Kodi Community Forum

(2017-04-12, 11:55)mohshadow17 Wrote: [ -> ]Hi guys. Difficult to understand all what is explained on the 50 first page.... but I tried.... API.... Shitty ("Merdique" en francais.... that doesn't inspire me... or need help)
The facts for me are clear. DTS Passthrough worked well before (Jarvis) and not in Kody 17.1. (Can't confirm in Kodi 17 only used 4 days before an update was proposed to me.
My devices: Android Box Beelink GT1 AMLOGIC S912 plugged by toshlink SPDIF with my A/V receiver Onkyo SR307 DTS capable (seems not DTS HD)
On a DTS movie, no sound at all by Passthrough, so I must disable Passtrough in movie setup. Concerning Dolby Digital 5.1 movies, no problem at all.
I don't really understand where comming from the issue... and most important for me how to correct it if it is possible.
If someone enough capable to help a (french) noob.. Thx a lot.

Its simple - that AMLogic S912 device you have does not have the required IEC Audio Support now required by Kodi Krypton.
There is nothing Kodi developers can do. Its a Firmware issue your seller has to sort out for you with an update.
Kodi cannot help with device Firmware.

Its all explained in Post #2 of this very thread:
http://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=...pid2409146

You will have to Transcode DTS Audio to AC3 basically.

OK thx you wrxtasy!! I will be patient since a new delivery from my box...

Again more confusion as according to amazon FireTV is IEC61937 compliant. A reference was made earlier to it being broken which is where I'm trying to close the gap. Is it broken and if so is there a documented bug with amazon on it? Otherwise the explanations provided seem to be missing something, or I'm completely daft, or both ...

https://developer.amazon.com/public/solu...guidelines



Sent from my iPhone

(2017-04-12, 16:40)kraka40 Wrote: [ -> ]Again more confusion as according to amazon FireTV is IEC61937 compliant. A reference was made earlier to it being broken which is where I'm trying to close the gap. Is it broken and if so is there a documented bug with amazon on it? Otherwise the explanations provided seem to be missing something, or I'm completely daft, or both ...

https://developer.amazon.com/public/solu...guidelines



Sent from my iPhone (typie typie)

You're probably not reading it correctly

(2017-04-12, 16:49)Martijn Wrote: [ -> ]

(2017-04-12, 16:40)kraka40 Wrote: [ -> ]Again more confusion as according to amazon FireTV is IEC61937 compliant. A reference was made earlier to it being broken which is where I'm trying to close the gap. Is it broken and if so is there a documented bug with amazon on it? Otherwise the explanations provided seem to be missing something, or I'm completely daft, or both ...

https://developer.amazon.com/public/solu...guidelines



Sent from my iPhone (typie typie)

You're probably not reading it correctly

I guess... for gen1 I agree but for gen2 looks like they support passthrough.

I'll keep reading up. Per previous post that talks about the PCM Hack... is there a description of what that is?


Sent from my iPhone

Ok I am not a programmer, I don’t really understand the explanation in the first post of this thread. Actually I don't think it is explained very well, it looks like it was written by someone that can’t write very good English.

But please, can someone explain to me this simple question:

How come on Android boxes, passthrough works with every other android player app (i.e. box native player, MX-player, ES explorer player and on and on and on), while it won’t work with KODI player? Even in KODI 16 on many many devices passthrough didn’t work properly, or when it worked there were audio drop-outs and many other problems, while in other apps it worked flawlessly.

Why does KODI struggle with the passthrough issue, and how do the other apps do it?

(2017-04-13, 02:49)achilles_t7 Wrote: [ -> ]Ok I am not a programmer, I don’t really understand the explanation in the first post of this thread. Actually I don't think it is explained very well, it looks like it was written by someone that can’t write very good English.

But please, can someone explain to me this simple question:

How come on Android boxes, passthrough works with every other android player app (i.e. box native player, MX-player, ES explorer player and on and on and on), while it won’t work with KODI player? Even in KODI 16 on many many devices passthrough didn’t work properly, or when it worked there were audio drop-outs and many other problems, while in other apps it worked flawlessly.

Why does KODI struggle with the passthrough issue, and how do the other apps do it?

Pass-through works perfectly in Kodi.
Device's firmwares are the problem as it doesn't support Google's official Android API for audio, IEC61937.
Kodi is an open-source app and developers can't spend months to add 1000 different hacks to make every Android device that use different ways to manage pass-through work. It would all end up in a disaster and be obsolete very quickly.
You must remember pass-through was only added by Google in Android Marshmallow and HD Audio only in Android Nougat, all other Android versions used different hacks to make it work. But even with newer Android OS's, lots of manufacturers don't follow Google's guidelines and implement IEC61937 correctly.

Other apps like MXPlayer have paid versions or add-sponsored versions where they get money and sign NDA's with lots of Android manufacturers to use their closed source code to manage video/audio playback.

The first post sets everything out very clearly, not sure what you don't understand?

(2017-04-13, 02:49)achilles_t7 Wrote: [ -> ]Ok I am not a programmer, I don’t really understand the explanation in the first post of this thread.

If you use Windows, this example help to understand the situation.

Firmware for your box = driver for your soundcard
Official Android API for audio = Windows DirectSound API

If your soudcard driver not proper, you will not have sound in apps that use DirectSound API.

(2017-04-13, 04:45)mo123 Wrote: [ -> ]Pass-through works perfectly in Kodi.
Device's firmwares are the problem as it doesn't support Google's official Android API for audio, IEC61937.
Kodi is an open-source app and developers can't spend months to add 1000 different hacks to make every Android device that use different ways to manage pass-through work. It would all end up in a disaster and be obsolete very quickly.
You must remember pass-through was only added by Google in Android Marshmallow and HD Audio only in Android Nougat, all other Android versions used different hacks to make it work. But even with newer Android OS's, lots of manufacturers don't follow Google's guidelines and implement IEC61937 correctly.

Other apps like MXPlayer have paid versions or add-sponsored versions where they get money and sign NDA's with lots of Android manufacturers to use their closed source code to manage video/audio playback.

The first post sets everything out very clearly, not sure what you don't understand?

Ok I get what you are saying.. I guess that is true, most android apps update frequently, so they have the capacity to apply hacks and fixes for all devices all the time. Also I guess for KODI to support the official Android API for audio, it means that it can support virtually everything, including the latest HD formats. So we just have to hope that device makers will be forced to conform sooner or later.

I am the owner of one of the few TV boxes which actually come with Android 7 nougat and I know they are working on the firmware, so let’s see..

Honestly, I am really thankful to all the guys who work on KODI, they are awesome, hope it gets better and better.

Anybody can explain, why this small test file with DTS 5.1 audiotrack:
http://www.demo-world.eu/download-sd-tra...rience.jpg
(click on image to download)
will hiccup during playback with KODI 17.0 and 17.1 (on an X92 [AMLogic S912] box), and also I get no sound at all with passthrough DTS audio option enabled (the "DTS" icon on receiver display lights up, but all channel icons are off - normally I would see L/C/R/LFE/SL/SC/SR lighted, depending on which channels are present in the stream).
If I enable "encode to AC3" and disable DTS direct output, the sound is okay (multi-channel), but the video still hiccups.

At the same time, it plays absolutely flawlessly in SPMC, no hiccups, receiver happily decodes the DTS stream.

With "real-world" videos with DTS audiotracks I sometimes get no video hiccups, but still no sound if I enable direct DTS output.

I'm not 100% sure, but sometime, long ago, in a galaxy far, far away I've seen the above test video running flawlessly on same box with KODI 17.

UPDATE: Installed kodi-20170411-a4896c0-shitty-armeabi-v7a.apk. The DTS sound is back, but video still hiccups!
At the same time, kodi-20170411-91c472b-notsoshitty-armeabi-v7a.apk - no DTS sound, same problems as in 17.1 release!

UPDATE2: I have disabled "amcodec" video acceleration in SPMC, leaving only both "MediaCodec"; the video still plays fine, so it's not related to Android video acceleration support. It rather looks to me like an audio/video sync problem. Video hiccups in KODI 17 will go away if I disable hardware acceleration (both MediaCodec options), but that's obviously not a solution.

C'Mon this has already been all explained in Post#2 of this very thread and 2 times already in this actual forum Page as well.

You have No IEC Audio support in the Firmware of the X92 S912.

Buy a box with decent Firmware or pester your seller for a proper update.

Good luck !

I am not going to open up a discussion about video playback smoothness in a Audio only thread, but I will say demanding AMLogic Kodi Krypton users need to use LibreELEC Kodi Krypton.

Ah, I have read it again (I read it before but think I missed the details about DTS).
I have Marshmallow (API23) on my ATV. How I can check if the "IEC61937 Audio Standard" is present in my firmware? Are there any programs to test this API?
What's the right thread to report the video smoothness problem? It is a degradation compared to older KODI versions; maybe it's still somehow related to DTS as I observe it on all three test files with DTS 5.1 audio, and there are no problems with other test files with other audio track formats.

http://kodi.wiki/view/Log_file/Easy

I will repeat again - all your problems including Video Playback, are related to crap Firmware
And I doubt they will get fixed either, because you bought a Firmware unsupported S912 device from a "Ship & Forget" seller.

99% of AMLogic S912 devices on the market, are the worst combo going for Kodi Krypton compatibility. The only half decent AML S912 is the MINIX U9-H, but that too still has niggling Firmware issues.

This post explains what has happened.

And this START HERE - Pick the Right Kodi Box (updated April 2017) thread contains plenty of AMLogic S912 warnings.

If unsatisfied sell the AML S912 you have to some other victim person. These is nothing Kodi can do to help you.

I've spent a few hours reading the first tens of pages of this thread. Pretty thrilling reading! :-D
Now I understand the whole depth of the depths of the passthrough audio problem
And I appreciate your patience for you not killing me immediately after posting the 1001th identic question "help, DTS isn't working"

Here's the debug log from a fresh clean installation of KODI 17.1: http://pastebin.ca/3796088
I only entered settings and enabled AC3 & DTS passthrough (no EAC3 & DTSHD as my AV receiver doesn't support it).
Enabled debug log, restarted KODI and launched the test video.

And here's from kodi-20170411-a4896c0-shitty-armeabi-v7a.apk, if it matters:
http://pastebin.ca/3796083

The logs were recorded while playing the test file above. With KODI 17.1 the sound is missing (AV receiver displays "DTS" but sometimes "Dolby" blinks in, and all channel icons are off, looks like it's puzzled). With the 'shitty' version sound is okay, but video hiccups anyway.

If I read the logs correctly, it looks like the firmware reports as supported every possible audio passthrough format, but the implementation is incorrect?
Who is responsible for the incorrect implementation (incorrect IEC framing, I suppose), google or amlogic?

(2017-04-15, 00:32)anpaza Wrote: [ -> ]I've spent a few hours reading the first tens of pages of this thread. Pretty thrilling reading! :-D
Now I understand the whole depth of the depths of the passthrough audio problem
And I appreciate your patience for you not killing me immediately after posting the 1001th identic question "help, DTS isn't working"

Here's the debug log from a fresh clean installation of KODI 17.1: http://pastebin.ca/3796088
I only entered settings and enabled AC3 & DTS passthrough (no EAC3 & DTSHD as my AV receiver doesn't support it).
Enabled debug log, restarted KODI and launched the test video.

And here's from kodi-20170411-a4896c0-shitty-armeabi-v7a.apk, if it matters:
http://pastebin.ca/3796083

The logs were recorded while playing the test file above. With KODI 17.1 the sound is missing (AV receiver displays "DTS" but sometimes "Dolby" blinks in, and all channel icons are off, looks like it's puzzled). With the 'shitty' version sound is okay, but video hiccups anyway.

If I read the logs correctly, it looks like the firmware reports as supported every possible audio passthrough format, but the implementation is incorrect?
Who is responsible for the incorrect implementation (incorrect IEC framing, I suppose), google or amlogic?

Your device doesn't support normal DTS or IEC61937, only RAW pass-through that is not supported by Kodi 17.
The manufacturer of the GT1 tv box, namely Beelink is responsible for most of the Amlogic S912 mess.
But you have a X92 that is even worse as it's a no name factory producing it with no way to contact the manufacturer for a firmware update.
Amlogic already implemented the pass-through changes in their source code but manufacturers are too lazy to get it and would rather release new devices to get payment a second time from customers.