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Old 05-17-2012, 08:16 PM   #1
kristhor
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HDMI Pulseaudio and ac3 passthrough


Hi! I recently installed linux mint debian LMDE and have my computer connected to a A/V receiver via HDMI. The HDMI is connected to the Nvidia GTX 560Ti card and I have installed the propriatary drivers (295.20) I had linux mint 11 installed before and had sound via HDMI and also ac3 passthrough worked for Dolby surround (via spdif in VLC and Mplayer). I think I uninstalled pulseaudio on my previous Mint 11 to get it to work. I tried now with debian with pulseaudio installed and could only get HDMI sound through ALSA (selected in VLC, mplayer) but no system sound or sound through webbrowser etc, and no ac3 passthrough. When playing a video file I see a soundbar moving (in volume control for pulse) in HDMI, so the system is getting sound but nothing out of the speakers. I have nothing muted in pulse or alsa, all spdif switches are on. I run gstreamer-properties and do a test sound and only get sound with device on ALSA and HDMI 1,7 (which is the same HDMI i get sound from in vlc, mplayer etc).

aplay -l

**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
ALSA lib conf.c:1220parse_def) show is not a compound
ALSA lib conf.c:1686snd_config_load1) _toplevel_:24:26:Unexpected char
ALSA lib conf.c:3406config_file_open) /usr/share/alsa/pulse-alsa.conf may be old or corrupted: consider to remove or fix it
card 0: PCH [HDA Intel PCH], device 0: ALC887-VD Analog [ALC887-VD Analog]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: PCH [HDA Intel PCH], device 1: ALC887-VD Digital [ALC887-VD Digital]
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 0 [HDMI 0]
Subdevices: 0/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: NVidia [HDA NVidia], device 8: HDMI 0 [HDMI 0]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: NVidia [HDA NVidia], device 9: HDMI 0 [HDMI 0]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 2: Headset [Logitech Wireless Headset], device 0: USB Audio [USB Audio]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0


aplay -L

null
Discard all samples (playback) or generate zero samples (capture)
default
Playback/recording through the PulseAudio sound server
sysdefault:CARD=PCH
HDA Intel PCH, ALC887-VD Analog
Default Audio Device
front:CARD=PCH,DEV=0
HDA Intel PCH, ALC887-VD Analog
Front speakers
surround40:CARD=PCH,DEV=0
HDA Intel PCH, ALC887-VD Analog
4.0 Surround output to Front and Rear speakers
surround41:CARD=PCH,DEV=0
HDA Intel PCH, ALC887-VD Analog
4.1 Surround output to Front, Rear and Subwoofer speakers
surround50:CARD=PCH,DEV=0
HDA Intel PCH, ALC887-VD Analog
5.0 Surround output to Front, Center and Rear speakers
surround51:CARD=PCH,DEV=0
HDA Intel PCH, ALC887-VD Analog
5.1 Surround output to Front, Center, Rear and Subwoofer speakers
surround71:CARD=PCH,DEV=0
HDA Intel PCH, ALC887-VD Analog
7.1 Surround output to Front, Center, Side, Rear and Woofer speakers
iec958:CARD=PCH,DEV=0
HDA Intel PCH, ALC887-VD Digital
IEC958 (S/PDIF) Digital Audio Output
hdmi:CARD=NVidia,DEV=0
HDA NVidia, HDMI 0
HDMI Audio Output
hdmi:CARD=NVidia,DEV=1
HDA NVidia, HDMI 0
HDMI Audio Output
hdmi:CARD=NVidia,DEV=2
HDA NVidia, HDMI 0
HDMI Audio Output
hdmi:CARD=NVidia,DEV=3
HDA NVidia, HDMI 0
HDMI Audio Output
sysdefault:CARD=Headset
Logitech Wireless Headset, USB Audio
Default Audio Device
front:CARD=Headset,DEV=0
Logitech Wireless Headset, USB Audio
Front speakers
surround40:CARD=Headset,DEV=0
Logitech Wireless Headset, USB Audio
4.0 Surround output to Front and Rear speakers
surround41:CARD=Headset,DEV=0
Logitech Wireless Headset, USB Audio
4.1 Surround output to Front, Rear and Subwoofer speakers
surround50:CARD=Headset,DEV=0
Logitech Wireless Headset, USB Audio
5.0 Surround output to Front, Center and Rear speakers
surround51:CARD=Headset,DEV=0
Logitech Wireless Headset, USB Audio
5.1 Surround output to Front, Center, Rear and Subwoofer speakers
surround71:CARD=Headset,DEV=0
Logitech Wireless Headset, USB Audio
7.1 Surround output to Front, Center, Side, Rear and Woofer speakers
iec958:CARD=Headset,DEV=0
Logitech Wireless Headset, USB Audio
IEC958 (S/PDIF) Digital Audio Output

lspci -vvv (for nvidia)

01:00.1 Audio device: nVidia Corporation Device 0e0c (rev a1)
Subsystem: ASUSTeK Computer Inc. Device 8390
Control: I/O- Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR- FastB2B- DisINTx-
Status: Cap+ 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B- ParErr- DEVSEL=fast >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR- INTx-
Latency: 0, Cache Line Size: 64 bytes
Interrupt: pin B routed to IRQ 17
Region 0: Memory at fa080000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16K]
Capabilities: <access denied>
Kernel driver in use: snd_hda_intel

Next I uninstalled pulseaudio and edited the asound.conf file to look like this:

pcm.dmixer {
type dmix
ipc_key 2048
slave {
pcm "hw:1,7" # Always use pure hw. dmix will reformat/resample audio.
period_size 512 # If you get stuttering/or non-working audio, fiddle around with these
buffer_size 4096
rate 48000 # HDMI, I'll assume 48kHz
format S16_LE # Should be default for pretty much any soundcard.
}
bindings {
0 0
1 1
}
}

pcm.!default {
type plug
slave.pcm dmixer
}

and that gave me sound through the HDMI from pretty much everything and I was very happy....but! No ac3 passthrough. So I cant Dolby digital surround when playing ac3 files... I get no sound at all with spdif passthrough on vlc or mplayer. I have googled for days and tried everything I have found on ac3 but nothing works. Is there any debian sound specialist out there that can help me?

Last edited by kristhor; 05-18-2012 at 11:20 PM.
 
Old 05-17-2012, 09:13 PM   #2
kristhor
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ps: I reinstalled pulseaudio to try and see if i can get it working with that. I read that pulseaudio has matured over the years and its better if I can get it to work with it. Still no luck though.
 
Old 05-18-2012, 08:25 AM   #3
kristhor
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Ok, some good progress now. I have gotten the HDMI sound to work with pulseaudio. I have 4 HDMI subdevices (aplay -l) and the only one working was 1,7. But pulseaudio was not loading the correct one. So what I did was in /etc/pulse/default.pa comment out:
"load-module module-udev-detect” with a # and add in its place "load-module module-alsa-sink device=hw:1,7"

then,

killall pulseaudio
sudo alsa reload

So now the HDMI sound works as default on everything. But I still havnt gotten the ac3 passthrough to work :/
I did try to change the asound.conf file to:

pcm.a52 {
@args [CARD]
@args.CARD {
type string
}
type rate
slave {
pcm {
type a52
bitrate 448
channels 6
card $CARD
}
rate 48000 #required somehow, otherwise nothing happens in PulseAudio
}
}



since I have the a52 plugin in libasound2-plugins and I have:
/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/alsa-lib/libasound_module_pcm_a52.so

but still no luck with ac3/spdif in VLC

anyone?

Last edited by kristhor; 05-18-2012 at 08:27 AM.
 
Old 05-18-2012, 08:58 AM   #4
kristhor
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Not sure if this is an issue: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/on...ns/+bug/872871
as I am using Debian
 
Old 05-18-2012, 09:40 AM   #5
kristhor
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Ok a little extra input. In /etc/pulse/default.pa when I commented out "load-module module-udev-detect” pulse of course didnt detect my other sound devices (wireless headset etc). So I just added "load-module module-alsa-sink device=hw:1,7" to the file. That way I get back the other sound devices. Then I just pick in pavucontrol the HD one that works.
Another note is my A/V reciever gives me surround sound, but its sort of fake surround and not true Dolby Digital surround. So the passthrough/true surround is not working yet.
 
Old 05-18-2012, 10:55 PM   #6
kristhor
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ok a big breakthrough, I get ac3 passthrough with Dolby when i use mplayer:

mplayer -ao alsa:device=hw=1.7 -ac hwdts,hwac3 movie.avi

so its definately working. But I cant seem to figure out how to get it to work with the GUI players (vlc, GNOME Mplayer, SMplayer) and if i run the smplayer in terminal with the same options it just crashes.
 
Old 05-21-2012, 06:58 PM   #7
pwalden
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Quote:
Originally Posted by kristhor View Post
ok a big breakthrough, I get ac3 passthrough with Dolby when i use mplayer:

mplayer -ao alsa:device=hw=1.7 -ac hwdts,hwac3 movie.avi

so its definately working. But I cant seem to figure out how to get it to work with the GUI players (vlc, GNOME Mplayer, SMplayer) and if i run the smplayer in terminal with the same options it just crashes.
As I follow the pulseaudio mail list, pass-through was only recently supported. Many linux distributions do not have the pass-through version of pulseaudio by default. You may want to install the latest stable version of pulseaudio from their site.
 
Old 05-22-2012, 06:55 AM   #8
kristhor
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Yes I am aware of that. Thats why ive been using alsa to make it work. And it works, but so far just with the command line as stated above. Thanx for your reply.

Installed version is 1.1

http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Soft...er/Passthrough

Last edited by kristhor; 05-22-2012 at 06:19 PM.
 
Old 08-03-2021, 05:51 AM   #9
cybericius
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Hi,

Long time no activity.
I have a freshly installed OpenSuse Tumbleweed.
Out of the box it has ALSA/PulseAudio.
VLC plays multichannel tracks, but I think mixing occurs in Linux, then a PCM signal is sent to the amplifier.
It doesn't seem that the subwoofer is being used properly.
Is there a way to send the digital signal to the amplifier and that would mix the sound as has to be?

Thanks.
 
Old 08-03-2021, 09:14 AM   #10
obobskivich
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Quote:
Originally Posted by cybericius View Post
Hi,

Long time no activity.
I have a freshly installed OpenSuse Tumbleweed.
Out of the box it has ALSA/PulseAudio.
VLC plays multichannel tracks, but I think mixing occurs in Linux, then a PCM signal is sent to the amplifier.
It doesn't seem that the subwoofer is being used properly.
Is there a way to send the digital signal to the amplifier and that would mix the sound as has to be?

Thanks.
You would be *much* better served opening a NEW thread than necro'ing a decade-old thread to ask a tangential question.

That having been said: assuming you're connecting via HDMI to an AV receiver that can deal with [whatever] via HDMI, close VLC, set the output on the computer to stereo (e.g. in pavucontrol, gnome sound settings, whatever), re-open VLC, and it should bitstream (most) formats out to the receiver over HDMI. When set to 5.1 output it will decode internally and output as PCM - nothing really wrong with that, but some decoders offer additional features when presented with bitstream audio. As far as 'the subwoofer not being used properly' - that's probably either an issue in the original encode or a misconfiguration of your AV receiver (or unrealistic expectations about what a subwoofer is meant to do), but again, in a new thread it would probably be easier to ask for help, provide details about your specific hardware, and so forth...
 
  


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