Kodi support for Quadraphonic titles (Quad 4.0)
#1
I have done some searching and I just can't seem to find the answer to this anywhere, which is surprising, but hopefully, somebody could answer this question please?

I have been using Kodi/XBMC for many years, and have the following setup:

1. x86 PC running Linux with XBMC/Kodi on top (dedicated PC for this task, built by me).
2. NVidia GT480 or something like that connected to HD (and 4k) capable Yamaha Pre-Pro/AVR CXA5100 via HDMI
3. Kodi set to 7.1 output and passthrough and support for everything ticked for the output to AVR
4. AVR (actually Pre-Pro CXA5100) set to out 5.1 output (to match the number of speakers I have) - anything in "surround left/right" and "back left/right" plays correctly in my rear speakers (I also have a test track which proves this)
5. Any (Kodi) supported container file with any support codec inside the container, when in either 2.0, 5.1 or 7.1 plays correctly on my system.
6. I also have a Cambridge 751BD Bluray player connected via HDMI to the same AVR with the same passthrough bitstream setting (to make the AVR do all the decoding work).

I have a small number of (Pink Floyd) LPCM hi-res 4.0 (Quadraphonic/Quad) titles which play back perfectly in Quad/4.0 via my Bluray player as per point 6.
These same titles, ripped to file, play back either as 2.0 or mixed up 5.1 via Kodi.

I thought at this point I should double check that there is no reason why Kodi should not play correctly the Quad/4.0 LPCM streams?  i.e Kodi does indeed support LPCM 4.0?

Just for clarity, I usually rip these kinds of titles of the disc (both 2.0 and 5.1) via MakeMKV -> strip video to new mkv -> convert mkv to WAV, convert WAV to FLAC (add tags and artwork) - always keeping the enclosed LPCM bitsteam inside the container untouched (I want it to remain bit-perfect).  The same ripping process for Quad/4.0 takes place but on playback of these titles, causes the above problem.

If I play the mkv that comes straight out of MakeMKV, I get mixed up 5.1, same for converting that to WAV.  If I convert the WAV to FLAC, I *then* get 2.0 (stereo) instead.

I have done a lot of reading about there being no actual "standard" for channel ordering, but ffmpeg decodes the files as either quad(side) (if it's in a MKV or WAV container) or plan "quad", if it's in a FLAC container.  The channel order in the kodi.log looks correct at playback time.

I am running out of ideas.  I could possibly fix it by adding a silent centre channel track, to make it 5.0 (or even that plus silent sub/.1 to make it 5.1), but I'd rather just be able to play any 4.0 that I have without modification if at all possible.

Anyone able to help/have any ideas? (especially if Kodi definately does support 4.0 playback (I am presuming that it does!))

Cheers,

Matt.
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#2
Could you provide a Debug log_file (wiki) of you playing one of these files, even better would be if you could also provide a sample track. Note that if you don't want to publicly share one of your files then add a download link to your reply then once posted edit your post to remove the link, Team members who are forum moderators can then still see the removed link in the post history.
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#3
Thanks for the response.  I take it you think that it *should* work, i.e. Kodi should probably support 4.0?

I haven't collected logs before so it may take a little time to set this up.  I will crop a test file to a few seconds with ffmpeg, as the files I have are all published/copyrighted tracks, so I don't want to be sharing whole files (I think a few seconds would do to highlight my problem?).

I presume for logging, do the following:

<advancedsettings>
<loglevel>2</loglevel>
</advancedsettings>

Restart Kodi, attempt to play the test file, change it back to 0, and restart Kodi and then provide the log and test file?

Cheers,

Matt.
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#4
You don't need to fiddle with advancedsettings.xml as Kodi is fully responsive. Just follow this...

  1. Enable Debugging mode. Go to Settings>System Settings>Logging and it should be the first option
  2. Restart Kodi
  3. Replicate the problem.
  4. Upload the log to Kodi Paste Site manually or use the Kodi Logfile Uploader. (wiki) With either method post the link back here.
Note: Full logs only. No partial or redacted logs
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#5
(2018-10-03, 18:37)mutant_matt Wrote: I take it you think that it *should* work, i.e. Kodi should probably support 4.0?

I haven't collected logs before so it may take a little time to set this up.  I will crop a test file to a few seconds with ffmpeg, as the files I have are all published/copyrighted tracks, so I don't want to be sharing whole files (I think a few seconds would do to highlight my problem?).

Depends on what your AVR reports to Kodi which is why I asked for the log. If your AVR doesn’t report 4.0 but reports 5.1 then 5.1 will most likely be used with only the front and back channels filled and cenre and LFE chanels left unused, so although AVR will report receiving 5.1 you will only get sound from 4 channels.
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#6
OK, thanks Smile

When I play the titles from the BluRay discs, the AVR reports correctly just L, R, BL, BR (though I will double check if need be if it's SL, SR or BL, BR if the difference becomes important (I suspect not)).

Logs and sample to follow.

Cheers,

Matt Smile
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#7
I found a quad flac file at https://github.com/sfiera/flac-test-files and I get 4.0 reported on my AVR from my install, could you try the same file to see what you get.
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#8
Just yesterday I have listened to some of the original Parsons 4.0 mixes from file myself and they sounded alright. I would rather suspect that there is a flaw in your audio chain somewhere but you haven't supplied enough info to investigate.

Just out of curiosity, why do you set KODI to more channels than you have speakers? And have you tried 2.0 as that is supposed to be the best setting for passthrough? (For me personally, 5.1 works best).
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#9
(2018-10-04, 01:45)HeresJohnny Wrote: Just out of curiosity, why do you set KODI to more channels than you have speakers? And have you tried 2.0 as that is supposed to be the best setting for passthrough? (For me personally, 5.1 works best).

I do the same because setting to 7.1 ensure the audio is always sent exactly as decoded, then the AVR handles the downmixing to 5.1 speakers. Note there is no right or wrong just personal preference to where in the chain the downmixing is done, I just prefer to keep the audio exactly as the source all the way up to the AVR then have the AVR do any processing.

Note also that number of channels setting is also only for decoded audio and has zero influence on bitstreaming, so have no idea where you would hear that 2.0 is better as it's totally wrong as you've found.
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#10
OK, many thanks all for the response.  It's heartening (and not unexpected) to hear that Kodi does indeed support 4.0 and that other people have it working ok.

So, I've used that example quad file, turned on logging, rebooted the box and played it (it started to play the 5.0, 5.1 and 6.1 afterwards before I stopped it so I guess anyone looking at the log should be able to see the 4.0 attempt which didn't work as per usual in the sense that the log looks ok to my untrained eyes, but it played as 2.0 on the AVR, but as usual the 5.0, 5.1 and 6.1 played correctly).

The log is here: https://paste.kodi.tv/yeyaresutu.kodi

In case it's of use, I double-checked the playback of a track off the Pink Floyd Dark Side of the Moon BluRay in Quad/4.0 today and that indeed plays back correctly as 4.0 (using FL, FR, SL, SR on the AVR display) and I double-checked the BluRay settings, and there is just "bitstream" output over HDMI, no other settings.

I have also checked the Kodi output settings and choosing 5.1 or 7.1 doesn't seem to make any difference to 5.1, 7.1 or 2.0 content, but as above, I prefer the AVR to do the speaker mapping rather than Kodi, as it knows what's connected and if I ever added rear sides, I wouldn't have to change anything.  If I select 2.0 output in Kodi, I get stereo output on the AVR, with a "phantom centre" and all rear left and right mapped into the front left and right speakers.

I've left it on 7.1 output on Kodi and it was set like that during the test playback shown in the log.

Any help anyone can offer would be greatly appreciated! Smile

It's nice to chat with others listening to multi-channel music (and especially Quad), as I don't know anyone else who uses Kodi for that, and only know one person at all who is interested in listening to multi-channel music (though everyone I demo it to is blown away by it! Smile ).

Cheers,

Matt.
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#11
I've just spotted a little more perhaps useful info.

I have audio output set to "Best Match" and this seems to work for everything as I said, except 4.0.  I've been using these settings for some years now, but it's only fairly recently that I got round to ripping my Quad stuff (previously I had only done the 2.0 and 5.1 stuff).

So, if I set that setting to Fixed, and as long as I specify at least 5.1 speakers or more, then it sends 5.1 or 7.1, but with silence in the channels that don't actually exist in the source.  However, it also looks like Kodi is re-sampling if I chose this setting which I really don't want to do.  Curiously, if I set 4.0 as part of fixed, then I once again get stereo at the AVR, not 4.0.

With it set in fixed, I then can see that the re-sample rate I choose, is used for all content, regardless of what format it is in, so don't want to leave it like that (I've set it back once again to Best Match, 7.1 for now).

Optimized seems to behave very similarly to Best Match, across different titles, which I suspect it probably expected (I suspect the difference would be if you have presumably video with changing frame rates within a title (in which case you'd want Best Match for that?)).

HTH!

Cheers,

Matt.
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#12
All of those settings *shouldn't* make a difference when passthough audio is selected. That is at least true for Windows. Maybe there is something fishy going on with Linux, but that's above my head.

If you PM me, we can swap some files to determine if the culprit is in demuxing the file or in the reproduction chain.

@jjd-uk The 2.0 setting is only needed to activate AC3-transcoding which is not the issue here. I apologize.
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#13
@mutant_matt

The forum moderators have determined that Banned_addons (wiki) are present on your system. To receive assistance here, these banned items must be removed. If a clean log is not submitted within 3 days, then the relevant post(s) will be removed after this time.
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#14
(2018-10-04, 23:06)Karellen Wrote: @mutant_matt

The forum moderators have determined that Banned_addons (wiki) are present on your system. To receive assistance here, these banned items must be removed. If a clean log is not submitted within 3 days, then the relevant post(s) will be removed after this time.
Fair enough Smile  Many years ago I had some add-ons which were since un-installed, but I presume that there are some old repos lying around in the install still (or is it actually add-ons?).

Would it be possible to give me a clue as to what flagged this?  These days I only use the add-ons YouTube and BBC iPlayerWWW which I don't *think* either of which come from anywhere contentious?

Cheers,

Matt.
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#15
There's only one or two...

xml:
15:00:23 T:2997098368 NOTICE: ADDONS: Using repository repository.bstrdsmkr
15:00:23 T:2997098368 NOTICE: ADDONS: Using repository repository.superrepo.org.frodo.all
15:00:23 T:2997098368 NOTICE: ADDONS: Using repository repository.xbmchub
15:00:23 T:2997098368 NOTICE: ADDONS: Using repository repository.SportsDevil

There are two others that I am not familiar with and don't have the time to research at this time. I will leave that up to you.
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