[hogfan]

The new audio changes in Krypton broke DTS audio passthrough on my FireTV boxes. I do not see Amazon updating FireOS to based on Marshmallow or newer Android builds anytime soon. Is there any workaround to get DTS audio support back in Kryton, possibly by buidling KODI from source? Or has somebody forked an "unofficial" Krypton build that still has the old audio setup? Personally, I don't care if Android standards guys said the "hack" that was in place to have DTS Passthrough on Android below API 23 working is "safe" or not. Bottom line is It worked fine in the last 2 stable versions of KODI. Is there not a a way to allow this to work on Android set top boxes, but not allow it mobile devices? I read something in the thread about the DTS hack allowing white noise or something that could potentially be bad for somebody wearing headphones; however this wouldn't be an issue with a set top box.

Those of us using Android STBs do so for a reason, Things like HBO NOW, HBO GO, Showtime Anytime, etc. Android apps that can work out of KODI alongside your local library AND have remote control support. We are at the mercy of of what Amazon builds FireOS off of, and "bugging our vendor" is not going to help as I'm sure Amazon could care less about KODI (in a way it competes with the purpose of their device).

So is DTS gone for good on these boxes? If so, this REALLY, REALLY sucks. I just got used to the new skin in Krypton builds and do not really want to be stuck on Jarvis builds, just to have DTS passthrough working on my devices. I would probably feel differently if DTS Passthrough had never worked to begin with, but when a key feature is taken away that was functioning well for a long time, and the only solution to use Krypton builds AND have working DTS Passthrough is to basically purchase new hardware is very frustrating. Especially when the current hardware functions just fine.

Suggestions or workarounds are appreciated.

[nickr]

I am not up on the android problems, so many boxes, so many issues!

Does it work to transcode to ac3?

Does it work to send the 5.1 DTS channels as decoded 6 channel PCM audio?

[hogfan]

From what I can tell the DTS track is being downmixed to stereo. I haven't looked at the debug logs yet. I just noticed that I wasn't getting surround sound from all speakers in my 5.1 setup for a movie I had watched before. I did look around on the forums and saw the stickied thread about changes to audio..........and went into my KODI settings in the latest Krypton nightlies, I noticed the option "DTS Capable Receiver" under the Audio Passthrough section was not longer there. I'm temporarily using a 16.1 Jarvis fork of SPMC to watch movies with DTS in a pinch.......until I find out what I need to do to get DTS working again.

In regards to Android, I definitely know there are lots of boxes out there. However, devices like the FireTVs are the more mainstream boxes with more user-friendly hardware (i.e. Qualcomm Processor, etc.) From what I have read so far this issue was created more out of trying to conform to Android Official API standards (which is not a bad thing by any means). It's just the removal of existing functionality is frustrating, especially when hardware vendors selling Android devices are almost never on the latest and greatest Android version.

[Koying]

There are 2 options to overcome the lack of DTS passthrough :

1).set you speaker setup to 5.1; dts is decoded on the FTV and sent as 5.1 pcm to the avr (box hooked to AVR directly in hdmi only)
2) set you speaker setup to 2.0 and tick "transcoding" in the pass-through options beneath ac3 (also ticked) ; there, DTS is re-encoded to ac3 and sent to the AVR as passthrough (valid for both HDMI arc +box hooked to the tv+ and optical spdif)

[wrxtasy]

Or just use a Krypton / Estuary massaged Skin that works on Kodi Jarvis... instructions HERE

[jjd-uk]

Or just use a Krypton / Estuary massaged Skin that works on Kodi Jarvis... instructions HERE

I wouldn't recommend that at all as although it may run and superficially appear ok, lots of strange things could start to happen as Estuary depends on a lot of fixes and code changes done for the core code in the Krypton release cycle, that's why we restricted it to Krypton in the first place. Thus anyone using Estuary on Jarvis will likely get no support if issues are encountered.

[wrxtasy]

Good thing you can just switch Skins then back to any other Jarvis one if issues do pop up.
Not seeing any so far after watching a bunch of content.

Of course no support given. Its nice to play around with tho.

[jjd-uk]

I think most of the fixes/changes were to do with the Home screen widgets so that's where issues are most likely to be encountered.

[hogfan]

There are 2 options to overcome the lack of DTS passthrough :

1).set you speaker setup to 5.1; dts is decoded on the FTV and sent as 5.1 pcm to the avr (box hooked to AVR directly in hdmi only)
2) set you speaker setup to 2.0 and tick "transcoding" in the pass-through options beneath ac3 (also ticked) ; there, DTS is re-encoded to ac3 and sent to the AVR as passthrough (valid for both HDMI arc +box hooked to the tv+ and optical spdif)

Thanks for the information. Sounds like option 1 is out for me currently since I'm using SPDIF as my current receiver doesn't had HDMI. I'll be upgrading this fairly soon. Time to replace the trusty old Yamaha with a new Denon AVR.

In both cases above, you are still not getting true DTS output, correct? I'll be keeping my AFTV boxes boxes but with official DTS support gone until they get upgraded to at least Android.6.0 on FireOS they aren't much use for me. Maybe I will look into a Raspberry or Orange Pi and go back to Linux. I just like being on an Android box for the other apps available, HBO Go, WatchESPN, etc. It's pretty cool you can add them to the Kodi homescreen as shortcuts with most skins. And the KODI menus are much slower on Raspberry Pi type boards. I'm one of those greedy people that doesn't just care about HD playback but wants a very smooth and responsive UI in KODI.

Thanks for the info.

[nickr]

In case 1, there is no difference between DTS decoded on your kodi machine and DTS decoded by your AVR.

In case 2 you do get an extra (lossy) step of encoding to ac3, but whether your ears can tell the difference is another matter.

[Calzor Suzay]

There are 2 options to overcome the lack of DTS passthrough :

1).set you speaker setup to 5.1; dts is decoded on the FTV and sent as 5.1 pcm to the avr (box hooked to AVR directly in hdmi only)

Does this work for any sound that isn't DD or DD+ so DTS DTS True HD etc. as in the AFTV will decode it down to 5.1 and pass it as PCM?
Is the AFTV doing it natively or is Kodi using the hardware of the AFTV to do it?

Either way at the end of the day you get a Digital discrete 5.1 sound whether your amp says PCM or not?

[donrosco]

There are 2 options to overcome the lack of DTS passthrough :

1).set you speaker setup to 5.1; dts is decoded on the FTV and sent as 5.1 pcm to the avr (box hooked to AVR directly in hdmi only)
2) set you speaker setup to 2.0 and tick "transcoding" in the pass-through options beneath ac3 (also ticked) ; there, DTS is re-encoded to ac3 and sent to the AVR as passthrough (valid for both HDMI arc +box hooked to the tv+ and optical spdif)

Option 2 worked for me. I can't tell any difference with the sound being re-encoded, but I haven't exactly tested rigorously. Thanks for the workaround, much appreciated.

[MasterCATZ]

bought a new tv box h96 max rk3399
and still, has dts passthrough issues thing goes black screen every time I try 


what android tv box out there still does dts with kodi ?

[warlock7]

Now that the spmc stopped the development we have alternative for amlogic, cause only spmc fork plays dts!