Selecting the Best Audio Combination
#1
Music 
I have an Intel NUC HTPC running Win7 SP1 Pro, x64.

It feeds our LG television via the HTPC's HDMI port.

Audio from the TV goes to an LG Sound Bar.

Links are provided up there, if anyone cares to learn more about anything.

If I go into Windows Media Center, there are no audio options, and "loud audio" comes from turning the volume up to about 15% or so.

By contrast, in XBMC, using the same media library, "loud audio" comes from turning the volume up to about 50% or more.

I've spent a number of hours trying to find the right combinations of audio inputs in the XBMC Settings.

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I've been to the wiki on audio settings, but it does not tell me how I should find out what settings I need to pick:

http://wiki.xbmc.org/index.php?title=Audio_settings

It only "defines" what each setting is.

All I know to do is use trial and error, but since there are a large number of combinations, I have not managed to "crack that code" yet.

Take the "Audio output device" (first one on the list above). It starts me off with 4 options.

Image

The Sound Bar fed digital audio via fiber from the TV, and the TV's audio is disabled in it's onscreen menu.

I would naturally think that I would want "Enable passthrough" option, but I have had mixed results with this. Sometimes there is no audio at all, and often even when there is audio the XBMC GUI tells me I can not increase or decrease the volume when passthrough is enabled.

Does anyone understand how to select the audio that works the best?
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#2
If you're passing the audio through then your soundbar's remote control should adjust the volume.

Been a while since I messed with my sound, but I'm pretty sure I'm using wasapi hdmi
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#3
(2014-07-11, 21:14)Sureguy Wrote: If you're passing the audio through then your soundbar's remote control should adjust the volume.

Been a while since I messed with my sound, but I'm pretty sure I'm using wasapi hdmi

The sound bar always stays maxed out so that the volume controls effectively pass on to the media center remote.
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#4
If passthrough is enabled, just use the soundbar remote.

That is what I use as it goes to an external amp, so I use my TV or Amp volume control.

As for sound not working, well that will be because XBMC stops decoding it, so must be an issue with what you are sending to the soundbar.
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#5
Why would anyone want to juggle around remotes just to adjust the volume?

As I said earlier, it works much better in Windows Media Center - the sound is louder and cleaner. It just works out of the box.

How do I find the right combination in all of these settings so that I can match what WMC has?
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#6
Well I don't need to, so I have to just use one remote.

If you use directsound that is what Windows uses anyway, so can't see why anything would be cleaner.

And the audio link you gave explains in quite simple terms which way to set it up ? It tells you what passthrough is/does.

The 4 options is basically 2 Directsound or Wasapi

http://wiki.xbmc.org/index.php?title=Windows_audio

So select each one and set it up as per the audio settings your soundbar can handle, as for the volume, well I would have thought controlling it via the soundbar remote would not be that much of an issue, but it seems to be.
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#7
Hey, I'm having some audio problems too. I don't want to start a new thread just for that, so I hope someone can help me here.
My pc:
Windows 7 64bits
Nvidia videocard
Creative soundblaster audiocard
4gb ram

So what actually happened is, that I have an external decoder connected to my pc via optical cable. So, I was trying to configure the sound settings and choose the SPDf option, but now the video is running too slow. And I don't know how to handle that. I read the wiki, but it just describes if you have Nvidia or and connections...
Plataform: AMD FX-8120 | ATI Radeon HD7800 | 16Gb Corsair
| 500Gb Samsung + 320Gb + 1,5Tb | Windows 7 Professional 64Bits | Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium| Creative Inspire T6160 5.1
| XBMC mit Night | Philips 220SW + AOC M2752V:sniffle:
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#8
It does really ?

It says in at least one of the links above to only select what your output device is capable of, or you will get video playback issues.

http://wiki.xbmc.org/index.php?title=Audio_settings

Read Important Note.
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#9
I actually read that one, I know my receiver can read almost everything, it says it on the website. What I found now, is that the creative sound card recommend not to activate the spidf/coaxial settings under Windows audio settings... Really weird.. I just see if somethings change..
Plataform: AMD FX-8120 | ATI Radeon HD7800 | 16Gb Corsair
| 500Gb Samsung + 320Gb + 1,5Tb | Windows 7 Professional 64Bits | Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium| Creative Inspire T6160 5.1
| XBMC mit Night | Philips 220SW + AOC M2752V:sniffle:
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#10
Well the max you will get out of an optical cable is DTS due to limited bandwidth.
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