[PatK]

WASAPI handshake

Wasapi is Microsoft's multi-channel audio interface for communication with audio devices. WASAPI was introduced with Windows Vista™ and is supported by Windows 7 and later versions. WASAPI delivers an unmodified audio-stream to a sound device.

-Is the WASAPI handshake with Windows or with Kodi?  (Assuming it is with Kodi)

Windows audio (wiki) Kodi utilizes WASAPI only in the Exclusive Mode of operation in order that Kodi gets the exclusive rights to the audio buffers whilst playing audio streams to the exclusion of all other sounds or players, this is a change from previous version of Kodi where Shared Mode was also allowed. When using WASAPI care must be taken to ensure Windows is configured to allow Kodi to run in exclusive mode.

-I assume Kodi attempts the handshake upon startup.  What happens if the AVR is off when this happens, but is later turned on?

Kodi only interrogates the hardware for WASAPI on launch, loss of handshaking will default to direct sound.

-If there is not currently a WASAPI connection in place when Kodi starts up media (say a movie) does it re-attempt the WASAPI connection at that time?

No but Kodi can be forced back into WASPI by entering settings and changing the audio settings to WASAPI should handshaking be established.

[damonbrodie]

WASAPI handshake

Wasapi is Microsoft's multi-channel audio interface for communication with audio devices. WASAPI was introduced with Windows Vista™ and is supported by Windows 7 and later versions. WASAPI delivers an unmodified audio-stream to a sound device.

-Is the WASAPI handshake with Windows or with Kodi?  (Assuming it is with Kodi)Windows audio (wiki) Kodi utilizes WASAPI only in the Exclusive Mode of operation in order that Kodi gets the exclusive rights to the audio buffers whilst playing audio streams to the exclusion of all other sounds or players, this is a change from previous version of Kodi where Shared Mode was also allowed. When using WASAPI care must be taken to ensure Windows is configured to allow Kodi to run in exclusive mode.

-I assume Kodi attempts the handshake upon startup.  What happens if the AVR is off when this happens, but is later turned on?

Kodi only interrogates the hardware for WASAPI on launch, loss of handshaking will default to direct sound.

-If there is not currently a WASAPI connection in place when Kodi starts up media (say a movie) does it re-attempt the WASAPI connection at that time?

No but Kodi can be forced back into WASPI by entering settings and changing the audio settings to WASAPI should handshaking be established. 

 Thanks for the detailed reply!

Based on the existing behaviour, the one change that I think would be ideal is to have it attempt to handshake WASAPI again on media startup (maybe only if the device is hardcoded in advancedsettings.xml)?

Is there a way to force/change/retry the audio with a JSON call to Kodi?  I could add that type of logic to my kodi plugin for my theatre...

[jjd-uk]

You could map a Kodi restart action, I also believe there is a way to reinit the Audio subsystem which I think would cause a enumeration of the audio, but the exact needed method is beyond my pay grade.

[damonbrodie]

You could map a Kodi restart action, I also believe there is a way to reinit the Audio subsystem which I think would cause a enumeration of the audio, but the exact needed method is beyond my pay grade.

 Restarting kodi is my current workaround, and its a brutish method for dealing with it.

reiniting the audio is interesting, though I haven't yet found a way to do this.

[Pashator]

You could map a Kodi restart action, I also believe there is a way to reinit the Audio subsystem which I think would cause a enumeration of the audio, but the exact needed method is beyond my pay grade.

 Restarting kodi is my current workaround, and its a brutish method for dealing with it.

reiniting the audio is interesting, though I haven't yet found a way to do this. 

EDID Override will fix an issue as Windows won't attempt to re-negotiate but that would require to disable Secure Boot and enable Test mode.