Kodi Community Forum

When playing movies in XBMC I only get sound from my front (left & right) speakers but no sound from center or rear speakers. The HTPC (upgraded Dell Optiplex GX620) is connected to the TV through HDMI and to my Marantz SR8300 AV-Receiver with use of a optical cable.

I’ve selected below options in XBMC under Settings / System / Audio output:
- Optical / Coaxial
- 5.1
- DTS capable receiver
- Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Audio

Remark: another strange thing is when I select Dolby Digital (AC3) Capable Receiver, I get the following error message: failed to initialize audio device / check your audio settings. This is strange because although my receiver is 7 years old in my understanding it is AC3 capable. See link for specs on the receiver. http://www.marantz.eu/attachments/produc...ual_en.pdf
I know for sure that the AV-Receiver is set up correctly and cabling is done right as well because when I play a movie with PowerDVD I get 5.1 sound. (Use S/PDIF selected in PowerDVD)

As it works in PowerDVD I think it’s got something to do with a Dolby / DTS pass-through error with XBMC as the soundcard is not capable to do decoding XBMC must be told this need to be done by the receiver

Anyway I hope somebody on the forum can help me as I’m already searching the internet for 3 days to find a solution for my problem.

Additional info:
- Sound card = Creative Labs X-Fi Xtreme Audio PCI-E 7.1 PCI-E
- Onboard video and audio is disabled in BIOS

I knew this was hard to answer but not that hard!!! I had hoped there were some experts on the forum who could help me out

Anyway as I get surround sound when playing movies with PowerDVD would it be a good solution to try to get PowerDWD integrated in XBMC? Or will this not work as the settings in XBMC under Settings / System / Audio output overrule the settings from PowerDVD?

Is it actual possible to use PowerDVD instead of the build in player in XBMC? And what will happen with your artwork, will this still be visuable before you start playing a movie

Or will my problem being solved by buying an other sound card

You can use an external player in XBMC. Do a search for external player on the forums and the wiki (start here).

As for the orginal problem - NFI.

rocketpants Wrote:You can use an external player in XBMC. Do a search for external player on the forums and the wiki (start here).

As for the orginal problem - NFI.

Thanks for your reply.
I had already read that you were able to use an external player and therefore I had downloaded MPC-HC. I tried this before starting to integrate it in XBMC but without success. No surround sound either.

So maybe I should give it a go with PowerDVD but what happen with my art work (fanart, posters, thumbnails, …etc.), will this still be visible before you start playing a movie?

Well I tried to use PowerDVD as external player and yes …….. Finally I got surround sound but the picture and sound is stuttering so much that this is not the solution for my problem


So if anybody got an idea how my original problem can be solved please reply as I don’t see any solution

I think the stuttering in PowerDVD can be fixed by fiddling with the playercorefactory.xml lines:


Try changing between false and true. Out of the four combinations I think there is one that works. The problem is due to an interaction between PowerDVD and XBMCs use of the DirectX libraries.

JR

Hi all my problems are solved, not the way I wanted but anyway I finally got surround sound

I suddenly remembered I got an old PC on the loft with a Creative SB Audigy Platinum installed.
So I installed this one and everything works just fine, okay I had to use the ugly Audigy Drive as I needed the optical connection but the HTPC is placed in the stair cupboard so who gives a damn.

Anyway hereby I like to thank everybody for their support.

Thanks