Audio settings

GUI Settings

Audio Output GUI

AE brings several new settings to the graphical user interface (GUI) as well as to advancedsettings.xml.

Settings -> System -> Audio output

Audio output

This allows you to tell XBMC about the type of connection to the audio equipment so it can set the available GUI options appropriately, in addition it tells XBMC the LPCM capabilities of the connection. Note: This unrelated with telling XBMC where the audio is actually sent, this is done via Audio output device and Passthrough output device settings.

- Analog: Disables all the "capable receiver" options for passthrough and allows multi-channel LPCM to be pass to a soundcard.

Note: Analog in this case does not mean a D/A conversion is done by XBMC, this setting purely enables the hand-off of the LPCM data to allow either a on-board soundcard or off-board USB soundcard to do the actual D/A conversion before sending audio to speaker outputs.

- Optical/Coax: This enables the selection of the Dolby Digital and DTS capable receiver options and limits the output of LPCM to 2 channels. :

Note: If you want to transcode one format to another, for example DTS is not supported on your receiver but AC3 is, then select just AC3 however as the DTS is decoded to LPCM before being encoded again to AC3 then the resulting audio will be AC3 2.0 only due to the LPCM 2.0 limit imposed by selecting Optical/Coax, if you want a full 5.1 channel transcode you'll have to select the HDMI option even if you're not using a HDMI output.

- HDMI: This enables all the capable receiver options, so in addition to what's available for Optical/Coax, TrueHD, DTS-HD and Multichannel LPCM capable receiver options are now selectable, in addition there is no limit on how LPCM is passed.

Speaker Configuration

Select your physical speaker layout. Note: If connected to a TV then don't set higher than 2.0 as it's not likely that it'll will be supported, only set higher if it's known for sure that channel configuration is supported e.g. 5.1

Boost volume level on downmix

Boosts AC3 streams that have been downmixed to 2 channels

Output stereo to all speakers

This upmixes 2 channel stereo sources to what specified by the Speaker Configuration so audio is output on all speakers

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- Dolby Digital (AC3) capable receiver

Select this option if your receiver is capable of decoding AC3 streams.

Note: AAC is transcoded to AC3 when this option is checked. (AC3 capable receiver is required.)

- DTS capable receiver

Select this option if your receiver is capable of decoding DTS streams.

- AAC capable receiver

Select this option if your receiver is capable of decoding AAC streams.

Note: AAC receivers likely do not natively decode AAC in passthrough, likely shows up as LPCM. This is not a XBMC/AE limitation

- MultiChannel LPCM capable receiver

Select this option if your receiver is capable of decoding LPCM streams.

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- TrueHD capable receiver

Select this option if your receiver is capable of decoding TrueHD streams.

- DTS-HD capable receiver

Select this option if your receiver is capable of decoding DTS-HD streams.

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Audio output device

This is the device you use to play LPCM or audio decoded by XBMC such as mp3's and FLAC. Note: If XBMC plays a file which has audio that the system does not support (thus the above capable receiver option is not selected e.g. DTS capable receiver is not selected) then it is either transcoded to a supported format or decoded and sent as LPCM, in both cases this will be the audio device used.

Passthrough output device

This device you use to play the encoded formats, these are any of the formats checked above in the "capable receiver" options.

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Play GUI sounds

This sets how interface sounds are handled such as when navigating the menus, select from Never, Only when playback stopped, or Always.

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IMPORTANT NOTE:

The "capable receiver" options relate only to the passthrough of audio to another device such as an AVR, where that device must support decoding of the format. Before leaving any "capable receiver" option enabled check to make sure that both the playback device running XBMC (e.g. HTPC) and the connected device (e.g. AVR) both support that format.

If you have a "capable receiver" option enabled that your device does not support then this will result in poor playback of video typically with a very low frames-per-second and no audio, so for example if the TrueHD capable receiver option were enabled then make sure that the playback device can passthrough TrueHD and that the connected device can decode TrueHD, if either of the devices do not support TrueHD then the TrueHD capable receiver option MUST be left disabled.

For any format where the "capable receiver" option is not selected, XBMC will still playback any content containing those audio types, however instead of the audio being passed through, XBMC will decode audio and then send the audio in a compatible format.

If connected directly to a TV be aware that TV are not compatible with DTS, TrueHD or DTS-HD, typically the only encoded format a TV will be compatible with is AC3.

Audio Output Settings Guide

Depending on how your equipment is connected together you'll need to adjust the audio setting. The following is meant to act as a guide to get you started, thus you may want to adjust thing to suit your own particular set of equipment.

XBMC Settings	PC Speakers (2.0)	PC Speakers (5.1)	TV	AVR SPDIF	AVR HDMI (no HD Audio) ★	AVR HDMI (HD Audio)	SPDIF (Transcode to AC3)
Audio Output	Analog	Analog	Analog	Optical/Coaxial	HDMI	HDMI	SPDIF
Speaker configuration	2.0	5.1	2.0	5.1	5.1	7.1	5.1
Boost volume level on downmix	Enabled	Enabled	Enabled	Enabled	Enabled	Enabled	Enabled
Output stereo to all speakers	Disabled	Disabled	Disabled	Disabled	Disabled	Disabled	Disabled
Dolby Digital (AC3) capable receiver	N/A	N/A	N/A	Enabled	Enabled	Enabled	Enabled
DTS capable receiver	N/A	N/A	N/A	Enabled	Enabled	Enabled	Disabled
AAC capable receiver	N/A	N/A	N/A	Disabled	Disabled	Disabled	Disabled
MultiChannel LPCM capable receiver	N/A	N/A	N/A	Disabled	Enabled	Enabled	Disabled
TrueHD capable receiver	N/A	N/A	N/A	Disabled	Disabled	Enabled	Disabled
DTS-HD capable receiver	N/A	N/A	N/A	Disabled	Disabled	Enabled	Disabled
Linux / OSX - Output Device Settings
Audio output device	Speakers	Speakers	SPDIF/HDMI	SPDIF	HDMI	HDMI	SPDIF
Passthrough output device	N/A	N/A	N/A	SPDIF	HDMI	HDMI	SPDIF
Windows - Output Device Settings
Audio output device ★★	WASAPI/Directsound - Speakers	WASAPI/Directsound - Speakers	WASAPI/Directsound - SPDIF/HDMI	WASAPI/Directsound - SPDIF	WASAPI/Directsound - HDMI	WASAPI - HDMI	WASAPI/Directsound - SPDIF
Passthrough output device ★★	N/A	N/A	N/A	WASAPI/Directsound - SPDIF	WASAPI/Directsound - HDMI	WASAPI - HDMI	WASAPI/Directsound - SPDIF

★ Where AVR has HDMI inputs but can't decode HD audio

★★ WASAPI offers best quality if connected to an AVR or DAC but may not always work, and Directsound offers better compatibility and should work in just about all equipment configurations. The only time WASAPI must be used is when trying to passthrough HD audio.

OS Specific Information

Each OS has differing requirements and limitations, in most cases these are due to the capabilities of the drivers available for each OS.

Linux

HD audio limitation of AMD fglrx in Linux

AMD on Linux can only do 2 real channels. This is enough for DTS (5.1) and AC3 (5.1) that decode 6 channels virtual over two real ones. But nothing more. This is not a hardware, but a software (fglrx) limitation.

Setting it up within XBMC:

Only enable AC3 and DTS in the Audio Settings. Keep LPCM, TrueHD, DTS-HD, AAC disabled. And don't check play stereo on all speakers, as it also won't work.

Windows

For detailed information on Windows OS settings see Windows Settings for AudioEngine

Intel

Linux TrueHD & DTS-HD MA not working resolution.

HD Audio on some Intel platforms requires Kernel 3.7 and newer or with a patch compiled in.

DTS-HD MA forum thread discussion

Dual audio setup Linux

• Dual audio possible settings: Very likely hardware and setup dependant

Setting up dual audio forum thread discussion

Advanced settings

Current advancedsettings.xml tags for audioengine:

 <advancedsettings>
   <audio>
     <resample>0</resample>
     <forceDirectSound>0</forceDirectSound>
     <audiophile>0</audiophile>
     <audiosinkbufferdurationmsec>50</audiosinkbufferdurationmsec>
     <allowtranscode44100>0</allowtranscode44100>
     <streamsilence>0</streamsilence>
   </audio>
 </advancedsettings>

Default values are shown above in the code box - these values are used if that tag does not exist.

<resample>	force resampling of audio at a given frequency e.g. 48000 = 48khz
<forceDirectSound>	win-specific - will not use Wasapi API 0 = false, 1 = true
<audiophile>	forces playback of original format, will not down/upmix next song to match current, not compatible with cross-fading 0 = false, 1 = true
<audiosinkbufferdurationmsec>	win-specific, buffer time in msec, hard minimum of 50msec
<allowtranscode44100>	allows 44100hz when trancoding for SPDIF devices 0=false, 1=true
<streamsilence>	Forces original AE behaviour where an audio signal is constantly streamed to the audio device, even if silent. If 1 or true, this prevents some receivers from losing the signal/source, and prevents sinks re-opening and possible receiver switching with each new stream after any silence. If 0 or false, enables Eden-style releasing of the audio device so external players, programs and the system can access the audio device, i.e. prevents XBMC from hogging the audio device.