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[LINUX] HOW-TO get multi-channel HD sound output working over NVIDIA HDMI
#31
chris2922 Wrote: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

Hi Chris !

Thanks's for the feedback!

You get the resource busy message because now your navsound are working and those keep up your device constantly. If you quit xbmc and just start Xserver (note that you need to have graphical interface started to get hdmi audio working) without xbmc, speaker-test will work again. But you'd rather listen to xbmc than speaker test right ? Wink

If you had some directory missing, please report which one, maybe i have some misstyping in the guide.
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Do not e-mail XBMC-Team members directly asking for support. Read/follow the forum rules.
For troubleshooting and bug reporting please make sure you read this first.
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#32
I don't suppose a speaker test feature could be added to XBMC itself?
Probably not the place to ask, but that would be great.
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#33
Zotac Ion D-E XBMCLive +1 Perfect Guide no issues.
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#34
Hi

Firstly many thanks for your guide!

Im having a few issues with output from the speakers, let me describe my setup:

Acer Revo - Nvidia GPU with HDMI out

Bose V30 surround sound with HDMI inputs.

I followed the guide and recieved some errors when using amixer:

/usr/bin/amixer -q -c 0 sset 'IEC958 default pcm',0 unmute/usr/bin/amixer -q -c 0 sset 'IEC958',0 unmute && /usr/bin/amixer -q -c 0 sset 'IEC958',1 unmute
amixer: Unable to find simple control 'IEC958 default pcm',0

on looking in alsamixer i do not have that channel/device, my selected device is:
Card: HDA Nvidia
Chip: Nvidia MCP7A HDMI

the out put of aplay is:

aplay -l

Code:
**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: NVidia [HDA NVidia], device 0: ALC662 rev1 Analog [ALC662 rev1 Analog]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: NVidia [HDA NVidia], device 3: NVIDIA HDMI [NVIDIA HDMI]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0


aplay -L

Code:
default:CARD=NVidia
    HDA NVidia, ALC662 rev1 Analog
    Default Audio Device
front:CARD=NVidia,DEV=0
    HDA NVidia, ALC662 rev1 Analog
    Front speakers
surround40:CARD=NVidia,DEV=0
    HDA NVidia, ALC662 rev1 Analog
    4.0 Surround output to Front and Rear speakers
surround41:CARD=NVidia,DEV=0
    HDA NVidia, ALC662 rev1 Analog
    4.1 Surround output to Front, Rear and Subwoofer speakers
surround50:CARD=NVidia,DEV=0
    HDA NVidia, ALC662 rev1 Analog
    5.0 Surround output to Front, Center and Rear speakers
surround51:CARD=NVidia,DEV=0
    HDA NVidia, ALC662 rev1 Analog
    5.1 Surround output to Front, Center, Rear and Subwoofer speakers
surround71:CARD=NVidia,DEV=0
    HDA NVidia, ALC662 rev1 Analog
    7.1 Surround output to Front, Center, Side, Rear and Woofer speakers
hdmi:CARD=NVidia,DEV=0
    HDA NVidia, NVIDIA HDMI
    HDMI Audio Output
null
    Discard all samples (playback) or generate zero samples (capture)

Thanks in advance for any help, ive just spent a fortune on the surround sound system and im only getting 2.0 from the media server! D'OH!
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#35
nino Wrote:Thanks in advance for any help, ive just spent a fortune on the surround sound system and im only getting 2.0 from the media server! D'OH!

Why are your trying iec958 ? You should be trying hdmi device. The only way you can get multichannel lpcm.
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Do not e-mail XBMC-Team members directly asking for support. Read/follow the forum rules.
For troubleshooting and bug reporting please make sure you read this first.
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#36
Hi alanwww1

Sorry i was aimlessly folowing the tutorial as i know next to nothing about audio cards Huh

i have used XBMC with the hdmi options and im getting the output coming up as PCM 2.0 on the bose system.

Ive tried messing with the syntax of the commands but no joy, could you give me a few tips please.

thanks Big Grin

nino
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#37
When you type speaker-test -Dhdmi -c6 do you get an error message ? Are you sure the downmix to stereo option is unticked in xbmc ?
Always read the XBMC online-manual, FAQ and search the forum before posting.
Do not e-mail XBMC-Team members directly asking for support. Read/follow the forum rules.
For troubleshooting and bug reporting please make sure you read this first.
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#38
I find alsa configuration really confusing and was hoping you could help me out.

Code:
aplay -l
**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: Intel [HDA Intel], device 0: ALC883 Analog [ALC883 Analog]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: Intel [HDA Intel], device 1: ALC883 Digital [ALC883 Digital]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: NVidia [HDA NVidia], device 3: NVIDIA HDMI [NVIDIA HDMI]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

Code:
aplay -L
default:CARD=Intel
    HDA Intel, ALC883 Analog
    Default Audio Device
front:CARD=Intel,DEV=0
    HDA Intel, ALC883 Analog
    Front speakers
surround40:CARD=Intel,DEV=0
    HDA Intel, ALC883 Analog
    4.0 Surround output to Front and Rear speakers
surround41:CARD=Intel,DEV=0
    HDA Intel, ALC883 Analog
    4.1 Surround output to Front, Rear and Subwoofer speakers
surround50:CARD=Intel,DEV=0
    HDA Intel, ALC883 Analog
    5.0 Surround output to Front, Center and Rear speakers
surround51:CARD=Intel,DEV=0
    HDA Intel, ALC883 Analog
    5.1 Surround output to Front, Center, Rear and Subwoofer speakers
surround71:CARD=Intel,DEV=0
    HDA Intel, ALC883 Analog
    7.1 Surround output to Front, Center, Side, Rear and Woofer speakers
iec958:CARD=Intel,DEV=0
    HDA Intel, ALC883 Digital
    IEC958 (S/PDIF) Digital Audio Output
null
    Discard all samples (playback) or generate zero samples (capture)
hdmi:CARD=NVidia
    HDA NVidia, NVIDIA HDMI
    HDMI Audio Output

I am also to some extent blindly following this tutorial. I'm sure I'll understand it eventually. Here's the error I am getting.

Code:
sudo speaker-test -Dhdmi -c2 -r48000 -FS16_LE

speaker-test 1.0.21

Playback device is hdmi
Stream parameters are 48000Hz, S16_LE, 2 channels
Using 16 octaves of pink noise
Playback open error: -2,No such file or directory
Playback open error: -2,No such file or directory
Playback open error: -2,No such file or directory
^C

I very much appreciate the help you have provided thus far.

Regards,
Michal
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#39
hi alanww1

I did a complete format of the revo and reinstalled ubuntu, i think i had some funky issue swith the many different versions of ubuntu that was installed as well i upped my graphics to 256 in the BIO. I didnt need to update ALSA or change as settings as per your guide, it just worked out of the box

XBMC is sucessfully pluing mt 1080 content and the BOSE is reporting DTS 5.1 and Dolby 5.1 !!!! w000000000000000000p

I have the following settings:

Audio Ouput: Digital
Dolby Digital ACE : yes
DTS : yes
Output device: custom
Custom device: plughw:0,3
Passthrough device: hdmi
Downmix: no

The xbmc_dts_test.mkv also works as expected however the aac doesnt, does that mean my bose cant decode AAC files?

Whilst i know its working as expected i want to double check using the speaker test, but im having issues:

speaker-test -Dplughw:0,3 -c6

executes but i dont get anything from the speakers :S

speaker-test -Dhdmi -c6
Code:
Playback device is hdmi
Stream parameters are 48000Hz, S16_LE, 6 channels
Using 16 octaves of pink noise
Channels count (6) not available for playbacks: Invalid argument
Setting of hwparams failed: Invalid argument

thanks again Smile
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#40
nino Wrote:hi alanww1
speaker-test -Dhdmi -c6
Code:
Playback device is hdmi
Stream parameters are 48000Hz, S16_LE, 6 channels
Using 16 octaves of pink noise
Channels count (6) not available for playbacks: Invalid argument
Setting of hwparams failed: Invalid argument

thanks again Smile

Hi Nino !

There is a great miss-understanding of formats here. This is why i made a description of formats in the beginning of the guide. You can pass multichannel audio two ways:

- With Bitstreaming of lossy(ac3, dts) or lossless(Dolby-HD, DTS MasterAudio)
Only ac3 and dts works on linux so far. But for this you DON't need my
guide at all. This works out of the box even with s/pdif connection.

- With LPCM multichannel audio you must have hdmi connection due to bandwidth issues, because this way you are passing all 8 channels UNCOMPRESSED in one signal. this is a huge amount of data transfered. For this method you do need my guide as you noticed speaker test with HDMI and with more than 2 channels is not working with default kernel modules. And we still do even have to enable hd formats on new Alsa release.

AAC audio can NOT be bitstreamed (as i wrote in the guide) has to be decoded to LPCM but if you want to pass this LPCM signal as MULTICHANNEL signal you do need my guide.

I hope i was understandable. I might update the beginig of the guide to make things more clear.

Cheers,

Alan
Always read the XBMC online-manual, FAQ and search the forum before posting.
Do not e-mail XBMC-Team members directly asking for support. Read/follow the forum rules.
For troubleshooting and bug reporting please make sure you read this first.
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#41
Any chance getting some help with the problem I described?

I still have not been able to get any audio via the HDMI Sad

Regards,
Michal
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#42
michal Wrote:Any chance getting some help with the problem I described?

I still have not been able to get any audio via the HDMI Sad

Regards,
Michal

Hi Michael !

If you try to get hdmi audio out of Nvidia G210 video card (what is in your signarure) and you followed the posts you can know that there is no solution to these new cards yet. I was able to get somewhere, but not working yet. Nvidia has to give us some help with these cards in the future.
Always read the XBMC online-manual, FAQ and search the forum before posting.
Do not e-mail XBMC-Team members directly asking for support. Read/follow the forum rules.
For troubleshooting and bug reporting please make sure you read this first.
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#43
Great stuff alanwww1, this thread cleared up pretty much all the questions I had about this topic Smile
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#44
Great How-to Alan!

I have followed your guide and the end result is fantastic! I now can watch all my BluRay movies with True-HD and DTS-MA. With the new PGS subtitle support I really have everything I need to enjoy my whole video library. This really beats the Popcorn solution, even the C-200.

One question since you are so knowledgeable about audio. How would you characterize the audio quality of a True-HD or DTS-MA track transmitted in 6 channels LPCM over HDMI compared to having it bitstream to an Onkyo 605 class receiver (if this was possible)? Did you (or know someone) ever had a chance to compare this type of track between a PC rig with ARcSoft and Xonar (bitstreaming) and your linux box with your upgrade (6 channels LPCM)? Would an audiophile notice the difference?

I wonder if the Onkyo is doing some extra processing when they light up that blue light (better??) or perform a dumb decode and pass on the signal to the speakers (no difference??)?

Just curious!

Thanks for an amazing sustained effort to bring that major breakthrough to our community.

Ivan

P.S. I still have an issue with the AC-DC No Bull BluRay with VC-1, LPCM and TrueHD tracks. I get audio but no video. Anyone had that problem? I have to create a new thread with log file once I finish travelling and get back home!...
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#45
ylagace Wrote:One question since you are so knowledgeable about audio. How would you characterize the audio quality of a True-HD or DTS-MA track transmitted in 6 channels LPCM over HDMI compared to having it bitstream to an Onkyo 605 class receiver (if this was possible)? Did you (or know someone) ever had a chance to compare this type of track between a PC rig with ARcSoft and Xonar (bitstreaming) and your linux box with your upgrade (6 channels LPCM)? Would an audiophile notice the difference?.

Hello Ivan !

Thanks for the feedback. It is great to hear that i can help others getting better experience with xbmc. All credit goes to the devs who are letting this happen.

I never compared the bitstreamed audio quality to the uncompressed LPCM quality, but theoretically and practically should be the same. The only difference is the place where decoding happens. But the quality really is the same.

With pure audio mode of the Onkyo receivers it just means that the it does not make any processing (nor analog nor digital) to the sound. So for example if you had some artificial hall effect setting it turns that off making sure that you hear the sound as it is. So i think it is more about having the sound untouched than about quality.
Always read the XBMC online-manual, FAQ and search the forum before posting.
Do not e-mail XBMC-Team members directly asking for support. Read/follow the forum rules.
For troubleshooting and bug reporting please make sure you read this first.
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[LINUX] HOW-TO get multi-channel HD sound output working over NVIDIA HDMI8