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tinpanalley · 2015-08-03, 14:14

I'm considering getting a raspberry pi 2 and running kodi on it. It's pretty impressive how much development is going on for the raspberry pi version of kodi. My only two questions for anyone who might know are...

1. With the standard non-gigabit ethernet connection on the rp2, will it be able to handle streaming 1080p HD video via ethernet from my desktop computer?
2. Will the rp2 be able to play EVERY video and audio codec? Can I install those? Or is this something handled by kodi?
3. I have no HDMI inputs on my receiver. So, I have to have optical sound. Does anyone know if these HDMI - HDMI/SPDIF converters are any good? I keep reading quite a few people on Amazon saying it makes their fuse boxes trip.

speedwell68 · 2015-08-03, 14:48

1. Yes
2. Kodi can play most things out of the box. However there is an MPEG codec available from the Raspberry Pi Foundation, it costs a couple of quid. But personally on the rare occasion that it cannot decode a video I just re-encode it to something it can decode using FFmpeg.
3.No idea.

Claudio.Sjo · 2015-08-03, 15:19

(2015-08-03, 14:14)tinpanalley Wrote: I'm considering getting a raspberry pi 2 and running kodi on it. It's pretty impressive how much development is going on for the raspberry pi version of kodi. My only two questions for anyone who might know are...

1. With the standard non-gigabit ethernet connection on the rp2, will it be able to handle streaming 1080p HD video via ethernet from my desktop computer?
2. Will the rp2 be able to play EVERY video and audio codec? Can I install those? Or is this something handled by kodi?
3. I have no HDMI inputs on my receiver. So, I have to have optical sound. Does anyone know if these HDMI - HDMI/SPDIF converters are any good? I keep reading quite a few people on Amazon saying it makes their fuse boxes trip.

I only answer #3
https://www.hifiberry.com/digiplus

tinpanalley · 2015-08-04, 02:56

(2015-08-03, 15:19)Claudio.Sjo Wrote: I only answer #3
https://www.hifiberry.com/digiplus

Wow, thank you!! That's perfect! What is the difference between their three models of the digi?

Claudio.Sjo · 2015-08-04, 08:25

(2015-08-04, 02:56)tinpanalley Wrote:
(2015-08-03, 15:19)Claudio.Sjo Wrote: I only answer #3
https://www.hifiberry.com/digiplus
Wow, thank you!! That's perfect! What is the difference between their three models of the digi?

Digi : TOSLINK for RPi A or B
Digi+ : TOSLINK RPi B+ or RPi 2
Digi+ transformer : same as Digi+ but has both TOSLINK and SPDIF

TOSLINK : Toshiba Optical interface, requires optical cable
SPDIF : Electric Coax link, requires a coax cable

tinpanalley · (This post was last modified: 2015-08-04, 16:14 by tinpanalley.)

(2015-08-04, 08:25)Claudio.Sjo Wrote: TOSLINK : Toshiba Optical interface, requires optical cable
SPDIF : Electric Coax link, requires a coax cable

I'm embarassed, I didn't know the difference between the terminology.. Blush

So, S/PDIF is the digital audio technology and TOSLINK (optical) and Coax (cable) are the two connection types.

~~Ned Scott~~ · 2015-08-05, 03:16

Correct. It's even possible to convert between optical and coaxial, and vise versa, as the "signal" is the same (I don't entirely understand how that works, though, lol).

Claudio.Sjo · 2015-08-05, 09:13

(2015-08-05, 03:16)Ned Scott Wrote: Correct. It's even possible to convert between optical and coaxial, and vise versa, as the "signal" is the same (I don't entirely understand how that works, though, lol).

It's an IEC standard IEC 60958-3
https://webstore.iec.ch/p-preview/info_i...0%7Den.pdf

~~Ned Scott~~ · 2015-08-05, 09:27

I mean in how the adapter works between converting the optical and coaxial signal.

Claudio.Sjo · 2015-08-05, 09:54

It's only the physical level.
If you use a TOSLINK transmitter, the PCM is sent optical, if you use an electric driver you send electrical.

~~Ned Scott~~ · 2015-08-05, 10:40

Yes, I know that. My comment was to express how impressed I was that the same signal can be sent either way. Let's just say I found joy in a simple example of physics ;)

zehner · (This post was last modified: 2015-08-06, 13:31 by zehner.)

If your tv has a SPDIF-Out, then you can connect your pi with your tv by HDMI and your receiver with your tv by SPDIF

I have also an old receiver and a slightly newer tv and tried to connect the pi to the receiver. Connecting the pi and the tv with two different cables introduced a small delay in the audio in my setup. If your tv does some post-processing, then audio and video can get out of sync, but if you use the audio from your tv, everything stays in sync

tinpanalley · 2015-08-06, 16:54

(2015-08-06, 13:29)zehner Wrote: If your tv has a SPDIF-Out, then you can connect your pi with your tv by HDMI and your receiver with your tv by SPDIF
I have also an old receiver and a slightly newer tv and tried to connect the pi to the receiver. Connecting the pi and the tv with two different cables introduced a small delay in the audio in my setup. If your tv does some post-processing, then audio and video can get out of sync, but if you use the audio from your tv, everything stays in sync

I can't thank you enough!! That was absolutely the simplest most brilliant solution. Can't believe I didn't think of it.
Now then, do I set the TV or my devices to do anything in particular with the sound or will the optical-out do any conversions, etc automatically?

**popcornmix** · 2015-08-06, 17:10

You should get stereo output automatically if your TV has spdif out (check the TV menus if you don't but I suspect this will work by default).

If you need multichannel it's a little more complicated. Not all TV's support this, and if they do it is probably only AC3 and not DTS. See here for some info.

If your TV can support AC3 passthrough, but not DTS, then in kodi audio settings, set "number of channels" to 2.0, "enable passthough" on, "AC3 capable receiver" on, "AC3 transcoding" on and leave other passthrough settings disabled. You then should get multichannel for all formats.

tinpanalley · 2015-08-07, 01:15

(2015-08-06, 17:10)popcornmix Wrote: You should get stereo output automatically if your TV has spdif out (check the TV menus if you don't but I suspect this will work by default).

If you need multichannel it's a little more complicated. Not all TV's support this, and if they do it is probably only AC3 and not DTS. See here for some info.

If your TV can support AC3 passthrough, but not DTS, then in kodi audio settings, set "number of channels" to 2.0, "enable passthough" on, "AC3 capable receiver" on, "AC3 transcoding" on and leave other passthrough settings disabled. You then should get multichannel for all formats.

Well, it turns out that no matter what I do, I can't seem to get DTS or 5.1 to pass through my TV going HDMI-in and optical out, even though my manual says my TV can decode DTS and AC3. So, I guess I'll have to get that hifiberry after all.