[silvine]

I use XBMC with my amplifier and occasionally have problems with audio dropping over HDMI or with my amp not picking up the correct stream. I am bit confused about how XBMC handles audio.


1 Am I correct in saying 'bitstreaming' sends the audio directly to my amplifier with XBMC doing anything to it? If so how do I make sure all my audio is bitstreamed as opposed to decoded by XBMC? The reason I ask is I want to my amp to decode some files I am playing in xbmc which include a DTS-HD audio track.

2 Does the audio and bitstream outputs have to be different? i.e. should I set one to optical and the other hdmi?

3 What's the difference between plugh:0,3 and iec958 in the audio settings of XBMC? My understanding is they refer to optical and hdmi but I am not sure which.

My machine is an Acer Revo 3610 and I use the Openelec version of XBMC. I have it connected to an amplifier which handles the audio and video for me and outputs to TV.

[eskro]

Bitstream or Passthrough does in fact mean that the audio is sent 'as is'
to your Audio Receiver to decode...

You know that the audio is passed through when your receiver
displays the actual playing track..


as of today, XBMC isnt capable of bitstreaming HD-Audio like u want.
work arounds are to use an external player capable of doing such a thing like MPC-HC
or to use a non-official XBMC version like the DSPLAYER branch
which can also do such a thing.

and all of this, under WIndows7 of course...

anyhow, good luck

[silvine]

Thanks for that.
So it makes more sense to bitstream when possible? How do I make sure XBMC does this?

[eskro]

i told u, XBMC does not do this natively.

[>>X<<]

You cant bitstream HD Audio using a Acer Revo 3610 anyway it doesn't have the correct hardware

[bluray]

Thanks for that.
So it makes more sense to bitstream when possible? How do I make sure XBMC does this?

You can do it as what I did below:

1. connects your system this way- HTPC-->AVR-->HDTV via two HDMI cables and you can set your AVR to pass-through video.
2. this is the easiest way to bitstream using XBMC (you'll enjoy XBMC as front-end and all the original BD menu options with external player)- Another External Player Code, but Very Simple to Setup
3. the closest to bitstream natively with XBMC is in this guide (no other codec required), but it might be harder to achieve it- blu-ray in 1080p with dts-hd and truehd

Cheer!