[ngergely]

I've searched the forums and haven't found an answer to this question, tough I most likely missed it, so if there is another discussion for this topic, please point me in that direction.


I'm currently having trouble getting kodi 14.0 to use the passthrough audio option by default, but typically it just chooses the first audio track, regardless of type. I don't remember this being a problem in the past, but I could just be wrong. Currently all of my video files have 2 audio tracks. The first one is in AAC format, the second is typically in DTS or DTS-HD or AC3.

I've tried to start a video, change the audio and then set it as default for all videos, but that never seems to stick. I can however change the audio track and watch the video with no problem, but that's not something that I'd like to have to do every time.


Current setup:
Windows PC running Kodi 14.0
H/K Receiver that can decode all formats supported by Kodi
Sharp TV that has audio turned off

Connection: HTPC >> Receiver >> TV all via HDMI

Thank you anyone who can help.

[barenaked]

AFAIK you can only define either the audio track with the "default flag" or the first one that matches your desired language to be the first choice. I haven't seen an option to define the format of choice.
For pass-through to work your receiver has to be marked that it can support AAC. I don't know if that option even exists in the pass-through settings page. Atm I can only say that Dolby and DTS formats are supported for sure.

[jjd-uk]

The AAC track is probably set as the Default audio track, the logic goes something like:

Logic 1

1. Check for audio tracks that matches the preferred language, if only 1 track matches then use this.
2. If 2 tracks or more match the preferred language and one has the Default flag set then use this.
3. If 2 tracks or more match the preferred language, but neither have the Default flag set, then use the track with highest number of channels.
4. If 2 tracks or more match the preferred language, but neither have the Default flag set and have the same number of channels, then use the best codec.

So what happens in your case:

1. 2 tracks have the same language.
2. AAC track has Default flag so choose this.

The solution for 14.0/14.1 is to remove the Default flag from the AAC track so it would skip to choosing the track with most channels.

In the Version 15 nightly development builds there is now an option to ignore the Default flag so the logic becomes:

Logic 2

1. Check for audio tracks that matches the preferred language, if only 1 track matches then use this.
2. If 2 tracks or more match the preferred language, then use the track with highest number of channels.
3. If 2 tracks or more match the preferred language and have the same number of channels, then use the best codec.

The setting allows to toggle between Logic 1 & Logic 2.

[ngergely]

Awesome, thanks jjd-uk.

Is the default audio track set via kodi or via the media file itself?

Either way, what's the best way remove the default flag from the AAC track?

Thanks,

[jjd-uk]

The flag is set on the media file itself and as to how to remove that will depend on the file type which you've not mentioned, if you rip these yourself then you maybe able to use the ripping software to remove the flag from the file headers without having to re-rip.

[ngergely]

thanks.

I've got M4V files that I created using handbrake.

I'll have to look into that to see where to set/not set the default track

[sonicstealth]

I'm having this problem as well but your advice to change the default flag is ill advised. The MP4/M4V file format needs Stereo AAC audio as the default, or 'flagged' to meet the standards requirements for the format so it will play natively on devices like iPhones and iPads, PS3, X360 etc etc. You can however include an AC3 passthrough track but it can't be flagged while the AAC isn't flagged or flagged as well along with the AAC track or you're going to have playback issues with numerous devices.

Before Kodi, XBMC used to handle this behavior just fine. My entire library is M4V files with AAC stereo track as default and the 5.1 AC3 track as passthrough and XBMC would pass the bitstream whether it be AC3 or DTS along to receiver before it used the AAC stereo track as default. Don't tell the entire world to go editing their libraries and chaning their audio flags, this is either a bug or an intentional change the developers made. I hope they fix it soon because it is annoying.

[jjd-uk]

There probably was a bug before that the Default flag was ignored and this has now been fixed, correct behaviour is to respect the Default flag which is what we now do, and from what you say this is in line with all other devices.

You seemed to have missed totally the fact that I also said that we've now added a setting to ignore the Default flag in our nightly development builds, so the user has the choice of whether the Default flag should be respected or ignored.

[sonicstealth]

There probably was a bug before that the Default flag was ignored and this has now been fixed, correct behaviour is to respect the Default flag which is what we now do, and from what you say this is in line with all other devices.

You seemed to have missed totally the fact that I also said that we've now added a setting to ignore the Default flag in our nightly development builds, so the user has the choice of whether the Default flag should be respected or ignored.

Thanks for replying. I missed that line. Good to know this will be implemented soon.

It is important to note that changing the default flag will cause havoc if your media files exist in other ecosystems like Mac/iOS just a fair warning for those users.

[very_random_man]

Bit of a thread resurrection here! I came across this post whilst searching for a way to default to the surround audio track without changing the media file's default audio track. After this hint above about the existence of a setting that did what i want I'd just expand on it for other users looking for an answer and say that it can be found under Settings > Player > Language. 

https://kodi.wiki/view/Settings/Player/L...io_streams

Took me a while to find it as I just didn't expect to see it in the Language settings but there you go!