Audio settings

Template:Audionav

Audio Output Settings

See also: Settings/Music

Settings -> System -> Audio output

NOTICE The screenshot below is just for illustration/documentation purposes, do not setup your XBMC audio that way, unless with compatible hardware connected.

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

Setting		Description	Setting Level	Device type
Audio Output Device		Select the device to be used for playback of audio that has been decoded such as mp3	Standard	All
Number of channels		Select the number of channels supported by the audio connection, or the number of speakers if connected by analog connections. This setting does not apply to passthrough audio. Note - SPDIF supports 2.0 channels only but can still output multichannel audio using a format supported by passthrough	Basic	HDMI/Analog-Speakers
Output configuration	Fixed	Select how the properties of the audio output are set: [Fixed] - output properties are set to the specified sampling rate & speaker configuration at all times [Optimized] - output properties are set at the start of playback and will not change if the properties of the source changes [Best Match] - output properties are set to always be as close a match to the source properties as possible	Advanced	All
	Optimized
	Best Match
Limit sampling rate (kHz)		Maximum sampling rate for spdif or sampling rate for fixed output configuration	Advanced	SPDIF
Stereo upmix		Select to enable upmixing of 2 channel audio to the number of audio channels specified by the channel configuration	Advanced	All
Normalize levels on downmix		Select how audio is downmixed, for example from 5.1 to 2.0: [Enabled] maintains the dynamic range of the original audio source when downmixed however volume will be lower [Disabled] maintains volume level of the original audio source however the dynamic range is compressed. Note - Dynamic range is the difference between the quietest and loudest sounds in a audio source	Advanced	All
Resample quality	Low	Select the quality of resampling for cases where the audio output needs to be at a different sampling rate from that used by the source [Low] is fast and will have minimal impact on system resources such as the use of the CPU [Medium] & [High] will use progressively more system resources	Advanced	All
	Medium
	High
Keep audio device alive		Select the behaviour when no sound is required for either playback or GUI sounds: [Always] - continuous inaudible signal is output, this keeps the receiving audio device alive for any new sounds, however this might also block sound from other applications [1- 10 Minutes] - same as Always except that after the selected period of time audio enters a suspended state [Off] - audio output enters a suspended state. Note - sounds can be missed if audio enters suspended state	Standard	All
Play GUI sounds		Configure how interface sounds are handled, such as menu navigation and important notifications	Basic	All
Enable passthrough		Select to enable the passthrough audio options for playback of encoded audio such as Dolby Digital	Advanced	HDMI/SPDIF
Passthrough output device		Select the device to be used for playback of encoded formats, these are any of the formats below in the 'capable receiver' options	Advanced	HDMI/SPDIF
Dolby Digital (AC3) capable receiver		Select this option if your receiver is capable of decoding AC3 streams	Advanced	HDMI/SPDIF
- Enable Dolby Digital transcoding		Select this if the audio out connection only supports multichannel audio as Dolby Digital 5.1, such as an SPDIF connection. If your system supports LPCM multichannel sound via HDMI, leave this disabled	Advanced	HDMI/SPDIF
Dolby Digital Plus (E-AC3) capable receiver		Select this option if your receiver is capable of decoding E-AC3 streams	Advanced	HDMI
DTS capable receiver		Select this option if your receiver is capable of decoding DTS streams	Advanced	HDMI/SPDIF
TrueHD capable receiver		Select this option if your receiver is capable of decoding TrueHD streams	Advanced	HDMI
DTS-HD capable receiver		Select this option if your receiver is capable of decoding DTS-HD streams	Advanced	HDMI

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.
Connection Type
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
Options
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
Passthrough Options
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, This never worked properly in XBMC and is removed in Gotham
MultiChannel LPCM capable receiver	Select this option if your receiver is capable of decoding LPCM streams.
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.
Devices
Audio output device	This is the device(s) 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.
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.

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.