4K DTS-MA supported GPU

Laurens · June 13, 2017 at 11:38 AM

Hi

I have LibreELEC running on this Gigabyte GA-H81M-HD3 motherboard (internal Intel GPU).

It goes by a HDMI-cable to a Denon Denon AVR-X4200W and from that to a LG OLED55C7V.

Passthrough works for Dolby etc.. but not for DTS-MA. There is just no sound. I have read this can be caused by GPU support or the driver combination.

As my motherboard isn't recent I guess that's the reason. Which cheap (no gaming) external GPU supports LibeELEC 100% for DTS-MA passtrough so I can add that one to the motherboard?

If I disable passthrough I have sound. My mediacenter sits in a Streacom EVO so I can't use a double row GPU.

Oh: and if the GPU supports CEC so I won't need to buy an external CEC adapter that would be great! But I guess that will be a hard "requirement"..

**Klojum** · June 13, 2017 at 1:10 PM Official Post

No external GPU cards have built-in CEC support for some odd reason. If a $35 kid's toy (=Raspberry Pi) can CEC, the 3 big guns should be able to do the same.

As far as I can tell/google, the Nvidia GT520/6xx/7xx series should have DTS-MA support.
I'm sure the new GT1030 can do it as well, but that gfx card is not yet supported by LibreELEC.

**escalade** · June 13, 2017 at 1:33 PM

My Intel Haswell supports DTS-MA and everything after it should do as well (perhaps with the exception of the latest kaby lake which currently has some issues with HD passthrough). Any recent NUC should do what you need.

I would recommend against nvidia for HTPC use as their drivers lag behind the kernel development and often rely on third party patches to compile.

Laurens · June 13, 2017 at 2:36 PM

So then I better choose for AMD? Like a xfx RX 460 which is a single slot to fit in my Streacom? That's around 136 euro. I couldn't find on the XFX page, but other vendors selling the same card do mention DTS-MA support.

Changing the CPU is a bit drastic as I now have:

- Gigabyte GA-H81M-HD3

- Intel Intel Core i5 4430

- KHX1600C10D3B1K2/16G Kingston HyperX blu

And then I would need the change all 3 components, which would cost me more and they aren't "slow" yet for libreELEC.

But you say it works on your Haswell, but I have a Haswell as well. I have this CPU.

What's the best way to debug this?

LibreELEC shows me 4K resolutions to 30Hz. My Denon should support 60Hz. But I guess you won't see that difference.

**escalade** · June 13, 2017 at 2:45 PM

Who said anything about AMD? In my experience their Linux support is absolute shaite.

I don't think haswell gen supports 4k @ 60Hz. As for passthrough, it should just work as long as you've selected the correct HDMI output. Guess you're out of luck.

Laurens · June 13, 2017 at 4:04 PM

I understand I'm out of luck, but I'm just searching the cheapest way to get it DTS-MA passthrough working. And I would rather keep my Streacom case, I'm kinda in love with the case. I think you only have Intel, AMD or Nvidia. And Intel doesn't have many mainstream external GPU's?

The Nvidia GT520 seems not to support 4K. Nvidia 6xx/7xx are not existing in one slot high + with HDMI 2.0 (lowest HDMI version supporting 4K@60Hz). So then the Nvidia GT 1030 seems a really good option. It costs about 76 euros (a lot cheaper then an new Intel NUC), gives HDMI2.0b and 4K at a good resolution and it exitst in one row high (even passive)! So the only problem is the driver at the moment. From what I understand there are Linux drivers for it, but not Open Source Linux drivers and it's not sure if those will ever come. So I guess LibreELEC doesn't work with closed Nvidia drivers? So there is a change that card will never be supported by LibreELEC?

**escalade** · June 13, 2017 at 4:50 PM

Yes it (should) work, but the 1030 is supported by 381.22 which isn't in a stable release (yet). Sounds like it's your best option

**Klojum** · June 13, 2017 at 5:18 PM Official Post

I didn't get the 1030 working yet with 381.22 & LE, but I guess/hope it's a matter of (not so much) time.

The GT1030 is now working good on Windows 10. If only Kodi on Windows could handle NFS sources better...

Laurens · June 13, 2017 at 9:33 PM

OK, thanks for the info! Then I will try that card in a couple of weeks.