2020-10-14, 06:42
Quote:- using Kodi fritsch build, above can be decoded (except Atmos) and output as LPCM 7.1 with no audio loss?
_all_ kodi versions decode all bitstream formats (besides the atmos bits) losslessly. Some sinks though cannot cope with 32 bit float format and output 16 bit integer by themselves. And this is - to be very direct here - always a hit or miss on Android, because the "lossless" sound samples end up in Audiotrack Soundserver. Here kodi has no influence.
Examples:
(Worst one): If you have a 16 bit LPCM flac file and want to output it with official Leia 18.8 on a FireTV 4K, kodi will losslessly decode into a 32 bit float format, will correctly open then a 16 bit format as officialy Leia uses 16 bit int for multi-channel, because _many_ android devices just don't output anything if you give them multi channel float. Now something funny (or not) will happen, that the FireTV firmware will make "DD+" out of it, means: transcodes it again and outputs some lossy DD+ instead of the lossless 16 bit audio.
If you decode the same file on a FireTV 4K with the fritschfiretv build it will be decode lossleslly to 32 bit float (as original Leia 18.8), but then open multi-channel Float format, which - on the firetv - works _and_ bypasses (we are lucky) the firetv internal DD+ encode, cause it seems that it cannot cope with multi-channel float.
When I remember right, the Cube is the reason why we degraded multi-channel float output to multi-channel 16 bit precission only, because _this_device_ was one of them that cannot output multi-channel float directly - at least not at the time of this PR above.
Therefore: Someone with the Cube, please take fritschfiretv build, play some TrueHD / DTS-HD / whatever with _disabled_ passthrough and post a log, please and inform this thread if you could hear something.
Plex Question: No idea, never used it.
I hope this answers the question and yes I know it's complicated: broken firmware, firmware DD+ encoding, Soundservers, etc.
