Tanix TX6 SPDIF passthrough

    jernej: Thank you for all the work. Just a quick update: Looks and sounds like we are happy :)

    I just updated and gave it a try with some Dolby trailers. Amplifier autodetected as 5.1, all sounds well.

    GUI sounds are not working. That is more than ok for me. Acoustic feedback with the speaker system can be somewhat annoying. I will revert with more details and a thorough test later today.

    Thank you again for your work on that.

    :thumbup: :thumbup:

    Thanks for report! Not working GUI sounds is problematic, I don't want half baked solutions. Please check following:

    1. "Audio ouput device" should be set to SPDIF, one that ends with "S/PDIF"

    2. "Passthrough output device" should be set to SPDIF too

    3. Check if your AVR is capable of PCM (normal, uncompressed audio) playback over SPDIF. If not, select "Enable Dolby Digital (AC3) transcoding"

    4. Test playback with samples with AC3 audio track and after that with non-AC3 audio track. Alternate this two samples a couple of times. You should have audio all the time.

    BTW, I have some crappy SPDIF to analog decoder, but it seems that it's broken. I get no sound out of it, no matter which source (LE box or TV) and main chip is very hot. I hope you can help me thoroughly test this.

    Hello again.

    I checked:

    1.) yes

    2.) yes

    3.) Amplifier is DTS capable up to 5.1, according to manual PCM96k

    4.) According to onscreen information in LibreELEC DTS-MA & Dolby 5.1 tracks are played 5.1 including LFE correctly. (Auto detected by amp)

    The GUI sounds works in playback, when setted to "Always". When playback is stopped, no GUI sounds.

    AAC 5.1 tracks are detected and played 2.1.

    I am more than happy to test it up to 5.1 (limitation by amplifier).

    System>Settings>Audio>GUI Sounds>Play GUI Sounds>Always

    GUI Sounds are played when clicking through menu during play back of videos. Without playback, no GUI sounds regardless of setting.

    AAC 5.1 tracks are detected and played back as 2.0. I do not know if this is a limitation from the amplifier.

    Amp is SONY STR-DE 485E. Not very recent, but still working well

    Quote from bikike

    GUI Sounds are played when clicking through menu during play back of videos. Without playback, no GUI sounds regardless of setting.

    Interesting, your amplifier supports PCM audio too, so it should play GUI sounds nevertheless. Can you try System>Settings>Audio>Audio decoder>Keep audio device alive>Always? Please also this image if it changes anything: http://jernej.libreelec.tv/test/spdif/

    Quote from bikike

    AAC 5.1 tracks are detected and played back as 2.0. I do not know if this is a limitation from the amplifier.

    Amp is SONY STR-DE 485E.

    Maybe default max. sampling rate is too low. Manual for your amplifier says it supports 96 kHz max, so following setting may help:

    System>Settings>Audio>Audio decoder>Limit sampling rate (kHz)>96.0

    FYI, except changes in above test image, all other are already in present in nightly images, so you can use any image from today onward. Sadly, this doesn't qualify for backport to 10.0.

    Just updated to b632d9a. No change in GUI sounds and AAC. If change sampling rate to 96kHz, amplifier autodetects PCM48.

    Might be coax cable got interfered by routing of power cables. I will try to sort that out tomorrow.

    I will try nightlies from tomorrow on.

    jernej Here a little update:

    I played with the settings and now stick with a sampling rate of 96kHz. After replacing the TX6 to get coax cable's routing clear of network and power cables, no change. Amp still detects PCM48.

    The Audio stream is constant. No dropouts to which I was used when routing sound over HDMI to TV. Big improvement.

    Tracks with DTS-MA & Dolby 5.1 are played correctly. I am still stunned.

    Not related to this post, but maybe interesting: Streaming tv-programs in 5.1 from tvheadend live gives no sound, when playing recording of the very same stream is autodetected and played correctly. I guess I have to change some settings in tvheadend.

    GUI sounds are only played while playing back tracks. This might be caused by the inertia of my amplifier. It takes some time until audio format is detected and played by the amplifier. I can live with that.

    In conclusion: Great work, I am more than happy with the sound, my neighbours will have get used to it. ;)

    Thank you again for your hard work on this. If anything needs further testing, please let me know.

    Quote from bikike

    Tracks with DTS-MA & Dolby 5.1 are played correctly. I am still stunned.

    Isn't DTS-MA high bitrate format? If so, Kodi transcodes it to something which is supported by HW.

    Anyway, thanks for further testing. I'm a bit annoyed that GUI sounds doesn't work, but as you said, it might be your amp. I hope someone will provide feedback from testing this on some other amp. I don't think we can do anything more for now. Kernel patches will be submitted for inclusion in 5.17.