[amasephy]

First I would like to extend my great appreciation for continued Xbox support even as dev interest in the platform is extremely limited.  I understand this work is all done as volunteer time.  I am not writing this post as a complaint, but merely as informational as well as inquiring a larger audience to see if I am the only one having my experience with the platform.  Using Kodi on Xbox is my preferred platform, and there is certainly nothing majorly wrong with its functionality.  With that said, I have experienced a few things that I believe most are not aware of.  If dev's are either unaware, or I am doing something wrong then I will never solve the issue.  Raising awareness is my only option. I had some issues at 19.3 from the upgrade, mainly database corruption everyone else experienced.  Given that, I decided to wait until 19.4 to test 4k again and see if it made a difference and ultimately write this post.

As many others on this forum I have been really excited about the new functionality introduced for Xbox at 19.x.  The highlights were native 4k (GUI and video playback) and most recently and surprising was the addition of pass-through audio.

I will now explain the issue with 4k.  I had initially seen hints that native 4k was not working correctly, or at least subpar from what I expected.  I decided to compare it to Kodi on my NUC which I knew was working at native 4k.  Perplexed by the difference I decided to make a post on the Hardware sub forum here.  I don't want to completely repeat everything found on that post but the end result was I was provided a test image which proved that the Kodi GUI was not running in native 4k.  It was later explained that native 4k GUI is not possible on Xbox One S.  I had remembered that when I used the YouTube app that one could tell that its GUI was rendering in native 4k.  I tested again to be sure.  It was then explained that native 4k video should still be possible even if the GUI was not rendering in 4k.  However, I found a video test file that I added to my Kodi library which proved again that native 4k was not working.  All of those details can be found in the above referenced post.

From my searching on GitHub posts by the devs and responses I got elsewhere is that native 4k GUI and video playback is working on the Xbox Series consoles, and it seems these were the only consoles to be tested with the code changes.  I have found no evidence that it was tested on Xbox One consoles, nor has anyone with an Xbox One console reported back that their setup passes the picture or video tests in the above referenced post.

What I can say does work is 4k video acceleration does work at 19.x as content that choked on 18.x now plays back smoothly on 19.x - albeit upscaled.  HDR tone mapping works fine on Xbox One as well, though this is slightly off topic. 

With 19.4 I was also eager to test pass-through audio as it was the biggest item I had been waiting for for a long time.  As it turns out Microsoft pushed out a system update that changed how the audio settings work on Xbox and removed the Bit-stream audio output setting.  I finally figured out how to properly re-enable bit-stream audio pass-through.  The most important item that no one seems to be talking about anywhere is you must set the audio output to Dolby Atmos or DTS:X and set pass-through to on.  I tested this with the Blu-ray app which indeed displays the correct codec on my receiver and the pass-through label is displayed on the Xbox GUI overlay.  Lots of people keep saying to set your audio to 7.1 uncompressed.  I believe this is actually sending PCM and not bit-streaming.  When I used this setting my receiver never displayed DTS MA.  Note: It does not matter if your content is Atmos, Bitstreaming seems to be hidden behind this setting and your receiver will use the corrected codec for the content being played.

Once I got pass-through confirmed working (in the Blu-ray app) I attempted to test it on Kodi.  Unfortunately pass-through does not seem to be an option in the audio settings in Kodi on my console.  The other people who confirmed pass-through was working on their console on this forum all seemed to have the Series X/S consoles.  From what I can tell again, this was only tested on Series consoles and not Xbox One.


TL/DR:

4k Native video playback does not work on Xbox One S
4k Native GUI does not work on Xbox One S
Pass-through audio does not work on Xbox One S

You can test native 4k for yourself with the details how in the post referenced here

4k GUI on Xbox One S seems to be technically possible as the YouTube app does this.
Native 4k playback seems to be possible as a video test on YouTube passes the native 4k test.
Pass-through audio works on Xbox One S with the Blu-ray player app.


I would be happy to be proven wrong on this.  If anyone who has an Xbox One could test their console's 4k playback with the tests referenced that would be awesome.  I would also love to hear how someone can get pass-through working (and displaying on their overlay GUI).

Thank you for reading.

[Hitcher]

Are you using WASAPI for passthrough?

[m04r3n0]

My Xbox is the first One version.
Can't test 4k and HDR, but I can confirm passthrough works (almost perfectly).

In the audio Xbox, my settings are 7.1 uncompressed, passthrough allowed.

In the Kodi app, passthrough enabled, every codec enabled.
AC3 still convert it in PCM multichannel, and is good enough btw, every other audio codec works flawlessly.

[amasephy]

Wasapi is not an option on my Xbox. Only XAUDIO: default and XAUDIO: HDMI - Digital Output options are available. (I’m using the latter)

From my experience with Kodi on Windows, without WASAPI as an option pass through will not be happening.

As others have stated that they’re using PCM. In my experience on Kodi on Windows (alternating settings) while PCM should be nearly identical to bitstreaming I have found there is an audio difference. I found PCM volume to be a bit lower and bass is reduced.

[HorsinAround]

Wasapi is not an option on my Xbox. Only XAUDIO: default and XAUDIO: HDMI - Digital Output options are available. (I’m using the latter)

You're looking at the "Audio output device" setting (I have the same two options on my Series X). There is a second setting further down, right below "Allow passthrough", for "Passthrough output device" which should give you the option of WASAPI: default and WASAPI: HDMI - Digital Output (Virtual Audio Device).

Not sure if it'll make a difference though. I'm running 19.4 on a Series X and can't get the audio passthrough to work for me. It's set properly in the Xbox's settings (and works perfectly using the built-in Blu-ray app) as well as in Kodi's settings but for some reason or other I'm stuck with the Xbox's default audio output no matter what I play. I also don't seem to be able to change either setting ("Audio output device" or "Passthrough output device").

The only other hint I could find was that audio passthrough will be disabled by Kodi if you have enabled "Sync playback to display" under the video settings (I haven't).

[Hitcher]

Have you also enabled 'Allow Passthrough' on the Xbox?

[HorsinAround]

Have you also enabled 'Allow Passthrough' on the Xbox?

Yes. No issues for me with the built-in Blu-ray player either - passthrough works fine there.

[Hitcher]

When you've changed the passthrough device to WASAPI you'll need to quit and restart Kodi for it to take effect.

[amasephy]

Thank you for the responses, I admit I forgot that pass-through settings on Kodi were in a subcategory lower down in the menu.  Enabling those settings allowed pass-through to works for me, confirmed with GUI overlay and receiver displaying the codec.

I've seen a number of responses on pass-through but no one seems to be talking about native 4k playback. 

Is anyone able to test their Xbox One S/X consoles to see if they have native 4k?  To test just download the picture and video files referenced above and play them back.  If you can't see individual lines on the picture, or if the pink text on the video isn't legible, then up-scaling is occurring.  Just seeing 4k enabled in Kodi is not enough, even the detailed video output overlay in Kodi isn't enough.  Both of those and even debug logs state that Kodi is running in 4k, but its up-scaling content on  my screen.

[HorsinAround]

Thank you for the responses, I admit I forgot that pass-through settings on Kodi were in a subcategory lower down in the menu.  Enabling those settings allowed pass-through to works for me, confirmed with GUI overlay and receiver displaying the codec.

Happy to be of service - I just wish it would work for me as well! I have all the correct settings enabled, in the Xbox's settings and (I think) Kodi's settings, and I can't get it to work. Is there any other setting within Kodi I could be missing?

[Hitcher]

Make sure you don't have 'Sync playback to display' enabled.

[jogal]

The most important item that no one seems to be talking about anywhere is you must set the audio output to Dolby Atmos or DTS:X

No one talks about it because there is no need to do such a thing and is wrong.
 

Lots of people keep saying to set your audio to 7.1 uncompressed

Because it is the correct setting on Xbox   (or 5.1 uncompressed if you have 5.1 AVR)

[amasephy]

This is bizarre.  It now works using the 7.1 Uncompressed setting.  I fiddled with this for over an hour yesterday and it did not work with this setting even though I had pass-through enabled in the advanced tab on Xbox.  When I enabled the Atmos setting a dialog popped up asking me about using pass-through, I said yes to that even though I knew I already had pass-through enabled.  It must have been some weird glitch in the Xbox audio settings where pass-through was not being enabled despite being checked.

Thank you for confirming that 7.1 Uncompressed was the intended setting, and I am glad it works on my setup.

[jjd-uk]

I could be wrong but my understanding from what I've read is that after changing audio settings the Xbox may need a restart, as they don't always take immediate effect everytime.

[amasephy]

I'm certain I did a full restart, I even pulled the power cable from the backside of the console in between toggling between audio settings.  Either way, the problem corrected itself.  I'm grateful it was just a random glitch on the Xbox side and that Kodi pass-through works as expected.