LibreElec Sound out put too low

    Hi community.

    I have an issue regarding sound out put from LibraElec being so much lower than other devices or installed OS's.

    It seems to be specific to LibraElec as I have two systems now both running version 11.0.3 and the hardware is quite different in each case, one in the living room is using HDMI to an Arcam AVR and the other is just a very old AIO HP TouchSmart in the bedroom that relies on its in built speakers.

    Before LibreElec I was running POPOS on both and I'd setup Kodi to auto launch. With this setup sound has all ways been at what I would call the correct level. Before I installed I imaged both machines to my NAS so that I can flip between installs. I'm constantly tinkering much to my wife's distress lol.

    The living room machine I have just re-imaged back to LibreElec from POP. I have another machine connected to the AVR running Dephile music server and switching between the two while playing the same track it is clear that the Daphile machine is much louder and clearer (Both via HDMI). The out put is low no matter the content/source E.g. Films, FLAC, Addons

    When I switch back to POP the sound levels are back to normal but I lose a lot of pass-though options due to pipewire/pulse audio. The HP AIO is not really an issue its just that I notice that I now have to have the volume up at 80% in order to hear it where as before we only needed it in the 30-40% to hear it. Which is why I'm thinking this is a spesific issue with LibreElec.

    On the living room machine I have tried a multitude of different HMDI cables some certified some not and all different brands, both with the onboard Intel GFX, An AMD RX550 and with and with out my PlusEight CEC adapter. I have also tried a different HDMI port on the AVR but nothing makes any difference. Settings I have tried with Passthrough on/off and set out put to static 48Kz. i have tied many different configurations.

    Now I have seen some other threads with similer/same issue and I have tried + on the keyboard on both systems to no avalie. I have to disconnect the CEC adapter on the living room machine in order to try + as otherwise it just turns up the amp. But when I do it shows the Kodi volume dial at max all ready.

    Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. If you need any more info regarding the setup then please ask.

    Living Room

    Intel i3 7100T

    8GB DDR4

    128Gb NVMe

    Radion RX550 4GB

    RX550 HDMI to Arcam AVR 550 HDMI to Panasonic TX55FX570B 4k@60Hz output (on board Intel 4k@30Hz when testing)

    Bed Room

    HP TouchSmart 300

    AMD Athlon II x3 400e

    4Gb DDR2

    128Gb SATA SSD

    I guess it must just be me then that experienced this issue with low sound output!

    If there is any one out there that dose get this issue, I solved it by moving away from LibraElec and on to Ubuntu Server.

    Kodi no longer requires you to install a window manager and will start kodi with gbm so you still get HDR and audio pass-though which are the main reasons I was using LibraElec in the first place.

    Google's your friend (for search results) and there are plenty of how to's for systemd and auto start scrips, plus ethtool for WOL.

    I'm sure in the future I'll come back to LibraElec but for now my own custom install works better for my use case.

    You're not the only one - I've been dealing with this for years. For a while it was only between 2 devices so didn't really have a thought of where the blame lay. Now we have used 2 separate NUCs, on 2 separate TVs, have many more consoles... the problem is LibreELEC. I've even run a run of the mill linux distro many times on the same NUCs with no issues at all.


    Finally looking into this, as the TV is a pain to change the volume around. Hence finding this.

    No amount of amixer/pactl seem to help (about the only thing I can do is mute/unmute right now). Would love to see alsamixer right now.

    Quote from chewitt

    You can install alsamixer via the "Multimedia Tools" addon in the LE report (Program add-ons). It's used from the console though, not from the GUI.

    chewitt ,

    I am new to the "alsamixer" command-line tool.

    Is there any documentation and/or example of how I can permanently increase the volume with it in LE?

    Thanks.

    List audio devices:

    Code
    RPi5:~ # aplay -l
**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: vc4hdmi0 [vc4-hdmi-0], device 0: MAI PCM i2s-hifi-0 [MAI PCM i2s-hifi-0]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: vc4hdmi1 [vc4-hdmi-1], device 0: MAI PCM i2s-hifi-0 [MAI PCM i2s-hifi-0]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

    In my case this is an RPi5 and I'm using the HDMI-0 connector (nearest the PSU) which is vc4-hdmi-0 .. so 0 is the card.

    List simple controls available on the device:

    Code
    RPi5:~ # amixer
Simple mixer control 'PCM',0
  Capabilities: pvolume
  Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: Playback 0 - 255
  Mono:
  Front Left: Playback 255 [100%] [0.00dB]
  Front Right: Playback 255 [100%] [0.00dB]

    Using amixer to reduce the volume to 80%:

    Code
    amixer sset 'PCM' 80%

    Checking:

    Code
    RPi5:~ # amixer
Simple mixer control 'PCM',0
  Capabilities: pvolume
  Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: Playback 0 - 255
  Mono:
  Front Left: Playback 204 [80%] [-10.20dB]
  Front Right: Playback 204 [80%] [-10.20dB]

    More granular control is achieved using amixer set commands and using amixer controls and amixer contents to understand what can be set and what current values are. The alsamixer tool just provides a console GUI onto the same capabilities.

    I'm not sure we can set/store the changes in a persistent way, but the workaround is to use /storage/autostart.sh scripts or (better) a systemd service to run commands on boot. The example WireGuard service in /storage/.config/system.d/ shows an example of running connmanctl commands to start a connection. You can adapt that to run amixer commands, and schedule dependencies so the service runs after alsa is setup (sound.target) and before Kodi runs (kodi.target).

    Not possible as 100% (255) is the maximum allowed value. There are probably ways to use alsa plugins to reroute and boost the audio signal in some way, but that's not something I have any experience with or want to research; Google searching alsa config topics is always a rather miserable task.