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charlesmayo53

My main Kodi client is a Windows machine running Equalizer APO (https://sourceforge.net/projects/equalizerapo/) for system-wide EQ. My problem is that when WASAPI is selected as Kodi's audio output device, my Pioneer AVR will correctly identify and decode a video's audio format (DTS, TrueHD, Dolby Atmos, etc.), but WASAPI audio bypasses my Equalizer APO and I lose the EQ curve I like. If I choose DirectSound as Kodi's audio device, I get my EQ back, but my receiver no longer identifies (and presumably decodes) the audio stream.

I've about resigned myself to manually switching Kodi's output device depending on the media playing... DirectSound for music and music video and WASAPI for films... which is kind of a pain.

So I'm wondering if anyone knows of a stratagem where I could maybe direct music audio through an external DirectSound processor instead of Kodi's built-in PAPlayer/WASAPI... or some other mechanism that would automatically engage DirectSound for music playback while retraining WASAPI for non-music media?

**PatK** · 2024-12-08, 18:09

I doubt just changing pass-through will have the effect you want, but worth a shot. Speculation: Kodi will kidnap audio in exclusive mode. Settings/System/Audio (wiki) here is link worth exploring Windows audio (wiki) I'm aware of some testing of software that may impact this issue, stay tuned.

**CrystalP** · 2024-12-08, 20:29

In the settings, choose DirectSound for normal output and Wasapi for passthrough?

charlesmayo53 · 2024-12-08, 20:46

(2024-12-08, 18:09)PatK Wrote: I doubt just changing pass-through will have the effect you want, but worth a shot. Speculation: Kodi will kidnap audio in exclusive mode. Settings/System/Audio (wiki) here is link worth exploring Windows audio (wiki) I'm aware of some testing of software that may impact this issue, stay tuned.

I don't want to speak too soon, but running the steps in the Windows Audio Wiki you referenced seems to have gotten me where I wanted to be. With DirectSound as Kodi's audio output, I'm now getting my system EQ everywhere except for passthrough formats (which is fine), and my AVR is recognizing and decoding the passthrough audio with DirectSound audio. Thanks much for the tips!!

charlesmayo53 · 2024-12-08, 20:51

(2024-12-08, 20:29)CrystalP Wrote: In the settings, choose DirectSound for normal output and Wasapi for passthrough?

Hi CrystalP! That's what I've been doing but I was looking for a less manual solution. Turns out (I think), I hadn't configured Windows sound for 5.1 or 7.1 output. Once I did that, my DVR was able to pick up and decode the passthrough formats using DirectSound, and my systemwide EQ was still working everywhere I wanted it to work! Yay!

**CrystalP** · 2024-12-08, 21:23

no, in the audio settings / passthrough section, select the wasapi output. Might have to change settings level to expert or something to see the setting.
DirectSound doesn't passthrough the high bit rate formats as far as I know.

charlesmayo53 · 2024-12-08, 23:58

(2024-12-08, 21:23)CrystalP Wrote: no, in the audio settings / passthrough section, select the wasapi output. Might have to change settings level to expert or something to see the setting.
DirectSound doesn't passthrough the high bit rate formats as far as I know.

Laughing... it's taken me this long to understand your first post, but that's where I find myself now and it seems to be just what I was looking for. Audio Decoder->Audio Device is set to DirectSound and Audio Passthrough->Passthrough audio device is set to WASAPI, so everything goes through DirectSound (and my EQ) except for the passthrough-enabled high-bitrate formats. Thanks for your patience, I learned some good stuff!