[DG77]

I just have 2 questions:

1. From looking at my xbmc log (line 522) is the audio being transcoded?

2. If it is, is there anything I can do about it?


My setup:

Xtreamer Ultra2 (OpenELEC - Version: 3.0.0, 3.7.10 x86_64) > optical out > Benchmark DAC > balanced out > Primare i30 (stereo amp).

Audio Output: Optical/Spdif (Also tried "Analog")
Speaker Config: 2.0
Boost Volume level on downmix: disabled
Output stereo to all speakers: disabled
-Dolby Digital capable receiver: disabled
-DTS capable receiver: disabled
-AAC capable receiver: disabled
-Multichannel LPCM capable receiver: disabled
-DTSHD capable receiver: disabled
Audio Output Device: ALC892 Digital S/PDIF
Passthrough Device: ALC892 Digital S/PDIF
GUI Sounds: Disabled

[fritsch]

This is what your sink can do:

Code:

18:41:46 T:140340397401920  NOTICE:         m_sampleRates     : 32000,44100,48000,88200,96000,192000
18:41:46 T:140340397401920  NOTICE:         m_dataFormats     : AE_FMT_S32NE,AE_FMT_S16NE,AE_FMT_S16LE

The rest must be made "transcoded".

---

I see what you mean. Try to set it to Optcial please and repost the Logfile.

[DG77]

Did you mean like this?

Audio Output: Optical/Coax
Speaker Config: 2.0
Boost Volume level on downmix: disabled
Output stereo to all speakers: disabled
-Dolby Digital capable receiver: disabled
-DTS capable receiver: disabled
-AAC capable receiver: disabled
-Multichannel LPCM capable receiver: disabled
-DTSHD capable receiver: disabled
Audio Output Device: ALC892 Digital S/PDIF
Passthrough Device: ALC892 Digital S/PDIF
GUI Sounds: Disabled

Xbmc log using the above settings:
http://pastebin.com/bhu3WYa7


I'm trying to make sure xbmc does as little as possible with the data before sending it to my external DAC.
Would messing with the Alsa config be of any use?

Also why is the passthrough device newer engaged?
"Creating audio stream (codec id: 86020, channels: 2, sample rate: 48000, no pass-through)"
Whats the point of passthrough if xbmc newer uses it?

[DG77]

I'd like to add that there is also "pops" in the audio via optical in this release (Openelec 3.0.0, xbmc12.1), that occur about every minute.
It sounds like the audio is cut for a millisecond or so, no dropped frames during these occurences though (just the usual dropped frames of about 9-12 per video)

[fritsch]

The optical device makes a slight pop, when it is unloaded - that "feature" is called SoftSuspend. You can disable it via the streamsilence settings.

[DG77]

Thanks fritsch
I'll enable it right away.

[oldpoem]

I had problem with audio in recent builds (3.0 RC4- Final). It has some dropout every minute (Direct HDMI to TV) But it's my friend's Xtreamer Ultra 2 so I didn't test much / read the log file. I sell him this device months ago and OPENELEC was great.

So I need to switch his system to Windows for now (It was dualboot with OPENELEC as default).

But OPENELEC 3.0 is working fine or my ION330, so it might be just specifc platform bug thing.

[fritsch]

In 2.99.4 was a bug, cause of wrongly computed sink buffer sizes, those should be fixed with 2.99.5 and later with 3.0.0 - Though, i have seen some issues all over the OE forums. As it is a hobby to blame Audio Engine :-) that forum is full of it, I just have to find out, if it is new or old :-)

[oldpoem]

In 2.99.4 was a bug, cause of wrongly computed sink buffer sizes, those should be fixed with 2.99.5 and later with 3.0.0 - Though, i have seen some issues all over the OE forums. As it is a hobby to blame Audio Engine :-) that forum is full of it, I just have to find out, if it is new or old :-)

I just went to his house last sunday and upgraded his built of OPENELEC to 3.0 in case it fixed the problem. But it still exist, he never mind to use windows instead though except I didn't have time to configure his remote to fully configured in Windows.

With XBMCLauncher , he might switch to Windows for good.

[fritsch]

Gratulation to this switch!

[DG77]

Unfortunately that did not help, the pops are actually very frequent (several every ten seconds)

<streamsilence>1</streamsilence>

[fritsch]

Code:

<advancedsettings>
  <audio>
    <streamsilence>1</streamsilence>
  </audio>
</advancedsettings>

---

The Sink is unloaded every 10 seconds, when on idle. When setting streamsilence to 1, SoftSuspend won't do anything.

[DG77]

Just wanted to update and say that it did the trick, the "pops" disappeared.
Thanks for the help

The passthrough issue still remains though, even uncompressed 2ch 16bit wave files are not sent directly to the passthrough device.
Maybe I'm just confused about how audio is handled, perhaps the passthrough device is only used when playing back pure pcm audio?

Either way it's working good enough, I was going to try and install Win7 on my xtreamer2ultra and just check if the sound quality improves but can't see how it could.