[gjwAudio]

Can I Force A Conditional ChannelLayout In ActiveAE ?

Hi Gentlemen

Is it possible to override the "normal" ActiveAE output channel layout for specific input channel layout(s) ?

I'm trying to work around a firmware limitation in my Anthem D2 pre/processor. Incredibly, it will not recognize/accept 4.0 or 4.1 PCM audio over HDMI, instead reverting to 2-ch mode and using only FL/FR of the FL/FR/BL/BR sent by xbmc. Same behaviour confirmed when using PCM > HDMI from the Oppo DV-980H disc player.

(I'll save the rant about high-end gear and idiot designers for another forum )

I have many Quadraphonic releases (...remember the 70's ?) that I wish to put on the server as multi-channel FLACs. Early into the migration-to-FLAC, I realized something was wrong playing the quads via xbmc. At first I suspected xbmc, but a quick check of the debug log shows ActiveAE passes the 4.0 stream as it should.

These are the files used to generate the log:
[3.0] L-C-R (24b-96K).flac
[4.0] Lf-Rf+Ls-Rs (24b-48K).flac

Other MCH-FLAC formats play correctly with the D2 (ie: 3.0 & 5.0 classical material), since ActiveAE sends them as FL/FR/BL/BR/FC/LFE - with appropriately silent channels where they should be.

If I can get ActiveAE to send 4.0/4.1 audio inputs as 5.1 PCM > HDMI - similar to what it does with 3.0 streams - I believe it will fix my problem. Please, please, please tell me it can be done .

BTW, is there any way to add the audio output format (sample rate, bit depth, channel layout) to the Codec info display ("O" key on the keyboard) ? It would sure be handy in cases where the connected AVR is in question, and eternally interesting to those obsessive audiophiles in the crowd !

Thanks in advance for considering my problem, and how I might fix it within xbmc.
Cheers,
Grant