[espoir]

Hello,

I would like to be able to play FLAC/ALAC files with Hi-Res content (up to 24 bit / 192Khz) using Kodi on NVidia Shield TV.
The box supports this kind of playback over HDMI (it is stated in the official specs 'High-resolution audio playback up to 24-bit/192 kHz over HDMI and USB'). But unfortunately if I try to play FLAC/ALAC files with Hi-Res content it gets down-sampled to 16bit/48Khz by Kodi.

I wasn't able to find any appropriate settings in Kodi 15.2 / 16 RC3 and was always getting the same results - audio files were outputted as 16bit/48Khz via Shield's HDMI.
(I also tried special build of v.16 RC2 that supports DTS-HD / Dolby True-HD Audio passthrough and while I was able to successfully achieve DTS-HD / Dolby True-HD passthrough I still couldn't stream FLAC/ALAC in their native resolution)

So, my question is - is there a way to configure Kodi (which version?) to play FLAC/ALAC in their native resolution over HDMI and if not, is this feature in plans for v.17 of Kodi?

PS. This question may also be relevant to other TV-Boxes that support High-resolution audio playback up to 24-bit/192 kHz over HDMI, not only NVidia Shield TV if there are any.

[jjd-uk]

You should try this I think http://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=252852

It introduces audio improvements to Jarvis but for various reasons wasn't merged.

There is work onto going which has been merged for v17 covered by http://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=257190 however those builds are only for the very adventurous who want to contribute to developmental testing, as it's pre-alpha work those builds are not the most stable at the moment.

[espoir]

You should try this I think http://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=252852

jjd-uk, thanks for the reply

As I was saying

I also tried special build of v.16 RC2 that supports DTS-HD / Dolby True-HD Audio passthrough and while I was able to successfully achieve DTS-HD / Dolby True-HD passthrough I still couldn't stream FLAC/ALAC in their native resolution

[espoir]

up

[FTStager]

I'm also disappointed Kodi doesn't play HD FLACS in native resolution

[wrxtasy]

I've a feeling the WeTek Core plays 24bit/192Khz FLAC in Android Lollipop with its WeTek Jarvis 16.0 mediaplayer (a fork of Kodi)

http://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=...pid2252235

CT, the WeTek dev. or fritsch would be the guys that know for sure.

[fritsch]

I'm also disappointed Kodi doesn't play HD FLACS in native resolution

Disappointed? About kodi? It's your OS, Android - it does not support it, it was designed for ringtones - everything needs to go through system's mixer and even if we send 192 khz float it might do whatever it wants to do.

Kodi's AudioEngine can decode, map everything without loosing 1 bit of information.

[fritsch]

I've a feeling the WeTek Core plays 24bit/192Khz FLAC in Android Lollipop with its WeTek Jarvis 16.0 mediaplayer (a fork of Kodi)

http://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=...pid2252235

CT, the WeTek dev. or fritsch would be the guys that know for sure.

AMLogic is special, it has a lot advantages over "standard audiotrack". That above build does nothing special to PCM audio - everything is in kodi's master. 192/24 should work - but obviously not as 24 bit but tunneled (lossless) in a 32 bit float format ... as Android does not support a 24 bit audio format. Which is no issue as the original flac is decoded to 32 bit float anyways.

[FTStager]

Disappointed? About kodi? It's your OS, Android - it does not support it, it was designed for ringtones - everything needs to go through system's mixer and even if we send 192 khz float it might do whatever it wants to do.

Kodi's AudioEngine can decode, map everything without loosing 1 bit of information.

Thanks for the reply. Sorry for the indelicate wording. Still disappointed, bought the Shield with the hope of playing my HiRes audio files since the hardware supports that. Hopefully, a future release of Android will support this or a possible future release of Kodi will provide some sort of passthru to circumvent this limitation.

[fritsch]

There is no passthrough for flac, there is also no WASAPI API for android. It's Create music buffer and add your data ... the OS is free to mix it to whatever it wants ... it's the pulseaudio soundserver on linux or DirectSound on windows.

[Koying]

Disappointed? About kodi? It's your OS, Android - it does not support it, it was designed for ringtones - everything needs to go through system's mixer and even if we send 192 khz float it might do whatever it wants to do.

Kodi's AudioEngine can decode, map everything without loosing 1 bit of information.

Well, the Shield can surely do it, as it works via, eg google music.
How to do it (I couldn't find any doc) and whether it's even feasible via the standard audiotrack API is another story...

[fritsch]

I also could not find any documentation. For the given AudioTrack API we don't do anything wrong ...

Here, see what google devs think about > 96 khz: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d3kfEeMZ65c

[FTStager]

I can confirm Google Music can handle FLACS on the Shield. Did I miss something? The YouTube video only discusses latency, nothing about HiRes.

[fritsch]

The question is: Does it handle the samplerate _and_ the audio format?

Outputting 96 / 192 khz is no problem at all, but the number of bits are. What's the point in outputting 192/24 files as 192/16 - is it worse than outputting those as 48/32 while using a decent resampler?

Flac -> decode -> 32 bit float -> 16 bit Integer conversion
Flac -> decode -> 32 bit float -> resample to 48 khz -> output

in both paths you definitely loose information / quality.

Here is a testbuild, that does the same the "google music" player does: http://mirrors.kodi.tv/test-builds/andro...bi-v7a.apk

Can you test it?

[wesk05]

Here is a testbuild, that does the same the "google music" player does: http://mirrors.kodi.tv/test-builds/andro...bi-v7a.apk
Can you test it?

Output is still 48kHz for 24/96kHz stereo FLAC

http://xbmclogs.com/paakgzatz

I think on the SHIELD, Audiotrack PCM output is limited to 48kHz. From logcat it looks like Google Music Player/MX Player is 24-bit. One of these days I will run in through a protocol analyzer and can confirm it.

03-08 19:31:52.963: I/nvaudio_hw(5330): HRA: Sample rate 96000, bps 24, channels 2

http://pastebin.com/0EuiiVAy