Zotac ID42 - Surround Sound / DTS Issues

[trancendenz]

Hi,

I've recently just bought myself a Zotac ID42, which I've connected to my Sony BDV-E370, but seem to be having problems with the sound. I'm running Generic.i386-2.99.2 build of OpenElec.

I initially tried setting the sound to the following:
Audio Output : Optical/Coax
Speaker Configuration : 5.1
Audio Output Device : HDA Intel PCH, ALC892 Digital S/PDIF
Passthrough output device : HDA Intel PCH, ALC892 Digital S/PDIF

Using this set-up, I don't get any sound at all, looking alsamixer S/PDIF, S/PDIF Default, S/PDIF 1, S/PDIF 2, and S/PDIF 3 are all set to 00 (I've unmuted everything, even microphones just to make sure ), but still get no sound.

Changing the settings to
Audio Output : HDMI
Speaker Configuration: 5.1
Audio Output Device: HDA NVidia, SNY SONY TV on HDMI
Passthrough output Device : HDA NVidia, SNY SONY TV on HDMI

I get sound, but there's no centre channel, or subwoofer channel when playing back any DTS or AAC files (I've confirmed this using the files linked to in this forum, so can rule out a dodgy video file). I've attached a copy of the output from aplay -l, and aplay -L below.

Code:

root ~/.xbmc/temp # aplay -l
**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: PCH [HDA Intel PCH], device 0: ALC892 Analog [ALC892 Analog]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: PCH [HDA Intel PCH], device 1: ALC892 Digital [ALC892 Digital]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: PCH [HDA Intel PCH], device 3: HDMI 0 [HDMI 0]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: PCH [HDA Intel PCH], device 7: HDMI 1 [HDMI 1]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: PCH [HDA Intel PCH], device 8: HDMI 2 [HDMI 2]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: NVidia [HDA NVidia], device 3: HDMI 0 [HDMI 0]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: NVidia [HDA NVidia], device 7: HDMI 1 [HDMI 1]
Subdevices: 0/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
root ~/.xbmc/temp # aplay -L
null
Discard all samples (playback) or generate zero samples (capture)
default:CARD=PCH
HDA Intel PCH, ALC892 Analog
Default Audio Device
sysdefault:CARD=PCH
HDA Intel PCH, ALC892 Analog
Default Audio Device
front:CARD=PCH,DEV=0
HDA Intel PCH, ALC892 Analog
Front speakers
surround40:CARD=PCH,DEV=0
HDA Intel PCH, ALC892 Analog
4.0 Surround output to Front and Rear speakers
surround41:CARD=PCH,DEV=0
HDA Intel PCH, ALC892 Analog
4.1 Surround output to Front, Rear and Subwoofer speakers
surround50:CARD=PCH,DEV=0
HDA Intel PCH, ALC892 Analog
5.0 Surround output to Front, Center and Rear speakers
surround51:CARD=PCH,DEV=0
HDA Intel PCH, ALC892 Analog
5.1 Surround output to Front, Center, Rear and Subwoofer speakers
surround71:CARD=PCH,DEV=0
HDA Intel PCH, ALC892 Analog
7.1 Surround output to Front, Center, Side, Rear and Woofer speakers
iec958:CARD=PCH,DEV=0
HDA Intel PCH, ALC892 Digital
IEC958 (S/PDIF) Digital Audio Output
hdmi:CARD=PCH,DEV=0
HDA Intel PCH, HDMI 0
HDMI Audio Output
hdmi:CARD=PCH,DEV=1
HDA Intel PCH, HDMI 1
HDMI Audio Output
hdmi:CARD=PCH,DEV=2
HDA Intel PCH, HDMI 2
HDMI Audio Output
hdmi:CARD=NVidia,DEV=0
HDA NVidia, HDMI 0
HDMI Audio Output
hdmi:CARD=NVidia,DEV=1
HDA NVidia, HDMI 1
HDMI Audio Output
root ~/.xbmc/temp #

I was originally running OpenElec on a RaspberryPi, and upgraded mainly for the improved sound capabilities, so any help would be greatly appreciated

Mike

[opperpanter]

Try the ion build. I've heard it has sound working out of the hox for id41/id42.

[Jabes]

I'm interested to know how this works out for you - I am interested in an ID42 right now.

[trancendenz]

Ah, yes, sorry, should have mentioned in my original post, I did try to install the ION build initially, but I can't even get as far as an XBMC screen with that build, the installer drops out with a tune2fs message

Code:

tune2fs: Bad magic number in super-block while trying
Couldn't find valid filesystem superblock.
tune2fs 1.42.6 (21-Sep-2012)

Knowing I could boot Ubuntu on the same box, I assumed it was driver related, and It was at this point that I gave the Generic build a try, which I did get up and running, but ended up with the problem I posted above.

In the mean time, I've been doing a little more experimenting, and I get the exact same problem if I use XBMCbuntu, or a plain install of Ubuntu on the ID42

[mantis3dfx]

I'm having the same problem:

Just out of interest, does the following sound like the same problem your having:

No apparent sound coming from front center channel / speaker?

Front center channel (voice) coming from left surround speaker (left, as in when looking at the screen)?

LFE (Sub) channel coming from right rear surround speaker (right, as in when looking at the screen)?

Front left and right channels both appear to be correct?

No apparent sound at all coming through the actual LFE (subwoofer) - (at least, NOT a proper low frequency sound stream anyway)

I'm running HDMI 5.1 out to a Yamaha RX-V467 AV Receiver, and all other equipment is wired correctly - Sony blueray player sound field / channels are all correct.

When I reboot the HTPC from an ubuntu live cd (Just using VLC media player) all the surround channel fields were correct again - which eliminates the possibility of wiring out to speakers or hardware of the HTPC itself etc being wrong. So it's definately gotta be a software issue either within XBMC or OpenELEC itself - not sure which yet.

There's also some other posts regarding this here:

http://openelec.tv/forum/68-audio/49862-...te?start=6
http://openelec.tv/forum/68-audio/62467-...1007#63658

which also seems to be stating the same sort of problem.

I'm wondering if other peeps have the same mapping issues also (same channel layout as I described above) which could possibly narrow it to a common mismatch somewhere in the sound field mapping of the software, which possibly just needs a tweak or code checked or altered or something. ...Or perhaps someone with a little more understanding of how it all gets mapped may be able to show us how to alter a config file somewhere, so we can remap it ourselves.

Just have a good listen to each speaker, and see if your sound field mappings are the same as mine (mentioned above). :-)

[mantis3dfx]

Not sure if this is the cure yet, but it looks promising so far. Found a link to it on the XBMC Forums here:

http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=147733

And also the following links which stem from the above XBMC Forum posts:

http://wiki.xbmc.org/index.php?title=HOW...ON_-_Linux
http://wiki.xbmc.org/index.php?title=XBM..._remapping

I'm about to give it a go myself - I'll report back with the results - Here's hoping :-)

[trancendenz]

I think my problem sounds slightly different, I get audio through the left front channel, distorted sound through the left right channel, and nothing through any of the other channels (I get no voice channel at all).

In the mean time, I think I've made a little progress, I found an entry on the XBMC Wiki for AudioEngine/HOW-TO: Configure audio, and noticed the following in github, so decided to stick last nights nightly build onto the ID42 (I didn't notice if the patch was on RC2 before I upgraded), with last nights nightly on, I now seem to get sound through the front left channel, centre channel, front right channel, and LFE channel with the following Audio output settings:

Changing the settings to
Audio Output : Optical/Coax
Speaker Configuration: 5.1
Audio Output Device: HDA NVidia, SNY SONY TV on HDMI
Passthrough output Device : HDA NVidia, SNY SONY TV on HDMI

Hopefully the two rear channels may be a mapping thing, but I've not had a chance to play any more since, so I'm not sure yet.

[Nomgle]

Ah, yes, sorry, should have mentioned in my original post, I did try to install the ION build initially, but I can't even get as far as an XBMC screen with that build, the installer drops out with a tune2fs message

Have you tried the current ION build ? It's upto Version 2.99.3 now.