[hogfan]

I am running a nightly build compiled 2 nights ago from git. The problem I am having is that since installing a nightly to try out the new audio engine, I no longer am able to choose a Passthrough device in the audio settings. I am using an Acer Revo 1600.

My audio options are configured as such:

Audio Output: Optical/Coax
Speaker Configuration: 5.1
AC3 Capable Receiver
DTS Capable Recever
Audio output device: USB Sound Device, USB Audio
Passthrough output Device: Error-no devices found

As you can see XBMC says it can't find a Passthrough device.

These are the same settings I was using before upgrading, and all was working. I noticed I no longer have the choice of specifying a custom audio device. I get sound just fine when playing music in XBMC, just not in movies (passthrough audio).

The Revo is connected to the TV via HDMI. I am using an optical audio cable that is connected to a Turtle Beach Audio Advantage USB sound card that is plugged into the Revo, and it is connected to the optical audio input of my Yamaha 5.1 receiver.

Here is the output of of "aplay -L" command from a terminal:

Code:

xbmc@XBMC:~$ aplay -L
null
    Discard all samples (playback) or generate zero samples (capture)
default
front:CARD=Device,DEV=0
    USB Sound Device, USB Audio
    Front speakers
surround40:CARD=Device,DEV=0
    USB Sound Device, USB Audio
    4.0 Surround output to Front and Rear speakers
surround41:CARD=Device,DEV=0
    USB Sound Device, USB Audio
    4.1 Surround output to Front, Rear and Subwoofer speakers
surround50:CARD=Device,DEV=0
    USB Sound Device, USB Audio
    5.0 Surround output to Front, Center and Rear speakers
surround51:CARD=Device,DEV=0
    USB Sound Device, USB Audio
    5.1 Surround output to Front, Center, Rear and Subwoofer speakers
surround71:CARD=Device,DEV=0
    USB Sound Device, USB Audio
    7.1 Surround output to Front, Center, Side, Rear and Woofer speakers
iec958:CARD=Device,DEV=0
    USB Sound Device, USB Audio
    IEC958 (S/PDIF) Digital Audio Output
dmix:CARD=Device,DEV=0
    USB Sound Device, USB Audio
    Direct sample mixing device
dsnoop:CARD=Device,DEV=0
    USB Sound Device, USB Audio
    Direct sample snooping device
hw:CARD=Device,DEV=0
    USB Sound Device, USB Audio
    Direct hardware device without any conversions
plughw:CARD=Device,DEV=0
    USB Sound Device, USB Audio
    Hardware device with all software conversions
xbmc@XBMC:~$

Also, for thoroughness, I compiled and installed using the following:

Code:

git clone git://github.com/xbmc/xbmc.git


cd xbmc
./bootstrap
./configure --enable-vdpau --disable-pulse

make
sudo make install

sudo reboot

Also should mention that I on Oneiric Ocelot minimal install and autostarting XBMC via the XBMC-Live package.

How should I proceed to troubleshoot this issue. Thanks for any suggestions.

-hogfan

[Plaguester]

USB Audio Device? Is the throughput on those high enough to support bitstreaming?

If you can set it to "Custom", try entering "iec958:CARD=Device,DEV=0".

[hogfan]

It looks like I am unable to choose "Custom" in the new build. I have this turtle beach card on my Revo for about two years now and it has always worked with DTS & AC3 with no problems. I am not trying to play DTS-HD or anything like that. Just regular old .5.1. Before going to one of the new nightlies with the new audio engine, I used to have iec958 as a choice for both of my sound outputs, but not anymore. I get menu sounds and music plays fine, but it just says it couldn't find a Passthrough device. Thanks.

-hogfan

[hogfan]

^bump

Anybody have any ideas? It looks like XBMC is not seeing the digital output.

[hogfan]

Another bump........is there a better place to post this?

[Plaguester]

You're running a nightly build compiled from git. Make sure that the developers are aware of the issue and go back to running a more stable version.

[hogfan]

I thought the purpose was to help report bugs so that they can be fixed if this is indeed a bug. I'll just go back to stable eden. I hate running stable because I like to have the bleeding edge features, and a lot of addons, etc. still require recent nightlies. I'm not saying that this is specifically and XBMC issue, since some other packages for my Oneirc install got updated as well. I had to recompile the lirc_xbox driver to get the remote working again. Running alsamixer doesn't work anymore. I have to run alsamixer -card=0 to get the mixer to pull up so I think this could possibly be alsa related. My onboard sound on my revo is disabled.

[Plaguester]

I thought the purpose was to help report bugs so that they can be fixed if this is indeed a bug. I'll just go back to stable eden. I hate running stable because I like to have the bleeding edge features, and a lot of addons, etc. still require recent nightlies. I'm not saying that this is specifically and XBMC issue, since some other packages for my Oneirc install got updated as well. I had to recompile the lirc_xbox driver to get the remote working again. Running alsamixer doesn't work anymore. I have to run alsamixer -card=0 to get the mixer to pull up so I think this could possibly be alsa related. My onboard sound on my revo is disabled.

That's kinda what I meant by "make sure the developers are aware of the issue". If you think the other packages may be causing the problem, then go back to Eden and see if you can reproduce the issue (or at least produce a similar one since that build lacks AE).

This issue appears similar to yours.

[abeeson]

I notice you specifically disabled pulse, how come?

Ubuntu uses pulse by default, you wont get a passthrough session to work without either removing pulse from ubuntu or compiling it into the nightly, so chances are thats your main issue

---

EDIT - as pulse will be locking the audio output device

PS - this may not fix it but its a step there

[hogfan]

I have temporarily gone back to stable......re-installing my remote driver now since I went ahead and did a dist upgrade to pangolin while I was at it. Pulse audio had been purged from my system previously. I was using the Nathan Rennie-Waldock unstable PPA and those builds are compiling with Pulse enabled. After installing a newer nightly XBMC wouldn't boot. A glance at the logs showed it was failing trying to load pulse. Another user had posted that compiling himself from git, disabling pulse allowed XBMC to boot. So I decided to give that a try. But then I was getting no passthrough device found. So I was trying to determine if this was related ALSA, my compile options, or the new build itself. I'm going to get things going again here on stable Eden since I upgraded to 12.04 and take a Clonezilla image. Then maybe in a few weeks or months, when I feel like playing again, I'll try a nightly build once audio engine has matured a bit. I also liked the way the settings menu had been re-organized in the newer builds.

[abeeson]

I have temporarily gone back to stable......re-installing my remote driver now since I went ahead and did a dist upgrade to pangolin while I was at it. Pulse audio had been purged from my system previously. I was using the Nathan Rennie-Waldock unstable PPA and those builds are compiling with Pulse enabled. After installing a newer nightly XBMC wouldn't boot. A glance at the logs showed it was failing trying to load pulse. Another user had posted that compiling himself from git, disabling pulse allowed XBMC to boot. So I decided to give that a try. But then I was getting no passthrough device found. So I was trying to determine if this was related ALSA, my compile options, or the new build itself. I'm going to get things going again here on stable Eden since I upgraded to 12.04 and take a Clonezilla image. Then maybe in a few weeks or months, when I feel like playing again, I'll try a nightly build once audio engine has matured a bit. I also liked the way the settings menu had been re-organized in the newer builds.

Totally understand, i've just started playing now since trying a LONG time ago with Dharma (ended up crippling PA and pointing xbmc direct to the devices), thats still my primary XBMC box but im hoping to get an eden installl up and running while avoiding any more dodgy audio bypass hacks.

I'm giving it another few days to try to get something up and running, failing that i'll drop back to eden stable too, hack the audio direct out (lose menu and OS sounds but oh well) and try again later too, hopefully not but im wondering if im just a bit too bleeding edge here

[mikezz]

Exactly the same problem here! I went back to a git build from a few months earlier before AudioEngine was added, which works fine, .

Before AE, you always had the option to specify a custom device, there was a time when none of the predefined outputs worked for me and I had to manually specify "plughw 0,3" iirc. Now the only thing left is the error "No device detected" and no option whatsoever to choose myself. No predefined outputs and no custom output. I was really hoping to get this to work so I can finally enjoy TrueHD audio

I'm willing to test whatever is needed but I have no idea where to start!

It might be worth mentioning that I don't use PulseAudio, don't see the need and it's always worked fine through the usual alsa way.

[furii]

@hogfan: i don't understand why you aren't running your revo directly to the receiver unless perhaps it doesn't support hdmi. you really should have posted in the AE - linux thread as that's where the developers tend to look.

@mikezz: really need more info but my guess is you're not on alsa 1.0.25 and/or not using an nvidia card.

[mikezz]

Hi there furii, my alsa is version 1.0.25 but you are correct I'm not using an nvidia card!

ATI HD5450 and as you can imagine, it's kind of a pain to get it working properly with vaapi in linux so i can offload the encoding on the gpu instead of cpu. I had it working fine for a while and could play full blurays fine, which I couldn't before without vaapi but after updating the whole system last year or so it's not working fine anymore and haven't bothered fixing it.

So think I'm just gonna save me the trouble of going through that again and order me an nvidia card which drivers are much better in linux afaik

Maybe the passthrough will work right away then, I hope so!

[mikezz]

Bought an Nvidia GT430 gfxcard last week, installed it and changed it to vdpau, full blurays work perfectly, as well as the TrueHD audio