[tmyoungjr]

Hey all,

Running Ubuntu 10.10 Server with XBMC Dharma.

Using a Nvidia GT 430 for sound/video via HDMI. Install process entirely non-problematic. I did have issues with sound via the Nvidia card to the server itself initially. Got those sorted out no problem.

Within XBMC i have sound on the dashboard, and if I play movies who's sound is in stereo I have no issues.

However, when a movie comes up (usually newer or Bluray movies) that is using something like AC3 I see an alert come up as the movie loads of "Unable to initialize audio device".

Attached pastebin. I'm certain I have something incorrect. In my settings I'm using the proper soundcard itself, but it feels like the passthrough setting is where this is failing. I've tried "hdmi", i've tried making it match my soundcard, and i've tried the other options anyways. pastebin below

http://pastebin.com/YZ4yvSM2

Any thoughts, suggestions, pointing out that this is solved 4700 times over in other threads (I have searched, sadly I have missed it or I'm horrid at searching). Thanks!

[tmyoungjr]

Fixed my issue, mostly. Created another one that isn't so pressing for myself.

Tried many many things, changing audio devices, asound.conf, .asoundrc files, setting the custom device to match plughw:1,9, etc.

I ended up disabling the onboard sound card (nothing was plugged into it, but I didn't want even being an option anywhere). This destroyed sounds in the OS itself and within the skin. I can't even open up preferences -> sound in the OS anymore.

I then again tried various options for the passthrough and audio output. What i did notice was that in video files where the sound was in stereo, i HAD sound prior to removing the onboard card. Now I did not.

What finally fixed both the stereo and passthrough problem for me was setting both audio options to Custom and specifying : "plughw:CARD=NVidia,DEV=1,9"

I have no asound.conf or .asoundrc files, nor anything else special going on. Just the above setting.

Now I still *dont* have skin or native OS sounds - that's something I'll have to track down further, but it's definitely not a XBMC issue.