[chwlls]

Hi,

My question eventually boils down to: Does anybody definitely have multichannel LPCM working over HDMI from the Acer Revo?

Long version:

I've been trying to get the Revo to output multichannel LPCM to my Sony STR DH800 amp over HDMI. Stereo is fine, and it even outputs DTS and DD 5.1 fine if I select the "DTS/DD capable decoder" options in the sound config. But I have a large number of .mkv files with multichannel flac audio, and what ever I do, I cannot get any more than stereo to work in LPCM. This means I don't have the centre channel.

I've read these threads with interest:

http://www.xbmc.org/forum/showthread.php?t=52473
http://www.xbmc.org/forum/showthread.php?t=56750

Trying to get my setup as close as possible to other apparently known working setups, I

* Installed a fresh Jaunty 9.04
* Downloaded the Alsa upgrade script from http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p...ost6589810 and installed Alsa 1.0.21 [Alsa has the 8 channel nvhdmi fix in it already, so I didn't need to patch the Alsa code]
* Ran speaker-test -Dhdmi -c6

I get audio from left and right, but nothing from centre, or any other speakers. The amp doesn't appear to indicate that it's receiving input from other channels, but I've only just got the amp, so am somewhat unfamiliar with it.

According to other posts I think it should be working at this point, but it isn't. If anybody can shed any light on this I'd be grateful.

Other things I've tried are:
Upgrading the BIOS on the revo from the A1 to A2 version
The Karmic beta

But nothing seems to work.

Cheers

[chwlls]

I just installed Windows 7 to test. Full 7.1 works perfectly and the Sony amp lights up in a much more reassuring way. It's a shame that video acceleration on Windows is no where near as good as Linux - I know no way to accelerate VC1, H264 and MPEG2 .mkv files. Media Player Classic HC does a reasonable job, but the video is no where near as smooth as XBMC, and I'd much prefer to use XBMC on Linux anyway.

It seems I can either have working video, or working audio, but not both.

So if anybody has a reprodubily working audio setup on Linux, I would appreciate hearing about it

What I'd like to do once I've got it working is to set up a preseed to automate the entirety of installing Ubuntu with XBMC, with no questions being asked between booting the installer and coming back in 20 minutes with a working system (Possibly just leaving the partition and language choices in).

[chris2922]

@ chwlls:

I have multichannel audio sent from XBMC Live via HDMI to my Onkyo amp. The amp displays "HDMI MULTICHANNEL PCM" on the display.

I have a Zotac IONITX-A motherboard, and I installed XBMC Live 9.04.1 to a USB stick.

Using a Windows PC on the same network, i used Putty.exe to remotely admin the XBMC machine from terminal.

First i updated ALSA to the latest version using this very good guide:
http://monespaceperso.org/blog-en/2009/0...unty-9-04/

Then, I upated the Ubuntu and XBMC installations using this guide:
http://marshalleq.wordpress.com/2009/08/...-playback/

There were a few errors along the way - but searching the error on Google revealed solutions in seconds. In all cases i needed to create directories - just cant remember what they were now.

Following this update i set my audio hardware settings to:

Audio Output: Digital
Dolby: Yes
DTS: Yes
Passthrough: hdmi (lowercase)
Whatever the other one is: hdmi (lowercase again)
Down-mix to stereo: No.

Finally, i ran a rip of the Wolverine film i have on my NAS. It is encoded with 6 channel AAC audio - which prior to all this updating and fiddling was passed through as STEREO PCM.

Without changing any options or doing anything i havent mentioned above, it now outputs HDMI MULTICHANNEL PCM.

I read in this thread that a didgy patch/hack was needed to acheive this:
http://www.xbmc.org/forum/showthread.php?t=52473
Somehow i seem to have done the same by running updates.

Sadly, if you read further through the link above you'll see the channel mapping is wrong. My centre channel is round the back somewhere - they're all mixed up.

Until this gets sorted i cant say its working properly - but the amp lights up correctly which has to be at least half the battle right?!

[chwlls]

Hi chris2922,

Thanks for the links, I am going to have a play around with those ideas.

Does 'speaker-test -Dhdmi -c6', at the terminal, work for you?

You should hear a static-like noise in each of the speakers

At the moment I can't even get the amp to right up light.

'speaker-test -Dhdmi -c2' is fine: http://chrishowells.co.uk/speakertest2ch.jpg
'speaker-test -Dhdmi -c6' doesn't make the amp light up at all: http://chrishowells.co.uk/speakertest6ch.jpg

It almost looks right the driver isn't setting the LPCM bitstream to 6 or 8 channels properly.

Thanks.

[chris2922]

Hi,

Yes, 'speaker-test -Dhdmi -c6' works in as much as my amp shows HDMI MULTICHANNEL PCM and plays static through each of the surround speakers and the sub in turn. They aren't mapped correctly though.

Im not really sure how i got to this point because as ive said, i thought a hack was required to get this working and all ive done is update to the current builds.

The only thing i can recommend is to 'export' your XBMC library somewhere safe, then try installing XBMC Live as i did to an old USB Stick, and follow the processes detailed in the links i've provided. That should get you where i am - theoretically at least!

[chwlls]

Hi chris2922,

Thanks again for your reply. I didn't have much time to play around today as one of my hard disks exploded, so I had to deal with that. But I slipped a zotac Ion B board into the order along with a new disk, so I shall try that tomorrow and see if I can replicate your setup. Thanks again.

I'll update my progress here once I have some.

I did post on the Alsa-dev mailing list yesterday but unfortunately haven't had a reply.

http://mailman.alsa-project.org/pipermai...21819.html

[Kaaino]

I also have a problem with sony str-dh800 and xmbc. In my case I have the ASUS ION based motherboard and I can get 2 channels HDMI audio if I plug the cable directly on my TV but I do not get any sound if I connect the linux box to the receiver.

It is possible that the sony receiver is a bit peaky? Did you find any solution to your problem?

[harryzimm]

Hi

This thread should help.

cheers

[celeb23]

My Acer Revo with latest XBMC Live and latest Linux NVIDIA drivers plays the file below with terrible audio sync issues. I have downmix to stereo selected and my hdmi cable runs straight to my TV. Is this expected based on existing issues with software or did I miss something along the way?

General
Complete name : \\UNRAID\disk1\master\xbmc\videos\shows\Modern Family\Modern Family - S01E11 - Up All Night.mp4
Format : MPEG-4
Format profile : Base Media
Codec ID : isom
File size : 201 MiB
Duration : 20mn 54s
Overall bit rate : 1 345 Kbps
Movie name : Up All Night
Genre : Sitcom
Encoded date : UTC 2010-01-06 00:00:00
Writing application : Lavf52.32.0
stik : 10
desc : Gloria does not like Jays reaction to the arrival of Mannys father (Benjamin Bratt); Phil is rushed to the hospital; Mitchell and Cameron try to sleep train Lily.
tvsh : Modern Family
tvnn : WLSDT

Video
ID : 1
Format : AVC
Format/Info : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile : [email protected]
Format settings, CABAC : Yes
Format settings, ReFrames : 1 frame
Codec ID : avc1
Codec ID/Info : Advanced Video Coding
Duration : 20mn 54s
Bit rate mode : Variable
Bit rate : 1 196 Kbps
Width : 1 280 pixels
Height : 720 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 16:9
Frame rate mode : Constant
Frame rate : 59.940 fps
Resolution : 8 bits
Colorimetry : 4:2:0
Scan type : Progressive
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.022
Stream size : 179 MiB (89%)

Audio
ID : 2
Format : AAC
Format/Info : Advanced Audio Codec
Format version : Version 4
Format profile : LC
Format settings, SBR : No
Codec ID : 40
Duration : 20mn 54s
Bit rate mode : Variable
Bit rate : 144 Kbps
Channel(s) : 6 channels
Channel positions : Front: L C R, Rear: L R, LFE
Sampling rate : 48.0 KHz
Stream size : 21.3 MiB (11%)