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Dreamkey

Member

Registered: 2010-08-28

Posts: 45

Can't play videos with 5.1 surround

Hello,
I'm trying to play surround videos with VLC without success - I'm using the "HE-AAC Channel ID - With H.264 Video" video from here as a test file.
My laptop is plugged to this HDMI splitter because my TV could only output in stereo on its optical port.

Alsa is configured like so:

defaults.pcm.card 1
defaults.pcm.device 7
defaults.ctl.card 1

I tried to explicitly set 6 channels without success:

pcm.!default {
        type plug slave {
            pcm "hw:1,7"
            channels 6 }
        ttable {
            0.0= 1
            1.1= 1
            2.2= 1
            3.3= 1
            4.4= 1
            5.5= 1
        }
}

On VLC advanced preferences, I set:
- Force detection of Dolby Surround: On
- Stereo audio output mode: Dolby Surround
- ALSA (output modules) Audio output channels: Surround 5.1

If it helps, on the remote there are two options "Audio copy" and "5.1CH"; the latter is what I use with my PS4.
Even with all this configuration, my home cinema outputs in stereo; also it displays "PCM" instead of recognising a Dolby stream.

V1del

Forum Moderator

Registered: 2012-10-16

Posts: 21,672

Re: Can't play videos with 5.1 surround

Well you did configure a PCM out and not a digital out.

That said what actual hardware and controls do you have

aplay -lL
amixer -c1 

Dreamkey

Member

Registered: 2010-08-28

Posts: 45

Re: Can't play videos with 5.1 surround

Well you did configure a PCM out and not a digital out.

You're right! I completely missed it.

$ aplay -lL
null
    Discard all samples (playback) or generate zero samples (capture)
jack
    JACK Audio Connection Kit
pulse
    PulseAudio Sound Server
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
surround21:CARD=PCH,DEV=0
    HDA Intel PCH, ALC892 Analog
    2.1 Surround output to Front and Subwoofer 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
usbstream:CARD=PCH
    HDA Intel PCH
    USB Stream Output
hdmi:CARD=HDMI,DEV=0
    HDA Intel HDMI, HDMI 0
    HDMI Audio Output
hdmi:CARD=HDMI,DEV=1
    HDA Intel HDMI, HDMI 1
    HDMI Audio Output
hdmi:CARD=HDMI,DEV=2
    HDA Intel HDMI, HDMI 2
    HDMI Audio Output
hdmi:CARD=HDMI,DEV=3
    HDA Intel HDMI, HDMI 3
    HDMI Audio Output
hdmi:CARD=HDMI,DEV=4
    HDA Intel HDMI, HDMI 4
    HDMI Audio Output
usbstream:CARD=HDMI
    HDA Intel HDMI
    USB Stream Output
**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: PCH [HDA Intel PCH], device 0: ALC892 Analog [ALC892 Analog]
  Subdevices: 0/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: PCH [HDA Intel PCH], device 1: ALC892 Digital [ALC892 Digital]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: HDMI [HDA Intel HDMI], device 3: HDMI 0 [HDMI 0]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: HDMI [HDA Intel HDMI], device 7: HDMI 1 [HDMI 1]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: HDMI [HDA Intel HDMI], device 8: HDMI 2 [HDMI 2]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: HDMI [HDA Intel HDMI], device 9: HDMI 3 [HDMI 3]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: HDMI [HDA Intel HDMI], device 10: HDMI 4 [HDMI 4]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

$ amixer -c1 
Simple mixer control 'PCM',0
  Capabilities: pvolume
  Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: Playback 0 - 255
  Mono:
  Front Left: Playback 255 [100%] [0.00dB]
  Front Right: Playback 255 [100%] [0.00dB]
Simple mixer control 'IEC958',0
  Capabilities: pswitch pswitch-joined
  Playback channels: Mono
  Mono: Playback [on]
Simple mixer control 'IEC958',1
  Capabilities: pswitch pswitch-joined
  Playback channels: Mono
  Mono: Playback [on]
Simple mixer control 'IEC958',2
  Capabilities: pswitch pswitch-joined
  Playback channels: Mono
  Mono: Playback [on]
Simple mixer control 'IEC958',3
  Capabilities: pswitch pswitch-joined
  Playback channels: Mono
  Mono: Playback [on]
Simple mixer control 'IEC958',4
  Capabilities: pswitch pswitch-joined
  Playback channels: Mono
  Mono: Playback [on]

Dreamkey

Member

Registered: 2010-08-28

Posts: 45

Re: Can't play videos with 5.1 surround

Small update: I was able to use surround with VLC.
On the Audio simple preferences, I selected the correct device and ticked "Use S/PDIF when available".
Also the test video I tried was not working on my home cinema, I guess it can't decode MP4A. The ones here or the test downloadable there worked fine.

It's not ideal because I wanted to create a script to easily switch between the jack and the HDMI out, I guess I could use sed to modify the vlcrc file, but is there another option?

V1del

Forum Moderator

Registered: 2012-10-16

Posts: 21,672

Re: Can't play videos with 5.1 surround

If you want to "easily" switch you could - during active playback even - use pulseaudio to handle your audio. Otherwise you will probably have to do this by mucking in the file yes. You might be able to use https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Ad … t_variable and set relevant environment variables, though it's not guaranteed that any given application will honor these.