[internicht]

Thanks DDDamian - this is my query, though. I have tried all the different audio output settings including WASAPI and Directsound (all variations) and none of them output to the rear speakers.

WMP does output to the rear speakers without changing any settings at all (or rather I imagine it is simply sending stereo and the Realtek drivers are doing the rest).

I'm just wondering what XBMC is doing differently that it will not do this?

[DDDamian]

Any word on if the AE branch enhancements will output support proper 2.1 stereo? Currently when playing stereo sources over HDMI nothing is sent to the LFE channel. For stereo sources it would be nice if both channels were mixed into the subwoofer channel.

@skeeter - It is supported in AE but needs a low-pass filter implemented before we can enable it (to prevent higher frequencies doing damage to subwoofers that don't have built-in analog filters)

Thanks DDDamian - this is my query, though. I have tried all the different audio output settings including WASAPI and Directsound (all variations) and none of them output to the rear speakers.

WMP does output to the rear speakers without changing any settings at all (or rather I imagine it is simply sending stereo and the Realtek drivers are doing the rest).

I'm just wondering what XBMC is doing differently that it will not do this?

Currently any 2.0 source is output as stereo. If you have a driver or receiver which will up-mix that then great, but that's outside of XBMC so is dependent on your setup/hardware.

[internicht]

Did some experimenting on this last night, and found some enlightening results.

Previously, I had only played music through XBMC on a fresh install and, as stated, couldn't get it anything through rear speakers on any output setting, despite setting "speaker fill" in the Realtek Manager.

I tried playing music through WMP, Foobar2000, Mediamonkey and AIMP.

As already stated, with WMP I had output through the rear speakers with no fiddling.

With FB2000, no rear output with any output setting, much like XBMC.

With AIMP, output to rear straight away, much like WMP, and then...

With Mediamonkey, output to rear straight away, but it didn't sound like simple mirrored audio from the normal left/right channels, but like something similar to what Techlife described above - ie it was trying to do something clever, balancing "foreground" sounds (main vocals and lead instruments etc) toward the front, and background stuff (backing vocals and instruments) to the rear speakers.

I thought this was just Mediamonkey (which I like very much as a workstation music player/manager) being clever. I was able to switch the effect off in MM by switching from the Directsound output plugin to the WASAPI output plugin - although then what I got was plain mirroring from left/right to rear speakers (which is what I was expecting to get the whole time with speaker fill switched on in the Realtek Manager).

So, I had a fiddle around with AIMP, and was able to duplicate the effect completely, except with more control (although this was just a fiddle, I don't know this application that well). Directsound out = clever channel mixing. WASAPI (normal) out = mirrored left/right channels to rear. WASAPI (exclusive mode) out = nothing on the rear speakers at all.

So my conclusion from this part, is that my sound drivers are capable of doing either this channel mixing, or mirroring (or just leaving the stereo as plain 2-channel).

Then, another surprise. Going back into XBMC, I now had output to the rear speakers on either of the Directsound out options (the "clever" channel-mixing variety).

So my conclusion from that, is that one of the other players turned something on (as I had previously only tried music through XBMC, and couldn't get anything out of the rear speakers then).

But, with XBMC the WASAPI out would only give plain stereo, still nothing on the rear.

So my conclusion from that is that XBMC WASAPI out is something equivalent to the AIMP WASAPI (exclusive mode), as the AIMP WASAPI (normal) output allowed the driver "speaker fill" to mirror the left/right channels to the rear speakers. Presumably the exclusive mode bypasses everything the audio drivers might do to the signal (including the speaker fill), while the normal mode only bypasses some stuff, allowing the speaker fill (and whatever else).

The end result (if it will help anyone else): With XBMC I can now choose between simple stereo out to left and right, or the clever channel-mixing to all channels (not sure which I prefer yet). But this only seemed to activate after trying other players and fiddling around, and I'm not sure exactly what switched it on.

[DDDamian]

You've basically discovered the difference between WASAPI Exclusive and DirectSound. With WASAPI the aim is to bypass any type of mixing/resampling/bit-messing and present the purest unmolested audio out.

[internicht]

Well people have previous said this is what WASAPI does without qualifying it by mentioning that there is more than one kind of WASAPI mode, or which one is being used by XBMC (seeing as it doesn't do both).

So XBMC WASAPI is exclusive mode WASAPI? Seems likely.

And also that: (at least in Windows 7 on my setup) the Directsound output from XBMC does not seem to do what one would expect (in this case being mixed onto different channels by speaker fill) unaided, on a fresh install. It took some kind of messing around with different music players to achieve this, and I have no idea what did it. If anyone else is trying to achieve this, that might be useful info.

And also that: the Realtek drivers (or is it the Directsound stuff in between?) seem to be capable of doing something fancy with channel-mixing after all, shifting parts of the stereo soundscape into other parts of the 5.1 soundscape (at least on my ALC888S chip).

[DDDamian]

Well people have previous said this is what WASAPI does without qualifying it by mentioning that there is more than one kind of WASAPI mode, or which one is being used by XBMC (seeing as it doesn't do both).

So XBMC WASAPI is exclusive mode WASAPI? Seems likely.

And also that: (at least in Windows 7 on my setup) the Directsound output from XBMC does not seem to do what one would expect (in this case being mixed onto different channels by speaker fill) unaided, on a fresh install. It took some kind of messing around with different music players to achieve this, and I have no idea what did it. If anyone else is trying to achieve this, that might be useful info.

And also that: the Realtek drivers (or is it the Directsound stuff in between?) seem to be capable of doing something fancy with channel-mixing after all, shifting parts of the stereo soundscape into other parts of the 5.1 soundscape (at least on my ALC888S chip).

XBMC defaults to Exclusive Mode if enabled in the windows audio control panel.

Those added features are a driver function or codecs you've added which hook into DirectSound.

[internicht]

When you say the windows audio control panel, do you mean the Speakers Properties / Advanced tab, where there are checkboxes?

Does that mean XBMC can output in the other WASAPI mode, then - is that what happens if you uncheck those tabs?

[DDDamian]

When you say the windows audio control panel, do you mean the Speakers Properties / Advanced tab, where there are checkboxes?

Does that mean XBMC can output in the other WASAPI mode, then - is that what happens if you uncheck those tabs?

Yes, that's where I mean. There are two Wasapi modes (Exclusive and Shared) toggled by the first checkbox. You will get cleanest audio with both enabled (Exclusive mode with priority). That is what XBMC expects when you use WASAPI output.

[internicht]

Thanks DDDamian - so what does XBMC do if you don't have these boxes checked (either during XBMC installation, or if you uncheck them afterwards)? Does it then default to a different mode, or does WASAPI output stop working or something?

[DDDamian]

During install the checkboxes are irrelevant. XBMC uses exclusive mode, so unchecking them will disable Wasapi and lead to no playback. IIRC it should fall back to DirectSound. Recommendation: set to WASAPI exclusive and leave it there

[2000saaber]

Found this old Thread and will use it because I have the exact same problem.

Got WIn 7 x64, i7 860, 4GB RAM, GF 220 GTX and a Soundblaster Audigy 4 pro with a remote controller @ a Daniel_K Support Driver that I found on the Creative website's forum.

I installed XMBC today as a former user of WMC, so I'm totally new to this stuff. In WMC I got problems with videofiles containing 2 audiostreams being played at the same time. I searched a solution to pick the right audiotrack in the media center by the remote controller, but there is none and always leaving the bed to pick it by mouse through Haali Media Spitter is inacceptable .

To the point:

Starting XBMC and Playing a Movie with 2.0 sound leads to a 5.1 Upmix.
But as soon as I play a real 5.1 AC3 or DTS signal, I have to restart XBMC because all 2.0 content from then on is only played in the front left/right speakers.

I saw DDDamian's developement thread for Windows Audio Engine...

I installed your "final version" but with this package every movie stutters like hell. .mkv.avi

Isn't there an easy way to import the extended Settings to my standard version of XMBC?