[vineet381]

Hi, I am running 13.2 xbmc on my mx2 box and getting static noise while playing digital Dolby or DTS files.

My soundbar has only optical toshlink so I got a SPDIF convertor. So my setup is: mx2 box is set to pass through PCM under audio settings, digital cable that came with box goes to SPDIF end, it's red end from SPDIF is connected to digital optical convertor and the other end from the convertor (toshlink) goes to sounbar.
Xbmc setting has 2 channels with pass through. It gives me 5.1 on DTS and Dolby digital but it has a static noise sound in addition to the audio . How can I remove that noise?
My soundbar cannot decode DTS or digital Dolby so I thought this may be the Reason but when I uncheck the receiver options, I get a stereo. Also I tried changing the pass through to SPDIF under box settings but the result is the same.

any help from the gurus will be highly appreciated.

Update: I was able to get rid of static by muting the TV volume and controlling it through my soundbar app. All is good now :-)

[Koying]

Right. Seems that, on amlogic devices, even if you select the SPDIF output in system, sound goes thru the HDMI output also.

[MrMC]

not on all

[Koying]

Yeah, obviously not on the *very* rare boxes (think Pivos) who have real engineers to fix bugs

[vineet381]

Does that mean is there a audio loss when the sound goes through HDMI even if I have it on SPDIF passthrough?

[Koying]

What do you mean by "audio loss"?
As this is passthrough, and thus digital data and not analog sound, there is no loss of quality whatsoever, if that's what you mean.

[vineet381]

thanks, I was referring to your last post where you stated that even after SPDIF passthrough, sound goes through HDMI which is why there is the static noise.

[MrMC]

the static noise is because your HDTV does not know how to decode ac3/dts. So it plays what it thinks is two chan audio.