[fmafma]

Hi!

I would like to know how compressed audio flux (Dolby Digital, DTS...) are decoded by Kodi? Which application is responsible for that?

Until this week, compressed audio flux where decoded by my HC amplifier, using the passthrough option on HDMI. But I plan to use the 'nanoAVR HD' module from Minidsp. This module can correct 8 cannels, but only on PCM flux. So, I switched the audio decoding on Kodi (I deactivated the passthrough, and configured the speakers), so PCM flux are passed to the amplifier, which will allow me to put the nanoAVR between Kodi and amplifier.

But I have a very different audio ambiance... So, I'm wondering if there are several ways to decode such flux? Does Kodi make as good job as HC amplifiers do?

Thanks,

[fmafma]

Any idea?

[nickr]

We have no idea what a "flux" is.

[DJ_Izumi]

We have no idea what a "flux" is.

 I think this is a case of bad machine translation.  'Flux' in French seems to be used for the word 'Stream' in technical audio documentation and if you take the post and swap 'Flux' for 'Stream' it makes a lot more sense.

[nickr]

Thanks @DJ_Izumi, that certainly does make sense.

@fmafma I do not think there are any settings you can change, but to be sure, it may help us to help you if you post screenshots of your audio settings (usually at least two shots needed as it is a long page of settings).

Kodi uses ffmpeg for video and audio decoding.

[fmafma]

I apologize for the bad translation! It was not a machine translation: I made the mistake...

I don't have any fancy configuration; I just set the audio output to 5.1, and turned of the passthrough. This way, Kodi sends a multi-channels PCM stream (!) to the HC amplifier.

So, all is done by ffmpeg; I will ask ffmpeg developers. If I have an answer, I will post it here.

Thanks!

[fmafma]

Why when launching audio or video reading, I don't see ffmpeg process running? Does it just use libffmpeg, all done inside kodi.bin?

[fmafma]

Also, what params Kodi gives to ffmepg to read compressed streams? There seems to have several options which can change the behaviour...

[nickr]

You will need to consult our source code for the answer.

[fmafma]

Can you point me to that part of the code?

[wsnipex]

kodi decodes digital audio losslessly to PCM. It will auto-select the best method available on your hardware(iirc best precision is with pcm 32bit float)
The difference that you hear could be caused by volume, amplification and normalisation settings, the dac or amplifier.

And you see no ffmpeg process, because kodi has the ffmpeg libs built-in.