[aldente]

Hello everyone,

I have recently come across Kodi whilst thinking about building a media streamer platform. I would like to ask people in the forum to see whether Kodi can fit in a bit traditional stereo audio system.

In my current set-up, a stereo amplifier as power amp is connected to an old AV receiver (Marantz NR1504) with AirPlay through which I can only enjoy iTunes music on Mac Mini. The LAN interface of the AV receiver is getting cranky these days and I am in the market for a replacement model.

In this opportunity, I am exploring a possibility of enjoying all of music, photos and video collection on a Linux PC (Fedora 31 as of now) through Kodi with a stereo receiver and a monitor.

Does anyone have the following set-up working successfully?

Kodi Linux PC -- [HDMI] --> Stereo Receiver
Stereo Receiver -- [HDMI] --> PC Monitor, for Kodi GUI
Stereo Receiver -- [speaker cables] --> Stereo Speakers, for sound of music and video

My short-listed stereo receiver models are Marantz NR1200 and Denon DRA-800H.  They have HDMI ports in/out as well as pre-out for power amp.

Do these models meet the goal above?

Thank you for your help in advance.

PS:
To prove that my blueprint is viable, I tested the following (every piece of equipment is in good order in the current set-up).

Step 1: Success ---> Install Kodi on Linux PC and play back music, photos and videos through the PC monitor.
Kodi Linux PC -- [HDMI] --> PC monitor -- [Built-in HDMI Pulsar Audio] -- [3.5mm stereo cable] --> A tiny mono speaker

Step 2: Failure ---> Play media with PC monitor, the old AV receiver and Kodi Linux PC.
Kodi Linux PC -- [HDMI] --> Old AV receiver
Old AV receiver -- [HDMI] --> PC monitor, no Kodi GUI, no Linux desktop shown
Old AV receiver -- [speaker cables] --> Stereo speakers, no sound.

[User 443344]

Hello everyone,

I did not understand anything at your request but as I have to post, post to upgrade my status I will bring you THE Solution:

Short answer: rather than buying a very expensive stereo receiver, invest in a DAC for your PC. if you already have the amplifier and speakers.

Long answer:
From what you say you want stereo but you want to buy a 5.1 amp, which is contradictory.
Always from what you say you want a home theater of the kind of kodi. It's good Kodi integrates lots of addons to receive internet radios, listen to music, play movies and view photos.
But often the hardware on which Kodi is installed does not have HIFI rendering. audio is often transported as the image via HDMI to the TV screen or the PC monitor.
This is why in my opinion, connecting a good quality stereo DAC to the PC, and this DAC then connected to the amplifier and then to the speakers, is the best possible stereo sound rendering possible.
Note that there are amplifiers integrating the DAC

That said, as I did not understand the question, my answer may not be good

[jasn]

I'll concur with @"sitro".  Your best and easiest bet is to use an external USB DAC from your Kodi PC to provide RCA audio output to a 2-CH amp.  Avoid using the stereo output from your PC.  Continue to use HDMI output to your monitor.  There a lot of of excellent and affordable USB DACs on the market.  I use a very good $99 model from JDS Labs.

[aldente]

@"sitro" 
@jasn 

Thank you for your taking time to reply.  Let me explain my current situation and my blueprint.

- My cranky multi-channel Old AV Receiver was used in order to experiment and prove my concept. 
- I would like to use a new 2-ch stereo receiver with HDMI in/out, and I have no interest in buying a multi-channel AV receiver again.
- On Kodi Linux PC with HDMI out, Test Step 1 has proven it supplies both sound and video.
- I want to still use the pair of passive speakers that are currently used with the Old AV Receiver.
- A simple solution would be to get a new amplifier with AirPlay support if I were only to get sound streaming sorted.
- My encounter with Kodi, however, made me interested in exploring the possibility of integrating video streaming into the same platform through HDMI.
- In my concept, the stereo receiver with HDMI would serve as a hub for HDMI video in/out (HDMI in --> HDMI out) and separator for sound in/out (HDMI in --> speaker cables out)

I hope that this will give you a clear picture of what I would like to achieve.

[aldente]

Simply put, the Kodi in my concept would look just like a BluRay/DVD player connected by HDMI to the amplifier where the sound goes to the speakers, and the video goes to the TV by HDMI. In this case, the video goes to the PC monitor.

[User 443344]

from your last post I understand the concept better
but your first post is nonsense in particular:

Step 2: Failure ---> Play media with PC monitor, the old AV receiver and Kodi Linux PC.
Kodi Linux PC -- [HDMI] --> Old AV receiver
Old AV receiver -- [HDMI] --> PC monitor, no Kodi GUI, no Linux desktop shown
Old AV receiver -- [speaker cables] --> Stereo speakers, no sound.

if you have a sound source at the input of the old receiver/amp you must have sound on the speakers
keep checking why you have no sound on the output speaker

[User 443344]

@"sitro" 
@jasn 
- In my concept, the stereo receiver with HDMI would serve as a hub for HDMI video in/out (HDMI in --> HDMI out) and separator for sound in/out (HDMI in --> speaker cables out)

In Kodi, probably you have to fix the passthrough setting in audio setting.
maybe the answer is somewhere that  you could  read : https://kodi.wiki/view/Settings/System/Audio   and audioengine

[User 443344]

note : I don't know how this kind of receiver works in particular if it can send the sound to hdmi an speaker output in the same time ( has it a selector button that the user should choose the output ? )

[aldente]

@"sitro" 

Thank you for your reply.

It is not nonsense. If the input is not through the output, it just needs to be investigated. The cranky AV receiver is a typical Marantz 5.1 receiver with 5 HDMI input ports and 1 ARC HDMI output for display. They are in good order.

After tries and errors, I found out why.  Because the centre piece is an AV receiver, HDMI in and HDMI out are constrained by the resolutions supported by the AV receiver.  In this case, the best resolution is 1920 x 1080p.

Kodi PC Linux has HDMI/Display Port Pulsar Audio out. Selecting this, the display set-up needs to be set to 1920 x 1080 the best one supported by the AV receiver.  If 2560 x 1440, for example, the sound cannot make it to AV receiver because both the AV receiver has no clue what that resolution is. The same applies to the PC monitor attached to the AV receiver.  If it is not capable of handling any HDMI resolution that the AV receiver supports, it does not show any display image of the Kodi PC Linux. The display quality at 1080p did not look impressive at all as you can imagine. There were also video files that could not be played back successfully.  In Kodi, I see the Pass-through menu, but it does not have any option underneath.

In my blueprint, I wished that the Kodi on PC Linux as a simple plug-in would emulate Apple TV that cements the gap between the stereo hifi system and multimedia sources located on PC. Also note that having a DAC only would probably not be sufficient simply because there would be no amplifier in the picture to connect the speakers and the monitor. According to the outcome of the proof of concept testing I carried out, there seems to be a long way for Kodi to go if it were to be integrated into a stereo hifi system as an audio/visual plug-in.

This is as far and much as I managed to reveal.

[black_eagle]

 According to the outcome of the proof of concept testing I carried out, there seems to be a long way for Kodi to go if it were to be integrated into a stereo hifi system as an audio/visual plug-in.

It would appear that you need to connect Kodi to kit that is capable of handling the resolutions you want to use, rather than blaming Kodi itself.  If you connect a 4K blu-ray player and try to play a 4K disc you will likely get either no output, or (more likely if HDMI handshaking and EDID are working) the blu-ray player outputting at 1080p.  In other words, if you want to use higher resolutions, then everything in the chain must be capable of handling them.

Just wondering what the benefit of higher resolution video is for listening to audio ?  I'd have thought that, given the 'stereo hifi' references that you would be more interested in an amp that can output as clean a signal as possible, without applying any fancy DSP processing etc.  My own amp has a 'pure' mode which not only eliminates all processing but also shuts down most of the amp (including the display) to interfere with the audio signal as little as possible.

[aldente]

 According to the outcome of the proof of concept testing I carried out, there seems to be a long way for Kodi to go if it were to be integrated into a stereo hifi system as an audio/visual plug-in.

It would appear that you need to connect Kodi to kit that is capable of handling the resolutions you want to use, rather than blaming Kodi itself.  If you connect a 4K blu-ray player and try to play a 4K disc you will likely get either no output, or (more likely if HDMI handshaking and EDID are working) the blu-ray player outputting at 1080p.  In other words, if you want to use higher resolutions, then everything in the chain must be capable of handling them.

Just wondering what the benefit of higher resolution video is for listening to audio ?  I'd have thought that, given the 'stereo hifi' references that you would be more interested in an amp that can output as clean a signal as possible, without applying any fancy DSP processing etc.  My own amp has a 'pure' mode which not only eliminates all processing but also shuts down most of the amp (including the display) to interfere with the audio signal as little as possible. 

@black_eagle 

Thank you for your reply.

As you can see, I only stated the outcome of the experiment for the concept, and said it would not be a straightforward plug-in.  I never blamed Kodi.  There is nothing wrong with Kodi itself in this integration, but from the viewpoint of becoming a plug-in, it was far from my initial thought.

Yes, I understand from the testing that if full HD grade is not satisfactory, the next higher grade of common denominator is 4K, as you said.  Since 2560 x 1440 is not widely supported by HDMI implemented in audio equipment, however, this would be a very high hurdle to clear, involving a new TV, new HDMI cables, 4K-capable CPU/GPU/HDMI interface on the PC motherboard, etc., as opposed to a simple plug-in.  This is what I meant by "a long way for Kodi to go".

As mentioned in my initial post, the objective is to integrate:
- the playback of digital music files
- the playback of digital video files
over a single HDMI connection to the amplifier from a single source platform.  The source platform Linux PC has an HDMI port where both sound and video come from.  So, it is not about a question of benefit but about simply using the HDMI port as the output source.  Regarding the Pure mode, the Old Marantz has the option to turn on Pure mode, but that is the AV receiver's own feature you can turn on/off independently.

I hope this will give you a good picture of what I was testing to find out.

[scott967]

It seems to me if your requirement is a single HDMI connection from your PC (running Kodi or anything else) then your options are either
a.  connect directly to the monitor and run the video resolution you prefer.  Then run a second HDMI from the monitor to the AVR to provide ARC of the stereo or 5.1 sound to the AVR (assuming monitor supports ARC on an HDMI port).
b.   obtain a different AVR that can support your video resolution in its video processor and connect directly from your computer to this new AVR.  You still need the second HDMI from AVR to monitor.

otherwise, do option a but also use digital (spdif) or analog to the existing AVR if your computer and linux supports it instead of using the monitor's ARC.

scott s.
.

[aldente]

It seems to me if your requirement is a single HDMI connection from your PC (running Kodi or anything else) then your options are either
a.  connect directly to the monitor and run the video resolution you prefer.  Then run a second HDMI from the monitor to the AVR to provide ARC of the stereo or 5.1 sound to the AVR (assuming monitor supports ARC on an HDMI port).
b.   obtain a different AVR that can support your video resolution in its video processor and connect directly from your computer to this new AVR.  You still need the second HDMI from AVR to monitor.

otherwise, do option a but also use digital (spdif) or analog to the existing AVR if your computer and linux supports it instead of using the monitor's ARC.

scott s.
.

@scott967 

Thank you for your reply.

Regarding your two points,
Option a: I tried this already.  The PC motherboard has 1x HDMI and 1x DisplayPort.  However, the Pulsar Audio driver has only one selection "Pulsar Audio HDMI/DisplayPort". It seems that the PC gets confused if a separate DP cable is also connected (directly to a PC monitor).
Option b: The whole point of doing this test is to see if there is a new stereo AV receiver I could buy to realise this concept....  My shortlisted one is from the same manufacturer as my Old cranky 5.1 AV receiver, and also supports 4K resolutions but my PC monitor and TV is just full HD.

[black_eagle]

My setup is as follows (and I reckon is a pretty common one)

Kodi (on PC) -> HDMI -> AVR -> HDMI -> TV

Sound works flawlessly over HDMI to the AVR.  I don't bother sending it on to the TV because the speakers in it are rubbish.  So the answer to the first question in your first post is yes, I do have it working successfully.

You are choosing the audio output in Kodi's  settings->system->audio and setting that to HDMI ?  Possibly it will also show the AVR name as well (it does for me).  If you would like to get it to work, in order to be sure that laying out cash on a new amp will not be a waste of money, then a debug log (wiki) of you starting Kodi on the PC should show what audio outputs Kodi can see and which of those it is trying to use.  Once Kodi has started and is on the main screen there should be sufficient info in the log.  Instructions on how to do it are in the link -> debug log (wiki).  Please make sure you enable debugging mode and then restart Kodi else the log won't be helpful.

Cheers.

[User 443344]

since we are in the setup that works here are my 3 otions that work on my kodi:
1 / kodi on pi (hdmi) -> TV (sound and video in 1080p) (trivial)
2 / kodi on pi (hdmi) -> TV (sound and video) -> digital fiber optic cable (sound) -> DAC -> amp 2.0 -> speakers (x2)
3 / kodi on pi | (hdmi) -> TV (video in 1080p)
                       | (USB cable) -> DAC -> (Analog input) amp 2.0 -> speakers (x2)

solution 3 is by far the best in Audio quality with the USB DAC, but it has the disadvantage of having to adjust the audio output parameters in kodi each time I switch from option 1 or 2 to 3 and vice versa from 3 to 1 or 2

Going back to my first answer, I saw things about you:
1 / kodi on PC | (hdmi) -> AV Receiver (1080p) -> TV (video in 1080p)
                       | (USB cable) -> DAC -> (Analog input) Amp or AV receiver -> speakers (x2)

2 / kodi on PC | (hdmi) -> TV (video in 1080p)
                       | (USB cable) -> DAC -> (Analog input) Amp or AV receiver -> speakers (x2)

3 / kodi on PC | (hdmi) -> monitor (video in 1080p)
                       | (USB cable) -> DAC -> (Analog input) Amp or AV receiver -> speakers (x2)

and finally this should also work if you have an input / output selector on AVR to select the output sound to speaker- not the ARC (*)

4 / kodi on PC (hdmi) -> AV receiver |-> (video hdmi in 1080p) TV 
                                                            |-> (analog cable) Speakers (x2) (or x5)

(*) read it on the MArantz NR-1504
As for ARC compatibility, it allows you to use the HDMI connection cable connecting the amplifier to the screen to transfer the image from the source (DVD, Blu-ray, ADSL Box) to the TV on the one hand, and TV sound (TNT) to the amplifier on the other hand.