Media Players 102: Kodi for Multichannel Music Playback (features and hardware)

[atrocity]

I'm not sure what you mean regarding Android devices not being able to output 44.1khz - is that not the equivalent of normal CD sample rate resolution? I'll admit, I'm not the most tech-savvy so I'll happily to defer to expertise.

This seems to be an increasingly common bit of stupidity lately. First component I ever noticed it on was the probably long-forgotten-by-now Roku Soundbridge. It was intended as a streamer both for your own collection and for Internet radio, but it was locked at 48kHz. That made it worthless for DTS (though OK for AC-3, which is usually 48kHz) and there were many complaints about the sample rate conversion causing audible noise in some setups.

Now there's a new lossy codec out there called Opus (because obviously what the world needs is another effing lossy codec) and it has no provision whatsoever for 44.1kHz. On top of that we're now getting more Android hardware that can't do 44.1, either.

The stupidity and arrogance of ignoring 30+ years of the CD age and billions of tracks is just mind-blowing and further inflames my fundamental misanthropy.

 

[windhoek]

Wow, so Android devices upsample 44.1 to 48khz? Well I never!

 

[HomerJAU]

I went ahead and ordered one of these, and I look forward to receiving it and setting it up.

Nice. Please let us know how it goes. If you need any help start a thread here and/or check out existing threads There’s going to be a bit of learning but it’s pretty straight forward.

If you haven’t already, you should ensure all your music is tagged nicely with both Artist and AlbumArtist for Kodi and you have an album art image etc.

 

[bluelightning]

No perfect device available right now, but I would not spend the money on a NUC right now. Too much money and no real HDR.

 

[paligap]

I know it probably doesn't mean anything, but it's funny that the same day I decide to go with Kodi, its website goes down.

 

[Ninecats]

I run Kodi on an Nvidia Shield and I couldn’t be more satisfied considering prize and performance. It’s true that android base software tends to change 44.1 khz to 48. I can’t however hear a single hint of difference in regard to ”non perfect bits”. I do all the editing (cataloging, tagging, images etc) on a laptop and then send to a NAS that is connected to the Shield. This way the media player can focus on the "heavy" machinery of playing the files.

The multichannel output is fine, with up to 7.1 in 96/24 PCM. I haven't really checked DTS-HD MA and all there is, I go with FLAC PCM on all my ripped music. This very site has been helpful in setting up things (especially thanks to HomerJAU).

 

[paligap]

After countless hours spent tagging music, I have two problems. First, I have many duplicate artists and albums that appear in the Music library on my Vero 4K+ unit. For example, I have two versions of Sonny Rollins' "Way Out West," each one with different songs from the album. I suspect some of this occurred when I used the Lookup in Browser feature of MusicBrainz Picard. I always tried to use the Music Media Helper software first, then the Lookup or Scan functions of Picard, but sometimes the music was obscure or whatever, so I used Lookup in Browser. I wasn't always sure how to proceed once files (tags?) had been loaded into the right pane of Picard. Anyway, I guess I have to remove the tagging on those files and try again. Does anyone know an easy way to do that? And would I have to then reload them to the Music library?

Second, the Vero won't play the handful of albums I have in 44.1 kHz. Well, it plays them, but they cut out every few seconds. The same files play perfectly through the same receiver using my Sony X-800. Has anyone experienced anything like that?

Other than those problems, and some problems I had loading to the library, I'm enjoying the Vero unit.

 

[HomerJAU]

You could try Tagscanner (free) to fix the incorrect tags.

Kodi uses the Album name to group files into albums. If you have two versions of the same album I find it easier to change the album name than much around with Picard, I could never work out how to use it. Example add (quad) or (BDA) on end of album name.

Tagscanner can also do internet lookups from MusicBrainz, Discogs and Freedb. freedb is fastest but occasionally doesn’t recognise the album. In which case I do a bulk edit (select all files and click edit, you can then change album name, albumartist, comments to all selected files.

 

[HomerJAU]

Regarding the 44.1kHx issue: Check your Kodi Audio Settings and ensure you have Best Match set not Optimal so it correctly plays at the file’s sample rate. That may fix it.

 

[paligap]

Regarding the 44.1kHx issue: Check your Kodi Audio Settings and ensure you have Best Match set not Optimal so it correctly plays at the file’s sample rate. That may fix it.

Hmm. I did have Best match set. I also tried all 3 options within Audio Output Device and Resample quality, and nothing worked. I guess I'll post over in the OSMC forum to see if there's a particular fix for the 44.1kHz issue.

As for the duplicate Artist and Albums issue, it's more complicated than I thought. To give some background, I configured the folder structure and tagged all the music I had in a folder titled "Surround" on a drive in my PC. Then I copied that folder to an external drive that I connected to my Vero. I had a heck of a time adding that music to my Music library, but I was finally able to, although I created multiple "sources" that I'd like to delete, if I can ever figure out how. Maybe I'll have to connect a keyboard and mouse, instead of the provided remote control. At any rate, some of the duplicate artists and albums contain what appear to be misidentified files, and some songs that are on my PC and the external drive do not appear at all in the library. Honestly, at this point, I wish I could do some kind of restore to delete the sources and music I've added, fix the tagging issues on my files, and re-add the files to my music library. If nobody here knows how to do that, I'll ask over in the OSMC forum.

 

[HomerJAU]

In Kodi Settings, Media dialog. Go to Library, Music Sources and find the Sources list. Long ‘Select’ click and a pop up menu comes up. You can use Remove to get Kodi to remove all the music from that Source from your Library. It does not delete the folder/files.

You can use same method to Rescan a source if you change tags or add new albums.

In the same Media dialog there is a Music, Clean Library option. Use that to allow Kodi to scan the Sources and remove anything from the Library that does not exist in the sources (I.e You deleted the albums/files).

You can also use Clean to remove everything from the Library if you disconnect the drive before doing a Clean.

Use Setting, Media, Source (Music) to add a new Music source too. So you could completely rescan a new Library if that’s the best way to sort you duplicate Sources, basically ‘Start Again’.

 

[HomerJAU]

Re 44.1kHz: Can you select another device in the first Audio Ouput Device list? I think mine is set to ALSA but I’d need to check.

Edit: Do you have HDMI Passthrough enabled?

 

[paligap]

Re 44.1kHz: Can you select another device in the first Audio Ouput Device list? I think mine is set to ALSA but I’d need to check.

Edit: Do you have HDMI Passthrough enabled?

Yes, I tried all 3 options:
Default (AML-M8AUDIO Analog), PCM
AML-M8AUDIO, PCM
AML-M8AUDIO, HDMI

And yes, I have Allow passthrough enabled. What's weird, though, is that just below that, "Passthrough output device AML-M8AUDIO, HDMI" is greyed out. Someone at the OSMC forum has asked me to submit a log so they can help.

 

[paligap]

In Kodi Settings, Media dialog. Go to Library, Music Sources and find the Sources list. Long ‘Select’ click and a pop up menu comes up. You can use Remove to get Kodi to remove all the music from that Source from your Library. It does not delete the folder/files.

You can use same method to Rescan a source if you change tags or add new albums.

In the same Media dialog there is a Music, Clean Library option. Use that to allow Kodi to scan the Sources and remove anything from the Library that does not exist in the sources (I.e You deleted the albums/files).

You can also use Clean to remove everything from the Library if you disconnect the drive before doing a Clean.

Use Setting, Media, Source (Music) to add a new Music source too. So you could completely rescan a new Library if that’s the best way to sort you duplicate Sources, basically ‘Start Again’.

Thanks so much. This might save me from starting another thread over on the OSMC forum. They're nice enough over there, but there's not a lot of patience for newbies like me.

 

[paligap]

FYI, this fixed the problems I was having with 44.1 kHz multi-channel files:

Please try setting your resolution to 1080p and Player->Adjust display refresh rate to On start/stop. You will still be able to enjoy 4k videos with those settings.

I KNEW it was something in the settings.

 

[ssully]

I'm trying Kodi today, on a Win10 64bit laptop, versus foobar2k which is my default. I configured Kodi as per the last column (AVR HDMI) in this chart. Connection is HDMI to Denon AVR. Kodi output device is WASAPI to the Denon. Tested with various multichannel files and formats

Everything works except for 88.2/24 WAV/FLAC files . Which is a pity since all of my SACD rips are in that format.
When converted to 48/24 or 96/24 , such files work in Kodi. Foobar + WASAPI can play the 88.2/24 files without any fuss. So the issue is with Kodi. Any ideas how to fix, if possible?

 

[LuvMyQuad]

I'm trying Kodi today, on a Win10 64bit laptop, versus foobar2k which is my default. I configured Kodi as per the last column (AVR HDMI) in this chart. Connection is HDMI to Denon AVR. Kodi output device is WASAPI to the Denon. Tested with various multichannel files and formats

Everything works except for 88.2/24 WAV/FLAC files . Which is a pity since all of my SACD rips are in that format.
When converted to 48/24 or 96/24 , such files work in Kodi. Foobar + WASAPI can play the 88.2/24 files without any fuss. So the issue is with Kodi. Any ideas how to fix, if possible?

It has to be some Kodi setting as I can play 88.2/24 FLAC using Kodi without difficulty. There is usually more than one WASAPI driver offered when the driver is selected in Kodi. What is offered to you and which did you select?

 

[ssully]

WASAPI: DENON AVR HDMI (I'm paraphrasing, as I'm no longer at home)
WASAPI: default

that's all.

There is a DIRECTSOUND output for the Denon HDMI output too, but that's even worse than the WASAPI device in terms of what 'works' ( I can't even get multichannel from it)


The Kodi settings for audio output ,as I said , are what's in the Wiki page, i.e., these:

Kodi Settings	AVR HDMI (HD Audio)
Audio Output Device	HDMI
Number of channels	7.1
Output configuration	Best Match
Stereo upmix	Disabled
Normalize levels on downmix	Disabled
Resample quality	Medium
Keep audio device alive	1 min
Enabled passthrough	Enabled
Passthrough output device	HDMI
Dolby Digital (AC3) capable receiver	Enabled
Enabled Dolby Digital transcoding	Disabled
DTS capable receiver	Enabled
TrueHD capable receiver	Enabled
DTS-HD capable receiver	Enabled

And as I said, the other multichannel formats I've tried -- 96/24 PCM, bistreamed DTS, bitstreamed DTS 96/24, play fine, as do the 88.2/24 files if I pre-convert them up or down. The fact that the DTS files play indicates bit-perfect output.

What are your settings?

 

[ubertrout]

So, we just got a Raspberry Pi 4 (4GB), intending to use it mainly for streaming games from the PC via Steamcast. I have a Sony X800 but it occurs to me I might be able to use the Raspberry Pi to play some files that don't work with the X800, especially SACD ISOs. I've seen comments mostly indicating that this functionality isn't fully working yet, is that accurate?

 

[HomerJAU]

I can play 88.2/24 here but on media players. I’ve not heard of any issue with those files. I often upmix CDs to 88.2 so I have heaps.

What are the HDMI devices available in the Kodi settings. I’ve always used ALSA.

I assume you have Kodi 18.5, right?