Pass through support for apps coming to XBOX
#1
As the title says, pass through support "for your favourite media apps" is coming to Xbox and is currently in testing (or about to be) for xbox Alpha Ring. 
​​​I'm in Beta ring on my X1X so haven't got the update yet. 
I know that the pass through option is in the menus on Leia (and has been discussed at length why it hasn't been supported) and wondered if the functionally should start working when the ability becomes available at a system level or if the menu item has nothing behind it on xbox because of the currently existing restrictions on apps.
I'm about to sideload Matrix and just wanted to know if this is something that I could be testing as well when it hits Beta Ring
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#2
Really,Can't wait.
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#3
Do you have any public links with info on this? what would really be helpfull is any documents from any of the Misrosoft's websites, but being alpha the tech docs may not be published yet, so so you could keep an eye out for them.

From what I understand the UWP app uses the XAudio API and it is that which didn't have any passthrough support.

The desktop versions of Kodi for Windows use the WASAPI and Directsound API's which are not possible to use within UWP apps.

If Microsoft are adding passthrough support to XAudio API then it's likely the Kodi code will have to be reworked, so it's very likely that it won't magically just start to work once Microsoft pushes out the update. However if they've decided to bring the Directsound/WASAPI API's to the Xbox, then there's a good chance passthrough may start to work without any Kodi changes.

So it all depends on how Microsoft are implementing this.
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#4
(2021-05-02, 15:53)jjd-uk Wrote: Do you have any public links with info on this? what would really be helpfull is any documents from any of the Misrosoft's websites, but being alpha the tech docs may not be published yet, so so you could keep an eye out for them.

From what I understand the UWP app uses the XAudio API and it is that which didn't have any passthrough support.

The desktop versions of Kodi for Windows use the WASAPI and Directsound API's which are not possible to use within UWP apps.

If Microsoft are adding passthrough support to XAudio API then it's likely the Kodi code will have to be reworked, so it's very likely that it won't magically just start to work once Microsoft pushes out the update. However if they've decided to bring the Directsound/WASAPI API's to the Xbox, then there's a good chance passthrough may start to work without any Kodi changes.

So it all depends on how Microsoft are implementing this.
I'll start digging around.  The 1 sentence blurb that came by way of the Insider update just said pass through support coming to your favourite media apps.  For what it's worth it was the top of the list.  I'll update as soon as I find something useful.
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#5
Yeah I was having a play today. Unfortunately can't give any technical update as to how it works but I can confirm that there is also an update to PLex as part of the insider program. I have successfully been playing all HD formats bitstream from the PLex App. Hopefully Kodi can follow suit at some point. Once Kodi get the HDR working too that will mean the Xbox takes centre stage.
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#6
(2021-05-10, 10:47)markymiles Wrote: Yeah I was having a play today. Unfortunately can't give any technical update as to how it works but I can confirm that there is also an update to PLex as part of the insider program. I have successfully been playing all HD formats bitstream from the PLex App. Hopefully Kodi can follow suit at some point. Once Kodi get the HDR working too that will mean the Xbox takes centre stage.

Is there a Microsft forum for Insiders? if so could someone ask?

Normally API's are documented at https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/documentation/ so this should be the case for whatever API's the Xbox will use for passthrough, although if it's in only Alpha ring at the moment they may not push the doumentation until it goes Beta or later.
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#7
(2021-05-10, 13:59)jjd-uk Wrote:
(2021-05-10, 10:47)markymiles Wrote: Yeah I was having a play today. Unfortunately can't give any technical update as to how it works but I can confirm that there is also an update to PLex as part of the insider program. I have successfully been playing all HD formats bitstream from the PLex App. Hopefully Kodi can follow suit at some point. Once Kodi get the HDR working too that will mean the Xbox takes centre stage.

Is there a Microsft forum for Insiders? if so could someone ask?

Normally API's are documented at https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/documentation/ so this should be the case for whatever API's the Xbox will use for passthrough, although if it's in only Alpha ring at the moment they may not push the doumentation until it goes Beta or later.

There is a feedback part of the insider program, so I'll post there. You would assume as PLex have created an update purely for testing this passthrough ability that the info must be available somewhere for 3rd party app developers?.
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#8
Passthrough audio has now been rolled out in todays system update.
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#9
@jjd-uk 
https://support.xbox.com/en-US/help/hard...em-updates

Couldnt find anything in the developer documentation unfortunately. But I also searched this for the first time, so could be that Im navigating incorrectly Big Grin
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#10
Yeah I posted a message on the insider forum asking where the technical info is for 3rd part devs, so that I could pass it on here. Message didn't get past moderators and was deleted. I tried .

Seeing as 19.1 was pulled, happy for Kodi to take their time and get pass through audio working on the next release  Wink
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#11
Gentlemen please bring my Xbox to life by giving it Kodi with audio pass through now that this is possible. Who can help, help the team to take advantage now that microsoft allowed this feature. thank you very much for your attention!
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#12
It's unfortunate that there is no documentation of this new passthrough feature. However, I found out that it is possible to trigger the new passthrough capabilities when using the UWP Media APIs. A working example of this is provided by Microsoft's own UWP sample programs. The video playback sample program, which allows you to select a local file for playback, actually passes through HD Audio when the passthrough option in the Xbox settings is enabled. I tested that on my Series X.

The UWP Media APIs are very high level. You basically point the MediaPlayer class to a file, and the rest is handled by the UWP/XAML framework. To me it seems that this is very different to the rather low level audio/video implementation of Kodi and therefore not easily usable within Kodi. But still, maybe someone can figure something out.
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