[steve1977]

I have just upgraded my audio system to 5.1 system, which is quite exciting and I believe it works a lot better with Kodi and some of previous issues are done as they only apply in stereo setup.

I have a few questions though:

1) I can set Kodi to "passthrough mode" in "settings-system-audio", but then have yet another "passthrough" setting that I can change, while watching a movie. The options I have while watching a movie are far less exhausted. Are these two settings in sync and/or are both even working in parallel?

2) I tried using "passthrough" (in both settings), which appears to do something. I have a very good amplifiers, so thought passthrough would be the better option. Is that assumption even correct? Also, passthrough gives at least as good quality with 5.1, but speaker output when listening to aac stereo files is barely hearable.

3) What exactly does stereo upmix do?


Ultimately, the first is my biggest question as it feels so weird to change settings in different places within Kodi and these changes do not appear in sync.

Thanks in advance for your help!!!

[lrusak]

The passthrough setting in the Audio OSD will be a per video file setting, Typically you just need to turn passthrough on in the main audio settings.

Passthrough lets the receiver decode the stream instead of having the cpu decode the stream.

You might want to look here, http://kodi.wiki/view/Audio_quickstart_guide
(note that OSX cannot bitstream, aka TrueHD and DTSHD)

Stereo Upmix = "Select to enable upmixing of 2 channel audio to the number of audio channels specified by the channel configuration"

See here for more info about the settings, http://kodi.wiki/view/Audio_settings

[steve1977]

Brilliant!!! Now all works brilliantly. Thanks so much!

[wrxtasy]

The is also an Auto Audio switcher that you may be interested in:

http://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=201896

[Memphiz]

Also setting speaker config to 5.1 in Kodi and disable passthrough is the better option! (this will decode the 5.1 ac3 or dts stream and then pass the 6 channels to the amp seperately) - in this config its much easier for kodi to keep audio and video in sync. The decoding is a digital process which is not different when done from Kodi instead of an amp (doesn't matter how expensive or good the amp is )..

[steve1977]

Thanks for your message, appreciate your help. I would have anticipated that it would be beneficial for me to use "passthrough"? This way, I would use the DAC of the amplifier rather than the DAC of the Mac, which I envisioned to be inferior? If not for this setting, what else would the passthrough option be good for anyways?

Anyhow, you probably saw that I have for ages been struggling to get audio to properly work over HDMI with a stereo setup. It is great that it actually works brilliantly since I upgraded my system to 5.1. No issue anymore about low-audio and also no issue about unhearable voices, while smashingly loud sound effects. :-)

[Memphiz]

Well it still uses the DAC of the amp of course. Decoding AC3/DTS to 5.1 doesn't make it analog. Its still a digital signal which on the very last stage is transformed to an analog signal with the DAC inside of the amp. Its only "who decodes the AC3/DTS 2.0 encoded pcm to 5.1 pcm).

[steve1977]

Thanks Memphiz, working well!!!

The is also an Auto Audio switcher that you may be interested in:

http://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=201896

I took a quick look at it. What exactly would this allow me to do?

[wrxtasy]

When you play a Video - or Audiofile, it will switch to the pre-defined Audio Output automatically.

As an example you could have HDMI audio settings for Movie - Audio output, then Auto switch to S/PDIF for Music with separate settings pre-configured for both or vice-versa. Different volume levels for either can be pre-set as well.

Looks pretty versatile.