[demiurg]

My audio used to work in xbmc, but I moved and things got configured a little differently, and now I just can't get audio going anymore. Here's my setup

HTPC running ubuntu 11.04 on 2.6.38-10generic, on the AMD fusion/zacate platform. Mother board is asus e-350
Using the Catalyst 11.7 drivers and lars' build of XBMC as that had the proper hardware acceleration support. (XBMC PRE-11.0 GIT:unknown (compiled: Aug1 2011). Video has been running super smooth once it was setup in its current shape

I have an hdmi cable going to my Yamaha Receiver and that goes to my tv with another hdmi cable, but I've also tried my old setup, which was an hdmi cable to my tv directly.

What I've tried so far:
All combinations of the 2 audio driver settings, and I am not even trying to get the surround working at this point, just 2.0 speakers over hdmi.
Ironically, I do hear the menu sounds in xbmc, just always get the message "Failed to initialize audio device" when I start any video.

I tried to get surround working in ubuntu outside xbmc and that went ok. was able to play some test files over all 5.1 speakers, and confirm that nothing was muted.

I found my hdmi device is called hw:0,3, so I've tried setting that as the audio driver and also plughw:0,3.

I've read that some people needed to uinstall pulse audio to get digital passthrough working. Does that apply to my situation?

In another spot I found setting the audio device to plug:dmixer with the following assoundrc file might help, but nothing there either

pcm.dmixer {
type dmix
ipc_key 1024
slave {
pcm "hw:0,3"
period_time 0
period_size 1024
buffer_size 8192
#periods 128
#rate 44100
rate 48000
}
bindings {
0 0
1 1
}
}

What I haven't tried: Updating catalyst or xbmc build. I am a total n00b and am afraid to screw up what I have so far, especially since I also have my squeezebox server running and that runs well.

[mtftw]

I'm having an issue with this as well. I'm running 10.04 with stock XBMC and the 12-1 AMD drivers. Video works great and I can hear menu sounds, but the system has "BUFFERING" for a long time then dumps on me when I try to play a video.

[demiurg]

anyone?

is there any other way to make it use hw:0,3?

[Ferret]

I had to disable sound in menus. Like you all sound worked in ubuntu, sound was on hw:0,3.

http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=121407

[oo_void]

I'm sure davilla will give me the smackdown on this one ... But audio with XBMC on Linux is a serious PITA right now. The AudioEngine work is a huge improvement but still not ready for primetime.

For you specifically, you can bypass the driver configs and go directly to the hardware. Try setting your devices to "custom" and enter "plughw:0,3" (without quotes) as the device name. You'll get music and movie sound, but probably no menu sounds. Also, crossfading will most likely fail if you have that turned on.

[demiurg]

I have tried that, I will try it again. Set it for both devices? I am not super sure how pass through works with the hdmi.

[oo_void]

I have tried that, I will try it again. Set it for both devices? I am not super sure how pass through works with the hdmi.

Yes both devices ... Doing that basically overrides the ALSA settings.

As for passthru, if you're going into an amp that can decode DTS and Dolby, turn that on. It's telling XBMC to let the amp do the work of decoding the signal rather than having XBMC do it internally.

[demiurg]

Hi guys,

After some frustrating weekends, I did get something to work. I bought an optical cable, looked up the location of that (hw1,3). Then I set both devices to plughw:1,3.

At some point I also deleted xbmc's guisettings and reinstalled it. Not sure if that helped my solution.