2014-11-03, 20:40
I'm hoping there is an easy answer to this because even though I am running XBMC under Linux I am not a very technically knowledgable person. I managed to set up Ubuntu Linux 12.04 LTS on an Acer Aspire Revo a couple years ago, and installed XBMC on it and have simply let it upgrade whenever a new upgrade was offered. I am currently running XBMC version 13.2 "Gotham".
My audio settings look like this:
The problem I am having is that when I play live or recorded TV programs in Live TV, some of them play using full 5.1 audio but some of them don't. The difference seems to be that the ones that will play full 5.1 audio show as "Dolby Digital" where the ones that will only play in stereo show as "MPEG 2 Audio".
I was having some issues related to PulseAudio so I typically start XBMC using
AE_SINK=ALSA xbmc --standalone &
from a shell script (someone suggested I try that some time back and it has worked pretty well for me). I've seen that suggestion in a few other places, at least the AE_SINK=ALSA part, so I don't think that is the problem but please feel free to correct me if I am wrong.
The recordings will play in full 5.1 if I take them to a system that is running the Myth TV program. It is only if I try to play them in XBMC that they revert to stereo, and I can't understand why. In particular, I have a "channel check" recording that says "left channel, right channel, center channel, left surround, right surround" and if played in Myth all the channels come from the correct speakers but if played in XBMC they come from the front speakers only.
I am using S/PDIF output on my system because I have an older receiver, but we tried this on someone else's system and he has a newer receiver that accepts HDMI and he gets exactly the same result - anything that shows as Dolby plays in full 5.1, but if it doesn't it won't under XBMC but will play in 5.1 using Myth TV.
Is there any way to make XBMC play these MPEG 2 audio tracks in full 5.1 or is that something that XBMC simply cannot do?
My audio settings look like this:
The problem I am having is that when I play live or recorded TV programs in Live TV, some of them play using full 5.1 audio but some of them don't. The difference seems to be that the ones that will play full 5.1 audio show as "Dolby Digital" where the ones that will only play in stereo show as "MPEG 2 Audio".
I was having some issues related to PulseAudio so I typically start XBMC using
AE_SINK=ALSA xbmc --standalone &
from a shell script (someone suggested I try that some time back and it has worked pretty well for me). I've seen that suggestion in a few other places, at least the AE_SINK=ALSA part, so I don't think that is the problem but please feel free to correct me if I am wrong.
The recordings will play in full 5.1 if I take them to a system that is running the Myth TV program. It is only if I try to play them in XBMC that they revert to stereo, and I can't understand why. In particular, I have a "channel check" recording that says "left channel, right channel, center channel, left surround, right surround" and if played in Myth all the channels come from the correct speakers but if played in XBMC they come from the front speakers only.
I am using S/PDIF output on my system because I have an older receiver, but we tried this on someone else's system and he has a newer receiver that accepts HDMI and he gets exactly the same result - anything that shows as Dolby plays in full 5.1, but if it doesn't it won't under XBMC but will play in 5.1 using Myth TV.
Is there any way to make XBMC play these MPEG 2 audio tracks in full 5.1 or is that something that XBMC simply cannot do?