[markshane]

Hello everyone!

I have a very strange issue with using KODI to transcode AAC 5.1 & DTS 5.1 to AC3 5.1 for passthrough on my TCL C715 Android 11 TV to my Panasonic 5.1 Home theater via HDMI & ARC. The issue is only exclusively with AAC 5.1 & DTS 5.1 streams as DD/DD+/Atmos encoded streams all passthrough fine as AC3 over to the Home theater receiver properly. Below are the KODI settings:

KODI Versions Tested (18.1 to 19.4 and even 20 nightly builds)
Number of Channels: 2.0
Allow Passthrough: ON
Dolby Digital (AC3) Capable receiver: ON
Dolby Digital (AC3) Transcoding: ON

When I try to play any video file with AAC or DTS 5.1 audio, there is no sound at all, even the KODI click sounds are gone. Only when I play another file which has DD/AC3 audio, the sound comes back or if I restart KODI. Videos with AAC 2.0 audio plays fine without any issue, problem is only with 5.1 audio. I have gone through many forums/reddit posts and tried almost every suggestion but couldn't get this to work with any version of KODI v18 till v20.

If I play the same video file using the TV's Native Video Player App, it properly Transcodes the AAC 5.1 stream to AC3 and my receiver detects it as DD and plays flawlessly, so I know for a fact the TV is capable of doing this but the only issue is with KODI and I need to use KODI for all my media as it has excellent media library management. I can't get the Logs as the TV won't allow me to access the Data folder where the logs get stored. I would appreciate any suggestions if this is working for anyone with this same setup like mine.

[fritsch]

There is an ancient "hack" only for Android in place, which reduces: AC3_ENCODE_BITRATE to a quite low value, cause several Sony / Philips TVs were not capable of outputting 640 Kbps ... from what you describe your device might actually behave the other way round, which is the reason that normal AC3 which are 640 Kbps work and the transcoded stuff not.

You can try to locally transcode a 5.1 AAC with ffmpeg to AC3 and only vary the bitrate starting with 640 Kbps to 512 Kbps and 256 Kbps. Which one works?

[markshane]

Hi @fritsch , Thank you for your reply. I'm not too technical but when you say "locally transcode" a file do you mean I need to do it on my laptop and then test it or is there any add-on in Kodi in which I can change this bitrate setting to test?

[fritsch]

The following tar file contains three different AC3 samples, please extract it and try to play them, which one works? All?

https://fritschserver.no-ip.org/index.ph...ZFwFoZ3BiM

Good luck.

[alibasbas]

Up. I have the same issue with similar TCL tv running Google TV.

[fritsch]

What do you up here? When the original author did not come back testing relevant files?

Do you want to encourage him testing them?