View Full Version : [Linux] Only Stereo, no DTS or Digital 5.1 output
hi, my second problem is, that i can't get DTS or Dolby Digital 5.1 to work. i try it with my DVD-Drive and with the DVD "Faithless - Live at Alexandra Palace" really cool stuff and working in DTS and Dolby Digital 5.1 if i try to watch it with my PS3.
on xbmc i only get stereo.... :no:
my configuration:
actual Nvidia drivers
actual svn
Jaunty 64 bit, actual updated
svn : ./configure --disable-pulse
connection from htpc to receiver via hdmi
in xbmc i have stereo sound on movies and mp3's and i have also menu-sounds
my settings in /system/audio-hardware in xbmc from top:
1. Audio output : digital
2. support AC3 : no
3. support DTS : yes
4. audio output hardware : hdmi
5. passthrough output device: hdmi
6. downmix multichannel audio to stereo : no
my .asoundrc
# ALSA library configuration file
# Include settings that are under the control of asoundconf(1).
# (To disable these settings, comment out this line.)
# </home/markus/.asoundrc.asoundconf>
pcm.dmixer {
type dmix
ipc_key 1024
ipc_key_add_uid false
ipc_perm 0660
slave {
pcm "hw:0,3"
rate 48000
channels 2
format S32_LE
period_time 0
period_size 1024
buffer_time 0
buffer_size 4096
}
}
pcm.!default {
type plug
slave.pcm "dmixer"
}
could it be that it has something to do with "channels 2" ??
love to hear something from you "cracks " :)
btw. why is it this horrible heavy to configure a simple sound output device in linux??
What does the "aplay -L" and "aplay -l" output?
aplay -L
markus@mediacenter:~/xbmc/XBMC$ aplay -L
front:CARD=NVidia,DEV=0
HDA NVidia, ALC1200 Analog
Front speakers
surround40:CARD=NVidia,DEV=0
HDA NVidia, ALC1200 Analog
4.0 Surround output to Front and Rear speakers
surround41:CARD=NVidia,DEV=0
HDA NVidia, ALC1200 Analog
4.1 Surround output to Front, Rear and Subwoofer speakers
surround50:CARD=NVidia,DEV=0
HDA NVidia, ALC1200 Analog
5.0 Surround output to Front, Center and Rear speakers
surround51:CARD=NVidia,DEV=0
HDA NVidia, ALC1200 Analog
5.1 Surround output to Front, Center, Rear and Subwoofer speakers
surround71:CARD=NVidia,DEV=0
HDA NVidia, ALC1200 Analog
7.1 Surround output to Front, Center, Side, Rear and Woofer speakers
iec958:CARD=NVidia,DEV=0
HDA NVidia, ALC1200 Digital
IEC958 (S/PDIF) Digital Audio Output
hdmi:CARD=NVidia,DEV=0
HDA NVidia, NVIDIA HDMI
HDMI Audio Output
null
Discard all samples (playback) or generate zero samples (capture)
markus@mediacenter:~/xbmc/XBMC$
aplay -l
markus@mediacenter:~/xbmc/XBMC$ aplay -l
**** Liste von PLAYBACK Geräten ****
Karte 0: NVidia [HDA NVidia], Gerät 0: ALC1200 Analog [ALC1200 Analog]
Untergeordnete Geräte: 1/1
Untergeordnetes Gerät '0: subdevice #0
Karte 0: NVidia [HDA NVidia], Gerät 1: ALC1200 Digital [ALC1200 Digital]
Untergeordnete Geräte: 1/1
Untergeordnetes Gerät '0: subdevice #0
Karte 0: NVidia [HDA NVidia], Gerät 3: NVIDIA HDMI [NVIDIA HDMI]
Untergeordnete Geräte: 0/1
Untergeordnetes Gerät '0: subdevice #0
markus@mediacenter:~/xbmc/XBMC$
xbmcuser01
2009-06-14, 16:49
In your first post I see:
2. support AC3 : no
I think you should enable that. And did you connect your Linux XBMC machine via a Dolby Digital amplifier/receiver? Via a single cable that delivers the digital signal to your amplifier to be decoded by your DD/DTS compatible amplifier?
Also, try to open Ubuntu/Gnome's audio volume control window (click on the speaker icon in the taskbar). Is pass-through of DD/DTS/AC3/IEC958 enabled (it's a check box in the control window)?
P.S. I don't speak German, so the fact that you chose to install the German version of Ubuntu doesn't really hep too.... :shocked:
ac3 is disabled, because my receiver didnt support it, but DTS is enabled, and that is what i want... DTS output to my receiver, because it can handle it :)
Hannes The Hun
2009-06-14, 16:53
are you absolutely sure about that? normally a receiver that's handling DTS should be able to also decode AC3 (= DD5.1) ...
@xbmcuser01: he already stated very clearly that HDMI is his sole connection to his receiver for audio&video
xbmcuser01
2009-06-14, 16:55
ac3 is disabled, because my receiver didnt support it, but DTS is enabled, and that is what i want... DTS output to my receiver, because it can handle it :)
Almost all receivers that support DTS are Dolby Digital (DD) receivers. And DD goes by a lot of different names:
DD = 5.1 = AC3 = IEC958
So I still think you should enable it. Just to check if digital through-put (= pass through) works. Then we can work at the DTS prob. I'll try to see if I have a DVD w/ DTS on it an test it on my XBMC. :)
ok, i activated AC3 in XBMC, now when i start the DVD and choose wheter DD 5.1 or DTS and start the video, i get no failure message any more , but i got still no sound... any more ideas?
btw. in gnome all switches are "on" for hdmi output
i think now its some config in the .asoundrc file or in alsa...
how linux xbmc tell my soundcard what he has to do? there is no config for hdmi in .asoundrc or?
xbmcuser01
2009-06-14, 17:22
First things first. On my box DTS as well as DD works (so it is not an XBMC problem). You have the latast version of XBMC? I think that's 9.04? Here's what I did:
1. In XBMC go to the System Settings screen and enable "DTS capable receiver" (as well as AC3).
2. I usually do not edit alsa's settings files. Far to complicated for me. I always use the graphical Gnome utility for that (= gnome-volume-control). But beware: not all "switches" (like the IEC958 (i.e. digital pass through) one) are shown by default. See the screenshot below of my Gnome-volume-control window. As you can see I have to click on "Preferences" and then specifically choose to enable the iec958 check box (switch) in the volume control window.
http://img44.imageshack.us/img44/9001/screenshotvolumecontrol.th.jpg (http://img44.imageshack.us/i/screenshotvolumecontrol.jpg/)
Good luck :)
P.S. Xmbc does not tell your soundcard what to do. Your soundcard passes the digital audio though, or it doesn't. And that depends on the switch in the volume-control utility. :)
Hannes The Hun
2009-06-14, 17:27
excuse me, xbmcuser, but obviously you are using the SPDIF out of a c-media chip while he tries to get the audio output working with a nvidia HDMI audio device
xbmcuser01
2009-06-14, 17:36
excuse me, xbmcuser, but obviously you are using the SPDIF out of a c-media chip while he tries to get the audio output working with a nvidia HDMI audio device
I know. But isn't the configuration of that soundcard a bit the same in principle? I mean, I always thought that passthrough is passthrough... But I could be wrong of course! :cool:
ok, no still no sound
btw. i recognized that in terminal when i start alsamixer the version of it is 1.0.18... sooo, first of all, update to 1.0.20
after that i got sound back, but cannot test it now...
Try the following...
1) Check BIOS, are you using the HDMI for sound?
2) Open a terminal, type: alsamixer
To the right you will see IEC958 columns, if they're marked "MM", move to them and unmute them.
3) After that, enter XBMC, go to Audio section. Set the following:
Digital
AC3: on
DTS: on
Audio output: plughw:0,3
Passthrough: hdmi
Downmix: off.
See if you can play music, and DTS/AC3 movies.
Hopefully it works.
//M
1) Check BIOS, are you using the HDMI for sound?
Checked, there is only one option with hdmi, and this is only if you have an external gfx card with hdmi, and you want to redirect the sound via spdif to this card... no option for hdmi audio... (and i can hear stereo sound without any problems now)
2) Open a terminal, type: alsamixer
To the right you will see IEC958 columns, if they're marked "MM", move to them and unmute them.
every IEC958 was unmuted
3) After that, enter XBMC, go to Audio section. Set the following:
Digital
AC3: on
DTS: on
Audio output: plughw:0,3
Passthrough: hdmi
Downmix: off.
checked, stereo sound no problem, no DD or DTS sound...
maybe its interesting to you, i dont have stereo sound in DVD playback also...?? isnt that weird? i have stereo with mp3s or with movie-playback...
ok, when i play musik or "normal" encodet movies and look with "o" the status bar, everything with mp3 in front is playing, but when i try to play a DVD there is "ac3" in front, or "dts" and both are not playing.
even with stereo there is "ac3" in front, and also not playing... maybe is there a codec missing??
Hannes The Hun
2009-06-14, 23:56
pico, do you really need a full jaunty installation, especially the 64bit version?
I would recommend downloading the XBMC live distribution, burn to CD and boot, and see if, with the same settings, you can get multichannel via HDMI.
i don't need a full installation, but it shouldn't be normaly a big problem to get something like sound to work...
one more info, if i disable ac3 in xbmc settings, the stereo output works in dvd's but still no dts...
I also have this problem. Same motherboard.
After installing xbmcLive 9.04.1 all sound stopped working. When I had the 8.10 everything worked fine.
aplay -l
**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: NVidia [HDA NVidia], device 0: ALC1200 Analog [ALC1200 Analog]
Subdevices: 0/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: NVidia [HDA NVidia], device 1: ALC1200 Digital [ALC1200 Digital]
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
iecset
Mode: consumer
Data: audio
Rate: 44100 Hz
Copyright: permitted
Emphasis: none
Category: general
Original: 1st generation
Clock: 1000 ppm
IEC985 (all three) are unmuted.......
You could try this link:
http://blog.tuxcoder.com/2009/01/solving-digital-audio-playback-issues.html
I'm stuck!!!!!
i don't need a full installation, but it shouldn't be normaly a big problem to get something like sound to work...
one more info, if i disable ac3 in xbmc settings, the stereo output works in dvd's but still no dts...
I use Jaunty as well, but 32bit, other then that i have the same setup as you.
Did you remove (or move) any .asoundrc or asound.conf files?
@musta78
have you updated alsa to recent version? 1.0.20?
@mlmc
after installing alsa 1.0.20 i removed .asoundrc file
what device have you in xbmc settings for passthrough device?
@musta78
have you updated alsa to recent version? 1.0.20?
@mlmc
after installing alsa 1.0.20 i removed .asoundrc file
what device have you in xbmc settings for passthrough device?
hdmi, as mentioned in the post before.
and dts is working for you? or something else with 5.1 output via hdmi?
and dts is working for you? or something else with 5.1 output via hdmi?
Yes, AC3 and DTS media is being passed through to my receiver. The receiver displays Dolby Digital (AC3) or DTS when being fed.
//M
what really confusing is to me, that i have stereo sound if i disable ac3 in settings of xbmc, and i dont have stereo sound with dvd when i enable ac3...
when i am at home later, i will try an external player for this...
xbmcuser01
2009-06-15, 23:40
[...] will try an external player for this...
You might try:
cd /media/cdrom
mplayer -dvd-device ./VIDEO_TS/ dvd:// -afm hwac3
(mind that Linux is cApItOls sensitive) This plays my DVD w/ DD 5.1, and the audio part is digitally streamed to my Amplifier. Then, if you watch the babble that mplayer spits out on the command line, you might see what the Audio Id (aid) of the DTS stream is. Then you can (this example is for Gladiator):
mplayer -dvd-device ./VIDEO_TS/ dvd:// -afm hwac3 -aid 137
Which plays the 3/2 DTS stream and streams the DTS audio part of the DVD undecoded (i.e. digitally) to my DTS/DD amplifier. Does this do anything for you?
P.S. I noticed that you suspect alsa of some sort of incompatibility. You might want to try to start your PC w/ a Knoppix CD. Maybe that has a different version of alsa that does work for you... Hope you solve the problem.:oo:
xbmcuser01
2009-06-16, 00:29
what really confusing is to me, that i have stereo sound if i disable ac3 in settings of xbmc, and i dont have stereo sound with dvd when i enable ac3...
If you soundcard refuses to passthrough digital audio streams (i.e. 44.1 kHz PCM for audio-CD's, DD or DTS for DVD's etc.) then that is not so strange. If you tell XbMc not to stream AC3 to your receiver then Xbmc downmixes DD5.1 or DTS 3/2 to (analogue) stereo. And if you tell Xbmc to not touch the AC3 (DD5.1) stream and send it to your soundcard then you're in trouble I still think your soundcard is not configured to passthrough digital audio. It may be alsa.... ???
P.S. I had an old Creative labs Soundblaster card which also did not work w/ DTS. That is because Soundblasters upsample digital signals that are 44.1 kHz (i.e. CD's and sometimes DTS) to 48 kHz. But that'sanother story, first try to pass through Dolby Digital. Good luck :)