Kodi/Digi+ not working with multi-channel

Yvon Quéré

November 29, 2015 11:08

None

Good morning Hifiberry enthusiasts

I'm relunctant at posting here, I would have preferred finding the solution myself :)

Got a B+ / Digi+ with copper SP/DIF connection to an (old) AC3 but non DTS Denon AVR2700.

Digi+ is itself working fine, and I'm getting 2 channels (stereo/pro-logic) digital sound to my amp through SP/DIF, but cannot get proper 5.1 Dolby Digital sound to be transmitted in pass-through mode.

Used several files confirmed to be AC3 5.1 encoded, like this DD trailer

http://www.demo-world.eu/download-sd-trailers/?file=dolby_channel_check-DWEU.vob&pic=dolby_channel_check.jpg

OpenELECprojo:~ # aplay -l -v
**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: sndrpihifiberry [snd_rpi_hifiberry_digi], device 0: HifiBerry Digi HiFi wm8804-spdif-0 []
 Subdevices: 1/1
 Subdevice #0: subdevice #0


20:01:55 20.286594 T:1967734784 NOTICE: Enumerated ALSA devices:
20:01:55 20.286888 T:1967734784 NOTICE: Device 1
20:01:55 20.287271 T:1967734784 NOTICE: m_deviceName : @
20:01:55 20.287502 T:1967734784 NOTICE: m_displayName : Default (snd_rpi_hifiberry_digi S/PDIF)
20:01:55 20.287710 T:1967734784 NOTICE: m_displayNameExtra:
20:01:55 20.287914 T:1967734784 NOTICE: m_deviceType : AE_DEVTYPE_IEC958
20:01:55 20.288116 T:1967734784 NOTICE: m_channels : FL,FR
20:01:55 20.288328 T:1967734784 NOTICE: m_sampleRates : 32000,44100,48000,64000,88200,96000,176400,192000
20:01:55 20.288534 T:1967734784 NOTICE: m_dataFormats : AE_FMT_AC3,AE_FMT_DTS,AE_FMT_S32NE,AE_FMT_S16NE,AE_FMT_S16LE

Usual sound setup with :

Passthrough on

AC3 checked

Transcoding NOT checked

DTS capable NOT checked

Tested a couple OS/build without success, including the one build by Hifiberry installer (Openelec 6 / Kodi isengard).

I've been quite puzzled with the below "channels : 2" in the player log :

20:04:06 150.467010 T:1967734784 NOTICE: DVDPlayer: Opening: smb://YVONUS-WHS/warez/_Zik/dolby_channel_check-DWEU.vob
20:04:06 150.467346 T:1967734784 WARNING: CDVDMessageQueue(player)::Put MSGQ_NOT_INITIALIZED
20:04:06 150.468033 T:1725871168 NOTICE: Thread DVDPlayer start, auto delete: false
20:04:06 150.468765 T:1725871168 NOTICE: Creating InputStream
20:04:06 150.486801 T:1725871168 NOTICE: Creating Demuxer
20:04:07 152.008728 T:1725871168 NOTICE: OMXPlayerUnsuitable OMXPlayer unsuitable due to audio sink
20:04:07 152.009125 T:1725871168 NOTICE: Opening stream: 1 source: 256
20:04:07 152.023209 T:1725871168 NOTICE: Creating video codec with codec id: 2
20:04:07 152.037933 T:1725871168 NOTICE: Creating video thread
20:04:07 152.038605 T:1725871168 NOTICE: Opening stream: 2 source: 256
20:04:07 152.038879 T:1725871168 NOTICE: Finding audio codec for: 86019
20:04:07 152.039856 T:1524626496 NOTICE: Thread DVDPlayerVideo start, auto delete: false
20:04:07 152.044952 T:1524626496 NOTICE: running thread: video_thread
20:04:07 152.045609 T:1725871168 NOTICE: Creating audio thread
20:04:07 152.046814 T:1556083776 NOTICE: Thread RefClock start, auto delete: false
20:04:07 152.052948 T:1516237888 NOTICE: Thread DVDPlayerAudio start, auto delete: false
20:04:07 152.053284 T:1516237888 NOTICE: running thread: CDVDPlayerAudio::Process()
20:04:07 152.162857 T:1524626496 NOTICE: fps: 25.000000, pwidth: 720, pheight: 576, dwidth: 720, dheight: 405
20:04:07 152.163284 T:1524626496 NOTICE: Display resolution DESKTOP : 1024x768 (1024x768) @ 60.00 - Full Screen (16)
20:04:07 152.171188 T:1516237888 NOTICE: Creating audio stream (codec id: 86019, channels: 2, sample rate: 48000, pass-through)

However, with passthrough enabled, I'm not sure this is relevant here.

For the record : I was previously using a tower PC to feed my projector + amp through an internal SP/DIF connector :

... it was (and still is) running fine with 5.1 DD tracks :-(

18:02:33 T:3063129856 NOTICE: Device 4
18:02:33 T:3063129856 NOTICE: m_deviceName : iec958:CARD=Intel,DEV=0
18:02:33 T:3063129856 NOTICE: m_displayName : HDA Intel
18:02:33 T:3063129856 NOTICE: m_displayNameExtra: ALC1200 Digital S/PDIF
18:02:33 T:3063129856 NOTICE: m_deviceType : AE_DEVTYPE_IEC958
18:02:33 T:3063129856 NOTICE: m_channels : FL,FR
18:02:33 T:3063129856 NOTICE: m_sampleRates : 44100,48000,88200,96000,192000
18:02:33 T:3063129856 NOTICE: m_dataFormats : AE_FMT_AC3,AE_FMT_DTS,AE_FMT_S32NE,AE_FMT_S16NE,AE_FMT_S16LE

... and Kodi's showing the same "channels : 2" log, despite my amp properly detecting a full blown 5.1 DD input signal.

At this point, I must admit I'm quite stuck, and disappointed at not being able to benefit 5.1 sound with this setup :-(

I do understand the statement that as long as "some" sound comes out of the Digi+, then it is working fine, and I should revert to software maker.

Howerver, your help and guidance would be much appreciated : my Digi+, and the new Pi that I bought for this purpose is currently quite useless :-(

Thanks

Yvonus

Date Votes

5 comments

0

Ollo December 09, 2015 16:23

Hello together,

I need to agree on the post of Yvonus. I'm using the same setup except that my old receiver is DTS capable and I conncected SPDIF using optical TOSlink.I started using OpenElec 6 and afterwards several Milhouse builds (OE beta 16/17) and was never able to get DD 5.1 working. The obvious thing is that DTS is working perfect but no DD 5.1.Sometimes it starts playing DD5.1 encoded files in Stereo and after a short time the receiver detectes DD5.1 but the sound goes off and nothing is hearable.

I posted already in the Kodi Community but was forwarded to this community asking for help.

Some debug logs can be found here:

http://sprunge.us/bPTQ
http://sprunge.us/DdGV

I tested further builds of OpenElec official and non of the following worked:
- 5.0.1
- 5.0.8
- 5.95.1
- 6.0

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks!

Edited by Ollo December 09, 2015 18:07

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HiFiBerry team December 09, 2015 18:18

HI,

unfortunately none of our team knows the internals of Kodi and therefore nobody can debug this. We know from many people that are using Kodi for DTS and Dolby Digital playback. However, if the Kodi developers can't say what might be the problem, we can't help either. The application decides what data to send to the Digi+ board.

If you bought the board directly from us, you can still use our money-back guarantee.

Best regards
Daniel

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Ollo December 09, 2015 18:53

Hello Daniel,

Thanks for the quick answer and it is sad to hear that you can't provide support. I use the same settings as shown above. I even thought that my receiver does not handle the DD5.1 correct. However using HDMI passthrough DD5.1 works perfect and using Hifiberry DTS works. Therefore I think my receiver is doing well and as I use a Sony and Yvonus one from Denon so it seems to be not common to the hardware and Kodi related.

As a consequence I might need to think about a way on switching passtrough between HDMI and ALSA. :)

Thanks for the money back offer but I'm happy that DTS works and I got a nice Stereo sound without switching TV on for music. If only I could find a way getting DD5.1 to work...

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Ollo December 12, 2015 15:41

Hello Daniel,

I'm still following the Kodi thread and noticed some request http://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=250817&pid=2185061#pid2185061 from Milhouse. May be you could consider this as there seems to be a couple of issues using Hifiberry and Kodi and help from the Kodi team would be great.

Thanks

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Yvon Quéré January 28, 2017 15:30

Good afternoon everyone

I wanted to take the time to come back and say my device is finally working.

For several reasons, I had to change my amp to something much more recent : Yamaha RX-481D.

I was looking forward how it would react to coax connection from my Hifiberry and ... the miracle happened : this time, the passtrhough DD and DTS 5.1 channels were successfully recognized as such by my amp.

My 100€ Rasp + Hifiberry investment is finally worth it. Thanks !

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