Posts by tomasz

tomasz · Problem with 5.1 sound tomasz September 15, 2021 at 11:13 AM

Hello All,

I cannot find any solution to the following problem.

I am using LibreElec 10 on Raspberry Pi 4 with Xonar U7 soundcard connected via USB 2.0 and an old Logitech X530 5.1 speakers connected by 3 analog RCA connectors.

This setup was working fine for years. This means Kodi was properly decoding all 5.1 or 7.1 surround sound channels and outputting them to proper speakers. It was also upmixing stereo sound (like online radio or mp3s) to 5.1 so all speakers were in use.

But sometime in the last couple of months something broke. No matter what settings I choose in audio configuration panel, I am only able to hear two front speakers (rear, center and LFE speakers produce no sound via Kodi).

So far I checked these:

aplay -l

Code

card 2: U7 [Xonar U7], device 0: USB Audio [USB Audio]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 2: U7 [Xonar U7], device 1: USB Audio [USB Audio #1]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 2: U7 [Xonar U7], device 2: USB Audio [USB Audio #2]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

card 2, device 1 is what I want (device 0 is headphone jack, device 2 is S/PDIF)

aplay -L

Code

null
    Discard all samples (playback) or generate zero samples (capture)
default
    Default Audio Device
sysdefault
    Default Audio Device
default:CARD=vc4hdmi0
    Default Audio Device
sysdefault:CARD=vc4hdmi0
    Default Audio Device
hdmi:CARD=vc4hdmi0,DEV=0
    vc4-hdmi-0, MAI PCM i2s-hifi-0
    HDMI Audio Output
default:CARD=vc4hdmi1
    Default Audio Device
sysdefault:CARD=vc4hdmi1
    Default Audio Device
hdmi:CARD=vc4hdmi1,DEV=0
    vc4-hdmi-1, MAI PCM i2s-hifi-0
    HDMI Audio Output
default:CARD=U7
    Xonar U7, USB Audio #1
    Default Audio Device
sysdefault:CARD=U7
    Xonar U7, USB Audio #1
    Default Audio Device
front:CARD=U7,DEV=0
    Xonar U7, USB Audio
    Front output / input
surround21:CARD=U7,DEV=0
    Xonar U7, USB Audio
    2.1 Surround output to Front and Subwoofer speakers
surround40:CARD=U7,DEV=0
    Xonar U7, USB Audio
    4.0 Surround output to Front and Rear speakers
surround41:CARD=U7,DEV=0
    Xonar U7, USB Audio
    4.1 Surround output to Front, Rear and Subwoofer speakers
surround50:CARD=U7,DEV=0
    Xonar U7, USB Audio
    5.0 Surround output to Front, Center and Rear speakers
surround51:CARD=U7,DEV=0
    Xonar U7, USB Audio
    5.1 Surround output to Front, Center, Rear and Subwoofer speakers
surround71:CARD=U7,DEV=0
    Xonar U7, USB Audio
    7.1 Surround output to Front, Center, Side, Rear and Woofer speakers
iec958:CARD=U7,DEV=0
    Xonar U7, USB Audio
    IEC958 (S/PDIF) Digital Audio Output
iec958:CARD=U7,DEV=1
    Xonar U7, USB Audio #1
    IEC958 (S/PDIF) Digital Audio Output

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it does show the surround51 mode I want to use

alsamixer - it does see the XONAR U7 card and it does report all surround speakers
nothing is muted, the volume control works for the front speakers

speaker-test - D CARD=2,DEV=1 -c6

Code

speaker-test 1.2.4

Playback device is default
Stream parameters are 48000Hz, S16_LE, 6 channels
Using 16 octaves of pink noise
Rate set to 48000Hz (requested 48000Hz)
Buffer size range from 2048 to 16384
Period size range from 1024 to 1024
Using max buffer size 16384
Periods = 4
was set period_size = 1024
was set buffer_size = 16384
0 - Front Left
1 - Front Right
2 - Unused
3 - Unused
4 - Unused
5 - Unused

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This test does output sound to all 6 speakers BUT it lists the surround ones as Unused (or Unknown), so my guess is that there is something wrong here.

So the question is, how can I make Kodi use all the speakers again?

Regards

Tomasz