[shuggy]

Another thing that really excited me about dharma was the support for multichannel music. The multichannel movie stuff is brilliant. Now I have downloaded a number of dts multichannel mixes and I also have a dts compatible amp. But whether I send the file to my amp from the apple tv ,via analogue sprit or hdmi I just get the dts hiss. Has anyone got the multichannel to work yet via an apple tv?

[shuggy]

In specific I can only get my yamaha 767 amp to play when I output through the analogue line outs. Is the HDMI or optical not capable of outputting the signal?

[shuggy]

Bump

[shuggy]

I've tried everything I can think of and cant seem to resolve these problems

Settings- I have tried each and everyone of the outputs( hdmi. Analogue. Optical)
Speaker settings- every setting 2.0 to 7.1
dts on and off
Dd on and off
default And Analogue output devices
Tried both pap and DVD players

STILL there is no audio output via HDMI or optical only Analogue line out only.
Not only that but as soon as I even successfully play a dts tune via analogue then I cannot play any subsequent standard mp3 files via HDMI and optical only analogue works.

My amp displays that no signal is being passed through.

If I reboot then playing ordinary mp3 files is restored via optical and hdmi.
I know that the ATV itself is working as when I start reusing the native software (god knows I haven't touched it since I last installed xbmc atlantis which was wonderfully stable!!!) then the DTS files play perfectly. My amp displays a dts multichannel input and all is well!!

Most bizarrely the DD and DTS files work perfectly from my video directories- explain that!!!

I would love to recommence using xbmc as my only media player. Though I love Dharma I kind of regret upgrading to it. Lots of people are posting on multichannel audio problems on the ATV. Is there any work around out there?

[shuggy]

Bump

[shuggy]

Partially solved. I reloaded m player and reloaded nito tv. No w my multi channel dts music does play via hdmi and optical but SADLY it is down mixed to 2 channel even though on the player view it says it is a dts5.1 file. Ordinary apple tv original software music player will play the multichannel output. There must be a way of getting xbmc to do this again after all it plays dts soundtracks!!!

[shuggy]

Bump any thoughts on getting the music to play multichannel?

[shuggy]

Tried enabling ac3 passthrough in sapphire and nito to see if would help- no luck. Tried mplayer and QuickTime and both settings in m. Player. No luck!
I've taken this as far as a computer ignoramus like me can. I simply can't beat this o e as my string of posts will show. It is clear the dharma build can easily output 5.1 sound. I just cAn't get it to do so for my 5.1 dts music files. Clearly they are being decode as the music isn't just a hiss it plays well, but downgraded to two channels. If only I could prevent the down mixing.
I'm now beaten.
To quote queen" can anybody out there help me , find.. ?"

[VonMagnum]

Don't expect help on here if you don't search for a few years first since the answers are already on here...somewhere that is.

The two channel playback is the default handling (I think it will output individual channels on a PC sound card with such outputs?), but to pass it through untouched you need to create an "advancedsettings.xml" text file with the following code in it and put it in this directory on the Apple TV 1 unit (using ssh to get there and something like scp to move the file over from your main computer). If you don't know how to use those, look them up. The directory is: "/Users/frontrow/Library/Application Support/XBMC/userdata"

The content for advancedsettings.xml is:

<advancedsettings>
<!-- Use this to get proper digital output of DTS in WAV files -->
<audio>
<dvdplayerignoredtsinwav>true</dvdplayerignoredtsinwav>
</audio>
</advancedsettings>

Alternatively, you could pack the dts music files into an ALAC (Apple Lossless) container with iTunes from the wav files (if they're labeled '.dts', change it to .wav first; import into iTunes and convert to Apple Lossless) which XBMC will passthrough automatically (Apparently XBMC cannot detect DTS within ALAC so it just passes it through unscathed?) However, here you will need to use DVDplayer as the default player for audio since PAPlayer will pass static instead. For a single file, you can just hold the menu key above the music track to be played and use the "play with..." option, but it will not keep using that on the next track. To make it permanently use DVDPlayer as the default instead of PAplayer you need to put this inside the advancedsettings.xml file in that same user directory right underneath the <dvdplayerignoredtsinwav> line:

<defaultplayer>DVDPlayer</defaultplayer>

[shuggy]

Thank you so much Von Magnum
limited success
The new adv settings file allows the DVD player to play all my dts files in aiff, alac form with my receiver lighting dts up and 5.1 sound.
The wav files don't work at all any more. ( though still work in the original apple tv configuration ie software problem- amp and atv working well)
But I cannot get the always open with DVD player script to work at all. I even tried creating a coreplayerfactory.XML file as described elsewhere. No luck.
At the moment I am actually finding apple TVs native music player better and more useful for multichannel music. You don't often say that about xbmc!!!

[VonMagnum]

Thank you so much Von Magnum
limited success
The new adv settings file allows the DVD player to play all my dts files in aiff, alac form with my receiver lighting dts up and 5.1 sound.
The wav files don't work at all any more. ( though still work in the original apple tv configuration ie software problem- amp and atv working well)
But I cannot get the always open with DVD player script to work at all. I even tried creating a coreplayerfactory.XML file as described elsewhere. No luck.
At the moment I am actually finding apple TVs native music player better and more useful for multichannel music. You don't often say that about xbmc!!!

This works for me when saved for advancedsettings.xml (I didn't realize the nano text editor is installed on a hacked AppleTV so you can edit easily with that):

<advancedsettings>
<!-- Use this to get proper digital output of DTS in WAV files -->
<audio>
<dvdplayerignoredtsinwav>true</dvdplayerignoredtsinwav>
<defaultplayer>DVDPlayer</defaultplayer>
</audio>
</advancedsettings>

That should output DTS WAVs in digital to a receiver as well an ALAC encoded DTS files (works 100% here). I remove the the <dvdplayerignoredtsinwav> bit for my other AppleTV that's only connected to a stereo output and it lets me listen to the DTS music albums in a stereo downmix. I ditched the coreplayerfactory.xml file. It's not needed because DVDPlayer (IMO) is better than PAplayer in every regard. It used to be that DVDplayer didn't work with the visualizer but that doesn't seem to be the case anymore. I see no obvious advantage to PAplayer. Furthermore, Paplayer cannot decode DTS-ES albums here such as Sheryl Crow's "Globe Sessions DTS-ES" (screwed up sounding) while DVDPlayer apparently can.

Apple's own software just plays them automatically (i.e. because it passes through DTS Music CD signals untouched), although I'm not sure about the Apple TV version 2. I read that it downsamples everything to 16/48 and DTS Music CDs are 16/44.1. But then I also read Apple TV 1 downsamples everything to 16/44.1 except "passthrough" DD/DTS signals. I don't think that's the case. I have a DTS 96/24 encoded album in WAV format and it shows up on my receiver as 96/24, which wouldn't happen if it were downsampled before the Toslink cable (in fact I don't think it would even play at all, let alone play in 24/96 since it would change the signal). I'm not sure if I played that album in XBMC or ATV, though. I'll have to try it again. I don't have a lot of 24/96 type material except my own music and there's no way to tell on the receiver if it's downsampled or not (save DTS 96/24 which has its own indicator).

[shuggy]

Thanks again Bon Magnum
I tend to use cyberduck which has a built in editor.
I'll get rid of the core player file. Since I added it all was well. Then all of a sudden during a listening session it changed to dts hiss and hasn't worked since! How on earth!
My yamaha amp has a gui which displays the exact freq,etc of the incoming signal. If you have any files you are uncertain of let me know.
I'll report how the changes work though I am having an op this week which may delay things!
I do enjoy the hobby side of xbmc but I really think that the audio side could do with a tidy up. But as I cannot help with my skills mix I should just keep quiet. Why on earth do davilla and these guys do it?

[shuggy]

What and where is the nano text editor. Is cyberduck ok for this?

[shuggy]

Wav working again but after every track it changes back to paplayer. If you forget to stop each track on an album and select play as dvdplayer you get dts hiss. Then you lose the action sounds on xbmc. Unless you then play a film soundtrack in movies it stays frozen. All very bizarre. It would be nice if I could find a way of permanently making the dvdplayer the permanent player. The script you detailed in previous posts simply is not forcing tone dvdplayer. Any other thoughts out there?

[VonMagnum]

Nano is installed on AppleTV with the patchstick and should be available via the shell terminal via SSH. It is very similar to the "Pico" text editor (both available widely in Unix and Linux platforms).

I'm not sure why you're having problems with the script I posted. If you put it in "/Users/frontrow/Library/Application Support/XBMC/userdata" as advancedsettings.xml it should default to DVDplayer for all music files and output .WAV encoded DTS files as a DTS signal.

Make sure you that playercorefactory.xml file is really deleted in that directory (rm playercorefactory.xml) as it could be overriding the <defaultplayer> code in advancedsettings.xml.

Alternatively, this code should work in playercorefactory.xml in the rules section:

<rule filetypes="(dts|wav)" player="DVDPlayer" />

That wouldn't affect a M4A ALAC encoded DTS music file, though, but it would set DVDPlayer for .DTS or .WAV files. You'd still need the <ignoredtsinwav> bit in advancedsettings.xml to get around the built-in decoding of DTS to stereo for .DTS or .WAV files, though so it's redundant IMO.

I have no playercorefactory.xml file here anymore on my AppleTV units. I only have the advancedsettings.xml file I posted in my last post on them (with the <ignoredtsinwav> code removed on the upstairs player since it's only stereo and I want XBMC to use its stereo decoder on it). The code works fine here and defaults to DVDPlayer for everything on both units.