[USCMitch]

Greetings all.

Recent convert to XBMC so am still relatively new. I've managed to get everything setup and functioning so far: added my movies, TV shows, music; have live TV functioning; Blu Ray support; and streaming sites added. Works great....but for one thing: passthrough audio.

My setup is as follows: HTPC -> AVR -> TV
As long as the AVR is fully on (not in standby) everything is fine. But if I attempt to use passthrough, then I lose audio and video becomes very choppy/slow. When I check back in Windows, audio has been disabled because it is no longer detecting the AVR. Based on my searching and reading, I'm guesssing that its an EDID issue and that the HTPC quits detecting the HDMI and disables that playback device once I go into standby. Once this happens the only way to get it to come back enabled, is to turn the AVR back on, and unplug/replug the HDMI cable at the HTPC.

Relevant components:

- ASUS GeForce GT640 graphics card
- Asus MAXIMUS V GENE Z77 MoBo
- Sony STR-DH720 AV Receiver
- Windows 8 OS
- XBMC Frodo (Aeon Nox skin)

Questions:

1) Is this definately an EDID issue? If so, what is the simplest, easist fix without sacrificing effectiveness? I'm by no means skilled at editing programs, but will self teach myself whatever is necessary to accomplish the fix.
2) If there is not a simple and effective fix, could I workaround by altering my configuration as follows:
HTPC -> TV via HDMI
HTPC -> AVR via SPDIF

Thanks in advance for any help.

V/R,
Mitch

[ConfusedTA]

Is this with HDMI Standby Passthrough? (Page 68 of the manual, under HDMI Settings menu)

If not - try enabling it.

If it is enabled, then my guess is that when audio passthrough is enabled, the device on the end (your TV) doesn't support the HD sound formats - hence you get the choppy playback.

Personally - I'd just forget about the passthrough audio (but leave it enabled so that XBMC doesn't throw a wobby if you switch off the AVR), and just use the AVR for everything.

[jjd-uk]

1) Yes it's an EDID issue, have you got HDMI control enabled on the TV & AVR if not try with them on? even if you get the passthrough in AVR standby working you'll be restricted to always sending audio as whatever the TV can decode, which will be might only be Dolby Digital 5.1 & LPCM 5.1, so you won't be able to get HD audio working with such a set up.

You maybe able to utilise Profiles if you can get Windows to always recognise the HDMI link even with the AVR off and Profiles can use different settings, so a Profile could be configured for AVR and a Profile configured for passthrough to TV.

2) I'm assuming you want the flexibility to use either the TV or AVR for audio, unfortunately this is not simply to achieve.

Your suggestion:

HTPC -> TV via HDMI (video)
HTPC -> AVR via SPDIF (audio)

As XBMC will be set to SPDIF for audio then no audio will be sent to the TV, but again you could maybe utilise Profiles you could try configuring a SPDIF audio output Profile and a HDMI audio output Profile, but again maybe not be reliable unless you can sort out the EDID issues whenever the AVR is turned off.

HTPC -> TV -> AVR

You will likely be restricted to LPCM 2.0 audio only

[USCMitch]

1) Yes it's an EDID issue, have you got HDMI control enabled on the TV & AVR if not try with them on? even if you get the passthrough in AVR standby working you'll be restricted to always sending audio as whatever the TV can decode, which will be might only be Dolby Digital 5.1 & LPCM 5.1, so you won't be able to get HD audio working with such a set up.

You maybe able to utilise Profiles if you can get Windows to always recognise the HDMI link even with the AVR off and Profiles can use different settings, so a Profile could be configured for AVR and a Profile configured for passthrough to TV.

2) I'm assuming you want the flexibility to use either the TV or AVR for audio, unfortunately this is not simply to achieve.

Your suggestion:

HTPC -> TV via HDMI (video)
HTPC -> AVR via SPDIF (audio)

As XBMC will be set to SPDIF for audio then no audio will be sent to the TV, but again you could maybe utilise Profiles you could try configuring a SPDIF audio output Profile and a HDMI audio output Profile, but again maybe not be reliable unless you can sort out the EDID issues whenever the AVR is turned off.

HTPC -> TV -> AVR

You will likely be restricted to LPCM 2.0 audio only

Thanks. I was afraid of the EDID issue.

I'm pretty sure that all the passthrough/HDMI settings for both the TV and AVR are good to go as I have zero issue with my Apple TV 3. I will double check this weekend.

You're correct in assuming that I want the flexibility to use either the TV or AVR for audio. Mostly as I like to keep the volume low at night when the young ones are asleep.

I will play around with the AVR and the connections some this weekend.

The easiest fix would be if I could force Windows to always output to the HDMI output even if it doesn't detect it.

EDIT:

I wonder if I could achieve the desired results by configuring the order the devices powered up in the Logitech Harmony activities i.e. if the AVR is powered on prior to the HTPC it should detect it for output but if the TV is powered up and the AVR is powered off, the HTPC should detect the TV as the playback source. Again, will try that this weekend as well.

[jjd-uk]

Have you tried using the Night Mode on the AVR?

[USCMitch]

Have you tried using the Night Mode on the AVR?

Haven't yet. I basically became consumed with getting it to work the way I felt is "should".

It does seem like there are a few workarounds, but it's just annoying that it won't allow true passthrough i.e. the Apple TV 3.

[USCMitch]

Just to close this issue out:

- Apparently, if I leave the AVR and it puts itself to "sleep" the HDMI is not dropped in Windows. So that solves that problem.

- Solved my low volume/high volume issue by configuring a couple of mute commands in the Harmony remote i.e. it simply mutes the AVR on start up for low volume and un-mutes on shut down.

It may not be that elegant, but it works.

Thanks to all for the suggestions.