[mthawk]

Hello.
Today i updated my old XMBC to Kodi 15.1 "Isengard" and faced big sound problem which i never had before.
I have Marantz AVR connected with S/PDIF to Audigy 2 ZS.
DD/DTS passthrough works fine in every player (including old XBMC)
But with Kodi my AVR detects only Stereo PCM 96 Khz stream with every type of audio source in movie.

Please help. It is disaster for my HTPC....

Here is my audio settings

[rjlat17iscoed]

You can try changing from best match to 2.0, or 7.1 or 5.1

[Jogee]

Change your audio devices to use WASAPI. Pretty much the same thing that happened to this person.

You should also go through the wiki for Audio if you need help setting up Kodi correctly for your setup.

Good luck.

[mthawk]

Hi. Thanks for reply.
rjlat17iscoed,
2.0, 5.1, 7.1 i may select only if i choose analog output. For S/PDIF this option is unavailable.
I may select channels amount only with "Fixed" Output configuration but in this case Direct Output absent at all.
Jogee,
WASAPI never worked for XBMC/Kodi at my PC.
For Direct Output i always hear only noise on my AVR. (Some other players which supports WASAPI works fine, but not XBMC. Only noice.)

[Jogee]

You need WASAPI for Kodi to pass through the audio to your receiver. You cannot pass through an encoded format with DirectSound. See the wiki entry.

WASAPI is definitely the better option. But if you can't get it working (probably a driver issue with your sound card), then your next best bet is to turn off the DD/DTS "capable receiver" options in Kodi. This will let Kodi decode the stream and send it to your receiver.

Good luck.

[mthawk]

Jogee, do you have any idea why with pass-through over WASAPI i have both - old XBMC and new Kodi play only noise with my AVR over S/PDIF ?
There is only one driver for Win7 from Creative for my audiocard unfortunately...
It looks like Kodi with WASAPI don't change stream properties in S/PDIF or something like that. Because AVR thinks that it is still 2 ch PCM 96 KHz is coming but actually it is DD/DTS stream.

Btw: VLC and Media Player Classic uses Direct Sound for AC3/DTS pass-trough and it works perfect. No recoding/resampling or system sounds during playback.
The latest version of XBMC that makes passthrough via DirectSound fine is XBMC 12.3 (Frodo). After 13.0 (Gotham) it is not working at all
Kodi plays system (interface) sounds fine with WASAPI. There is problem with passthrough only.

This is what is found. This could be the reason of noise problem with WASAPI and Audigy 2 ZS:
https://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums...evelopment
As i understood it is related with stream tag. Audigy doesn't support "EXTENSIBLE". Only "WAVEFORMATEX".

[Jogee]

Maybe the Creative driver doesn't do WASAPI event mode that Kodi needs? But that's just a total guess. Posting a debug log might help someone else see if there is anything that can be done.

[mthawk]

I don't believe someone will change Kodi's code to make it compatible with legacy PCI Audigy 2 ZS
I switched to embedded Realtek's S/PDIF and WASAPI works as expected. I have passthrough working.
I don't hear difference in stereo quality as well as DTS/DD playback between my Audigy and Realtek.
Hope there is actually no difference )
Thanks to all.

Conclusion: Kodi cannot provide passthough using DirectSound output, and Creative Audigy 2 ZS not compatible with WASAPI Digital Output using Kodi.

[BatterPudding]

I also briefly experimented with a Creative card in my KODI PC, then went back to the old onboard Realtek. I use passthrough mode on that old Realtek just fine with WSAPI and get the full DTS \ 5.1 passed through to my old amp. Amp lights up with the correct DTS mode flagged up on the display and the correct number of speakers lit up.

I found the Creative drivers a PITA - and I was using a X-Fi not something as old as an Audigy.