Hi all,
I looked around quite a bit, but either the topic was outdated or full of confusing contradictions.
I currently have XBMC Live running on a Asrock ION/330, connected to a Onkyo TX-SR875 with support for ALL current HD Audio formats (Dolby TrueHD, DTS-HD, DTS-HD MA, 7.1 LPCM).
XBMC outputs DTS and Dolby Digital very nicely to my receiver, but since upgrading my fileserver and have room to spare, I want to view my BluRay originals in all of it's audio/video glory through XBMC instead of my PS3.
For this to happen, I have to be able to either
1) IDEALLY: bitstream the HD audio streams to my receiver
2) ALSO GREAT: decode the HD audio streams to (7.1) LPCM and send it to the receiver.
I read about WASAPI support in the Windows version of XBMC and about updated ffmpeg libraries that may or may not be able to this.
So my question is: will (the upcoming version of) XBMC support HD audio, on systems capable of outputting this.
Also: what formats are currently supported as a container for BluRay? Ofcourse, Matroska is there to party and I know .M2TS is supported too. But what I couldn't find a definitive answer on is whether .iso will work too? Any other formats I've might have missed?
Few things:
1. IONs don't support HD bitstreaming in the hardware. That feature is locked up with DRM junk- it might be a while before a card bitstreams HD audio in Linux.
2. You can't use Blu Ray ISOs on XBMC because it can't decrypt Blu Ray disks- so stick to m2ts files
3. I have successfully gotten my ION board to send multichannel PCM audio to my receiver. I am able to decode and passthrough LPCM audio and Dolby True HD audio. Only DTS HD audio doesn't get decoded- and from the looks of the nature of the codec decoding support might be a few years off- the DTS core is passed though instead.
Bad news?
I am pretty good with Linux (used it since 2004, was a mod for the Ubuntu forums for a while, etc.) and getting my ION box to do this trick with audio was easily the hardest thing I have done with computers in a long time (and I hackintosh daily).
Basically the problem is that any Linux Nvidia driver that is not 185 EXACTLY does not have support (aka in newer drivers the support is broken). So that means you have to use Ubuntu 9.10 as the base.
But in order for the multichannel PCM to work in 9.10 a newer version of ALSA is required than the distro ships with. So you must compile a newer ALSA and update all the proper files, then you will get this working. No fun at all...
You can't start with XBMC 9.11 Live- it by defaults comes with a newer Nvidia driver than 185. So you have to roll your own from scratch.
Below is the guide I used, and on the thread I added the extra notes about what worked for me. But know one thing- the guide is NOT idiot proof. It really kind of used my Linux knowledge because the guide writer assumes you know a decent bit about Linux. But considering the fact that there is no alternative currently, well I think you get the idea:
http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=71609
Good luck!
poofyhairguy Wrote:Few things:
1. IONs don't support HD bitstreaming in the hardware. That feature is locked up with DRM junk- it might be a while before a card bitstreams HD audio in Linux.
2. You can't use Blu Ray ISOs on XBMC because it can't decrypt Blu Ray disks- so stick to m2ts files
3. I have successfully gotten my ION board to send multichannel PCM audio to my receiver. I am able to decode and passthrough LPCM audio and Dolby True HD audio. Only DTS HD audio doesn't get decoded- and from the looks of the nature of the codec decoding support might be a few years off- the DTS core is passed though instead.
Bad news?
I am pretty good with Linux (used it since 2004, was a mod for the Ubuntu forums for a while, etc.) and getting my ION box to do this trick with audio was easily the hardest thing I have done with computers in a long time (and I hackintosh daily).
Basically the problem is that any Linux Nvidia driver that is not 185 EXACTLY does not have support (aka in newer drivers the support is broken). So that means you have to use Ubuntu 9.10 as the base.
But in order for the multichannel PCM to work in 9.10 a newer version of ALSA is required than the distro ships with. So you must compile a newer ALSA and update all the proper files, then you will get this working. No fun at all...
You can't start with XBMC 9.11 Live- it by defaults comes with a newer Nvidia driver than 185. So you have to roll your own from scratch.
Below is the guide I used, and on the thread I added the extra notes about what worked for me. But know one thing- the guide is NOT idiot proof. It really kind of used my Linux knowledge because the guide writer assumes you know a decent bit about Linux. But considering the fact that there is no alternative currently, well I think you get the idea:
http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=71609
Good luck!
How about the newer ION2 with a GT220/230/240? These have an onboard audio chipset (Realtek, I believe), comparable what ATi already has for a long time.
They support Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD MA through the HDMI connection, it's just a matter of passing it through.
Edit: the above is incorrect, NVidia only supports 8-channel LPCM, no bitstreaming!
But bitstreaming support is currently not working with Linux? What about in Windows with WASAPI in the upcoming release? I'd settle with conversion to LPCM under Linux, if bitstreaming is not available.
I just noticed these two interesting features for the upcoming XBMC release:
- Added support for WASAPI (Windows Audio Session API) for raw bitstream output
- Added support for unencrypted Blu-ray Disc playback (via libbluray and libbdnav) without menus
Regarding the first, does this mean that if you have either a
- Ati HD5xxx videocard, or
- Intel Core i3 processor, or
- Asus/Auzentech HD audiocard
you will be able to select the WASAPI audio output device in the XBMC settings and have it bitstream the HD audio to the receiver? I know that this requires Windows and cannot be done on Linux/OSX.
Secondly, does the support for unencrypted BluRay disc support mean I won't have to extract the .m2ts file(s) from .iso images, and that the library scraper recognizes the BDMV directory structure? Or does this only apply to physical BluRay discs?
Sorry to revive an old thread, but my popcorn hour has packed in and I want to go to using XBMC.
Is it possible yet to bitstream HD audio?
Thanks
Leo
well yeah, you can bitstream HD audio but you need the correct video card for that,,,
leo79 Wrote:Is it possible yet to bitstream HD audio?
Not quite yet, but it's close. The code is there and works for a wide range of video cards and chipsets, on both Linux and Windows, but it's still being developed, tested and refined. Check this thread for updates:
http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=78289
What is about converting True HD and DTS HD to flac?
Is that also a big problem?
Evin Wrote:What is about converting True HD and DTS HD to flac?
Is that also a big problem?
I don't know what you are talking about, why would you want to convert TrueHD and DTS-MA to FLAC? The whole point is to keep it in its native format so it gets decoded by your receiver.
Thanks for the replies.
Apologies for being ignorant on the subject, but why is that popcorn hour and similar media players can bitstream HD audio?
I was looking to get something like the Acer Aspire Revo R3610 or a half decent laptop. Solely to play M2TS files with HD audio, and to play my music collection.
If I was to run XBMC to play HD Audio would it be better to custom build a PC to do this.
Thanks
Leo
leo79 Wrote:Thanks for the replies.
Apologies for being ignorant on the subject, but why is that popcorn hour and similar media players can bitstream HD audio?
Commercial products usually do this faster than free ones, because the commercial projects are backed by millions of dollars for R&D and they can pay whatever license fees that are required.
Since XBMC is free and developed by volonteers, they usually have to find workarounds. That would be my guess at least.
Praesten Wrote:Commercial products usually do this faster than free ones, because the commercial projects are backed by millions of dollars for R&D and they can pay whatever license fees that are required.
Since XBMC is free and developed by volonteers, they usually have to find workarounds. That would be my guess at least.
That's part of it, but the most important part is that most commercial products are based off of a SoC (System on a chip) or platform that has built in support and an easy to use method (SDK) to provide those features (Sigma, Intel, Tegra, all do this). With XBMC, the devs have to write generic code that works across multiple platforms and hardware (Windows/Linux/Mac and Nvidia/ATI/Intel), so it takes much longer to develop and test this, but more people can utilize them.
I currently have the zbox HD-ID34 which cannot bitssream True HD or DTS_MA. I was thinking about purchasing this one
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...-_-Product
which can bitstream them both. I will be using XBMC with Linux. It still wouldnt be possible being that XBMC does not support DTS-MA correct?
Currently I am on Linux with a nVidia graphics card and I can bitstream DTS-HD MA, but not TrueHD yet (although it can be decoded to LPCM so you can at least hear it.)
Look here for more info.
http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=96316