I am a bit confused, as i was when i started with receivers and chanels and such XD
Before knowing KODI, i was using PLEX home theatre.
I had this same 50 inches samsung dumb LCD that supports a few audio formats, but has only 2 speakers.
My pc at that time had optical out, so i had that pluged to my
Samsung HT-F450K via optical, and i had video on the TV via HDMI.
The K "version" must be for latin america, cause i find its page only in spanish. Here is the non k one, in english:
http://www.samsung.com/ae/consumer/tv-av...T-F450K/ZN
When i had that setup, i found out that even tho my receiver had 5.1 speakers, audio sent via optical in AC3 was compressed/encoded via 2 chanels or something like that (or that i could not select more than PCM 2 channels).
With all audio connected via optical and the tv set for external speakers, only PCM2 option was not grayed out in the tv settings (DTSneo and other options non selectable). EDIT: I read/remember now that those options on the TV are only for when the TV is the one decoding, and its not the case when audio comes in through HDMI and is sent out via optical (weird thing is that only pcm should be selectable tho)
That way, when media was AC3 i had proper 5.1, and when media was anything else, i got 2.0 stereo, and enabled the receiver "emulation" so that i got some kind of audio on the extra speakers (emulation cant be enabled when audio is AC3 5.1 dolby digital).
Then came the new pc, which has only HDMI and stereo miniplug for audio out.
Worse, my receiver has only optical in, and ONE hdmi out (that can receive audio from the TV, but only if the TV has ARC as a feature in its HDMI, and mine does not).
Now, as i said, if i use PLEX MEDIA PLAYER, which has an option to use exclusive audio mode (it is not automatic, i have to check it), i get 5.1 audio when media is AC3 5.1 dolby digital, and 2.0 when it is not.
With the same setup, and same drivers, kodi plays audio for non AC3 media, and silence for such media.
I guess i must be doing something wrong, since kodi has far more options.
With my old and new setup, in plex, i had to chose 2.0 chanels, as i had only those via SPDIF, and when i had AC3 it was a special case, but it was still 2.0 PCM chanels.
Maybe my history with other software is making things more complicated for me now
So, it is a FACT that i need to set my audio chanels to 5.1, even if SPDIF supports only 2?
Should i enable "enable dolby digital (AC3) transcoding?
Will look at that wiki, since exclusive mode SHOULD be ok, because plex media server has no issues using it.
My audio driver is kinda old, and was installed by windows 10.
I leave some photos of my drivers, and some extra stuff that is related.
I had seen somewhere about the "Intel Management Engine Interface driver", but that place also said it was not for AC3, only for "better/newer" formats. And since i dont have it and plex media theater worked, i guessed it was really not needed for AC3.
As you can see in the pictures, the tv tells windows that is supports kinda.. nothing, and has only 2 chanels.
That was always the case on the old setup also, but with everything SPDIF, it worked, and it also works now with plex media theater (meby plex is doing some dirty hack?)
Will fully check that wiki that was linked to me here.
https://goo.gl/photos/fQA2gKV9U2XUbjmJ9
If possible, please clarify my doubt about setting 2.0/5.1 when using SPDIF, and also the "enable ac3 transcoding" thingie.