[mythtv-users] Digital audio Capability grayed out

[Justin Smith]

Hi James,

> > This sounds like an issue similar to one I had recently:
> >
> > http://lists.mythtv.org/pipermail/mythtv-users/2022-June/409756.html
> >
> > I managed to get it working (not because I have any particular insight
> > into this - more by luck - see the email), but I came to the
> > conclusion that there is a bug either in MythTV or the kernel/alsa
> > functionality that reports audio functionality.

> Thank you for replying. I did a lot of searching on the mailing list for
> Digital Audio Capabilities without finding your issue.
>
> I know back with Raspbian OS on the RPI4 I had to create a Mythtv audio
> device in a file called: $HOME/.asoundrc. This must be what you did with
> the right parameters.
>
> I'll test and report back. In my case Kodi and VLC both worked with Dolby
> Digital.  Sometimes I see "Multi Channel In" on the display instead of
> Dolby.  I think this must be content related.

To be clear, I didn't edit $HOME/.asoundrc (or any file for that matter).
I simply typed in
"hdmi:CARD=PCH,DEV=0,AES0=0x06,AES1=0x82,AES2=0x00,AES3=0x09"
in the audio output device field under Settings->Audio in the FrontEnd.
I got this string from the Kodi log.

After doing this, the "Digital Audio Capabilities" menu item became
"ungreyed" (i.e. selectable) so I could enable all digital audio formats
and 7.1 or 5.1. Digital passthrough now worked.

Afterwards, I removed all those AES codes from the audio output device,
and digital passthrough still worked.

Obviously this AES string is setup dependent but my point is that since you
use Kodi, you might be able to do the same thing.

Cheers,
Justin.