[BorisTheMidget]

Hi Folks,

i have just upgraded to Windows 7 and reinstalled the latest nightly build and hit a problem with audio to my receiver. I have a creative SB X-Fi Xtreme Audio card with the optical out connected to my amp.

Full XBMC log here:
http://pastebin.com/KjbQJU8r

Sound in windows is fine, audio inside of xbmc is fine (i can hear the sounds as i scroll thru the menu's and i can play mp3's) it's just when i try to play a movie.

Here's the audio stuff i see in the log:

18:39:52 T:1408 M:1255497728 DEBUG: CAudioContext::SetActiveDevice - SetActiveDevice from 2 to 4
18:39:52 T:1408 M:1255497728 DEBUG: CAudioContext::RemoveActiveDevice - Removing device 2
18:39:52 T:1408 M:1255497728 DEBUG: CGUIAudioManager:eInitialize
18:39:52 T:3048 M:1248186368 INFO: ffmpeg[BE8]: [h264] Cannot parallelize deblocking type 1, decoding such frames in sequential order
18:39:52 T:1408 M:1247772672 DEBUG: CWDSound::direct_sound_enumerator_member_callback - found Device: Primary Sound Driver
18:39:52 T:1408 M:1247772672 DEBUG: CWDSound::direct_sound_enumerator_member_callback - found Device: Speakers (SB X-Fi Xtreme Audio)
18:39:52 T:1408 M:1247772672 DEBUG: CWDSound::direct_sound_enumerator_member_callback - found Device: Digital Audio Interface (SB X-Fi Xtreme Audio)
18:39:52 T:1408 M:1247772672 DEBUG: CAudioContext::SetActiveDevice - selecting Primary Sound Driver as output devices
18:39:52 T:3048 M:1246314496 DEBUG: CDVDPlayerVideo - CDVDMsg::GENERAL_RESYNC(42000.000000, 1)
18:39:52 T:1408 M:1236226048 DEBUG: CWin32DirectSound::Initialize: Packet Size = 12384. Avg Bytes Per Second = 192000.
18:39:52 T:1408 M:1239330816 DEBUG: CWin32DirectSound::Initialize: Couldn't create secondary buffer (DSERR_UNSUPPORTED). Trying without LOCHARDWARE.
18:39:52 T:1408 M:1238052864 DEBUG: CWin32DirectSound::Initialize: Couldn't create secondary buffer (DSERR_UNSUPPORTED). Trying without CTRLVOLUME.
18:39:52 T:1408 M:1237233664 ERROR: CWin32DirectSound::Initialize: cannot create secondary buffer (DSERR_UNSUPPORTED)
18:39:52 T:1408 M:1237233664 ERROR: Creating a Null Audio Renderer, Check your audio settings as this should not happen
18:39:52 T:1408 M:1237233664 DEBUG: CAudioContext::SetActiveDevice - SetActiveDevice from 4 to 2
18:39:52 T:1408 M:1237233664 DEBUG: CAudioContext::RemoveActiveDevice - Removing device 4
18:39:52 T:1408 M:1237385216 DEBUG: CWDSound::direct_sound_enumerator_member_callback - found Device: Primary Sound Driver
18:39:52 T:1408 M:1237393408 DEBUG: CWDSound::direct_sound_enumerator_member_callback - found Device: Speakers (SB X-Fi Xtreme Audio)
18:39:52 T:1408 M:1237389312 DEBUG: CWDSound::direct_sound_enumerator_member_callback - found Device: Digital Audio Interface (SB X-Fi Xtreme Audio)
18:39:52 T:1408 M:1237364736 DEBUG: CAudioContext::SetActiveDevice - selecting Primary Sound Driver as output devices
18:39:52 T:1012 M:1236893696 DEBUG: CAnnouncementManager - Announcement: PlaybackStarted from xbmc
18:39:52 T:1012 M:1236856832 DEBUG: CApplication::OnPlayBackStarted - Playback has started


Any ideas what's causing the audio to die?

thanks, Boris.

[BorisTheMidget]

Folks, a bit more mucking around.

Here is what i've found:
- set to analogue out
videos play
music plays

-set to digital out
videos do not play
music plays

Not sure how else to troubleshoot this? guidance pleeeassee folks?

Boris.

[BorisTheMidget]

help? anyone? pllleeassseeeee

[Scorpius]

I know you must have checked this already but when I installed the latest SVN build I had to reenable the options "DTS receiver capable" and "Dolby Digital receiver capable" to make the 5.1 work again.

I have almost your same setup (optical to a receiver), maybe it's the same problem?

[CrystalP]

Please report what happens with r31516 or later. It should help with WASAPI output.
A complete debug log could be useful (you didn't restart XBMC after turning on the option).

Of course make sure you have the latest drivers for Win7.

[BorisTheMidget]

Hi CyrstalP,

Creative drivers 1.4.9 (latest) and just upgraded to xbmc r31595.

Still having the same issue

I've uploaded 3 logs to my website for you, default, wsapi creative audio and wsapi digital audio.

Let me know if there is any other logs you need.

-Boris.

[kcmop8ntballa]

I am having the exact same problems. I rencently built an htpc out of on old sony viao desktop. The sound works with videos when set to analog but not when set to digital. I ordered a new sound card to see if that will fix the problem.

[BorisTheMidget]

bump...

[Phuqz]

I had this issue when I swapped my Asus HDAV for the AuzenTech Home Cinema Card (which is part SoundBlaster). This has happened with all the new builds upto and including 31672.

To have movies working properly I was forced to connect and use the SPDIF port as it won't play digital output when set to HDMI and I had to manually set the Audio Output device to WASAPI SPDIF. Any other setting results in a failure to initialise the audio device.

I'm still looking into why, but for some reason no matter what I do XBMC cannot initialise the SoundBlaster speaker device (i.e. the one it should be) for digital output via directsound, primary sound or wasapi settings even though this works in windows and with all other software eg TMT3, PDVD10 etc etc. The same is true for HDMI on both my Auzentech and direct from my 5770, only the SPDIF will work and only if I set that manually as described.

I also note that the output volume is very low when I use the SPDIF and requires a significant gain (double my normal volume) on the amp to deliver a reasonable sound level. Any other software doesn't require this, but I'm assuming that software is applying a gain before it's passed to my amp.

Hope this helps as it was driving me nuts.

[CrystalP]

Boris, the debug log indicates that it tries to open audio in passthrough mode, even for analog. That doesn't make sense. What are your Audio/Output and the 'xxx capable receiver' settings?
What happens for a video with 2 channel mp3 sound?
Also, for WASAPI do you have the exclusive mode enabled in Windows for the sound card?
Do you have sound and passthrough working with VLC or MPC-HC?

[kcmop8ntballa]

I got my new sound card today and that fixed the problem so im guessing my problem was the sound card/driver was too old to properly work in windows 7. However, I would think that creative would keep their drivers up to date so that they would work properly in windows 7 unless maybe its a really old sound card.

[BorisTheMidget]

Boris, the debug log indicates that it tries to open audio in passthrough mode, even for analog. That doesn't make sense.

ahh yep :c) hence me opening a thread about it

Ok, so i've worked out what was busted after reading a million threads, so i'll post the detailed instructions here on what i did. But man, Creative are a bunch of retards, definitely not like it used to be in xp and 20 times more confusing with a poor amount of information available from their support folks.

Is your receiver/sound card connection working correctly?

I have a Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Audio and to get optical/spdif out, you need one of these

The creative extreme cards show up in the sound panel with two devices, a "speakers" and a "digital audio interface" device. You need to set the "digital audio interface" as the default device:



Also, make sure as CrystalP points out, that you set exclusive mode for the sound device and both boxes are ticked:



At this point, you can check to see if your receiver and sound card is doing audio pass through correctly. Make sure both "DTS Audio" and "Dolby Digital" are both ticked and make sure you tick all of the "Sample Rate" boxes that your receiver supports.



Once you've done this, you can select the "DTS Audio" check box and then click test. You should hear the ding ding ding sound from windows, plus you should see your receiver flick over to the right encoder format (if its set to auto detect).

Are your codec's installed correctly and decoding files in your media player properly?

Go grab some sample tracks, these are encoded in both DTS and Dolby Digital and you can play around with to verify that all of your codecs are correctly installed (i.e. CCCP Codec pack).

Open these up in your player (VLC, etc) and see if your receiver clicks over to the right format and you get surround sound.

If this doesn't work, than something is screwed with your drivers, codec pack, etc in windows. So sort this out before messing around in XBMC.

Configuring XBMC for surround sound

Simple enough, just make sure the audio output device is the wasapi device for the digital audio interface device, i.e. what you set as the default in the windows sound control panel.

[Feanor]

Hi everyone, I'm having this same problem but in Windows XP SP3, so I can't do any of the steps that Boris details above.
The 5.1 sound works perfect in PowerDVD and in Media Player Classic (using AC3Filter), but I get the failed to initialize error in xbmc. Debug log follows:
http://pastebin.com/zPSTAhd1

thanks!

Edit: more info:
Soundblaster X-Fi Xtreme Audio PCI-Ex
Connected to a home theather via optical cable (Toslink)
The same connections I used with my XBOX and 5.1 worked perfect.
XBMC nightly from last night :p

[Feanor]

I think I need to set XBMC to S/PDIF passthrough, but I don't get that option, I can select Analog (which let's me select only 2.0 sound and works, bu obviously only in stereo), HDMI (I don't even have a HDMI out in my soundcard), or Optical/Coaxial, which is the one I selected and doesn't work.

[Feanor]

Anyone?
I tried to install the DSPlayer xbmc version (to use AC3filter that I know it's working in windows), but I really couldn't configure it and it crashed my pc a few times...