[Chrissssssss]

I have a Gigabyte K8N51GMF which has an onboard SPDIF connector but can't get it to work with XBMC. I've made my own cable to connect to my amp and when connected the amp shows its little "digital" symbol so it seems to be connected ok.

When I play anything I get no audio, the amp stays on Stereo and never changed to DD/DTS.

Any ideas what I could do to get this working?

[stoli]

Does it work outside of xbmc? If not, spend the $5 for a real cable and not a homemade one.

[Chrissssssss]

Options I have for the passthrough connection are:
hdmi
iec958
Intel ICH iec958 (it's not an Intel board?)
SB Live! Value [CT4670] iec958

The SB Live I would like to take out but it does work with passthrough audio.

[Chrissssssss]

Does it work outside of xbmc? If not, spend the $5 for a real cable and not a homemade one.

I'm not sure. I've only ever tried it with XBMC. Would be a good idea to make sure it does though. Hmm, how can I do that easily?

[Chrissssssss]

Just installed Windows 7 on a spare drive. Had to download generic Realtek AC97 drivers as the Gigabyte ones were 5 years old and not supported in W7.

Anyway, got both digital passthrough and digital umm, not passthrough normal audio working so it's definitely an issue with XMBC/Linux.

Do I need to install some driver for that too?

[Chrissssssss]

After many hours of playing with things I have made things worse I tried installing the Alsa drivers to use with the onboard AC97. Things seemed to install ok but removed my SB Live! drivers and said it couldn't initialise sound device when trying to play a video.

Tried installing a newer version with autoconf/automake and now the audio settings screen crashes XBMC

[Chrissssssss]

Not having any luck with this. Might just use the W7 install I setup yesterday which the SPDIF works with. Also with that I didn't get the pause issue I do with the SB Live! in XBMC Live.

[gsgleason]

Every linux install I've done has the spdif muted by default, and you have to run alsamixer as root (think sudo) to unmute the channel and save the config.

[Chrissssssss]

Just reinstalled XBMC Live as I totally messed up the previous drivers.

Ran alsamixer and spdif was muted. Unmuted now but still no sound. Turned up SPDIF Playback too, nothing.

Changed the index of HDMI and my SB Live card to -2 so Intel IHC (AC97 I want to use) is now the default.

Anyone have any other ideas before I give up?

[Chrissssssss]

Another update. Found a script to install the newer alsa version. Still no sound. Tried the SB Live again, worked fine. Checked alsamixer and master, sprig and other were all muted on the SBL but still worked. Can't get PCM or passthrough with the onboard.

[Chrissssssss]

Couldn't get this working so have settled for a W7 install instead. Takes longer to boot and shutdown and I'm not sure if the CPU usage is higher playing videos. At least the sound works ok though.

The UI also seems smoother in Windows. Some themes would be too slow on the underpowered Sempron which work (mostly) fine now and lists with fanart no longer get stuck on random movies while the fanart loads.

[kjell]

Hi Chris,

I feel your pain. I can get my sound working just fine in Linux, but XBMC is another story. It seems horrible in this area, which is sad. I've tweaked my settings for days now, but it's either an either or thing. If PCM works (DTS/DD/AC3) there is no music support and vice versa. There is just no way to get XBMC to switch between audio and non audio mode (iecset audio on/off)

I would suggest starting with this guide http://alsa.opensrc.org/DigitalOut ..it's quite good to atleast nail down your linux config. Do not attempt XBMC before you atleast have your sounds working in Linux ok. As much as I like XBMC, the video and sound in linux is lacking big time.