2019-12-09, 22:12
As I pointed out in the YouTube thread, if you try to play a video from YouTube that has 5.1 audio in the YouTube addon (such as the "5.1 Dolby Surround Test") the sound that is supposed to come out of the rear channels come out of the front channels instead, and the subwoofer remains silent. Download the same video (as we probably all know there are many ways to do that) and put it in your videos directory and play it from there (using Kodi, but not the YouTube addon) and all the channels play as they should. What I would like to know is, is this a problem that's common to all video addons (maybe because of the way addons interface with Kodi) or is it an issue specific to the YouTube addon? I'm running Ubuntu 18.04 using ALSA audio (pulseaudio is disabled system wide, and I start Kodi using "KODI_AE_SINK=ALSA kodi --standalone" just to make sure it's using ALSA) in case that makes any difference. Kodi has no problem playing local content in beautiful 5.1 audio, so why the issue with streaming audio?
Of course with many addons this would not be an issue, because the underlying service offers little or nothing with 5.1 audio, in fact I suspect most YouTube videos are stereo-only (but then how would I know if they weren't?). But on those services that let you watch movies or recent TV shows, it would definitely detract from the experience if the full audio stream isn't being passed. So the question i am asking is whether this is a problem that is limited to certain addons only, or is it a problem in Kodi itself that limits how addons can play back audio?
Of course with many addons this would not be an issue, because the underlying service offers little or nothing with 5.1 audio, in fact I suspect most YouTube videos are stereo-only (but then how would I know if they weren't?). But on those services that let you watch movies or recent TV shows, it would definitely detract from the experience if the full audio stream isn't being passed. So the question i am asking is whether this is a problem that is limited to certain addons only, or is it a problem in Kodi itself that limits how addons can play back audio?