Audio output HDMI + 3.5mm jack

    Hello,

    I recently moved from LE9 to 11 on my Raspberry pi 3 and realised that unfortunately it is not possible any more to set the audio output to both HDMI and the 3.5mm jack (which I have connected to my HIFI amplifier). Do you know if there is any solution or workaround for this or plans to enable this option again? I use Kodi for listening to music via the hifi-system as well as watching movies using the TV speakers, and constantly changing the audio output in the system settings would be a bit cumbersome.

    Best regards and thank you, Ansgar

  • Go to Best Answer

    Thanks for your answer. This was the first thing I did, and I have no problem to select the 3.5mm audio jack. What I was asking for is a way to set the audio output to both HDMI and the 3.5mm jack simultaneously, which was one of the options until LE9, so that I do not have to change constantly the audio output in the system settings, depending if I want to listen to music via the hifi-system, or to watch movies using the TV speakers.

    Understand. Workaround: Use the Audio Profiles add-on, which is mentioned a little later on the linked thread.

    It has an auto-switch function, depending on the played medium. So it can switch to analogue jack when playing music.

    Quote from ansey

    Hello,

    I recently moved from LE9 to 11 on my Raspberry pi 3 and realised that unfortunately it is not possible any more to set the audio output to both HDMI and the 3.5mm jack (which I have connected to my HIFI amplifier). Do you know if there is any solution or workaround for this or plans to enable this option again? I use Kodi for listening to music via the hifi-system as well as watching movies using the TV speakers, and constantly changing the audio output in the system settings would be a bit cumbersome.

    Best regards and thank you, Ansgar

    Hi,

    I'm in the same situation, LE11 installed on RPi3, sound to HDMI for video and to HiFi amplifier for listening music.

    The best solution what I found is the one recommended by Da Flex, the Audio Profiles add-on.

    As addition, the audio quality on the RPi3 jack output is poor (simple PWM output), if you want something better, try to use an I2S audio DAC module (ex. HiFiBerry), or at least an USB audio module (ex. this).

    Thanks a lot to both of you; the Audio Profiles add-on works perfectly for me! Thank you also for the additional recommendation to improve the audio quality, VLouis, which was also mentioned in the thread shared by Da Flex. Not being a pro, I suppose the best solution for me is the USB Audio Adapter. Do you know if it will just appear among the audio output devices which can be selected in the system settings, or if some additional changes have to be carried out in config.txt or elsewhere?

    • Best Answer
    Quote from ansey

    Thanks a lot to both of you; the Audio Profiles add-on works perfectly for me! Thank you also for the additional recommendation to improve the audio quality, VLouis, which was also mentioned in the thread shared by Da Flex. Not being a pro, I suppose the best solution for me is the USB Audio Adapter. Do you know if it will just appear among the audio output devices which can be selected in the system settings, or if some additional changes have to be carried out in config.txt or elsewhere?

    I'm using this, but needs some wiring and settings in the config.txt. Before to switch to I2S DAC, I tried a cheap USB adapter (what I already had it), after reboot appeared in the Kodi audio settings as a new audio output. As that Adafruit USB Audio Adapter is recommended for RPi, should work in the same way.

    Hi, a quick note to share my experience, just in case it may be useful for others. Starting the Raspberry after connecting this USB sound adapter (which was easier to order than the above mentioned one) it directly appeared in the sound options in the system settings, and there is in deed a clear quality gain. A cheap plug & play solution for getting a great sound when connecting to a HIFI amplifier. And the Audio Profiles Add-on makes it very easy to switch the sound between TV and HIFI system. So thanks again!

    Quote from VLouis

    Hi,

    I'm in the same situation, LE11 installed on RPi3, sound to HDMI for video and to HiFi amplifier for listening music.

    The best solution what I found is the one recommended by Da Flex, the Audio Profiles add-on.

    As addition, the audio quality on the RPi3 jack output is poor (simple PWM output), if you want something better, try to use an I2S audio DAC module (ex. HiFiBerry), or at least an USB audio module (ex. this).

    Hey everyone,

    Would like to force my various RPis (RPi3B+ and RPi3B) that all run on LE11/Kodi20 to either have 3.5mm jack or Pulse/Bluetooth or Hdmi or combinations thereof active as audio port upon start-up. I have all those options after editing config.txt as ppl suggested above but whatever i do all my RPis always boot with ALSA/HDMI (one out of four such hdmi options) activated by default.

    This was annoying me, so I hoped I can overcome it with Audio Profiles. But I cannot configure in the GUI that 'digital', 'analog', and 'headphones' profiles are somehow linked with a specific audio port as is set in system settings. Is this reconfigured somewhere in a txt file instead? If so where? If so, what is the difference btw 'analog' and 'headphones' (which one uses 3.5mm jack); how can I activate (as is suggested btw the line further above) more than one audio port (eg hdmi and jack active? Or Bluetooth and jack active?).

    Cycling through profiles has no impact (on any of my RPis) on which audio port is active - it is not overriding/changing system settings - what do I do wrong?

    Sorry if this is naive, am new here ...

    FrugiRune

    Hi, theoretically the "default" (after boot) audio output you can change in the kodi settings (system/audio...). About the Audio Profiles Addon... it's well documented here: https://kodi.wiki/view/Add-on:Audio_Profiles and https://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=353852.

    Quote from frugirune

    Cycling through profiles has no impact (on any of my RPis) on which audio port is active - it is not overriding/changing system settings - what do I do wrong?

    First you need to link in the addon settings the "phisical" audio port to an addon "profile" (it's 10 profiles are available). Each profile can be labeled with a name (like the "digital" or "analog"), I'm using as the label "HDMI" for profile 1 linked to the HDMI output (ALSA:Default...hdmi), and "HIFI" linked to the I2S (ALSA:...Hifiberry-DAC). To link... prepair the profiles (add/change name, enable....etc), go to the settings/system/audio, change the output (verify if working - have sound at that output), then go to settings/addons... Audio Profiles, select "Run" and assign one enabled profile to the active sound output. It's not an "plug and play" addon, need some work in the settings, but isn't a "rocket science" to make it to work.

    Quote from VLouis

    Hi, theoretically the "default" (after boot) audio output you can change in the kodi settings (system/audio...). About the Audio Profiles Addon... it's well documented here: https://kodi.wiki/view/Add-on:Audio_Profiles and https://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=353852.

    First you need to link in the addon settings the "phisical" audio port to an addon "profile" (it's 10 profiles are available). Each profile can be labeled with a name (like the "digital" or "analog"), I'm using as the label "HDMI" for profile 1 linked to the HDMI output (ALSA:Default...hdmi), and "HIFI" linked to the I2S (ALSA:...Hifiberry-DAC). To link... prepair the profiles (add/change name, enable....etc), go to the settings/system/audio, change the output (verify if working - have sound at that output), then go to settings/addons... Audio Profiles, select "Run" and assign one enabled profile to the active sound output. It's not an "plug and play" addon, need some work in the settings, but isn't a "rocket science" to make it to work.

    Thanks a lot VLouis for your help. I found the time to do as you described and can report that Audio Profiles in principle appear to perform as intended/describe with one *major* exception:

    AudioProfiles are loaded upon LibreElec start (I see notification and certain distinct settings change, eg how i preset volume levels etc). However, the audio output is nevertheless always !!! the Default setting (ALSA HDMI default, top of list); and yes, I changed settings and then saved AudioProfiles, as suggested by you and as described in documentation.

    I had a few instances (around 4-5 out of about 30 starts and 15 hot-starts/reboots) where i felt right after AudioProfile notification appeared I heard the white noise on from the RPi's analog audio port, just to instantaneously go silent and upon checkingin system settings, end up in ALSA/default. Hence, I thought maybe the AudioProfiles actions get overturned later in the boot process, but I have no solid data evidence, just this observation.

    [Btw i also got myself the UGreen USB-to-jack in/put sound card (from suggestion above) and while it shows up upon start as described above, it does not change anything in regards of AudioProfiles...not that i expected it, just for completeness]

    In essence, it doesn't work as intended because the goal was to change audio output automatically depending on the chosen medium to play.

    Could someone pls help?

    M thx in advance!

    Because Bluetooth is involved, it's not possible without developer skills:

    Post

    RE: USB Headset / Auto Switching Of Default Audio Device Question

    The short answer is no. However, in our add-on repo there's a Bluetooth audio device switcher that is functionally similar to what you need; it detects the connection of the BT device (over d-bus) and auto-switches the Kodi audio output from alsa to pulse-audio. It's probably not impossible to extend that or plagiarise the device switching code to work with other devices (USB devices don't generate d-bus events so another method of initiating the switch is required) but if you don't have the…
    chewitt
    March 16, 2019 at 4:11 AM

    You can try this custom build for simultaneous audio output:

    Thread

    Simultaneous Audio Output

    Hi, I developed Dual Audio output support for Kodi (see the post in Kodi forum) and I think LibreELEC is a more practical build for most of the media player hardware. I start a post here mainly for getting support for building more ready-to-use releases for different hardware devices running LibreELEC.

    Now I've built Generic/RPi version for testing purpose. I have an Intel NUC so that I can run this for test. I saw some demands that request this feature on other devices, because of limited time…
    xhbl
    November 5, 2022 at 9:15 PM
    Quote from frugirune

    In essence, it doesn't work as intended because the goal was to change audio output automatically depending on the chosen medium to play.

    Hi, you should take a look at the "Audio Profiles" settings "Auto Switch" section... I'm using that to auto change the sound output for video (profile1 - HDMI) and music (profile2 - HifiBerry-DAC)... If do you use a remote controller, you can change the audio output by assigning a remote button to popup the "Audio profiles window". Create a "remote.xml" file in ...../.kodi/userdata/keymaps/ to use the remote's "blue" button for this:

    <keymap>
    <global>
    <remote>
    <blue>RunScript(script.audio.profiles,popup)</blue>
    </remote>
    </global>
    </keymap>