[LINUX] HOW-TO get multi-channel HD sound output working over NVIDIA HDMI

The Shell Comands above are they for other Distris two ? or only for Arch Linux ?

Thx

alanwww1 Wrote:It is actually not a patch. I just ecxhange the Alsa 1.0.21 version of the nvidia file with a brand new fresh one from git repository. That's it. You can do the Alsa upgrade this way:

get these packages ( i don't know about the Arch version) build-essential ncurses-dev gettext xmlto linux-headers-`uname -r`

Code:

cd ~
wget ftp://ftp.alsa-project.org/pub/driver/alsa-driver-1.0.21.tar.bz2
wget ftp://ftp.alsa-project.org/pub/lib/alsa-lib-1.0.21a.tar.bz2
wget ftp://ftp.alsa-project.org/pub/utils/alsa-utils-1.0.21.tar.bz2
sudo mkdir -p /usr/src/alsa
cd /usr/src/alsa
sudo cp ~/alsa* .
sudo tar xjf alsa-driver*
sudo tar xjf alsa-lib*
sudo tar xjf alsa-utils*
cd alsa-driver*
wget "http://git.alsa-project.org/?p=alsa-kernel.git;a=blob_plain;f=sound/pci/hda/patch_nvhdmi.c;hb=HEAD" -O sound/pci/hda/patch_nvhdmi.c
sudo ./configure --with-cards=hda-intel --with-kernel=/usr/src/linux-headers-$(uname -r)
sudo make
sudo make install
cd ../alsa-lib*
sudo ./configure
sudo make
sudo make install
cd ../alsa-utils*
sudo ./configure
sudo make
sudo make install
rm -f ~/alsa-driver*
rm -f ~/alsa-lib*
rm -f ~/alsa-utils*
sudo depmod -a
sudo reboot

rebaker501 Wrote:So, I've read through this and still can't quite figure out if this will work with the new G210 PCIe cards. I have a Gigabyte G210 and can't get audio out of the HDMI port.

You read trough? Read again. Answer is 7 posts far, above to your post.

xb4me Wrote:My question is, if I follow your guide is there some chance I can get the TrueHD or the DTS-MA lights to light up on my receiver? If not, what NV chipset will work?

Frustrating, isn't it?

What you're seeing is the DD/DTS track that is embedded inside the higher quality TrueHD/DTS-MA track. I don't believe it's currently possible to get the TrueHD or DTS-MA streams out over hdmi since current generation cards do not implement PAP audio bitstreaming.

Your only option right now is a dedicated sound card like the Xonar, which I believe does not work in Linux.

The next generation video cards supposedly will improve PAP support. ATI is already advertising this.

xb4me Wrote:Wow, thanks for this write up. I have spent a lot of time trying to get TRUEHD working in the past, to no avail. Before I go through and try all this, I have a few basic questions, so I don't break something that works for no reason:

#1 - I have on board HDMI via nvdia 8200 running VDPAU and all audio through the HDMI to my TrueHD/DTS-MA compatible receiver. I have xbmc set up correctly so all audo goes out the HDMI and I get the different 5.1 modes showing up correctly depending on the audio format.

#2 - trueHD comes out looking like Dolby 5.1, not like trueHD. DTS-MA lights up the DTS light,but not the DTS-MA light.

My question is, if I follow your guide is there some chance I can get the TrueHD or the DTS-MA lights to light up on my receiver? If not, what NV chipset will work?

Thanks in advance for your clear response. I have been snowed so many times by confusing contradictory information, I really need the straight stuff cause I get confused easily.

Read my 12th post:

http://forum.xbmc.org/showpost.php?p=421...stcount=12

Straight answer:

Currently and for a long long time you can only bitstream these formats with Arcsoft Total Media Player, and PowerDVD, with only Asus Xonar, Auzentech's HD card, Ati 5xxx series video cards, Intel H57 chipset unreleased motherboards....

But you can decode these formats still preserving all bits of the HD audio into 8 channel HD LPCM and pass it via HDMI to your AV receiver and you get the VERY SAME quality out of it. That is what my guide tries to get. Of course i don't think xbmc can decode these formats on the fly so first you need to convert them into multichannel flac files with eac3to. But in time ffmpeg will support the decode of these formats.

I hope the answer was straight enough

AsrockIon Wrote:The Shell Comands above are they for other Distris two ? or only for Arch Linux ?

Thx

These commands probably work also for other distros. But the script i made does the same thing but with more things updated, getting the right packages, etc. So for Ubuntu i suggest using the script.

olympia Wrote:@Romey-Rome
Your issue is unrelated to this topic and guide. Thread-jacking is not appreciated here... Please open an other topic for this one.

Thread jacking my ass. How is asking is if anyone has gotten this method to work on product X (as it doesn't work in this case) thread-jacking. Pretty sure this guide isn't hardware specific.

Romey-Rome Wrote:Thread jacking my ass. How is asking is if anyone has gotten this method to work on product X (as it doesn't work in this case) thread-jacking. Pretty sure this guide isn't hardware specific.

No, this guide is not product specific, but is about how to get multichannel audio over HDMI. Explicitely stated that this is not possible on spdif. So raising a question about how to get spdif out working is highly off topic, becuase this topic is:
- dealing with hdmi, not spdif
- dealing with multichannel audio, not passthrough

Well 'alanwww1', thanks to your very clear and concise guide i now have multichannel pcm audio from movies with aac audio playing through my amp and speakers correctly. Thank you for taking the time to sort this out - i couldnt have done this without help!

I am running a Zotac ION330 board with XBMCLive installed to an 8gb Flash Drive. I ran your updates through Putty.exe from a Windows PC on the same wired network.

I did get a few missing directory errors as i went through.

Also, the speaker test no longer works - it used to work via Putty but now doesnt.

I enter: "speaker-test -Dhdmi -c6 -r192000 -FS32_LE"

And get:

Playback device is hdmi
Stream parameters are 192000Hz, S32_LE, 6 channels
Using 16 octaves of pink noise
Playback open error: -16,Device or resource busy

ali B Wrote:I don't have an HDMI receiver either, however my TV has an optical out so I'll be able to connect XBMC with HDMI to the TV then optical S/PDIF from the TV back to the receiver. As it's only AC-3 and DTS compatible, that's fine by me.

nice guide BTW. I'll be making use of this *very* shortly

Most TV's will downmix to stereo when outputting through the optical port, unless the source is the internal tuner. You may want to check and make sure your TV outputs 5.1, as there are very few that do.

Hey guys, i am getting somewhere with the brand new G210 Nvidia graphic card's hdmi audio device. By default this is not appearing in alsa at all.

I found a way to include these new card in the kernel driver. Now it is appearing as a hdmi device, just like the ones on motherboard.

there is one big difference. There are 4 separate pcm devices not only one. This could be correct as i checked the card in Win7 and there in the device manager it is also 4 devices appearing. It might be that this card has some kid of hardware mixing... That's what i can guess at least.

If anyone has the idea why there are 4 pcm devices instead of one, let me know.

By the way speaker-test runs fine without an error, but no sound is coming yet.

This has to be worked on.

What i did is i added these lines in alsa-driver source /sound/pci/hda/patch_nvhdmi.c file in the right places:


and in sound/pci/hda/hda_intel.c