[alexsch]

Hi, most likely this problem was addressed somewhere before and I wasn't to lazy to search but could not find it.

I have a Pi3 connected by HDMI to a Samsung M450 Soundbar which is then connected by HDMI Arc to the TV HDMI Arc. Now I do have 2 problems, one is that in general I think the sound should be better. Of course a Soundbar is worse than a real sound system but currently I almost prefer the TV speakers. The main problem I have though is the volume, I watch one video DD 5.1 and then I watch the next one and it is also DD 5.1 but I might have to boost or lower the volume by a lot.

I am using LibreElec with the latest stable Kodi and I have passthrough enabled. Should I switch to a Windows HTPC or shall I have Kodi do all the audio processing instead of passthrough? And if so, can I somewhere find recommended settings for a setup like I have because I feel a bit lost right now.

Thanks a lot for the help.

[nickr]

If passthrough is enabled then your pi has no effect on either quality or volume.

[speedwell68]

In my experience some videos have a louder audio track than others.  What you are getting sounds quite normal to me.

[alexsch]

I am aware of how passthrough works but since the results the soundbar delivers do not satisfy, I was wondering if it would make sense to have Kodi take care of the audio. I am actually back to using my TV speakers right now as they sound clearer and the volume normalize works just fine there while with the soundbar I am adjusting the volume constantly, that is no fun.

[popcornmix]

With passthrough enabled then kodi has no effect on audio quality - any kodi platform (or any other media player that uses passthrough) will sound identical.

Does the soundbar support multichannel PCM?
Try setting number of channels to 5.1 and disabling passthrough. If that doesn't work the try setting number of channels to 2.1. If that doesn't work then try 2.0.
Then kodi will decode the audio and downmix it. Does it sound any different?