Nexus 7 - Terrible Sound on XBMC only
#1
Hi guys,

I'm just setting up a Nexus 7 tablet for my son for Christmas and loaded 12.2 Frodo but when I play anything, either a movie streamed from the NAS or content streamed via one of the add ons the sound is very scratchy. This is only the case with XBMC. Other content played on the device sounds fine.

Is there a specific set of settings for use on tablets in particular the current version of the Nexus 7? http://www.asus.com/Tablets_Mobile/Nexus_7

Appreciate any thoughts you might have.

Ben
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#2
Couple of things to check.

1st - when a video is playing see if your 'volume amplification' is set too high - it's the speaker button when the video is actually playing and its the second slider down (on default skin) - set it to 0

2nd - if that wasn't it - check with some headphones to see if the quality is still poor

Try that and get back to me.
XBMC Running on:
- Intel i5 & GTX 980
- Intel NUC i3 Thunderbolt Edition
- Sony Xperia Z3 & Z3 Tablet
- Pivos XIOS DS M1
- Raspberry Pi 3

If my post was helpful please click the +Reputation button.
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#3
Use a nightly build (wiki) of XBMC for Android on the Nexus 7. Should improve a number of things.
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#4
(2013-12-19, 10:47)BenEadir Wrote: Hi guys,

I'm just setting up a Nexus 7 tablet for my son for Christmas and loaded 12.2 Frodo but when I play anything, either a movie streamed from the NAS or content streamed via one of the add ons the sound is very scratchy. This is only the case with XBMC. Other content played on the device sounds fine.

Appreciate any thoughts you might have.

Ben

Ditch 12.2 Frodo and try the latest nightlies and you should fine the sound gets better! I had exactly the same issue with 12.2 and 12.3 beta. Finally switched to the nightlies last week and everything is perfect now sound wise.

Chris
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#5
(2013-12-19, 10:58)Katch Wrote: Couple of things to check.

1st - when a video is playing see if your 'volume amplification' is set too high - it's the speaker button when the video is actually playing and its the second slider down (on default skin) - set it to 0

2nd - if that wasn't it - check with some headphones to see if the quality is still poor

Try that and get back to me.

Hi Katch,

Thanks for the quick response.

1st - When a video is playing Volume Amplification is set to 0.0dB

Audio stream is "Undetermined - Stereo (1/1)
Audio Output is "Analog" - I tried Coax/Digital and HDMI but the sound remains very poor quality.

2nd - Tried with headphones and the sound is equally poor. I have the volume turned up full and in addition to being very poor/scratchy it's barely audible. CORRECTION - The Volume is fine, my error. The sound quality is terrible though.

The following are the settings in System -> Settings -> System -> Audio output

Audio Output - "Analog"
Speaker Configuration - 2.0 (I tried 2.1, 5.1 and 7.1 but they don't make any difference)
Boost volume level on downmix - "yes"
Output stereo to all speakers - "yes"
None of the other "receiver" options are ticked - they are greyed out
Audio output device - "android, audiotrack" (it's the only option)
Passthrough output device is greyed out and says "Error - no devices found"
Play GUI sounds - "Always" - (none of the menu "clicks" happen when I change menu even though "Play GUI sounds" is set to "Always")

That's where I'm at :-(

Ben
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#6
(2013-12-19, 11:39)stourwalk Wrote:
(2013-12-19, 10:47)BenEadir Wrote: Hi guys,

I'm just setting up a Nexus 7 tablet for my son for Christmas and loaded 12.2 Frodo but when I play anything, either a movie streamed from the NAS or content streamed via one of the add ons the sound is very scratchy. This is only the case with XBMC. Other content played on the device sounds fine.

Appreciate any thoughts you might have.

Ben

Ditch 12.2 Frodo and try the latest nightlies and you should fine the sound gets better! I had exactly the same issue with 12.2 and 12.3 beta. Finally switched to the nightlies last week and everything is perfect now sound wise.

Chris

OK I'll give that a go.

Would SPMC have any advantages over the Nightlies? I thought SPMC was forked specifically to address some sound issues?

Cheers,

Ben

(2013-12-19, 11:38)Ned Scott Wrote: Use a nightly build (wiki) of XBMC for Android on the Nexus 7. Should improve a number of things.

Hi NEd,

I assume it's the ARM version I want not the x86 version?

Ben
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#7
Installed the Dec 19th ARM nightly but when I go to configure it I'm getting "Add-on is incompatible due to unmet dependencies." for all/a lot of the Add on's :-( I seem to recall this is related to pressure on the servers. I guess I should just wait a few hours and try to install again later.

Is there any point trying a nightly from the 18th or 17th?

Ben
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#8
A lot of addons won't be updated to be compatible with recent nightlies - you could try one of the monthly builds which will have higher compatibility with addons.

Did it fix your sound issues?
XBMC Running on:
- Intel i5 & GTX 980
- Intel NUC i3 Thunderbolt Edition
- Sony Xperia Z3 & Z3 Tablet
- Pivos XIOS DS M1
- Raspberry Pi 3

If my post was helpful please click the +Reputation button.
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#9
No, I haven't solved the sound problem yet as I aborted the nightly install when I got the the dependency error. The main (70%) use of XBMC on the tablet will be streaming content from addons and 40% streamed content form the NAS.

I assumed all add on's would be affected by the dependency error but I might try loading the last nightly anyway and see if I cen get the add ons I need set up.

Ben
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#10
Can't talk about any of those addons here I'm afraid - might want to edit them out of your post but that other site will help you.

Best I can say is try the nightly to see if it fixes your sound issue and ignore the addons for a minute. If it fixes your issue then you can carry on trying to get the addons working. If it doesn't fix your issue then we can go back to 12.2 and trouble shoot some more.
XBMC Running on:
- Intel i5 & GTX 980
- Intel NUC i3 Thunderbolt Edition
- Sony Xperia Z3 & Z3 Tablet
- Pivos XIOS DS M1
- Raspberry Pi 3

If my post was helpful please click the +Reputation button.
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#11
Thanks Katch and apologies for referencing inappropriate add ons. Will remove immediately.

Ben
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#12
The latest monthly of Gotham solved the sound issue for me, and allowed fore some addon's to be installed from a certain hub we shal not mention. but 1 did not install, and is that is the 1 i most often use with library integration. (anybody catch the reference :-))

Hopfully this wil be sorted out at some point, cause the choppy sound raly bothers me...
Nigtlys were a pin in the a.. when it came to addon's, so if anybody are to try out Gothham, better stay with monthly if you depend on addon's
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#13
Hi Stejorge,

Tried installing the 01-12-2013 monthly but got a load of dependency errors and when I go into System -> File Manager -> A "Add Source" I'm totally unable to get the "Add Source" option to open the dialogue box where you input the path etc.

I uninstalled the monthly and installed the latest nightly (Dec 25th!!) and although I got no dependency errors I have the same problem with "Add Source".

Any idea what might be causing this?

Ben
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#14
(2013-12-21, 20:26)stejorge Wrote: The latest monthly of Gotham solved the sound issue for me, and allowed fore some addon's to be installed from a certain hub we shal not mention. but 1 did not install, and is that is the 1 i most often use with library integration. (anybody catch the reference :-))

I too had problems, but eventually got all the addons working by doing the following on my son's Nexus 7:

Uninstalled XBMC and deleted the USERDATA folder - didn't matter as it was a virgin XBMC setup anyway (no favourites/altered-settings as such)
Installed ALPHA-8 version of GOTHAM
Loaded the addons and let them update - took a while
Installed the latest nightly for GOTHAM and when the error messages came up about bad dependences, DID NOT DISABLE the add-on

The addons (including the 1 you mention) all work. Tongue
DEBUG log: http://kodi.wiki/view/Log_file/Easy
HTPC advice: http://mymediaexperience.com , http://lifehacker.com/5828747/how-to-bui...lete-guide
My HTPC: an Acer Revo RL80 Nettop PC:
Windows 10
Intel Core-i3-2377M @ 1.5GHz, 4GB DDR3 @ 665MHz, Intel HD3000
465GB SATA disk, DVD-RW, 1.8TB Seagate USB disk


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#15
Hey Elusien,

Thanks for the reply.

One question. Did you uninstall Alpha 8 before installing the latest nightly or did you install the latest nightly on top of Alpha 8?

Ben
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