[nullpointrninja]

Hello. I've recently built my first HTPC and it's been wonderful so far (thanks to XBMC). I'm currently using the motherboard's integrated soundcard to output analogue multichannel audio to my receiver (no HDMI) and since the quality leaves a lot to be desired, I'm about to get an Asus Xonar DX.
The problem is that the card doesn't support automatic sample rate selection (so if you set it to 48kHz in the control panel, it will resample everything to 48kHz, even when using WASAPI exclusive mode) and changing the default sample rate isn't trivial with a remote controller. I thought that selecting something like 192kHz/24 bit as default and resampling everything with a high quality resampler to that format should solve the issue (or at least it should be better than letting the card resample on its own).

Now comes the XBMC related question. Is it possible to use ssrc or ffdshow when using the integrated audio player (the one that comes with XBMC)? I have mpc-hc set up as an external player for video, so ffdshow is used for video files, but I haven't been able to find a way to get the audio player to output resampled audio.

Thanks in advance.

[tiben20]

Hello. I've recently built my first HTPC and it's been wonderful so far (thanks to XBMC). I'm currently using the motherboard's integrated soundcard to output analogue multichannel audio to my receiver (no HDMI) and since the quality leaves a lot to be desired, I'm about to get an Asus Xonar DX.
The problem is that the card doesn't support automatic sample rate selection (so if you set it to 48kHz in the control panel, it will resample everything to 48kHz, even when using WASAPI exclusive mode) and changing the default sample rate isn't trivial with a remote controller. I thought that selecting something like 192kHz/24 bit as default and resampling everything with a high quality resampler to that format should solve the issue (or at least it should be better than letting the card resample on its own).

Now comes the XBMC related question. Is it possible to use ssrc or ffdshow when using the integrated audio player (the one that comes with XBMC)? I have mpc-hc set up as an external player for video, so ffdshow is used for video files, but I haven't been able to find a way to get the audio player to output resampled audio.

Thanks in advance.

http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=61355
ffdshow is simply a directshow codec and this player is using directshow codecs

[nullpointrninja]

It works with the music player too
I thought it was only for videos. Will check it out tomorrow.
Thanks!

[Freddo]

I have a similar setup with a Xonar, It's really tricky because the Xonar control panel is unusable via remote.

I've found the following is the best compromise in terms of "pure" audio and just straight up usability:

Use DSplayer with reclock for all my video types, and have reclock apply a resample to 48khz, using "good" sinc resampling and pass the result using WASAPI. Then set the Xonar control panel to 48khz. So for video playback audio, I use the 6ch analog outs with high quality QED cables into my Amps 6ch analog in.

I also configure ffdaudio so that it applies dolby prologic2 to stereo sources for me. I could equally configure the ffdaudio mixer to work around this, but dplII is my personal preference. This gets around a problem with the Xonar, when you send it stereo (even by WASAPI!) it will do a straight channel clone to all channels if you have the Xonar control panel set to 5.1)

However, for the real perfectionist there is still one problem, when I play a CD, the Xonar unavoidably upmixes to 5.1, and resamples to 48khz. To get around this is a little tricky, I ran a seperate optical cable to my amp from the Xonar, and then in XBMC settings -> system -> audio output, configure the output type as digital, output device as WASAPI Xonar Spdif passthrough device (reclock is oblivious to this setting so your 6ch analog out is safe in DSPlayer). It means toggling the input control on the amp, but now CD's in XBMC (that's PA Player) playback in stereo and at 44.1khz avoiding any resampling. Make sure to uncheck spdif output in the Xonar control panel. I set my amp to it's "Direct" mode for this input.

[nullpointrninja]

Can't you use ffdshow to always send 6 channels, but only with the front L/R speakers carrying audio (making the card think the input signal has 6 channels when it actually has 2)?
The more I read about the Xonar cards, the more bugs I find...

By the way, I started a thread at avsforum asking some things about the card and someone posted this. According to him, it should give you 2 channel audio without any forced upmixing.

@tiben20: does the DS based player work with audio only too, or is it just for playing back videos?

Thanks for the help.

[tiben20]

Can't you use ffdshow to always send 6 channels, but only with the front L/R speakers carrying audio (making the card think the input signal has 6 channels when it actually has 2)?
The more I read about the Xonar cards, the more bugs I find...

By the way, I started a thread at avsforum asking some things about the card and someone posted this. According to him, it should give you 2 channel audio without any forced upmixing.

@tiben20: does the DS based player work with audio only too, or is it just for playing back videos?

Thanks for the help.

Nop but it would be easy to make it able to play audio only. Ill add this feature when i have some time. I didnt expected some people would use directshow only to play mp3 or any other audio files.

[Freddo]

Can't you use ffdshow to always send 6 channels, but only with the front L/R speakers carrying audio (making the card think the input signal has 6 channels when it actually has 2)?
The more I read about the Xonar cards, the more bugs I find...

By the way, I started a thread at avsforum asking some things about the card and someone posted this. According to him, it should give you 2 channel audio without any forced upmixing.

@tiben20: does the DS based player work with audio only too, or is it just for playing back videos?

Thanks for the help.

You certainly could, but remember for me this is only applied to TV or film stereo content, so DPL2 isn't totally inappropriate. Configuring the mixer tab of ffdaudio to do what you describe would b easy.

For music playback, like flacs, or cd's etc, I'm using SPDIF so as to bypass any possible interference. This way I can use PAplayer i.e XBMC's built in audio player, so "Hi-Fi" playback is uncompromised. Downside is an extra cable, and having to toggle the amp to a different input for music.

It'd be tough to tell the difference between a decent resampled 48khz and the native 44.1khz so I'll be interested to see if using DSPlayer as an audio player works out.

[nullpointrninja]

Nop but it would be easy to make it able to play audio only. Ill add this feature when i have some time. I didnt expected some people would use directshow only to play mp3 or any other audio files.

Thank you!!
Just when I thought XBMC couldn't get any better.