Acer Revo HDMI to Optical splitter to receiver problem.. need help
#1
Sad 
Hi, my set up im trying to get right is as follows:

Acer Revo HDMI out > HDMI audio/video splitter > hdmi to TV and optical audio to receiver..

running xbmc live which is actually a minimal linux with xbmc according to this post.. http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=51782

the problem is when i play DTS movie i cant hear when people talk.. just all the other sounds.. im guessing the centre speaker channel not matched properly? and also there are no menu sounds.. only sometimes i will hear one or two menu sounds with varying volume levels.. its very strange..

Can someone please help me out.. I tried almost everything a linux noob can do.. Huh
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#2
I had the identical problem with my setup, where I had HDMI going to my TV and I used the TV's optical toslink to go from TV to my receiver.

I tried everything I could read/find and no matter what, DTS would not work. (You're only getting 2 channels which is why you only hear "background" noise)

I did manage to get DTS working by messing with the ALSA config but the audio would skip/chop every few seconds so I had to abandon that.

I ended up selling my Revo 1900 and buying a 3610 which has an onboard optical toslink, and going straight into the amp from there, and it works fine (although some people are reporting difficulty getting AAC / AC3 audio working).
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#3
hmm tv's toslink out is automatically downmixed to stereo.. when u have hdmi to tv to toslink.. but my setup is hdmi to hdmi splitter then toslink to amp and hdmi to tv.. the little book for the splitter says it handles all audio forms including dts.. can u please tell me what u done with the alsa stuff to make your kinda work?
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#4
What splitter do you have?

The HDMI receiver (in your case the splitter device) has to tell your computer what formats the HDMI port supports. TVs only support PCM stereo so that's why they're automatically downmixed. If your splitter supports DTS and DD 5.1 (you can't do the new HD audio tracks like DTS ES through optical, even with a splitter) then it should be telling the machine it can do those and you should be golden.

I'm assuming you already have xbmc setup to use a digital out (pass-through specifically) with DD and DTS both checked? If you do, you should get something in the log explaining why it's not working.
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#5
Thanks but i dont know how to interpret the error in the log. can u please help me?

my splitter is this one: http://cgi.ebay.com.au/HDMI-4x1-HIFI-Swi...1680wt_939

and heres my error in the log (im guessing this is the relevant one):
ERROR: GetDelay - snd_pcm_delay, alsa error: -32 - Broken pipe

any ideas? when i select to have dts passthrough i get no sound at all.. but when i dont i get only some of the audio channels and not the one for the voice.. the centre speaker still plays sound but not the correct channel..
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#6
also the random menu sounds? any idea on the cause of that? menu sounds work correctly when i plug it in straight to tv without amp.. when i use the splitter to amp i get only some of the menu sounds at varying volumes..
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#7
mo88, here's what I did to get mine working:

---------------------

I followed the instructions here:
http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php...optical&page=2

And specified custom audio output settings for Audio Device and Passthrough device. On my revo, this was:

custom audio device: plughw:0,3

custom passthrough device: plughw:0,3

(3 is the NVIDIA HDMI Audio device)

I did this and enabled both DD and DTS receiver settings - and holy flaming arseholes, it actually worked - sort of. My receiver lit up with both DOLBY DIGITAL (5.1 channels) and DTS (5.1 channels) when I tried playing both types of media.

-------------------

The above got everything working, but again, the audio stuttered and hiccuped like a bastard and nobody could volunteer any possible solutions, so I bailed and bought the 3610.

Try this out and see if it works.
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#8
deepblue can u please post that url again? it looks like u didnt copy full url.. and did u get menu sounds working with that thread info and stuff?
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#9
Sorry about that - didn't cut and paste properly. Here you go:
http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid...cal&page=2

I don't recall having issues with the menu sounds, although I do know that using digital audio the menu sounds can sometimes not "catch" at first as there is usually a lag with the amp grabbing the start of the sound. I don't think I've done a good job describing it, but I'm not sure if that is similar to your issue. Try what I posted with the custom settings and report back - if that doesn't work I'd say you unfortunately bought a borked up splitter that isn't capable of passing mutli-channel audio (despite stating that it does). Hopefully you can still file a paypal dispute!

Good Luck.
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#10
thanks but still no luck.. i think i might have fudged up some pulse audio thing.. im gonna try to reinstall with fresh 9.11 rc1 and see what happens.. wish me luck.. :/
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#11
hmm ok so i installed rc1 live and upgraded nvidia drivers.. nothing is muted in alsamixer.. stereo sound works.. multi channel doesnt (centre speaker for voice not working).. passthrough not working at all (no sound).. i used to have ac3 passthrough working before new install but now not anymore.. :/ dont know why.. any suggestions?
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#12
mo88 - I'm afraid that's the extent of my expertise on this topic, I'm unfortunately still learning the ropes with Linux.

I can tell you that everything with the optical out works great with the 3610 if you want to consider swapping your 1600 out (it took about 10 minutes for me to find a friend that wanted to buy my 1600).
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#13
hmm but i just got my r3600.. shouldve gotten a 3610.. dam.. anyway i finally managed to get ac3 sound working.. guess i could live without dts and menu sounds.. thanks for all ur help guys.. oh and merry christmas lol..
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#14
I'd be surprised if you couldn't sell it for everything you've already paid for it - lots of people are salivating over getting these media centers.

Alternatively, just turn off the DTS setting in your audio settings and it will just default to 2 channel and your Amp can give you virtual surround for your DTS stuff.
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Acer Revo HDMI to Optical splitter to receiver problem.. need help0