Kodi Community Forum

I have the following system
A Raspberry Pi 3 running the newest OSMC
HDMI cable going from Pi to my TV https://www.panasonic.com/dk/consumer/sm...x780e.html
Then a toslink from the TV to my old soundbar https://hometheaterreview.com/yamaha-ysp...-reviewed/

When I run normal Dolby Digital files I get 5.1 surround
But when a file is encoded with 5.1 Dolby Digital+ my soundbar thinks its 2.0 and it only sends the sound that would come to those 2 channels (For example almost no voice as that would go to the center speaker)

If I change my OSMC "Number of Channels" from 5.1 to 2.1 then it "works" but I don't get surround

In OSMC I have the following settings
Number of Channels: 5.1
Allow passthrough: true
Dolby digital capable receiver: true
Dolby digital plus capable receiver: false
DTS capable receiver: true

In my TV
HDMI Audioformat: Bitstream, if I choose "Automatic" or "PCM" I get the same result, but only bitstream seems to give me surround with Dolby digital

I don't think my HDMI output on my soundbar works anymore which is why I use Toslink

Try enabling AC3 transcoding.

(2019-05-09, 18:31)popcornmix Wrote: [ -> ]Try enabling AC3 transcoding.

Where is that option? I can't find it inside Kodi Audio expert settings

You need to have number of channels set to 2.0 (all that toslink can support).

(2019-05-09, 19:32)popcornmix Wrote: [ -> ]You need to have number of channels set to 2.0 (all that toslink can support).

It supports 5.1 with dolby digital

is this related https://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=333443

(2019-05-09, 21:05)CaptainSkipper Wrote: [ -> ]

(2019-05-09, 19:32)popcornmix Wrote: [ -> ]You need to have number of channels set to 2.0 (all that toslink can support).

It supports 5.1 with dolby digital

is this related https://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=333443  

An ac3 file has only two channels. The 5.1 dolby digital encoding actually stores six channels into two. The receiver decodes the two channels and outputs six. So you need to set your kodi audio as two channels with passthrough to let your receiver decode it properly.

(2019-05-09, 21:19)ArsenoLupino Wrote: [ -> ]

(2019-05-09, 21:05)CaptainSkipper Wrote: [ -> ]

(2019-05-09, 19:32)popcornmix Wrote: [ -> ]DYou need to have number of channels set to 2.0 (all that toslink can support).

It supports 5.1 with dolby digital

is this related https://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=333443   

An ac3 file has only two channels. The 5.1 dolby digital encoding actually stores six channels into two. The receiver decodes the two channels and outputs six. So you need to set your kodi audio as two channels with passthrough to let your receiver decode it properly. 

So when my 2008 soundbar do not support DD+ there is no way to tell kodi to transcode it to DD or some other way? I don't care much that this single file is not surround, I just dont want to go into settings each time and change the number of channels from 5.1 to 2.1 and then to 5.1 when I am done

(2019-05-10, 16:52)CaptainSkipper Wrote: [ -> ]So when my 2008 soundbar do not support DD+ there is no way to tell kodi to transcode it to DD or some other way? I don't care much that this single file is not surround, I just dont want to go into settings each time and change the number of channels from 5.1 to 2.1 and then to 5.1 when I am done 

You should select:
number of channels 2.0 (*always* for toslink - you can still get multichannel audio through AC3/DTS passthrough)
Dolby Digital (AC3) passthrough enabled
AC3 transcode enabled
Dolby digital+ (E-AC3) passthrough disabled
DTS passthrough enabled if soundbar supports it, but if not it's okay it will be transcoded.

and what should happen is AC3 audio will be passed through directly.
E-AC3 will be decoded and reencoded to AC3 and passed through. You should get 5.1 audio out.

If that isn't happening then that would be a bug.