2013-05-08, 15:38
Bumping this as it seems relevant after the new settings refactor merge by Montellese.
At the moment audio settings are a confusing mess IMHO.
I've brought it up here as Montellese's work rightly tries to prevent confusion by hiding advanced settings, however the way things work at present all audio settings need to be Level 1 as all user's will need to adjust them at some point. This could be solved by adjusting behaviour which is why I bring it up here 1st of all.
Solution 1 - Adjusting working of existing settings
Level 1 - Audio Output Device
Level 1 - Speaker configuration
Level 2 - Boost volume level on downmix
Level 2 - Output stereo to all speakers
Level 2 - Dolby Digital (AC3) capable receiver
Level 2 - DTS capable receiver
Level 2 - AAC capable receiver (this doesn't appear to do anything)
Level 2 - MultiChannel LPCM capable receiver
Level 2 - TrueHD capable receiver
Level 2 - DTS-HD capable receiver
Level 1 - Audio output device
Level 2 - Passthrough output device
Level 1 - Play GUI sounds
For this to work the operation of Audio Output needs to change, when selecting Optical/Coax or HDMI then all capable receiver options must remain disabled so XBMC continues to decode audio. The passthrough options should only be presented when switching to Level 2 or higher.
Currently selecting Optical/Coax enables AC3 & DTS and selecting HDMI enables everything apart from AAC, as mentioned above this creates problems if the connected AVR, TV or speakers does not support these formats, so if passthrough options are to remain hidden from Level 1 then XBMC must always decode as default.
Solution 2 - The much more work required solution
Can we do away with Audio Output? As the audio devices are now enumerated by XBMC so it knows the channels & formats each device can support, is it possible for the "capable receiver" defaults to set from the currently selected device? this would give:
Level 1 - Speaker configuration
Level 2 - Boost volume level on downmix
Level 2 - Output stereo to all speakers
Level 2 - Dolby Digital (AC3) capable receiver
Level 2 - DTS capable receiver
Level 2 - AAC capable receiver (this doesn't appear to do anything)
Level 2 - MultiChannel LPCM capable receiver
Level 2 - TrueHD capable receiver
Level 2 - DTS-HD capable receiver
Level 1 - Audio output device
Level 2 - Passthrough output device
Level 1 - Play GUI sounds
Do we even need the separate "Audio output device" and "Passthrough output device"
At the moment audio settings are a confusing mess IMHO.
I've brought it up here as Montellese's work rightly tries to prevent confusion by hiding advanced settings, however the way things work at present all audio settings need to be Level 1 as all user's will need to adjust them at some point. This could be solved by adjusting behaviour which is why I bring it up here 1st of all.
Solution 1 - Adjusting working of existing settings
Level 1 - Audio Output Device
Level 1 - Speaker configuration
Level 2 - Boost volume level on downmix
Level 2 - Output stereo to all speakers
Level 2 - Dolby Digital (AC3) capable receiver
Level 2 - DTS capable receiver
Level 2 - AAC capable receiver (this doesn't appear to do anything)
Level 2 - MultiChannel LPCM capable receiver
Level 2 - TrueHD capable receiver
Level 2 - DTS-HD capable receiver
Level 1 - Audio output device
Level 2 - Passthrough output device
Level 1 - Play GUI sounds
For this to work the operation of Audio Output needs to change, when selecting Optical/Coax or HDMI then all capable receiver options must remain disabled so XBMC continues to decode audio. The passthrough options should only be presented when switching to Level 2 or higher.
Currently selecting Optical/Coax enables AC3 & DTS and selecting HDMI enables everything apart from AAC, as mentioned above this creates problems if the connected AVR, TV or speakers does not support these formats, so if passthrough options are to remain hidden from Level 1 then XBMC must always decode as default.
Solution 2 - The much more work required solution
Can we do away with Audio Output? As the audio devices are now enumerated by XBMC so it knows the channels & formats each device can support, is it possible for the "capable receiver" defaults to set from the currently selected device? this would give:
Level 1 - Speaker configuration
Level 2 - Boost volume level on downmix
Level 2 - Output stereo to all speakers
Level 2 - Dolby Digital (AC3) capable receiver
Level 2 - DTS capable receiver
Level 2 - AAC capable receiver (this doesn't appear to do anything)
Level 2 - MultiChannel LPCM capable receiver
Level 2 - TrueHD capable receiver
Level 2 - DTS-HD capable receiver
Level 1 - Audio output device
Level 2 - Passthrough output device
Level 1 - Play GUI sounds
Do we even need the separate "Audio output device" and "Passthrough output device"
