[Swifty]

Hi all,

I have (what i imagine is) a slightly unusual requirement that i would appreciate any advice on;

We recently moved house and the living room layout now means that my tv and projection screens are no longer on the same wall (due to room shape).
My tv is now at 90 degrees to the projector screen.
I have a 5.1 setup which we use when watching tv and when using the projector.

I was wondering if it is possible to alter the audio channel mappings to shift the satellite speaker mapping outputs around by one position (and then back the other way) depending on if we are watching tv or using the projector.

Now I'm quite happy to make an addon to control it from kodi but im not sure how (if!) the channels can be changed like that.
ideally i'd like to do this without any reboot requirement or need to restart kodi.
Im using openelec on an intel nuc and optical out via a usb soundcard.

Any suggestions would be great!

[DaVu]

Just for my own interest....

Are the rear speakers the same size as the front and center speaker(s)? If not, you will get a horrible sound, because of the frequencies which have to be played on special speakers which are then be missed. Mostly rear speakers are way smaller than the fronts.

Greets

[nickr]

Well that depends on your system doesn't it? My Logitech Z5500 system has 5 identically sized speakers (and one thumping bass).

Back to the real question - There is probably a way to do this with an asound.conf file, although I am not sure what you would have to do to change it "on the fly".

Also there is some new audio digital signal processing plugin system coming for kodi, which may help. Sorry i am bit vague on details on that one.

[Wozza_au]

you could make up a junction box with a single or multiple switch's which changes the amp output to different speakers....if going through an avr you might be able to use the zone a and b function to remap the speaker output but pretty sure this will need 2 sets of speakers

[Swifty]

Thanks for the suggestions.

To clarify all speakers are the same (except the sub) so should be ok hopefully.
I did read a bit about the ActiveAE DSP but its all pretty deep audiophile stuff that i didnt really understand :p

I figured asound.conf may be the way but as you mengioned not sure how i can get it recognised on the fly..

[Ned Scott]

I'm interested in doing the same myself. Putting four speakers up, and depending on what wall I'm looking at, change things.

DSP add-ons coming in the future will likely make it possible to change such a configuration from within Kodi on the fly with a button on your remote :)

All in good time.

[nickr]

Well you can create a script to change asound.conf from one version to another, and link your script into a button press on a remote, that part is relatively easy.

What I don't know is whether you then have to:

1. restart alsa (should do it if we are redefining default); or
2. restart kodi (maybe needed); or
3. reboot (not likely needed I think).

[fritsch]

Audio DSP is the way to go. Alternatively pulseaudio. Add a virtual device, change speaker mapping and whenever you want to change it, change kodi's audio device. There is a json based script somewhere over the forum to change audio device on the fly.

See: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Pul...o/Examples

[Swifty]

Thanks guys.

DSP seems like the way to go then, but as far as i understand that is a little way off at the moment.

In the mean time fritsch, your suggestion of a "virtual" device with a different config that can be selected for output on the fly within kodi seems like a tidy solution.

But as far as i know openelec doesnt support pulseaudio, do any alsa experts know if something similar can be crafted in asound.conf?

[fritsch]

Nothing stable, sorry :-(

[Swifty]

Damn thats a shame.. Dont really want to end up restarting things as that kind of ruins the experience and will annoy the hell out of my wife ;-)

Looks like i'll have t sit tight and wait for the DSP.

[fritsch]

Nope - stand up and write a plugin.

[Swifty]

Heh, that would be great if i knew how.

Currently i dont really understand all the dsp stuff after reading about it.
As a casual listener (not audiophile) it seems pretty complex.