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biomecanoid

Hello,

I just made a clean install of libreelec 9 with Kodi 18 and i no longer have passthrough audio.
The settings are missing and you can not enable the feature.

I have a WeTek Play 1 and it was working fine with version 8.2.5.
My setup is as follows:
* wetek via HDMI ---> TV
* Sony DVD Player used as AMP via optical and HDMI ---> TV

WIth this setup i could hear both the TV and the WeTek out of the surround speakers of the Sony DVD Player
No changes made to the settings of the TV and also no changes in the cabling.

I have done some research and it seems to be a KODI issue:
https://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=289735

They have dropped support for passthrough for devices that might produce loud, uncomfortable noise that can harm your ears.
The solution seems to be to use KODI "shitty" build " that's what they call it " and that version does not conform with the new "safety" regulation.
Is there a libreelec version with the shitty kodi build ? if no can there be one ?
is there any other solution to my problem that i may be not aware ?

Thanks

**DaVu** · 2020-02-27, 21:24

Yeah, we know that this is kind of broken and there won't be newer versions for that kind of device anymore. Even the Wetek Play2 (which I own) won't get anything newer than Kodi 18.2. And for the reason we are currently on Kodi 18.5, this version is also already kind of outdated and unsupported.

I feel with you, but the only thing I can recommend is either to use LE 8.2.5 or get another device if you care that much about passthrough

In regard of passthrough and if you don't want to buy something new, I would really consider to not use passthough at all, but set your speaker setup to 7.1 and use PCM. Your AVR will show something like "Multichannel" then. Generally it's the same. The difference is, that Kodi does the decoding and sends the analog stream to the AVR (even HD-audio stream, such as DTS-HD or DolbyTrueHD is possible in that way as HDMI supports 8 channels). Beside you own a speaker setup >10.000$ you won't hear a difference anway.

biomecanoid · 2020-02-28, 11:53

(2020-02-27, 21:24)DaVu Wrote: Yeah, we know that this is kind of broken and there won't be newer versions for that kind of device anymore. Even the Wetek Play2 (which I own) won't get anything newer than Kodi 18.2. And for the reason we are currently on Kodi 18.5, this version is also already kind of outdated and unsupported.

I feel with you, but the only thing I can recommend is either to use LE 8.2.5 or get another device if you care that much about passthrough

In regard of passthrough and if you don't want to buy something new, I would really consider to not use passthough at all, but set your speaker setup to 7.1 and use PCM. Your AVR will show something like "Multichannel" then. Generally it's the same. The difference is, that Kodi does the decoding and sends the analog stream to the AVR (even HD-audio stream, such as DTS-HD or DolbyTrueHD is possible in that way as HDMI supports 8 channels). Beside you own a speaker setup >10.000$ you won't hear a difference anway.

Thanks for the reply. Your comments were the most helpful so far. I will try the settings you proposed as an alternative to audio passthrough and let you know.
I have tried so many things i have lost count.

Let me explain my setup so you understand better:

Wetek Play ---> HDMI ---> TV ---> SPDIF ---> Philips DVD acting as AMP switching to optical input I can hear both the TV/Wetek through the speakers on the DVD
---> HDMI ---> To Access the settings of the Philips DVD player

With LE 8.2.5 my plugins don't work anymore :/

In case nothing works for me can you please recommend a new TV Box that will support HDMI or SPDIF audio passthrough ?

Regarding the box my specs/priorities are:

1. Audio passthrough
2. LE, CE or OE booting from SD card
3. 4K support if the price is not over the top
4. Gigabit Lan
5. USB 3

Thank you

biomecanoid · 2020-02-28, 11:55

What should i look in a TV Box to be sure i support audio passthrough ?

FXB78 · 2020-02-28, 15:37

@biomecanoid This thread should help https://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=252916

**DaVu** · 2020-02-29, 09:54

(2020-02-28, 11:53)biomecanoid Wrote: Wetek Play ---> HDMI ---> TV ---> SPDIF ---> Philips DVD acting as AMP switching to optical input I can hear both the TV/Wetek through the speakers on the DVD
---> HDMI ---> To Access the settings of the Philips DVD player

Oh. I wasn't aware that there's no AVR in between. I'm mostly talking about connections which are done in that way:

TV-Box -> HDMI -> AVR -> HDMI -> TV

Pushing the sound over HDMI to the TV and then via S/PDIF to something "which acts like an amp" is not very recommended. Some TVs don't have the right (license-wise) to push the sound from external sources to another external device. Especially not for S/PDIF which itself is limited to DD and DTS. So everything "HD audio" isn't supported anyway and my suggestion above won't work as well. Because if it's S/PDIF in the end, it only supports 2-channel PCM.

What I would really recommend....safe your money for a new TV box and get some cheap amp (probably something used from eBay or whatever) which has HDMI inputs and outputs as well as S/PDIF inputs. In that way you can connect all the devices to the AVR directly and I highly guess you will be able to play your videos with nice audio again.

biomecanoid · 2020-02-29, 21:53

(2020-02-29, 09:54)DaVu Wrote:
(2020-02-28, 11:53)biomecanoid Wrote: Wetek Play ---> HDMI ---> TV ---> SPDIF ---> Philips DVD acting as AMP switching to optical input I can hear both the TV/Wetek through the speakers on the DVD
---> HDMI ---> To Access the settings of the Philips DVD player

Oh. I wasn't aware that there's no AVR in between. I'm mostly talking about connections which are done in that way:

TV-Box -> HDMI -> AVR -> HDMI -> TV

Pushing the sound over HDMI to the TV and then via S/PDIF to something "which acts like an amp" is not very recommended. Some TVs don't have the right (license-wise) to push the sound from external sources to another external device. Especially not for S/PDIF which itself is limited to DD and DTS. So everything "HD audio" isn't supported anyway and my suggestion above won't work as well. Because if it's S/PDIF in the end, it only supports 2-channel PCM.

What I would really recommend....safe your money for a new TV box and get some cheap amp (probably something used from eBay or whatever) which has HDMI inputs and outputs as well as S/PDIF inputs. In that way you can connect all the devices to the AVR directly and I highly guess you will be able to play your videos with nice audio again.

Well my setup was working fine, ac3 and dts reproducing OK.

My tv is fine its a Thomson 4k 50inch one so its not outdated yet. I guess what i need is an amp.

Anyways i dag up a ugoos ut4 that i had. Updated it to android 6 ( sadly libreelec is not supported ). Installed kodi 18.5 and everything is working fine including audio ac3 and dts.

The only thing mising is cec that was working fine on librelec but thats a minor thing.