Foxconn nT-A3500 - No sound over HDMI through Sony Receiver (works on monitor though)

[Sjonnie]

Hi All,

So I got around the testing bit today. Found the Front_Center.wav and placed it in my storage folder. The SSH'd into the box and entered the sequences:

Code:

me@pc ~ $ ssh -l root 192.168.16.10
##############################################
# OpenELEC - The living room PC for everyone #
# ...... visit http://www.openelec.tv ...... #
##############################################

OpenELEC Version: 1.95.5
root@192.168.16.10's password:
root ~ # aplay -l
**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: Generic [HD-Audio Generic], device 3: HDMI 0 [HDMI 0]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: SB [HDA ATI SB], device 0: ALC888 Analog [ALC888 Analog]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: SB [HDA ATI SB], device 1: ALC888 Digital [ALC888 Digital]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
root ~ # aplay -D plughw:0,3 /storage/Front_Center.wav
Playing WAVE '/storage/Front_Center.wav' : Signed 16 bit Little Endian, Rate 48000 Hz, Mono
root ~ # aplay -D plughw:1,1 /storage/Front_Center.wav [color=#880000] (no sound) [/color]
Playing WAVE '/storage/Front_Center.wav' : Signed 16 bit Little Endian, Rate 48000 Hz, Mono
root ~ # aplay -D plughw:1,0 /storage/Front_Center.wav [color=#880000] (no sound) [/color]
Playing WAVE '/storage/Front_Center.wav' : Signed 16 bit Little Endian, Rate 48000 Hz, Mono [color=#880000] (sound!) [/color]

Well...that looked like a success so I changed my settings to "custom" and "plughw:1,0". But now I only get sound over the internal speaker.

In the meantime I ordered (and received) a TOS link > 3,5 mm optical cable. Will see if that helps.

Keep you posted.

Greetz,

Sjonnie

[Wortelstok]

So you dared to update the firmware? I have read a number of bad experiences update to the latest firmaware so I am curious as to how you went about. Can you ellaborate?

I am confused about what caused what. I think Openelec auto-updated to the latest version, and I think at that time the audio over HDMI suddenly stopped working.
I am a Linux-noob so I just literally executed all those "HDMI the easy way" things without any result. I got different replies than you have from the Front_center_wav thing though, mostly like something that it could not find the file, and with one setting it could, but still no sound could be heard.
By the way this was after I changed the settings in the audio setup into many different configurations and rebooted all the time.
Unfortunately I am now remote from my NT-A3500 so I cannot check until the weekend.
Yes I thought about the poor-man's solution of adding an optical-out cable. Please say how it works (and if you need specific settings)
But it is rediculous - it worked before! I bought the Foxconn nearly a year ago, it took a lot of time to configure with stable firmware, my libraries are getting in shape, a good offical remote on the iPhone is finally available, I am about to impress my frinds, and now the audio stops working!

[lrusak]

you can always roll back if it was working on an earlier beta

[Sjonnie]

I am confused about what caused what. I think Openelec auto-updated to the latest version, and I think at that time the audio over HDMI suddenly stopped working.
I am a Linux-noob so I just literally executed all those "HDMI the easy way" things without any result. I got different replies than you have from the Front_center_wav thing though, mostly like something that it could not find the file, and with one setting it could, but still no sound could be heard.
By the way this was after I changed the settings in the audio setup into many different configurations and rebooted all the time.
Unfortunately I am now remote from my NT-A3500 so I cannot check until the weekend.
Yes I thought about the poor-man's solution of adding an optical-out cable. Please say how it works (and if you need specific settings)
But it is rediculous - it worked before! I bought the Foxconn nearly a year ago, it took a lot of time to configure with stable firmware, my libraries are getting in shape, a good offical remote on the iPhone is finally available, I am about to impress my frinds, and now the audio stops working!

I misunderstood. I thought you updated the firmware of the nT-A3500 but you updated OpenELEC.

It seems that HDMI uses a handshake protocol between devices to or before they communicate. That handshake is not always understood by the receiving device. It seems to be the case with the Sony. Bypassing HDMI audio with optical seems a fair solution. I haven' t come around to trying though I will let you know as soon as I have.

Greetz,
Sjonnie

Sent using Tapatalk

[Wortelstok]

That handshake is not always understood by the receiving device. It seems to be the case with the Sony.

I have a Pioneer, experience the same problems. By the way, no problems with an Eminent 7080 streamer over HDMI. Also no problem with previous versions (if it is a version problem).
I will try the downgrade option.

Do you know where can I find the Beta 3 or 4 versions?

[Sjonnie]

Hi All,

Problem solved. I connected the TOSlink cable to my Sony. It automagically switched to "opt" in the display. Unfortunately I had to make some changes in OpenELEC to get it working.:unsure:

So I went over to the audio section and set sound to

Code:

Optical/coaxial

Changed output settings to

Code:

custom - plughw:1,1
custom - plughw:1,1

Rebooted and voila! Sound :woohoo:

PS: How do I mark my thread as [Solved] ? Been trying to but can not think of how

Greetz,

Sjonnie

[Wortelstok]

Sjonnie, for you it is solved, and yes I could also purchase an optical cable. However I hope it will work on HDMI (again) as well.
Also I see two other treads for ZBox and Zotac with similar issues.

[Sjonnie]

Hi Wortelstok,

I can imagine you would like to have OpenELEC working over HDMI. I was "lazy" and my amp supported optical for the type of connection I wanted to use (SAT connection in my case) so for me it was "no biggie".

BTW: If you can't find Beta 4 give me a PM. I will send it to you via a filesharing site.

HTH

Greetz,

Sjonnie

[lrusak]

Do you know where can I find the Beta 3 or 4 versions?

http://81.166.34.221/openelec/official.archive/

[Wortelstok]

Thanks. I tried to downgrade using OpenELEC-Fusion.x86_64-1.95.3 from there; the two files disappeared from the "update" folder after rebooting twice, but the screen shows still 1.95.5.
Maybe I need to reinstall the whole thing.