[nickr]

You can make an icon that starts it like that. Or delete pulseaudio if you are not using it for anything else.

[fritsch]

check /etc/environment and fine.

[z31fanatic]

Or delete pulseaudio if you are not using it for anything else.

I am using Ubuntu 14.04 and need the sound for other things too, so removing PA is not an option.
It really isn't a big deal starting xbmc from the terminal. 10 extra seconds is not going to kill me.

[GCMX]

Can someone please clarify this statement from the wiki:

"The dual audio sink will only output decoded audio, you cannot use it to have one slave doing AC3/DTS and the other PCM. If you use the combined sink for normal music and the direct passthrough output for your movies, you get probably best out of both worlds."

The first sentence sounds like you can't have passthrough when using the combined sink. But the second sentence seems to say that if you turn on passthrough, you'll get combined HDMI+analogue output for music and passthrough on HDMI only. Is this referring to switching the output depending on if you're playing music or movies?

I've set up passthrough and the combined sink per the wiki. When using the combined sink in XBMC stereo works fine through analogue and HDMI but DTS/AC3 outputs nothing when passthrough is activated. Passthrough work fine if I select the HDMI only output in XBMC.

I'm after stereo output to analogue+HDMI and just passthrough to HDMI without having to switch outputs all the time.

I'm thinking about using the dual audio build by xhbl if I can't get this working, but I'd rather avoid compiling and use pulseaudio to keep sound in steam.

Thanks

[fritsch]

I'm after stereo output to analogue+HDMI and just passthrough to HDMI without having to switch outputs all the time.

Pulseaudio is still blocking the hdmi output for exclusive usage, so it does not allow the new stream:

08:44:42 T:140724463662848 DEBUG: CActiveAESink::OpenSink - trying to open device PULSE:alsa_output.pci-0000_00_03.0.hdmi-stereo-extra1
08:44:42 T:140724868339648 DEBUG: Activating window ID: 12005
08:44:42 T:140724868339648 DEBUG: ------ Window Deinit (MyVideoNav.xml) ------
08:44:42 T:140724868339648 DEBUG: ------ Window Init (VideoFullScreen.xml) ------
08:44:42 T:140724463662848 DEBUG: PulseAudio: Context authorizing
08:44:42 T:140724463662848 DEBUG: PulseAudio: Context setting name
08:44:42 T:140724463662848 DEBUG: PulseAudio: Context ready
08:44:42 T:140724463662848 DEBUG: PulseAudio: Stream failed
08:44:42 T:140724463662848 ERROR: PulseAudio: Waited for the stream but it failed
08:44:42 T:140724463662848 DEBUG: CActiveAESink::OpenSink - trying to open device PULSEefault
08:44:42 T:140724463662848 DEBUG: PulseAudio: Context authorizing
08:44:42 T:140724463662848 DEBUG: PulseAudio: Context setting name
08:44:42 T:140724463662848 DEBUG: PulseAudio: Context ready
08:44:42 T:140724463662848 DEBUG: PulseAudio: Stream failed
08:44:42 T:140724463662848 ERROR: PulseAudio: Waited for the stream but it failed
08:44:42 T:140724463662848 DEBUG: CActiveAESink::OpenSink - open NULL sink

Perhaps I find some time at the weekend to look into it.

[GCMX]

Perhaps I find some time at the weekend to look into it.

That would be amazing fritsch, thank you.

[fritsch]

In the meantime, so that we start with the same findings:

Combine (pcm) + Passthrough (HDMI) -> Combine works, but passthrough does not, cause device cannot be openened (stream fails, see above).
Analog (pcm) + Passthrough (HDMI) -> Analog works, passthrough also works
HDMI (pcm) + Passthrough (HDMI) -> both work

Same for you?

[GCMX]

In the meantime, so that we start with the same findings:

Combine (pcm) + Passthrough (HDMI) -> Combine works, but passthrough does not, cause device cannot be openened (stream fails, see above).
Analog (pcm) + Passthrough (HDMI) -> Analog works, passthrough also works
HDMI (pcm) + Passthrough (HDMI) -> both work

Same for you?

I have exactly the same behaviour as you for all three.

[fritsch]

Okay, here is some bad news. I talked with the pulseaudio developers and for now they have the following point:

10:33 < Ford_Prefect> combine + passthrough _is_ tricky to do, and I think it's
too much of a corner case to try to get right
10:34 < Ford_Prefect> fritsch: btw, did you see sjoerd and cassidy's patch set
on trying to make passthrough work better on media center
usecases?
10:34 < Ford_Prefect> also, if you find enough users who care about the
combine/passthrough case, maybe send them here or the
mailing list and at least we can start a discussion to
see if it really is something we need to support

I tried some hacks in order to wait 5 seconds until the combine sink is going to suspend state and removes the exclusive access, but this won't work if the PA server uses keep alive for a sink or a longer timeout.

Edit: http://lists.freedesktop.org/archives/pu...20643.html <- this should priorize passthrough in the future, we will see if they are merged or how the discussion ends.

[GCMX]

Thank you very much for your efforts fritsch. Doesn't sound too promising.

Maybe others can post here if it is something they are interested in. In the meantime, I'll give xbhl's build a shot.

[touc]

Possible problems:
- Ubuntu 13.10 has a bug and passthrough might sound like noise, if you are affected only disabling passthrough helps. This is a distribution bug (OpenELEC, Arch, Debian, OpenSUSE works with the same code)
- Passthrough is always exclusive mode. If you have another application hogging the device, e.g. google chrome or skype or something else, Passthrough won't work.

Does anyone know if this passthrough issue on Ubuntu 13.10 also effects XBMCbuntu 13.1 ? I'm having issues with passthro' sounding like noise.

[fritsch]

Nope. On Xbmcbuntu 13.1 passthrough works as expected. And the former bug was also fixed, e.g. workarounded in xbmc code.

[Cool Iten]

Very happy for usual desktop users, but standalone htpc users "gently weeps". I could not to tune passtrough with PA using pavucontrol (may be fresh HW - intel J1900 platform, may be I such tuner, it does not matter). So I want use ALSA. What can I do?

1. Use Openelec or XBMCbuntu.
- Not my way, I want desktop ubuntu for flexibility.

2. Delete pulseaudio.
- Ok, but only with unity control center. Hmmm...

3. Type AE_SINK=ALSA in console.
- Ha-ha-ha. Very funny. And it does not work with ubuntu launcher.

4. Once launch via console, set necessary settings. Then u can launch xbmc in the normal way. Settings at Audio come back to normal for PA configuration but passtrough still will work. Seems it working but I don't test it seriously cuz...
- ... it is an awful ugly hack.

5. Thanx nickr for his advice. I chose the first way - edit /usr/bin/xbmc :
instead

Code:

LOOP=0
"$LIBDIR/xbmc/xbmc.bin" $SAVED_ARGS]

I wrote

Code:

LOOP=0
AE_SINK=ALSA "$LIBDIR/xbmc/xbmc.bin" $SAVED_ARGS

Don't know is it correct but it's working.

... and unsovled issue with freezing remote - I hade not such problems at windows.

[fritsch]

Standalone htpc users with a fully fleshed ubuntu desktop running compiz and clicking the launcher :-)

Yeah, that workaround is okay, but will be overwritten every time you upgrade xbmc

Edit: Pulseaudio passthrough works perfectly for me on all my hsw testing systems, including the IVB Baytrail (AC3, DTS, EAC3)

[Cool Iten]

Standalone htpc users with a fully fleshed ubuntu desktop running compiz and clicking the launcher :-)

I mean auto launch via Startup Applications in Ubuntu 14.04. I want not click anywhere and after tuning system hope unplug mouse and keyboard.

Yeah, that workaround is okay, but will be overwritten every time you upgrade xbmc

That is not a problem, I need to add or edit some custom configs (advancedsettings.xml, statup.xml, keyboard.xml) every time with upgrade so one more action does not embarrass me.