.ISO (Blu-ray) DTS-MA HD (Bit streams DTS-HD to the AVR)

There are only two of my test video files I am unsure about.

.WMV (WMV-HD) 6 Channels WMA (Pro)
.MOV 6 Channels AAC (LC)

If I play these two files the AVR info says "PL II Cinema" and I hear sound from all the speakers. However if I change the AVR to DIRECT I only hear sound from the front left/right speakers which isn't really correct in normal circumstances. I suspect when selecting DIRECT I should have heard sound on all the speakers, but this is not the case presumably because I am using the 2 channel asound.conf file now and not the 6 channel asound.conf file.

If I change the Audio Output Device in the XBMC settings from the virtual "Default" one to: (HDA INTEL PCH. DON DENON-AVAMP ON HDMI 1) and play those two particular test files again, the AVR then says MULTI CH IN and I hear sound on all the speakers OK. Also if I change the audio setting on the AVR to DIRECT I still hear sound from all the speakers, so in that case it is working as expected.

So using the 2 channel asound.conf file might be an issue if you have lots of files that do not contain DD / DTS audio tracks but they do contain 6 channel audio tracks like AAC for example. As most of my files are .AVI and .MKV and have either DD or DTS 5.1 or 2.0 Stereo tracks, I don't think this is going to be a big issue for me. If my AVR supported AAC I could enable that option in the XBMC audio settings, then it would bit-stream it I think, so it wouldn't then be an issue. But I don't think my Denon AVR-1513 does support AAC.

All the other test files above I tried, seemed to be playing as expected, so I am happy with the results.

[User 108758]

For those that haven't seen it yet, here is a link to a Frodo build with dual-audio support:

http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=192480

[snoxbox]

I've read through this thread and I'm a little confused about the state of play with Gotham.

I'm running Openelec 3.2. If I upgrade to Openelec 4.0 (Gotham), will this hack still work?

[cw-kid]

I've read through this thread and I'm a little confused about the state of play with Gotham.

I'm running Openelec 3.2. If I upgrade to Openelec 4.0 (Gotham), will this hack still work?

If you read other posts in this thread they say Gotham does not require a hack like this and you can use the new Pulse Audio features to get dual audio output. But I am not sure if OpenElec has Pulse Audio installed / enabled? Or how you go about setting up Pulse Audio for dual audio output? We need to find a step by step guide to be able to follow.

I only just got dual audio output working on my main OpenElec Frodo HTPC using this thread. I will be wanting to upgrade it to Gotham soon however without having dual audio this going to put me off doing it.

[nickr]

So dual boot 3 and 4 for a while until you know it works.

[cw-kid]

My plan is to leave the OpenElec / Frodo HTPC with dual audio setup in my living room alone and install the Gotham version of OpenElec on the HTPC in my bedroom. I don't need dual audio in that room, so I can have a mess about with it and try and get dual audio working with the Pulse Audio stuff. Still need to find some instructions though.

[un1versal]

PulseAudio (wiki) has it