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burcs · (This post was last modified: 2015-01-10, 01:00 by burcs.)

I'm sure this has been covered but forums won't let me search "aac" because it's only 3 letters. In Frodo it would convert AAC to DD5.1, doesn't seem to do that in Gotham. My set up in Frodo was 3.0 speakers and WASAPI passthrough, and "aac capable receiver" unchecked. My receiver was set to 3.0 as well, and all 6 channels would light up with "Dolby Digital" across the screen and the receiver would send channels to appropriate speakers (LFE and Rears to Fronts).

I always assumed it was AC3filter on my system that was doing the converting but other threads suggest otherwise. Changing Gotham to 2.0 doesn't help either as other threads suggested.

-edit- Changing audio output to WASAPI will at least convert to 5.1 LPCM, but doesn't sound as good as it did before, presumably because of the missing Dolby processing.

nickr · 2015-01-10, 01:02

To search for 3 letter words use google for example aac site:forum.kodi.tv

burcs · 2015-01-10, 01:06

(2015-01-10, 01:02)nickr Wrote: To search for 3 letter words use google for example aac site:forum.kodi.tv

That doesn't really help. I mean, this thread is already the 5th result. Most issues are not playing AAC at all, or dated back 2-3 years ago.

**jjd-uk** · 2015-01-10, 01:27

Set Number of Channels to 2.0 if available and select Enable Dolby Digital transcoding

burcs · 2015-01-10, 02:08

(2015-01-10, 01:27)jjd-uk Wrote: Set Number of Channels to 2.0 if available and select Enable Dolby Digital transcoding

Ahh, the infamous "setting you need only shows up during very specific circumstances which you'll never find if you configure your system properly" design philosophy. Silly me setting my 3.0 system to 3.0, when will I ever learn? Wink

But thanks, that did it.

**jjd-uk** · 2015-01-10, 02:16

You might have 3 speakers connected but you certainly won't have a 3.0 system.

burcs · 2015-01-10, 02:32

(2015-01-10, 02:16)jjd-uk Wrote: You might have 3 speakers connected but you certainly won't have a 3.0 system.

Ooh that sounds interesting, can you expand on that? (dead serious, not being a smart ass again). I have two full range towers in the front and a pretty respectable output center channel speaker. To me that sounds like the definition of a 3.0 system, but sounds like you have a different one? Thanks.

**jjd-uk** · 2015-01-10, 03:54

The type of system you have is governed by the type of interconnections you have, as this is what limits what you can send between devices.

For audio the limit is expressed as the number of PCM channels, thus:

SPDIF is 2.0 only
HDMI is normally one of 3, where 2.0 is when connected to a TV and 5.1 or 7.1 when connected to a AVR.

There is no such thing as 3.0 HDMI connection.

In your case I'm assuming you're using HDMI connected to a AVR from reading between the lines of what you've said, so you've actually got either a 5.1 or 7.1 system even though you only have 3.0 speakers connected. It's perfectly possible for you to send 5.1 or 7.1 to the AVR which then would downconvert to 3.0 for output to the speakers.

Since your HDMI is capable of 5.1 or 7.1 PCM the transcode option is not offered as outputting PCM 5.1 from AAC is a lossless conversion so offers best quality. Converting to Dolby Digital compresses the audio in a lossy way so reduces audio quality, however this compression to Dolby Digital shrinks something like AAC 5.1 allowing it to be sent over a link that only supports PCM 2.0 such as SPDIF.

Despite the quality arguments not to do it, you seem to prefer the compressed audio hence you must set Kodi to limit PCM output to 2.0 to get the transcode option.

burcs · 2015-01-10, 07:21

Oh, right, I see what you mean. Thought there was some new-fangled thing I hadn't heard of yet.