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+---- Thread: Android Passthrough Changes with v17 (/showthread.php?tid=289735)
RE: Passthrough Changes with v17 - Maetrik - 2016-12-09
Well, then this is more then a good reasonable compromise for every FireTV user (or whatever Android device is affected due to lame vendors).
Thank you for your help
, perhaps you should add this hint to your initial post. Of course i'd prefer DTS, but again: I'm happy with this workaround as well.
RE: Passthrough Changes with v17 - fritsch - 2016-12-09
The funny thing is, there are a lot of broken Sony TVs that don't like our 640 kbps AC3 transcoder :-) - they can only cope with 384 kbps ... so this workaround won't work for them ... :-)
RE: Passthrough Changes with v17 - hogfan - 2016-12-10
(2016-12-09, 21:58)fritsch Wrote: It's a workaround for shitty incapabilities of broken firmware :-( I am sad that the default state of such consumer devices are the way they are. Namely: PT hack is a risk BUT their provided implementation of official API sucks like hell :-) ... so that's the issues I have to face. And even worse: Every shitty device has another bug ... for some EAC3 5.1 work EAC3 7.1 fails. Or for some DTS 48.0 works, but DTS 44.1 / 96 fails ... and so on and so on.
I think I can be happy with Android 7 (for dts, ac3, eac3) and hopefully a official 7.2 with additional capabilities for dts-hd, truehd ... (google has plain forgotten that in Android N, I am on the way getting it into the official standard as we speak).
But - this won't work on the FireTV as the vendor does not implement it. Why should he - all the content he provides you does not have this capabilities at all :-)
This is what really frustrates me. I have done some development in the past (in the business environment and not on Android)! Yes, Android 7 will most likely give you more "native" audio support, and make things much easier as far as development. In reality, virtually no Android set-top-boxes will use this anytime soon, other than a brand new device that gets released. I have read the thread about the API 23 minimum support for DTS passthrough. Frankly, I am angry this decision was made when there are almost no Android Set Top Boxes out there that are running on anything greater than Lollipop (API 22). The Amazon FireTV is the most mainstream Android Set Top Box on the market. It is not our fault that Amazon won't update FireOS to Marshmallow (API 23) (and why should they when their current OS supports all of their current content requirements). It's not even a matter of users flashing a Custom ROM on the FireTV to get a newer Android build (there are no Custom ROMs). So the changes in Krypton essentially break DTS Passthrough for the most popular Android Set Top Box out there.
1.) Downgrade to 16.1 Jarvis is NOT a good solution. Using a previous version is never a good solution as you do not get any of the new features in KODI.
2.) Although there is a workaround it involves transcoding the DTS to AC3 (DD) which is also NOT a good solution as you lose true DTS passthrough and are doing lossy transcoding.
3.) If there is a "Danger" of loud white noise audio with DTS or whatever the hell the issue is with it on somebody's Android phone, and that is why DTS Passthrough "hack" was removed in Krypton, can't there be some kind of compromise? This is not an issue on the FireTV Set Top Boxes. DTS Passthrough works perfectly fine with the hack workaround implemented in 16.1 Jarvis. Is there not any way the code in Krypton can intelligently check the Android device it's installed on, and if it's on FireTV, enable DTS Passthrough as an option in KODI? And if not, don't display the option?
Bottom line is the FireTV devices may NEVER get any build of FireOS based on API version 23 (Marshmallow). And it seems like Team KODI doesn't seem to care much about this. I have been using KODI/XBMC for years, and the stance on the Android platform is pretty frustrating. I always ran Linux builds of XBMC in the past, and development seemed to always be focused on the Hardware capabilities of a device and NOT on the software capabilities.
The big advantage you get with Android is the ability also use many other streaming apps like HBO Go, WatchESPN, Showtime Anytime, Hulu, & Netflix on the same box a KODI. And with many skins, you can even add those apps to the Kodi Home menu.
If the compromise I mentioned above is not possible, is it possible to somehow have a build of Krypton (even unofficial) with the old audio subsystem from Jarvis? It just seems to me that it goes against the spirit of what KODI/XBMC has always been to just say "oh, we can't "officially" support this feature this hardware". DTS Passthrough was supported in Jarvis & Gotham and then "taken away" from users with Krypton. Taking working features away is a BAD thing. I understand it was a hack that made it work before, but it worked amazingly well of Android Set Top Boxes. I thought the spirit was to make KODI work across many devices. KODI doesn't have a "KODI Box" that it is developed specifically for, and that is one of the great things. It works well on various hardware. If the Dev Team doesn't want to have good support on Android Set Top Boxes, then just say "we don't support it", and don't have official builds. And before you go off about "support", I understand there is no official support for KODI. There is the user community, and I do understand the Dev team does this for fun in their free time. I just think that there could be a better solution for Android Set Top Boxes implemented in Krypton than just breaking DTS Passthrough support. Any team members thoughts, comments, and concerns are welcome. Thanks for the work you do and making KODI what it is today.
RE: Passthrough Changes with v17 - Martijn - 2016-12-10
The situation will stay as is.
RE: Passthrough Changes with v17 - hogfan - 2016-12-10
Well that really sucks. I guess all the illegal streaming pirates can have the Android platform. Somebody can "hack their "Fire Sticks" to get everything for free". lol God forbid some of us want to be able to watch our legitimately purchased content with DTS audio. Guess I will start looking for a small Linux box to move too where the menus are as slow as crap in KODI as they can be on some of the PI boards, and where DTS Passthrough still works.
RE: Passthrough Changes with v17 - fritsch - 2016-12-10
I think you totally miss the point. You bought something cheap from a commercial vendor that has no interest at all to implement you DTS or something else: Reason, he does not sell content that uses it, so it's worthless for you. The vendor does not even implement AC3 functionality for bitrates that he does not use! If you play low quality AC3 it will just not work, cause the FW does not support it. So much about what you bought.
Technical details concerning the PCM hack, you were now told at least 4 times within that thread. Using PT data (noise, if you interpret it as frames) and sending it in full volume (you know on some TVs the volume is even the HW volume!!!11) and hoping that the AVR interprets it correctly is pure insane and will cause issues. I even linked you two trac bugreports and 2 additional forum posts where users complained about "noise" with v16.
A short search in this forum "noise passthrough" will find you 20+ posts were people were severely harmed ...
RE: Passthrough Changes with v17 - fritsch - 2016-12-10
As you won't search anyways:
http://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=288484&highlight=noise+passthrough
http://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=294097&highlight=noise+passthrough (FireTV, including SPMC)
http://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=287166&highlight=noise+passthrough (TV, including SPMC)
http://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=228158&highlight=noise+passthrough (Shield with PCM hack)
http://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=252064&highlight=noise+passthrough (Sony Bravia)
http://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=259658&highlight=noise+passthrough (FireTV stick)
...
...
You don't want to understand as you don't care. You only search someone that gives you your DTS back and you don't care a single bit that kodi runs on more than 8 million computers.
RE: Passthrough Changes with v17 - hogfan - 2016-12-10
I did not buy the FireTV because it was cheap. I bought two when it first released because of the awesome hardware specs it had and the "possible" XBMC capabilities at the time. Those did come to fruition luckily. Great Hardware at a great price with excellent hardware capabilities for video playback. The fact it even had a SPDIF output was a bonus. So yes, we got lucky that the device ever even had KODI available. It worked great for several years, even with DTS. So the limitation of the box is it's software. I don't even use the Amazon crap on it and I have a Prime account. Unfortunately, the device never received any dev support as far as custom ROMs or Linux OS. My frustration stems from losing functionality that was there (although I do understand why it got removed). So for my Blu Ray movies now, many of which have DTS Audio (and I just recently started purchasing Bu Rays and converting them), I can't get the full surround experience (and yes DTS DOES sound better the DD).
I am not going to ask any more questions about this issue or complain about it anymore because it is obvious it isn't going to be addressed on the KODI side of things. I guess I will just have to decide whether having an all-in-one media center is worth sacrificing DTS.
If I use KODI on Windows or Linux, DTS Passthrough is still supported on those platforms, correct?
RE: Passthrough Changes with v17 - fritsch - 2016-12-10
Yes.
RE: Passthrough Changes with v17 - Maetrik - 2016-12-11
(2016-12-09, 22:02)Maetrik Wrote: Well, then this is more then a good reasonable compromise for every FireTV user (or whatever Android device is affected due to lame vendors).
No, it is not, as Sync Playback to Display gives me random freezes (also on OS X)
http://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=300108
So again: Please give us a hint to revert your changes just for testing purposes.
RE: Passthrough Changes with v17 - Martijn - 2016-12-11
Why? If it's also an issue on osx it should be fixed and not put back hacks.
RE: Passthrough Changes with v17 - Maetrik - 2016-12-11
Yes, on OS X too when Sync Playback to Display is enabled, BUT ONLY IN WINDOWED mode.
Log:
https://paste.ee/p/N0v1v
RE: Passthrough Changes with v17 - fritsch - 2016-12-11
And what has that to do with my changes? I have never ever made any changes to "Sync Playback to Display". So, what is your problem with "my changes" and especially: Which changes are you talking about?
RE: Passthrough Changes with v17 - fritsch - 2016-12-11
I give up: https://github.com/xbmc/xbmc/pull/11138
I am fedup being the responsible for the broken boxes outside. Here - eat the PCM hack - I won't write any code for v21 and v22 Android version anymore. Those platforms are severely broken FW wise.
RE: Passthrough Changes with v17 - Diplomat - 2016-12-12
Thanks, fritsch! This is the right decision.