[namssa]

Hi,

I have success getting digital audio to passthrough HDMI using VLC but VLC is not as cool as XBMC. Using XBMC I have not had success getting digital audio to pass through. I have set the audio devices as plug:hdmi in the settings for audio device and passthrough device but no luck. Using plugurround51 it will work for analog speakers connected, but when using plug:hdmi XBMC will report an error on the lower right hand corner of the screen "cannot initialize audio device"
Does anybody have any advice for me to get this working? Here is some info about the hardware I am using:

Code:

gamma:~ # aplay -l
**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: NVidia [HDA NVidia], device 0: VT1708B Analog [VT1708B Analog]
  Subdevices: 2/2
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
  Subdevice #1: subdevice #1
card 0: NVidia [HDA NVidia], device 1: VT1708B Digital [VT1708B Digital]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: NVidia [HDA NVidia], device 3: NVIDIA HDMI [NVIDIA HDMI]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

gamma:~ # aplay -L
null
    Discard all samples (playback) or generate zero samples (capture)
front:CARD=NVidia,DEV=0
    HDA NVidia, VT1708B Analog
    Front speakers
surround40:CARD=NVidia,DEV=0
    HDA NVidia, VT1708B Analog
    4.0 Surround output to Front and Rear speakers
surround41:CARD=NVidia,DEV=0
    HDA NVidia, VT1708B Analog
    4.1 Surround output to Front, Rear and Subwoofer speakers
surround50:CARD=NVidia,DEV=0
    HDA NVidia, VT1708B Analog
    5.0 Surround output to Front, Center and Rear speakers
surround51:CARD=NVidia,DEV=0
    HDA NVidia, VT1708B Analog
    5.1 Surround output to Front, Center, Rear and Subwoofer speakers
surround71:CARD=NVidia,DEV=0
    HDA NVidia, VT1708B Analog
    7.1 Surround output to Front, Center, Side, Rear and Woofer speakers
iec958:CARD=NVidia,DEV=0
    HDA NVidia, VT1708B Digital
    IEC958 (S/PDIF) Digital Audio Output
hdmi:CARD=NVidia,DEV=0
    HDA NVidia, NVIDIA HDMI
    HDMI Audio Output

Also, I cannot use IEC958 output as a substitute, I cannot activate this device on my machine even though it is detected and appears to be configured in ALSA. And using the HDMI would be much more convenient.

[Fry-kun]

This worked for me, see if it helps (nevermind that it's for AppleTV

[namssa]

No luck with that. I managed to get digital audio in mplayer though using the following command... mplayer movie.mkv -ao alsa:device=plughw=0.3 -afm hwac3

I'm getting really close here... if only it worked in xbmc

[Shuriken]

Try the following:

Audio output - hdmi
Audio output device - hwplug:0,3
Passthrough output device - hdmi

[namssa]

no luck with that either
i'm only getting audio from the xbmc program now, like when switching through menus
i did notice this error show up when i tried to play 2 channel audio though:
ALSA lib pcm.c:2211snd_pcm_open_noupdate) Unknown PCM hwplug:0,3
which is strange....
I also got this error after changing settings to default audio output and hdmi passthrough plug:hdmi
ALSA lib setup.c:96snd_sctl_install) Cannot lock ctl elem

I have a feeling the problem is occuring because XBMC is locking the audio output since the menu sounds are working. I think that's what pulseaudio is for, so we can have multiple audio outputs? But pulseaudio does not support digital passthrough yet so I can't use it.
Any input would be greatly appreciated.

[harryzimm]

Try plughw:0,3

cheers

[namssa]

No luck with anything.
Maybe an OS/hardware issue?
For all you guys who have passthrough working through HDMI can you post your aplay -L and aplay -l as well as distro and kernel version?

Thanks.

[akorolyov]

namssa, did you solve the problem?
I have the same.
Playing media with mplayer, but want to use XBMC, but no audio output =(

[akorolyov]

namsa my problem fixed after upgrade to Ubuntu 10.10 In list play -L appears plughw

for me it work as plughw:1,7

plughw:CARD=NVidia,DEV=3
HDA NVidia, NVIDIA HDMI
Hardware device with all software conversions
plughw:CARD=NVidia,DEV=7
HDA NVidia, NVIDIA HDMI
Hardware device with all software conversions
plughw:CARD=NVidia,DEV=8
HDA NVidia, NVIDIA HDMI
Hardware device with all software conversions
plughw:CARD=NVidia,DEV=9
HDA NVidia, NVIDIA HDMI
Hardware device with all software conversions