[AP0ll0UK]

The problem was that Pulseaudio would produce nothing but 2 channel stereo. I tried to configure things as per the Wiki but it did not work.

Regardless of whether I had posted a debug log or not, I don't see how that would have helped because the 2 channel stereo issue was occurring outside of XBMC during my testing.

The a52 workaround does work and this is what I've used on previous versions of Ubuntu. I just hoped that things had moved on since then. And they have, Pulseaudio is now more embedded than its ever been and that didn't help my situation.

This now begs the question, between the way this is supposed to work, and the way I have it now using the a52 workaround, is there a difference with regards to the sound quality and overall user experience?

[fritsch]

Yes, there is, that's the problem.

When you use the correct pulseaudio settings, e.g. enable AC3, DTS with pavucontrol and disable remixing (see the wiki), we have control of the delay. We can already sync correctly while ffmpeg encoding to AC3 is running.

[fritsch]

And to clearify that: I can exactly see if the settings are correct in a debug log, see here for example:

22:21:41 T:140686724732864 NOTICE: Enumerated PULSE devices:
22:21:41 T:140686724732864 NOTICE: Device 1
22:21:41 T:140686724732864 NOTICE: m_deviceName : Default
22:21:41 T:140686724732864 NOTICE: m_displayName : Default
22:21:41 T:140686724732864 NOTICE: m_displayNameExtra: Default Output Device (PULSEAUDIO)
22:21:41 T:140686724732864 NOTICE: m_deviceType : AE_DEVTYPE_PCM
22:21:41 T:140686724732864 NOTICE: m_channels : FL,FR
22:21:41 T:140686724732864 NOTICE: m_sampleRates : 5512,8000,11025,16000,22050,32000,44100,48000,64000,88200,96000,176400,192000,384000
22:21:41 T:140686724732864 NOTICE: m_dataFormats : AE_FMT_U8,AE_FMT_S16NE,AE_FMT_S24NE3,AE_FMT_S24NE4,AE_FMT_S32NE,AE_FMT_FLOAT
22:21:41 T:140686724732864 NOTICE: Device 2
22:21:41 T:140686724732864 NOTICE: m_deviceName : alsa_output.pci-0000_00_03.0.hdmi-stereo-extra1
22:21:41 T:140686724732864 NOTICE: m_displayName : Internes Audio Digital Stereo (HDMI)
22:21:41 T:140686724732864 NOTICE: m_displayNameExtra: HDMI / DisplayPort 2 (PULSEAUDIO)
22:21:41 T:140686724732864 NOTICE: m_deviceType : AE_DEVTYPE_IEC958
22:21:41 T:140686724732864 NOTICE: m_channels : FL,FR
22:21:41 T:140686724732864 NOTICE: m_sampleRates : 5512,8000,11025,16000,22050,32000,44100,48000,64000,88200,96000,176400,192000,384000
22:21:41 T:140686724732864 NOTICE: m_dataFormats : AE_FMT_AC3,AE_FMT_EAC3,AE_FMT_DTS,AE_FMT_U8,AE_FMT_S16NE,AE_FMT_S24NE3,AE_FMT_S24NE4,AE_FMT_S32NE,AE_FMT_FLOAT
22:21:41 T:140686724732864 NOTICE: Device 3
22:21:41 T:140686724732864 NOTICE: m_deviceName : alsa_output.pci-0000_00_1b.0.analog-stereo
22:21:41 T:140686724732864 NOTICE: m_displayName : Internes Audio Analog Stereo
22:21:41 T:140686724732864 NOTICE: m_displayNameExtra: Lautsprecher (PULSEAUDIO)
22:21:41 T:140686724732864 NOTICE: m_deviceType : AE_DEVTYPE_PCM
22:21:41 T:140686724732864 NOTICE: m_channels : FL,FR
22:21:41 T:140686724732864 NOTICE: m_sampleRates : 5512,8000,11025,16000,22050,32000,44100,48000,64000,88200,96000,176400,192000,384000
22:21:41 T:140686724732864 NOTICE: m_dataFormats : AE_FMT_U8,AE_FMT_S16NE,AE_FMT_S24NE3,AE_FMT_S24NE4,AE_FMT_S32NE,AE_FMT_FLOAT
22:21:41 T:140686724732864 NOTICE: Device 4
22:21:41 T:140686724732864 NOTICE: m_deviceName : combined
22:21:41 T:140686724732864 NOTICE: m_displayName : Simultaneous output to Internes Audio Digital Stereo (HDMI), Internes Audio Analog Stereo
22:21:41 T:140686724732864 NOTICE: m_displayNameExtra: Simultaneous output to Internes Audio Digital Stereo (HDMI), Internes Audio Analog Stereo (PULSEAUDIO)
22:21:41 T:140686724732864 NOTICE: m_deviceType : AE_DEVTYPE_PCM
22:21:41 T:140686724732864 NOTICE: m_channels : FL,FR
22:21:41 T:140686724732864 NOTICE: m_sampleRates : 5512,8000,11025,16000,22050,32000,44100,48000,64000,88200,96000,176400,192000,384000
22:21:41 T:140686724732864 NOTICE: m_dataFormats : AE_FMT_U8,AE_FMT_S16NE,AE_FMT_S24NE3,AE_FMT_S24NE4,AE_FMT_S32NE,AE_FMT_FLOAT

We see there four devices:
Default: Chooses whatever user has set as default pulseaudio device.
alsa_output.pci-0000_00_03.0.hdmi-stereo-extra1: spdif/hdmi device in 2 channel profile but with AC3, DTS formats - that one can play 5.1 AC3, DTS and also upmix stereo to 5.1
alsa_output.pci-0000_00_1b.0.analog-stereo: My analog output
combined: Play music over analog + spdif/hdmi at once

[AP0ll0UK]

I'll revisit this this some time soon if you're willing to help me try and go down the Pulesudio route? Following whats in the Wiki wasn't working, hence going for Alsa instead.

[fritsch]

Still cannot see any logfile and "wasn't working" also does not help ...