[CaptSunset]

Kodi on the Pi 2B outputs truly amazing picture quality, but now I'd like to move beyond the TV's internal speakers, and everything suddenly got kinda complicated.

There are a couple threads here & there about handling sound, but they are a bit dated (2013) and involve both serious cash and coding.
Apparently the central complexifying problem is (or was) that the Pi has no real time clock:

"...the TDA1541 – a near-legendary I2S input two channel 16bit DAC from the early CD player days – before cheaper one-bit noise-shaping DACs took over. As this chip has no advanced features, its modes are pin-selected, it needs no control bus and can be wired straight to power and the Raspberry Pi I2S pins to give a high-quality audio output once the driver is working – if you can find one of the elusive chips.
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Comment: to get decent sound off an I2S bus, the quality of the clock is crucial. Has the R-Pi got a separate very low noise power supply rail for a dedicated crystal oscillator to generate the clock? Any clock jitter will come straight through onto the audio as FM."
http://www.electronicsweekly.com/news/de...i-2013-07/

{this article doesn't mention whether tapping the I2S bus can work while outputting HDMI video over Kodi}

& there's this on splitting off the HDMI audio: http://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=159768



The audio issue seems relatively quiet here, so apparently most Kodi/Pi users have found some easy solution for their set of gear...

My primary TV is a 32" Sony Bravia with only 2 HDMI inputs and only 2 Audio signal outputs: Optical & miniplug Headphone.
(I hope I can explain this problem clearly.) The 2 HDMIs are currently the BluRay player and the Roku for Netflix.

The SPDIF optical goes to a really annoying Vizio sound bar (with no LCD panel and that has a sequential remote, like the cheap early texting phones). The only other input available on the Vizio is the stereo sound jacks for composite video.

First, I can't seem to find how to acquire the HDMI audio as a separate signal; and second, I can't quite figure how to reconfigure everything to get the Pi into the mix without buying a whole 'nother audio system. (I'd like to wait on that for some other upgrades).

How are you guys handling your audio, especially for the Pi 2B?

[popcornmix]

Rip you BluRays. Store them on network drive. Play them with the Pi, and you can remove the BluRay player from TV.
Pi connects to TV via HDMI. Connect optical from TV to sound bar.

Sony TV probably will output AC3 through optical, but not DTS.
So, in Kodi audio settings, set to expert, set "number of channels" to 2.0. Enable passthrough. Enable AC3 passthrough. Disable DTS passthrough. Enable AC3 transcoding.

A future hardware update would remove the sound bar. Get a proper AV receiver with multiple HDMI inputs. Then you can avoid the optical interface and use DTS passthrough and multichannel PCM. But that can come later.

[CaptSunset]

Thanks PCM.

I found this interesting and it apparently breaks out HDMI audio: http://hdmipi.com/
It'd make a nice 'control panel' for many Pi uses besides Kodi.

[twelvebore]

Google for 'HDMI audio extractor'. No need to pay £75.

[CaptSunset]

12- thanks!
Two major e-suppliers have something for under $30, an HDMI passthru that breaks out 2ch RCA and SPDIF.

For other's benefit, I'll quote one user's review (out of 4) because it specifically mentions the Pi:

This causes a night and day difference when using it with my Raspberry Pi. I have an older receiver which doesn't take HDMI input like my friends newer one does, and unfortunately someone in the TV industry decided that a TV optical sound cable will only output stereo unless the audio is originated on the TV. What this means is if I use the TV built-in Amazon Instant Video, or Netflix, I will get 5.1 surround sound, but if I have an HDMI input the output from the optical sound cable will only be stereo.
Now bring in the ***** HDMI to HDMI + SPDIF extractor. I plug the Pi's HDMI into this, then the output HDMI into the TV. I then plug the optical cable into my receiver and the ***** and it splits the audio and video and gives me 5.1 surround sound on my stereo. My only gripe would be that my stereo could go up to 9.2 if I had enough speakers, but my wife would probably go crazy.

Other reviews were similar, except the only neg that said using the passthru 'made the picture go purple'.

The thing also has yet another power brick- a 1A 5V; but I figure it would work for now, and if I get a powered hub for an HD, I could tap onto that instead.

I have a couple friends who are 'source-challenged' in the video/audio arenas, wait'll I put Kodi on their sets!