[Bluebuster83]

Hello,

first, sorry for my bad english ;-)

I am using a Rpi with openelec 4.0.1 and XBMC Gotham 13.1beta.

Since the update from Frodo to Gotham I have some troubles with my multi-channel-audio-files like flac and wav.
For audio files my AV-Receiver just receives (Multichannel-)PCM, no DTS, no DolbyDigital signal. For movies, everything is fine, passthrough is working, Dolby and also DTS is passed to receiver directly.

I have tried different files with different bitrates and frequences, but the Pi does´nt want to pass any digital audio core directly to the receiver (like it does properly @Movies...)
I am not sure about, but I think in Frodo was able to pass the DTS-core from a wav-file to receiver..., please confirm.

Any idea?
Anybody able to pass DTS in audio files (like in multichannel-wav or multichannel-flac) directly to the receiver?

Thanks for your help in advance.

[MrNice]

Did you setup passthrough in System Settings with setting level:expert? (bottom left)

[popcornmix]

You can only passthrough DTS is the audio is in DTS format.
flac or wav will not be.

[Bluebuster83]

@MrNice: Yes, passthrough is on. Movies are running in DTS, but not wav or flac files
@popcornmix: You are right, wav or flac are not able to passthrough (and my receiver is not able to play them...). BUT the wav or flac files contain the DTS core. When I play these files, the XBMC detects them as DTS but send just the PCM to the receiver instead of stream the DTS to the receiver (like in movies)

here are some test files (wav with DTS core):
http://www.diatonis.com/surround_sound_music.html

My experience (since change to Gotham): XBMC is just able to send PCM for audio files, no passthrough of DTS.

--------------------
[Update]
Tried a multichannel ac3-file (from link above) and the DolbyDigital signal was passed to the receiver directly, great! :-o
Flac and Wav just PCM :-( From my point of view it should be no issue because in movies the DTS core can be passed properly.

[nickr]

wav is not DTS! nor is flac!

[606u]

wav is not DTS! nor is flac!

I believe what thread's starter asks is about this:

You can record an audio-CD with RAW 1,411.2 kbit/s DTS instead of RAW 1,411.2 kbit/s PCM, and, if signal is transferred 1:1, in digital, your receiver will (most likely) pickup DTS stream and will decode it; hence, you get 5.1 audio from a "standard" CD-audio. You can also treat RAW DTS data as RAW PCM (even if it is not) and apply FLAC compression.

[nickr]

DTS is lossy, why would you then use flac?

[Bluebuster83]

okay, I would like to give an example, according to VLC.

file: xyz.wav
type: audio
codec: DTS Audio
channels: 3F2R/LFE
frequence: 44100Hz
bitrate: 1411 kB/s

On fullscreen music playback at XBMC (Goham 13.1 beta) the file is detected as "DTS 5.1". In addition, on Eden, my AVR received the 5.1 DTS-Stream.

Now, changed to Gotham, still the same file, my AVR receives PCM. XBMC is unable to send the DTS core anymore.

Why?

[miappa]

Have you tried playing these files with omxplayer?
I don´t think passthrough is possible with paplayer (which us default for most if not all distro´s since Gotham).

Edit: I am not certain though so correct me if I am wrong anyone...

[Bluebuster83]

yes, tried every player.
what is strange, DTS in movies (mkv) is fine

[MrNice]

In the above Bluebuster83 post link there are twice the same music named "In Fields of Green I Met Her"
First is .flac, second is .wav
First is:
FLAC
Free Lossless Audio Codec
4mn 55s
Variable
4 312 Kbps
6 channels
Front: L C R, Back: L R, LFE
96.0 KHz
24 bits

Second is:
DTS
Digital Theater Systems
14
Little
1
4mn 55s
Constant
1 411.2 Kbps
6 channels
Front: L C R, Side: L R
44.1 KHz
24 bits
Lossy

My setup is passthrough for all as my AVR is able to play all.
When I play the above 2 files I get the same in my AVR display (PCM) not DTS but OE displays FLAC and DTS files.
I agree with Bluebuster83, OE doesn't passthrough DTS but decode it.
I'd prefer my AVR decode it.

Tested with
XBMC 14.0 ALPHA1 (April 24 2014)
XBMC 13.0 (May 5 2014)
XBMC 13.1(May 13 2014) - OE 4.0.1

Is it the right behaviour?

[Bluebuster83]

Thanks MrNice to put it straight.
"I'd prefer my AVR decode it." - same here.

Do you have a chance to test XBMC 12.3 - I think in the last Frodo Version passthrough was working.

[nickr]

OK well for a start I don't think flac has ever been passed through - are you saying it should be? And that your AVR can decode flac ?

---

Secondly can we see some debug logs?

[Bluebuster83]

OK well for a start I don't think flac has ever been passed through

Yes, you are right, flac can not be passed through yet. But almost all new AVR can handle flac - mine not. So we can put flac aside for now, but I expect this will come up in the future again.

So, what about wav? I have many 5.1 wav files with DTS core I would like to decode by the AVR, like it worked @Frodo.

[nickr]

debug log (wiki)