[mpiet]

@oo.viper.oo
Do you have something put into the analog audio out? I mean the tv headphone connector?

@CiNcH, if i get it right, runing Android 5 you have DD and DTS using kodi, right? If yes, i would not start testing new Android version for Sony... Never change a runing system.

I got an answer from sony to the DD bug using kodi:

vielen Dank, dass Sie den Sony-Support kontaktiert haben.
Wir bedauern sehr, dass es Probleme mit Ihrem Sony TV-Gerät gibt.
Wir arbeiten sehr hart daran, diesen Fehler durch ein Firmware Update zu lösen.
Wir kümmern uns darum und bitten um Ihre Geduld und Ihr Verständnis.

[oo.viper.oo]

I suppose Passthrough is set to IEC. You should set it to RAW in your case. You probably have to enable Expert mode in settings in order to see the Passthrough methods.

When i activating RAW i can hear nothing... On DTS and DD movies the same, no audio.

mpiet - could you please clarify whether you have your AVR hooked via optical SPDIF out or via HDMI ARC?

[mpiet]

I wrote it in first post. My 16 years old avr has only optical in, no hdmi.

[fritsch]

@oo.viper.oo
Do you have something put into the analog audio out? I mean the tv headphone connector?

@CiNcH, if i get it right, runing Android 5 you have DD and DTS using kodi, right? If yes, i would not start testing new Android version for Sony... Never change a runing system.

I got an answer from sony to the DD bug using kodi:

vielen Dank, dass Sie den Sony-Support kontaktiert haben.
Wir bedauern sehr, dass es Probleme mit Ihrem Sony TV-Gerät gibt.
Wir arbeiten sehr hart daran, diesen Fehler durch ein Firmware Update zu lösen.
Wir kümmern uns darum und bitten um Ihre Geduld und Ihr Verständnis.

Haha :-)

Btw. just for me: Can you please test this build: http://mirrors.kodi.tv/test-builds/andro...bi-v7a.apk (please turn all volumes you have far, far down) Handle with care. I want to see the effects you are getting for DTS, AC3.

[oo.viper.oo]

@oo.viper.oo
Do you have something put into the analog audio out? I mean the tv headphone connector?

I do. I am unable to get Android TV's own sound effects via optical at all. Only way to get them is via analog headphone connector, which I have switched to "Audio System (fixed)" in the sound settings (or whatever would be the proper English translation, can't switch UI to English at the moment).

My setup is that I have analog connection from headphone out and digital connection from optical out, both going to my receiver. I can't even have them to connected to single audio input channel in the receiver, because the stupid TV is sending "digital silence" via the optical all the time. If it didn't send anything, the receiver would automatically fall back to analog in and thus it would let me hook both digital and analog to the same input channel of the receiver. But since it sends digital out all the time, I have to have it hooked to different inputs in the receiver and switch input based on whether the content sends something out digitally or not. It's simply horrible user experience at the moment.

@CiNcH, if i get it right, runing Android 5 you have DD and DTS using kodi, right? If yes, i would not start testing new Android version for Sony... Never change a runing system.

Agreed.

@CiNcH: could you post your debug log in scenario where you have working passthrough via optical, please? I'd like to see what the audio device reports to the Kodi, based on which Kodi decides it can passthrough.

[CiNcH]

Your problem is the analog connection. Unplug it and you will get Passthrough audio.

(I did post my log with optical here)

[fritsch]

Can please someone test the build I posted. Do you get DTS with that? Do you get noise? What works with AC3? 640 kbps okay again?

[oo.viper.oo]

Haha :-)

Btw. just for me: Can you please test this build: http://mirrors.kodi.tv/test-builds/andro...bi-v7a.apk (please turn all volumes you have far, far down) Handle with care. I want to see the effects you are getting for DTS, AC3.

Will test it later today. Could you help me a bit by showing me the way around relevant parts of the source code, please? I'm trying to understand how Kodi decides whether the particular android audio device is passthrough-capable.

I have so far found https://github.com/xbmc/xbmc/blob/Krypto...OTRACK.cpp, line 262:
if (m_format.m_dataFormat == AE_FMT_RAW && !CXBMCApp::IsHeadsetPlugged())
{
m_passthrough = true;

Is that it? Does the device have to support AE_FMT_RAW?

Then I'm reading through void CAESinkAUDIOTRACK::EnumerateDevicesEx(AEDeviceInfoList &list, bool force) on line 756, and it looks like the RAW is only activated when headphones are not connected, which seems a bit redundant to the condition above where RAW and headset is again tested, but if the headset is plugged, then format can't be RAW based on the code below, which enables RAW only when headset is not pugged.

if (!CXBMCApp::IsHeadsetPlugged())
{
m_info.m_deviceType = AE_DEVTYPE_HDMI;
m_info.m_wantsIECPassthrough = false;
m_info.m_dataFormats.push_back(AE_FMT_RAW);

This is rather confusing to me for two reasons:
1. Is this based on assumption that headsets can't decode bitstream? It's probably fair assumption. I also assume my TV reports headset plugged even though it's not headset and it's configured in TV's Sound settings that it's actually audio system and not headset. It's still analog anyway and if this is to prevent encoded bitstream going out over analog, then it's probably ok and it is the reason why all my tests were failing so far. I did have my receiver connected via the optical digital and analog at the same time and the analog connection probably locked away the passthrough.

2. But then if the headset is not plugged, why the heck does the code change device type from PCM to HDMI? Or does AE_DEVTYPE_HDMI mean any kind of digital audio out, including optical and coaxial SPDIF and DisplayPort, in the context of AUDIOTRACK devices?

[fritsch]

If we detect a headphone, we will disable all the passthrough functionality. Kodi will decode everything to PCM and 2.0 channels in your case.

Edit:

For android we have no idea what kind of device is connected capability wise. We just tell: HDMI, cause HDMI in kodi means up to 7.1 channels and if samplerate, channels okay: DTS, AC3, EAC3, DTSHD, TRUEHD PT functionality. The latter are checked "version" dependend on Android.

For v21, v22 (without backports) you get AC3, EAC3
For v23 DTS, DTSHD, TRUEHD
...

AMLogic devices (old ones) are handled specially.

[mpiet]

...
Haha :-)

Btw. just for me: Can you please test this build: http://mirrors.kodi.tv/test-builds/andro...bi-v7a.apk (please turn all volumes you have far, far down) Handle with care. I want to see the effects you are getting for DTS, AC3.

I will test it later, but now i have to wait till my wife fall in sleep watching "the voice of germany" .... ;-)

[fritsch]

Guess - what I have to watch currently, too? "Und allll deeeeineeee Farben ....."

[mpiet]

Guess - what I have to watch currently, too? "Und allll deeeeineeee Farben ....."

Probably yes, i am not sure because i doing productive stuff now (kitchen work with deep house background music)

[fritsch]

I have to also watch it ...

[oo.viper.oo]

Btw. just for me: Can you please test this build: http://mirrors.kodi.tv/test-builds/andro...bi-v7a.apk (please turn all volumes you have far, far down) Handle with care. I want to see the effects you are getting for DTS, AC3.

It works. And it was that @#$% analog connection via headphone jack. First I installed your build above and it didn't help. Then I unplugged the analog lead and voila - it works. Passthrough section got enabled in Kodi's audio settings, I enabled AC3 and DTS there because that's what my AVR is capable of receiving via optical connection and it works. I tested few movies with various Dolby and DTS sound tracks and I got core AC3 and DTS passed through properly to AVR and decoded by it in all cases. AAC 2.0 sound track got passed through as PCM and got properly de-matrixed by AVR to surround sound as well. I didn't test any non-standard (AAC, LPCM) multichannel sound track, couldn't find any movie with such sound track in my library.

So I guess it might even work with the regular nightly build after all, or is there anything special baked in in your build I just tested?


And of course - big thank you all guys! The Android TV's UI sound effects are not working at this moment, because those are only send out via analog (Sony, wtf?), but I can live without them. It appears that all other apps are actually using the digital out.

Edit: header of log with working optical passthrough and without hdmi, for the reference:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/9162...v7a%29.log

[fritsch]

The regular nightly won't have DTS support and AC3 only works up to 384 kbps and transcoding won't work at all :-) The build I posted was to test if the "HACK" would work on your devices ... sad day for standards today :-)

I opened a PR, cause I basically give up fixing audio bugs on old android versions: https://github.com/xbmc/xbmc/pull/11138