[morgenlander]

Hi,

Just got an Audio Card with S/PDif out on it and connected it to my Home theater 7.1 receiver over coax cable.
Issue is that I can hear audio only for digital sound sources (i.e. Movie with DTS) but not other sound sources (i.e. mp3 music or video sound track, I guess that would be considered "analog").
All sound worked ok when I used the onboard sound, although it was only stereo, so that's why I upgraded.

I got latest stable version of XBMC Live 9.11 installed on HDD.

This is what I did so far:
I read the FAQ for XBMC Live, and specifically the audio section and implemented the .asoundrc file as described:

I did aplay -l:

**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: CMI8768 [C-Media CMI8768], device 0: CMI8738-MC8 [C-Media PCI DAC/ADC]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: CMI8768 [C-Media CMI8768], device 1: CMI8738-MC8 [C-Media PCI 2nd DAC]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: CMI8768 [C-Media CMI8768], device 2: CMI8738-MC8 [C-Media PCI IEC958]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: ICH5 [Intel ICH5], device 0: Intel ICH [Intel ICH5]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: ICH5 [Intel ICH5], device 4: Intel ICH - IEC958 [Intel ICH5 - IEC958]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

And choose card 0 device 2, so I put:

pcm.dmixer {
type dmix
ipc_key 1024
slave {
pcm "hw:0,2"
period_time 0
period_size 1024
buffer_size 8192
#periods 128
#rate 44100
rate 48000
}
bindings {
0 0
1 1
}
}

and I do all the other audio settings (http://wiki.xbmc.org/index.php?title=XBM...ital_audio).

It works great for digital audio, like a movie soundtrack.

However, when I start an MP3 song, I don't hear anything. Any suggestions?

Thanks,
Morgenlander

[morgenlander]

Any suggestions?

I am able to switch back to the old onboard audio, but that's only Stereo and does not quite sound right.

I'd rather not go through three settings each time I want to watch a movie, if possible.

[elupus]

you must use the alsa plug device so it resamples stuff properly.

[morgenlander]

you must use the alsa plug device so it resamples stuff properly.

Thanks for your reply! Not sure if I understand - what is the alsa plug device? Are you talking about the physical plug? I use the coax cable (RCA) to connect from the card's S/PDIF out into the receivers S/PDIF in for the digital connection as opposed to the analog connection where I plug into the head set port.

Or are you talking about a plug in for xbmc or an ubuntu program?

[morgenlander]

Thanks for your reply! Not sure if I understand - what is the alsa plug device? Are you talking about the physical plug? I use the coax cable (RCA) to connect from the card's S/PDIF out into the receivers S/PDIF in for the digital connection as opposed to the analog connection where I plug into the head set port.

Or are you talking about a plug in for xbmc or an ubuntu program?

I think I understand now, you mean I should add some more code to .asoundrc for a 'plug'?
I searched around and saw many different examples - What would the code have to look like? Can you point me to a code snippet?
Sorry, I am quite new to this.

Thanks!

[elupus]

Normally you shouldn't have any asound.conf file at all.. But maybe you need one for you card?? I assume you use some custom asound.conf file which defines a pcm name that you use for output?

in that case just prefix it by plug:{whatever you named it} in xbmc's custom alsa device box.

[morgenlander]

Normally you shouldn't have any asound.conf file at all.. But maybe you need one for you card?? I assume you use some custom asound.conf file which defines a pcm name that you use for output?

in that case just prefix it by plug:{whatever you named it} in xbmc's custom alsa device box.

Thanks for the guidance - so, if I get that right I would put in the .asoundrc file:

plug:{
pcm.dmixer {
type dmix
ipc_key 1024
slave {
pcm "hw:0,2"
period_time 0
period_size 1024
buffer_size 8192
#periods 128
#rate 44100
rate 48000
}
bindings {
0 0
1 1
}
}
}

Correct? Or in the audio settings for custom audio devices?
Currently I have in there plug:dmixer, so that corresponds to what I have in the .asoundrc file.

Thanks!