Kodi Community Forum

Hi everyone,

i use XBMC Dharma Beta 4 on an Acer Revo 3600 with a "Teufel Concept E Magnum PE" 5.1 Sound System on a quite old 32" 720p TV.

XBMC is installed on ubuntu karmic minimal

My problem is, that I cant connect my soundsystem probably to my TV/Revobe cause of the lacking connection possibilities.

My Revo is connected via HDMI to my TV. My TV is connected via Stereo-out-Cinch to my soundsystem. So i only use the "Front" Connector on my soundsystem. Due this fact my soundquality is not the best, actually my subwoofer is quite silent and the whole sound is a bit weak but in general this is not a big deal.

A few days ago a friend of mine made me a gift with an external USB Soundcard (Creative SoundBlaster X-Fi Surround 5.1 USB).

Now my Revo is connected via this soundcard direct to my soundsystem (front, rear and center/sub cinch connectors are used).

While this Soundcard is recognized out of the Box and sound is working I cant manage to get better sound. (On my normal windows PC i get brilliant sound with the same card, so i assume its because of the setting software from creative ...)

In XBMC preferences i use "Surround 5.1 USB - iec958". I can hear sound in films and music, but its quite silent and my Subwoofer is still not really working and the whole sound is not very good at all.

In alsamixer i have set highest volume on all devices.

Due the fact that XBMC dont have an equalizer is there a possibility to get working 5.1 sound with full bass?
Maybe there is a linux based control software for this creative soundcard?



Edit: Grml i wanted to post this thread in Linux Specific ... sorry

I use that card to pass DTS and AC3 to my receiver often (in OSX, Windows and Linux). This device is my jack of all trades actually. It should work.

Do you have digital audio checked and both the DTS and AC3 activated in XBMC?

I use the following Settings:

In System - Settings:

Audio Output = Analog (There is only HDMI - Optival/Koaxial - Analog => I tested all Settings)
Speaker: 5.1
Boost Volume in Downmix = on
AC3 = on
DTS = on

Audio Output Device = SB x-FI Surround 5.1 - IEC958
Passthrough output device = SB X-FI Surround 5.1 - IEC958 (THis is only enabled when using HDMI)

Where is the Setting for digital Audio?

The last few hours I tried all possibilities and in the end I made a fresh installation of XBMC.

I made a Karmic minimal installation first, then a Lucid minimal installation.
I made a XBMC install from SVN-Repos.
I installed: nvidia-glx-185, XBMC, XBMC-Standalone

All is working fine besides my sound.

The Problem is everytime the same: Only the two Frontspeakers are working.
Rear Speakers, Center and Sub doesnt work but the whole Sound System is right connected to the soundcard (its working fine on my Laptop or Desktop).

(I was wrong in my first Post stating that the other boxes are working but silent ... they havent got any Sound at all)

In System - Settings I tried:

Audio Output: HDMI -> Analog -> Optical/Coax => Doesnt matter which setting, only the two frontspeakers are working.

With all possible Speaker Configuration (2.0 to 7.1) there is no noticable change.

Audio output Device and Passthrough: SB X-FI Śurround 5.1 IEC958 -> SB X-FI Śurround 5.1 DEFAULTS -> HDA NVidia HDMI ->HDA NVidia Defaults> IEC958 => Only with first setting there are sound on the front speakers, with "HDMI" there are only the TV Speakers, other settings are resulting in no sound at all.

When AC3 is activated there are just coming odd sounds out of the front speakers.

In Alsamixer there is only the possibility to change Settings for "HDA Nvidia" when pressing F6 and changing to SB X-Fi Sourround 5.1 there is only "This sound device does not have any controls".

This is really annoying ...

1.) Why do I not have a setting option for a digital Audio Output in Settings?
2.) Why is "This Sound device does not have any controls" in alsamixer? Where else can i set volume and things for this Device?

Are there any Ideas? It seems to me that there is no real support from the driver for this Soundcard.

I dont want to buy a new Win7 License for my Revo just to get this sound working. (I tried a test win7 Install on my Revo too ... sound is working very well with XBMC an win7 ...) Besides that XBMC on Win7 and Revo is not very responding ...

I hope my english is understandable ...

Hey guys,

I finally got the Creative 5.1 Surround (USB) working. I was so glad that I instantly created an Account just to spread the word!
In the end, it was too simple to be true - I just installed PulseAudio ;-)

Easy, beginners friendly Guide:
From anywhere, press strg+alt+f2 to get to the console. Now log in with the credentials you set up when you installed XBMC (root user won't work).
From there, simply type
and confirm the action with you password again.

After the installation is complete, type
to log off and get back to your usual XBMC interface via Strg+Alt+F7. Now, from the Settings menu use "SB X-Fi Surround 5.1 *Analog/Digital/whatever* (PulseAudio)" and you are good to go!
You might want to activate LFE (Bass, Subwoofer) tough. This can be done from the console via
Look for the line that says "enable-lfe-remixing" and set it to yes:
Sometimes, this line does not exist, so you have to add it manually. There are several other tweaks for this file, but this should work out just fine.

Hope i helped you guys!