Hi there,
I recently bought a Acer Revo 3610 to create a Media PC for the front room by installing Ubuntu + XBMC. I installed Ubuntu with ease and since i am relatively new to Ubuntu i folowed some online guides to to install XBMC, again with very few issues.
I have an older Yamaha Amp which does not have HDMI input and therefore wish to use the digital optical SPDIF out provided by the REVO for all sound whilst outputting video via HDMI. After fiddling and reading lots of forums i have managed to get almost there but not quite enough for me to be satisfied..... Summary of my issue is that I can succesffuly play music via SPDIF in Ubuntu apps and XBMC but attempting to playback video in XBMC i get a "Failed to initialize audio device" blah blah. Strangely if i fiddle with the audio source on the DVD playback menu it suddenly kicks in and my amp gets dolby dts OK. So it does work but not without manually fiddling!! So here is what i did:
-- Installed Ubuntu following a recent forum guide ensuring i downloaded the up to date NVidia ION drivers
-- Hooked up the TV via the HDMI port
-- fired up alsalmixer and unmuted all sound channels
-- fired up sound preferences and changed audio output to "Digital Stereo (IEC958) + Analog Stereo Input"
-- fired up XBMC and changed the System Sound Output settings as follows:
Audio Output=Digital
Dolby AC3 Capable Receiver=true (ticked)
DTS Capable Receiver=true (ticked)
Audio Output Device="Internal Audio Digital Stereo (IEC958)"
Passthrough Device=iec958
Downmix Multichannel=true (ticked but i have also tried this as unticked)
With this setup XBMC plays my music files via SPDIF with no complaints but when playing a DVD rip (no compression from VOB files) the video plays fine but i get no sound and errors "Failed To Initialize Audio Device". If however i then go into the audio settings whilst the video is playing and toggle the "Audio Stream" option from 1/2 to 2/2 and back again the sound suddenly kicks in and my amp reports digital DTS as it should and i am free to listen to which ever audio source for the video that i want ..... very weird.
I have read and read and read many threads on similar issues but nothing either matches my exact issue or it seems to out of date to risk it being valid for the current versions of software i have. Any help would be greatly appreciated. As soon as i figure out how to attach a file onto this thread I will attach the XBMC debug log
P.S. I'm not a complete linux newbie but nor am i an expert so please be gentle with me!!!
Muchas gracias!
Still figuring out how to attach the log but meanwhile this looks like the pertinent error snippet from the log:
21:05:12 T:2875026288 M:1419575296 ERROR: Initialize - failed to open custom device iec958:AES0=0x6,AES1=0x82,AES2=0x0,AES3=0x2, retry with default iec958
21:05:12 T:3078035328 M:1419575296 ERROR: XLCDproc::SetBackLight - Unable to write to socket
21:05:12 T:2875026288 M:1419575296 ERROR: Initialize - pcm_open_lconf, alsa error: -16 - Device or resource busy
21:05:12 T:2875026288 M:1419575296 DEBUG: SetActiveDevice - SetActiveDevice from 2 to 1
21:05:12 T:2875026288 M:1419575296 DEBUG: RemoveActiveDevice - Removing device 2
21:05:12 T:2875026288 M:1419575296 ERROR: Creating a Null Audio Renderer, Check your audio settings as this should not happen
21:05:12 T:2875026288 M:1419575296 DEBUG: RemoveActiveDevice - Removing device 1
What worked for me was to go to System->Preferences->Sound Click on the Hardware tab and change it to Analog Stereo Duplex. I know it sounds weird but it works... at least on my machine.
Then I ran "gstreamer-properties" from the terminal and changed the Audio Plugin to ALSA,, for Device I put it to Digital.
Try it.
Jerry
Hi jawilljr, thanks for your reply. I will certainly try this when i get home from work but as you say it does sound weird since i would assume that setting the sound preferences in Ubuntu to "Analog Stereo Duplex" would output an analog signal via the Revo SPDIF to my av amp which of course is not what i want ...... I'll let u know how i get on.
I have read lots of threads on issues with PulseAudio, Alsa in and each solution seems to be different so i am reluctant to follow these since some threads are quite old and others not quite representative of my setup.
P.S. I just read the thread:
http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=34655 and now know how to upload the log file so will do when i get home if anyone is interested.
Hi, i posted my the XBMC log here:
http://pastebin.ubuntu.com/448394/
I also notice something interesting. If I open System > Preferences > Sound and look in the applications tab (applications that are outputting sound) then play a music file via RythemBox, then RythemBox is displayed. Similarly if I play an audio track through XBMC this also displays. On starting a video i get the initialize failure and when i fiddle with the audio stream to get it to output sound through my amp then XBMC IS NOT displayed as an app outputting audio ....... I am assuming therefore that whatever XBMC has done has bypassed the PulseAudio server and is using Alsa directly ??
I'm still puzzled as to what the hell is going on .... this really ought to be more straight forward ....
hi jawilljr, just to let you know i tried the steps you suggested and whilst that it did sort out the automatic play back of video (i.e no initialize errors), i know get the initialize errors when trying to play music ...... something still isnt right with my setup so would appreciate any help!!
Hi Macca McK
I have the same, Acer Revo 3610 and also a similar setup. My audio i splayed through an Outlaw Audio preamp/amp setup which has DVI video only. So i have an HDMI-->DVI cable from the Revo to the preamp and run the audio over optical SPDIF. I have an Infocus projector w/108" screen. Audio is 7.1 speaker arrangement.
and like you i have:
Audio Output=Digital
Dolby AC3 Capable Receiver=true (ticked)
DTS Capable Receiver=true (ticked)
Audio Output Device="Internal Audio Digital Stereo (IEC958)"
Passthrough Device=iec958
Downmix Multichannel=true (ticked but i have also tried this as unticked)
I am using XBMC Live 9.11 v14 booting from a USB thumb drive. The install is unmodified in any way ... yet
So finally last night i managed to attempt movie playback.
tried: DVD ... VOB folder rip ... all worked flawless
tried: M2TS BluRay folder rip ... works great but NO center channel
tried: HD-DVD folder rip (can't recall file extension) ... works great but NO center channel
so i'm pretty close, as you are. but on HD movies i'm missing the center channel.
maybe you can help me with the Alsamixer edit and how to enable all channels? maybe for me the default is the center channel is disabled for some reason?
thanks!
steve
oh, i should add, that when i try different audio streams there is one that gives center channel audio ... but it is always the directors edit that has the director talking his way through the movie and what he was doing ...
Hi sfleck, I can't comment specifically about your setup and issue since i'm still struggling with my own!! The alsamixer utility can be run from a command shell (Applications > Accessories > Terminal) by typing alsamixer. This should show your outputs and on the Revo boxes the iec958 digital outputs (renamed SP/DIF in ubuntu v 10.4) are usually muted denoted by "MM". First peice in all of this puzzle was to unmute all these outputs so you can get sound from either HDMI or Optical SP/DIF.
Anyway my own problems is not going away without a fight ..... I did a fresh re-install of Ubuntu 10.4 (Lucid Lynx) and put XBMC on immediately without taking any OS updates or fiddling with anything else. After setting ubuntu sound preferences to IEC958 Digital i opened XBMC and changed the audio settings to Digital IEC958. Suprise surprise, I get menu sounds OK, music plays OK but the damn video playback will not automatically work. I get failed to initialize yet again. Toggling the audio stream seems to give XBMC a kick up the arse and suddenly i get Dolby or DTS etc sound through the amp.
Since Ubunut version 10.4 is relatively new i had the bright idea to downgrade and just did a fresh install of version 9.10 (Karmic). Sad to say that after installing XBMC, i get the exact same issue with the sound playback in video mode.
I can therefore only deduce that this is either an XBMC bug, a specific issue with the hardware (Revo 3610) or me being really stupid. I'm happy for anyone to tell me its any of those .... even if it means its the third one ;-)
macca_mck Wrote:Since Ubunut version 10.4 is relatively new i had the bright idea to downgrade and just did a fresh install of version 9.10 (Karmic). Sad to say that after installing XBMC, i get the exact same issue with the sound playback in video mode.
I'll just throw this out here, in the XBMC audio setup section there is a place where XBMC asks about the capabilities of your receiver. If these are set incorrectly, I get the "failed to initialize" message. I think I wound up ticking AC3 and DTS (or whatever the first couple of choices are, can't recall offhand) and unticking everything else - when I just ticked everything, then I had the same issue you're having (and I'm also running Karmic now).
HI, thanks for the response. I will try that later today although i'm sure i've tried that. I think i am going to draw up on paper a truth table of all possible audio options in XBMC and try each one in turn with a controlled restart of XBMC and Ubuntu after each (to be "really" sure they have applied
) and then see what results i get. At the moment i have tried that many different possible combo of options its hard to tell what i have or havent tried
. I'll try this on both 9.10 and 10.4 since ideally i would like to be on the latest Ubuntu release and report back. If i cant get it working then i will more than likely file a bug with the dev's to allow them to tell me i'm probably being stupid
right ....i haven't solved the problem (yet) but after testing many different options in XBMC on many different fresh installs i managed to home in on the "killer" option that gives me the "Failed to initialize audio" error in video playback. In System > System > Audio Output menu there are, amongst other things the following two options:
- Dolby Digital (AC3) capable receiver
- DTS capable receiver
well..... basically if i select "-Dolby Digital (AC3) capable receiver" option then i get the initialize error..... if i dont select this then i dont get initialize error and i hear audio output BUT my amp reports that its just PCM so i'm not getting the 5.1 audio stream i should be getting. As i mentioned previously if i fiddle with the Audio stream setting whilst the video is playing back they i get audio and the amp reports dolby. After reading a bit about PulseAudio server and underlying Alsa i assuming what is happening here is that XBMC is failing to use PulseAudio and falling back to Alsa??
Very frustrated ..... so now i know whats is causing the issue i would love to know WHY this is an issue??
sfleck's solution looks interesting but i am yet to try this yet, i was kinda hoping there was a hack free way out of this?
p.s. thanks to XBMCLiveUser who at least led me to suspect that it was those options that were causing the issue...
jawilljr Wrote:What worked for me was to go to System->Preferences->Sound Click on the Hardware tab and change it to Analog Stereo Duplex. I know it sounds weird but it works... at least on my machine.
Then I ran "gstreamer-properties" from the terminal and changed the Audio Plugin to ALSA,, for Device I put it to Digital.
Try it.
Jerry
i have the almost the exact same issue as the OP
so i tried the above, i was over the moon i now have 5.1 DD.
then when watching a movie i can hear all the background noise HOWEVER very poor muffelled speech/ dialog this is driving me nuts! music vids are fine
