[fritsch]

Please remove the marantz.bin and update to the kernel 3.15.3 from the second post.

Is normal audio working?

I've installed the Linux Mint distro. I can get HD Audio bitstream with ATI proprietary drivers, but no VDAPU. I can verify this by pressing "o" for the onscreen menu and not seeing ff-h264-vdapu.

Yeah - that was to be expected. The shitty fglrx driver does not support any hw decoding on linux. Furthermore Linux Mint's Desktop highly interfers with xbmc is not suggested at all.

Did you do tests with speaker-test -c2 -r 192000 on the hdmi device?

[MathewCNichols]

fritsch,

Normal audio has always worked, as well as bitstreaming AC3 and DTS. Only HD Audio bitstreaming appears broken.

HD Audio bitstreaming is still silent after a fresh install of the mini.iso and update of the kernel. Verified with uname -r "3.15.3-031503-generic." I've tried both starting xbmc using the upstart script for the xbmc user and logging in with the setup username and using the terminal command "exec su -c "xinit /usr/bin/xbmc --standalone -- /usr/bin/X -bs -nolisten tcp :0" xbmc"

It looks like XBMC is using vdpau, and at least recognizes the HD audio stream, it just doesn't seem to pass it to the AVR:
https://plus.google.com/photos/+MathewCo...1134549458

I posted my hardware configuration since that it is the only variable I can imagine at this point.

Thank you again.

[fritsch]

a) Post an xbmc.log (Debug Log) when you play dts-hd / truehd
b) Verify speaker-test -c2 -r 192000 -D "you hdmi out" is working
c) Try with 60 hz (if you have Adjust Refreshrate to match video enabled).

[MathewCNichols]

The first pastebins I posted were created after I used the edid bin download, modified grub to point to it, updated grub and rebooted, disabled the refresh rate sync and followed all HD Audio troubleshooting advice on the first post.

I enabled XBMC debug mode afterward, then played a trueHD and dtsHD clip. Lastly, I generated those pastebins.

Trying to run speaker-test from command line, just simply as "speaker-test -c2" gives an error:

Playback device is default
Stream parameters are 48000Hz, S16_LE, 2 channels
Using 16 octaves of pink noise
ALSA lib pcm_dmix.c:1022snd_pcm_dmix_open) unable to open slave
Playback open error: -2,No such file or directory

Hopefully we're onto something. Maybe it's because I don't have a desktop installed.

[fritsch]

I told "your hdmi device"

e.g. speaker-test -c 2 -D plughw:0,3 -r 192000

aplay -l will tell which one it is.

[fritsch]

And please: I want - that you boot _without_ the marantz.bin in the grub entry. No edid overwriting for testing.

[MathewCNichols]

Sorry about that.

Using aplay -l determined I was using Card 0, and Device 3. Your terminal command for the 192khz test did work fine on my system.

Odd though, that -c 6 or -c 8 only lights up two channels @ 192khz on my AVR.

[fritsch]

Yeah - that's most likely fine - as it is the plughw device only.

provide

Code:

aplay -L

then do the following:
Download http://samples.mplayerhq.hu/hdmi/thd.spdif and http://samples.mplayerhq.hu/hdmi/dts.spdif
aplay -D hdmiRawdevice -c8 -fs16_le -r192000 thd.spdif
or
aplay -D hdmiRawdevice -c8 -fs16_le -r192000 dts.spdif

the hdmiRawDevice is most likely something like: hdmi:CARD=Generic,DEV=0

which would result in: aplay -D hdmi:CARD=Generic,DEV=0 -c8 -fs16_le -r192000 dts.spdif

[MathewCNichols]

Terminal command "aplay -L" reports:

null
Discard all samples (playback) or generate zero samples (capure)
hdmi:CARD=HDMI,DEV=0
HDA ATI HDMI, HDMI 0
HDMI Audio Output
dmix:CARD=HDMI,DEV=3
HDA ATI HDMI, HDMI 0
Direct sample mixing device
dsnoop:CARD=HDMI,DEV=3
HDA ATI HDMI, HDMI 0
Direct sample snooping device
hw:CARD=HDMI,DEV=3
HDA ATI HDMI, HDMI 0
Direct hardware device without any conversions
plughw:CARD=HDMI,DEV=3
HDA ATI HDMI, HDMI 0
Hardware device with all software conversions

Terminal command "aplay- D hdmi:CARD=HDMI,DEV=0 -c8 -fs16_le -r192000 thd.spdif" reports:

aplay: set_params:1239: Channels count non available

(I tried this just to mess around) Terminal command "aplay- D plughw:CARD=HDMI,DEV=3 -c8 -fs16_le -r192000 thd.spdif" reports:

Playing raw data 'dts.spdif' : Signed 16 bit Little Endian, Rate 192000 Hz, Channels 8

*For this last command, no audio actually plays, the AVR display does flash though.

[fritsch]

Something is obviously wrong ...

I looked into your xbmc.log again and _no_ audio devices are found at all: http://paste.ubuntu.com/7803238/

Post a log that is from this howto and also make sure you are member of the audio group.

Edit: Also post the content of the file:

Code:

cat /proc/asound/card0/codec#0

You might have to adjust this part. I have a bad feeling concerning your hardware + linux driver.

[MathewCNichols]

First, I want to say thank you for your great help and speedy replies, it's very appreciated!

Here are a few new pastebins:

The card codec: http://paste.ubuntu.com/7804899
XBMC test using Tron MKV AC3 bitstream: http://paste.ubuntu.com/7804870
XBMC test using DTS own MKV DTSHD: http://paste.ubuntu.com/7804896

[fritsch]

That cannot work:

14:40:20 T:140723789387712 NOTICE: m_channels : FL,FR

There are only two channels available. I will ping Anssi. He has written that kernel code.

[fritsch]

One final thing. Please boot windows again, play dts-hd and post me a debug log. I am quite sure you only got DTS-Core out of the windows version also.

[MathewCNichols]

The XBMC GUI settings were set to "Number of channels: 2.0" and "Output Configuration: Best Match" for those tests. I had read that leaving the GUI mixer channels as 2.0 and setting to "Best Match" is the usual way to get a bitstream since it shouldn't matter how many channels there are, it's just sending RAW audio.

Just for the heck of it, I enabled XBMC GUI settings mixer "Number of channels: 7.1" to see if it would make any difference.

Here is the pastebin with 7.1 set and "Best Match" for passthrough (I still received the NOTICE: m_channels : FL,FR): http://paste.ubuntu.com/7804958/

Here is the pastebin with 7.1 set and "Fixed" @192.0 (I believe XBMC should decode and send RAW LPCM 7.1 to the AVR. I still received the NOTICE: m_channels : FL,FR. The AVR also only shows 2 channels @ 192khz on the display): http://paste.ubuntu.com/7805000

Maybe we (YOU) have found the problem? One step closer to a house run by OpenSource and XBMC!

[fritsch]

No - wrong. Best Match has nothing to do with Passthrough. As passthrough always reopens the sink with the proper format. It also does not matter how many channels you set in xbmc, cause those only affect PCM signals.

xbmc won't be able to open more than 2 channels with that setup. DTS and AC3 are sent via 2 channels only (virtual 5.1 coded over 2 pcm channels), it's a compressed format.

DTS-HD needs to open 8 channels at 192 khz, xbmc.log should contain something like:

19:32:04 T:140442943309760 NOTICE: Device 2
19:32:04 T:140442943309760 NOTICE: m_deviceName : hdmi:CARD=HDMI,DEV=0
19:32:04 T:140442943309760 NOTICE: m_displayName : HDA Intel
19:32:04 T:140442943309760 NOTICE: m_displayNameExtra: HDMI #0
19:32:04 T:140442943309760 NOTICE: m_deviceType : AE_DEVTYPE_HDMI
19:32:04 T:140442943309760 NOTICE: m_channels : FL,FR,BL,BR,FC,LFE,SL,SR
19:32:04 T:140442943309760 NOTICE: m_sampleRates : 32000,44100,48000,88200,96000,176400,192000
19:32:04 T:140442943309760 NOTICE: m_dataFormats : AE_FMT_LPCM,AE_FMT_DTSHD,AE_FMT_TRUEHD,AE_FMT_EAC3,AE_FMT_DTS,AE_FMT_AC3,AE_FMT_AAC,AE_FMT_S32NE,AE_FMT_S16NE,AE_FMT_S16LE

You see the 8 channels?

Edit: Your fixed config will disable passthrough completely - but cause of the FL/FR only won't open more than those 2 channels anyways.