• 1
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5(current)
  • 6
  • 7
  • 8
HDMI AUDIO a Success finally
#61
to snowflake

unfortunately I have discovered right now there is not file /etc/default/bluetooth on the XBMC. I was checking this on my Ubuntu 8.10 machine when I was writing my previous posting and the file exists there. So I have supposed it will be the same on the XBMC.

Any advices?

Petr
Reply
#62
So I finally got around to figuring out how to make my own Blu-Ray Rips and I was really excited about the possibility of passing multi-channel PCM through this new setup.
My first experiment is with a John Mayer concert on Blu-Ray. As Rodercot already tested, XBMC does not currently decode Dolby TrueHD tracks, which is what happens to be on this disc (IMO, The best part of the experience on discs like this are the amazing lossless soundtracks.) So I though I would try and convert it to a multi-channel FLAC soundtrack
I used BLKMGK's guide (Thank you BLKMGK for putting that together!) for ripping HD-DVDs as a starting point. I didn't touch the video to save time but I used eac3to to re-encode the soundtrack to FLAC. The whole process wasn't too bad after I started doing it. It still took a couple of hours in all but I was left with a new MKV file with my HD video and FLAC soundtrack.
The file plays beautifully EXCEPT that my receiver is only receiving a stereo signal from my XBMC box. Pressing 'O' during playback suggests that the audio file is what it is supposed to be (flac, 96000Hz, 5:1) but I am getting no love on my receiver end. I am I doing something wrong or is XBMC or the drivers just not there yet. I desperately want to digitize my Blu-ray library with HD Audio so I hope we can figure this out.

Now I need some sleep since I have to get up in 3 hours to go to work Sad

-Will
Reply
#63
I *think* that all XBMC needs to do is pass the data straight through to the receiver - it's uncompressed audio right? There's no decoding is there? Well okay for FLAC there is I guess.

Anyway as it stands now I have no computer capable of outputting this attached to a receiver that can handle it. That said I think I need to upgrade Big Grin I have been ripping all my stuff with 5.1 AC3. If I thought I could put the 7.1 track in with the 5.1 and be able to toggle it in the container during playback I might try using both, I have also not ever tried FLAC. Sad I guess if I breakdown and do a new motherboard on my main box I can help figure this out - box I have on HDMI right now is attached straight to a TV. I agree that if XBMC needs changes to handle this that it would be nice to have now that we have a digital output that can apparently handle the new stuff Big Grin
Openelec Gotham, MCE remote(s), Intel i3 NUC, DVDs fed from unRAID cataloged by DVD Profiler. HD-DVD encoded with Handbrake to x.264. Yamaha receiver(s)
Reply
#64
BLKMGK Wrote:I *think* that all XBMC needs to do is pass the data straight through to the receiver - it's uncompressed audio right? There's no decoding is there? Well okay for FLAC there is I guess.

Anyway as it stands now I have no computer capable of outputting this attached to a receiver that can handle it. That said I think I need to upgrade Big Grin I have been ripping all my stuff with 5.1 AC3. If I thought I could put the 7.1 track in with the 5.1 and be able to toggle it in the container during playback I might try using both, I have also not ever tried FLAC. Sad I guess if I breakdown and do a new motherboard on my main box I can help figure this out - box I have on HDMI right now is attached straight to a TV. I agree that if XBMC needs changes to handle this that it would be nice to have now that we have a digital output that can apparently handle the new stuff Big Grin


BLKMGK,

uncompressed will not pass on SPDIF but HDMI ONLY, as far as I know. I converted a file as well and has the same results, stereo only. Matt informed me that alsa needs to be setup to pass 6 channel pcm, I have not played with that yet - possibly setup in the .asoundrc file per channel output - not sure. This would make sense, I watched Kill Bill BD last night on my LG player in 7.1 Uncompressed and that is what the rcvr see is a MULTI-CHANNEL 7.1 signal input.

I am right now playing with live and the image builder trying to get a XBMCLive intrepid test. It's a learning curve since there is not an intrepid generic i386 platform yet. Luigi is offering lots of advice, I hope I can get to testing it later. fingers crossed.

Dave
Reply
#65
Ah okay, for some reason I thought you guys WERE using HDMI for your audio - noHuh? I thought that was what all of us in this thread were shooting for heh. Mind you I get great 5.1 via HDMI, still no stereoConfused
Openelec Gotham, MCE remote(s), Intel i3 NUC, DVDs fed from unRAID cataloged by DVD Profiler. HD-DVD encoded with Handbrake to x.264. Yamaha receiver(s)
Reply
#66
BLKMGK Wrote:Ah okay, for some reason I thought you guys WERE using HDMI for your audio - noHuh? I thought that was what all of us in this thread were shooting for heh. Mind you I get great 5.1 via HDMI, still no stereoConfused

OK DOH! maybe I misunderstood your post. Yep I just reread your post. OOOPS! Mybad sorry.

SPDIF will not pass uncompressed full bandwidth pcm.

HDMI should pass everything to a rcvr to decode it and yes we are using HDMI for audio.

Dave
Reply
#67
BLKMGK Wrote:Ah okay, for some reason I thought you guys WERE using HDMI for your audio - noHuh? I thought that was what all of us in this thread were shooting for heh. Mind you I get great 5.1 via HDMI, still no stereoConfused
I'm using HDMI for my audio too. Currently just playing through to the TV, but eventually i'll have a receiver in between driving some 5.1 (at least) speakers.
Viewsonic N4285P, ASUS P5N7A-VM, Intel E8500, Mushkin PC28500 2x2GB, Antec Fusion Black 430, Logitech DiNovo Mini, Patriot X-Mini 8GB
Working: 1080p, hdmi audio
Partial: Logitech DiNovo Mini needs 'sudo rmmod usbhid;sudo modprobe usbhid' after boot to make cursor work
Not working: IMON display
Reply
#68
So I guess the real question is what was\is Bahndit using..?
Openelec Gotham, MCE remote(s), Intel i3 NUC, DVDs fed from unRAID cataloged by DVD Profiler. HD-DVD encoded with Handbrake to x.264. Yamaha receiver(s)
Reply
#69
Smile 
I don't know why but I couldn't help but chuckle after reading the last few posts. Smile Sorry for the confusion, I am in fact using HDMI for my audio output. Just to clarify I install custom home theaters and sell AV gear for a living so I've got a good handle on the different types of audio video outputs Nod Big Grin I've got big speakers as well as a big TV so I would love to figure this HD audio stuff out.
I am still learning my way around Linux but I am not afraid to try stuff out and I would love to contribute to the fight. If someone will point me in the right direction with the alsa 6 channel stuff for HDMI I will get on it. I wish we could just bitstream the native codec to an off board decoder (receiver) but if we could get LPCM working it would be awesome.

Thanks again to BLKMGK and rodercot for your helpful and informative posts.

-Bahndit
Reply
#70
So In thinking through this a little bit, with sacd what was the bandwith - Frequency it was High I know but it was decoded internally and passed through the 6 channel out on the player.

My LG BH200 outputs 7.1 channel uncompressed audio to my Denon 988 across 7 channels in lpcm and it decodes it.

Did we discuss what the limitation is of just taking the LPCM track and leaving it as is and muxing that with your h264, vc1 etc video file and trying it. We said the codec would not pass TrueHD right now but it does pass dts-hd but I have not tried DTS MA.

Dave
Reply
#71
As i know TODAY stands:

Windows:
- 24bit/192khz stereo LPCM sound through SPDIF works (more channel is not possible because of SPDIF bandwith limitation)

- 24bit/192khz 7.1 Multichannel LPCM sound through HDMI works. (Nvidia 8xxx, 9xxx integrated motherboards or AMD 4xxx dedicated video cards.)

- AC3, DTS 2ch lpcm works with most of the motherboards and soundcards.

- Dolby Digital HD and DTS HD Master audio bitstream pass over HDMI does not work yet. The first card will be Auzentech's new soundcard to make this happen, but only with certain closed source software players.

Linux:

- AC3, DTS, 2ch lpcm works with a lot of soundcards and integrated solutions through SPDIF and HDMI (over hdmi only with ALSA 1.018a)

- 24bit/192khz 7.1 multichannel lpcm over HDMI IS NOT POSSIBLE yet on any linux platform due to driver limitations. Maybe in the future we will have a chance to get a driver update from Nvidia ot AMD.

- Dolby Digital HD and DTS HD master audio bitstream will not be possible for a long long time on Linux platform due to content protection requirements.

So the only way to enjoy HD Ausio right now is getting a good 192khz, 24bit capable ANALOG card, decode the HD stream woth eac3 or ffmpeg and play it through multichannel analog output. For this you have to enable multichannel analog audio in the advancedsettings.xml in XBMC. I can help out with that if someone is interested.

Correct me if i am wrong with something
Reply
#72
Well shoot, I thought the big hurdle was getting HDMI audio working and that once done we could just toss the uncompressed audio track out the digital port and the receiver would do the rest. It's sounding like that's not the case at all and that there's still additional crap preventing it - including DRM on the audio track over and above the crypto on the BD to begin with?! Seriously? Wow, that sux! So some sort of 6.1 FLAC track sent in a way the receiver can handle it doesn't sound so nutz after all maybe? Am starting to not feel so bad about not having added the speakers to make my setup 7.1 No
Openelec Gotham, MCE remote(s), Intel i3 NUC, DVDs fed from unRAID cataloged by DVD Profiler. HD-DVD encoded with Handbrake to x.264. Yamaha receiver(s)
Reply
#73
Can we list all the formats with HD and BD and what passes and what does not.

This is what I see and I am talking on HDMI

you have

STD DD passes
STD DTS passes
DD plus passes
DD TrueHD - does not
DTS HD 1536 - It works on my system I get the 1536 bit rate in XBMC on playback.
DTS MA - have not tried
5.1, 6.1, 7.1 LPCM - does not pass
DTSHD to FLAC is passed as 2CH PCM. this is what I tried and it plays, I only tested the audio file renamed to .ts
* Now this is confusing to me, when I encoded this way did it take the 6CH and downmix to 2CH. Is that how eac is converting the files. Is there a way to check that FLAC file I encoded to see what information it really does contain. You know thinking about the FLAC file size actually ended up being smaller than the same DTS-HD Demux. *

DD TrueHD to FLAC - I have not tried this but I would think the same as the above with DTSHD.

Dave
Reply
#74
Dave,

use MediaInfo to make sure your .flac file is 6-ch and not 2-ch (I'm guessing it is 6-ch and alsa is only passing 2-ch out via HDMI).
Reply
#75
Check the eac3to thread on Doom9. To do some of the codecs you need 3rd party codecs, the internal codec is all I've used but I know it checks for others. First post in that thread speaks to this as to what is "best" and what is needed for what...
Openelec Gotham, MCE remote(s), Intel i3 NUC, DVDs fed from unRAID cataloged by DVD Profiler. HD-DVD encoded with Handbrake to x.264. Yamaha receiver(s)
Reply
  • 1
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5(current)
  • 6
  • 7
  • 8

Logout Mark Read Team Forum Stats Members Help
HDMI AUDIO a Success finally4