Kodi Community Forum

Let me start off by saying 2 things -

1. I love XBMC
2. I'm a linux noob and will openly admit it.

Now to the nitty gritty. I'm hoping someone can give me some guidance.

When using HDMI audio in XBMC everything stutters terribly. Doesn't seem to matter what I do. Here's my hardware:

ASRock A785GMH/128 Motherboard
Integrated ATI HD 4200 series
Integrated sound: Via VT1708s chipset
Latest Alsa Drivers
Latest Catalyst Drivers
Ubuntu 10.4 minimal install
HDMI Out in to my receiver which handles all of my audio/video connections. Its only a year old supports AC3, DTS etc.

I've read a number of things about this issue.

I've heard its that my receiver doesnt like the hda audio codec.
I've heard that it something with ATI's drivers.
I've heard that I should just use the optical out for audio (this is do-able but its more of a workaround than a fix).

Can anyone make some suggestions as to where the issue lies and/or how to resolve it? I'm willing to buy a new video card or sound card that is more compatible, but would like to know what would work best. I was looking at the nVidia GT 210 as a possible alternative, but am not sure that it will even fix my issue as I'm not sure what the source is.

Thanks for your help,
Justin

Hey Justin,

You have any luck solving this issue? I am currently experiencing the exact same issue after coming from Windows 7 + XBMC.

I've tried the latest official XBMC Live CD from xbmc.org and the latest SVN from XBMCFreak which causes major stuttering when using HDMI audio / video.

Disabling Audio allows the video to playback smoothly.

Playing Audio CD's, Mp3's still cause the stutter

Asus M4A785G HTPC
ATI RS690/780 - as alsamixer -c 1 displays

Tried direct HDMI to TV and also via my Denon Amp

Useto have Ubuntu 9.10 with XBMC working fine (no menu sounds) but video / audio output worked fine until i went over to Windows 7 which also worked fine.

Hopefully someone can help out.