RPi3-B w/Audio DAC sound splitting

1st Official Post

    I have the following set up that I'm trying to split audio sound signals on.

    RP3-B

    LibreElectric 9.1.501; Kodi 18.4

    Allo Boss DAC - set up properly in config text file (see attached)

    Denon AVR receiver (receiving separate red-white audio coaxial cables)

    Vizio LCD TV (HDMI in CEC port)

    Allo BOSS set as "default" ALSA audio in Kodi system config

    When I stream music through Samba shares from my server the audio to the Demon AVR receiver works great; however, when I try to stream any type of video (PVR HDHomerun OTA signal or Samba share video files) the audio goes out through the TV.

    What I want to do is have all audio going out the DAC and use TV screen as a monitor. I'm not sure how to change this setting and where?

    That didn't work; however, when I was testing the HD HomeRun PVR I noticed sometime. I did the following in this order:

    (1) First confirmed in System/Audio settings that my default source was the Allo Boss DAC (confirmed)

    (2) I could hear the GUI click audio sound coming from the Denon AVR receiver when I moved through the LibreElectric interface

    (3) Then when I opened my Live TV app (HDHomeRun) the audio went back to the HDMI through the TV.

    (4) I then rechecked the System/Audio settings and it still shows the Boss Dac as default

    I've checked that my ALSA is working and this is the output in SSH "aplay -l".....

    card 0: BossDAC (BossDac), device 0: Boss Dac HiFi (Master) pcm512x-hifi-0

    Subdevices: 1/1

    Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

    with SSH "alsamixer" this is the output.

    Read quite a bit in Kodi Wiki both on ALSA and PulseAudio and can't find a setting change that LibreElectric wont override.

    Here is my GUI Settings in plain text.guisettings.pdf

    • Official Post

    Thanks for testing. Does it work when you play a video from USB stick?

    I'm asking, because I want to know whether the HDHomeRun add-on overwrites the config.txt setting, or LE / Kodi for all sources.

    Another config.txt option you could try is hdmi_drive=1. This should kill the HDMI audio completely, because it's DVI mode.

    Da Flex:

    Hdmi-Drive=1 definitely kills audio through HDMI.

    However, trying it on a USB drive did the same thing. In system settings whenever I play any type of video the default audio source changes from my "Boss DAC" to "pi:HDMI". When I try forcing the audio source change back during (or even when I don't have a video playing) I can hear the audio move from the DAC-to-Demon AVR speaker back to HDMI-to-TV speakers.

    • Official Post

    In case that disabling passthrough doesn't help, my conclusion goes like this: Then your DAC doesn't support all audio codecs, and Kodi has no other choice than switching to the next audio output device (HDMI) to provide any sound.

    You can buy a different DAC (HifiBerry) or an HDMI audio splitter (maybe cheaper) to get analogue audio for all sources.

    Thanks for the good conversation, because you've been provided all info in an excellent way.:thumbup:

    Da Flex:

    Disabling "Audio passthrough" in the System/Audio was the fix (mostly). I say mostly because the "Audio Source" setting in this same section does NOT seem to stick. What I mean is I set the source to my Boss DAC. Then try a reboot and go to Live TV....it reverts back to "pi:HDMI".

    I'm thinking my fix would be to edit my "advanced.xml" file (which I did set up one). Suggestions on the edit?

    Note: I'm using the Official Kodi Wiki guide for Audio Quickstart for suggested settings (for anyone else interested): Audio quickstart guide - Official Kodi Wiki

    Thanks.....for all your help!!!8o

    Edited once, last by Z06Frank (October 15, 2019 at 10:07 PM).