MediaTek again screwed up with Nougat concerning audio passthrough

[Kuschelmonschter]

According to the Kodi community, audio passthrough is broken completely in Sony Nougat firmware. Nougat introduces the new IEC API for audio passthrough which Kodi uses. Neither Dolby AC3 nor DTS works on Sony. So MediaTek again failed to properly implement the new API.

Some apps use the older raw API for passthrough. DTS raw API, which has been introduced by Google in Marshmallow, is also still broken with the MediaTek driver that ships with new Nougat firmware.

Only the Video player can do proper passthrough for all formats as it has access to some private APIs.

This is a total shame!!! When you think it can't get any worse... Keep in mind that Dolby and DTS have been a standard for 2 decades and Sony/MediaTek still can't properly handle those formats.

[rooobb]

I didn't try but I guess so. Subtitle should be embedded into the video in order to be streamed

[kinggo01]

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@rooobb wrote:

I was not suggesting to use again the pcm hack. Just that you can configure Archos to pass the streaming directly to video app that works in the right way. Only issue afaik is that in this way you cannot stop that playing and restart at the same point. It lose control of how much of the streaming you have already seen on the external player.

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well, you can configure kodi to do the same. But in both cases you loose everything that those players offer. And now in MM that is a no go when it comes to subtitles since we can't write to disks so kodi can't store subtitle next to the file.

So, sony player can play all formats but other than that is as feature rich as VHS player from the 80's. And update to MM and nougat made everything worse for all other players.

[rooobb]

I had mm since the beginning (now on nougat having an xd83) and since I use a Nas downloading   subtitles works but as I wrote don't think so using video as external player. You can still use the ui of Archos that is more user friendly but yes not a perfect solution. 

[KrK4ri]

As per my scenario I force only the .mkv files to play in the stock video player, subtitles and audio streams are all embedded in the file. Internet stream playing in KODI player (it has 2.0 audio only, no need for DD5.1 or DTS passthrough), so I can reach all plugin functionalities, subtitle download, etc.

I use Plex server to manage video library, it handles subtitles next to video, but I dont use this feature too often. It can resume paused/stopped video too.

This is just a workaround that fits to my scenario, not a solution, I know.

[mpiet1]

@rooobb, do i understand your posts in right way: Your have configured in Kodi via external player to play movies from NAS (smb share) in archos player and you have configered archos player to play movies in sony player? And the result is, that you can start movies via Kodi and they are played in sony player?

[rooobb]

@mpiet1 it's not correct. I configured Archos player to access my nas via smb and to run Video as player. So I can access the NAS via the Archos UI and run Video as player. Not Kodi (even if I think Kodi could do the same).

Nowadays, since Archos is able to passthrough the Audio directly (even if they say it is a PCM hack and could be dangerous - I do not have the needed knowledge to assess if it is true or not) I run directly the video via the embedded Archos player.

[mpiet1]

OK i understand. It is generally possible to pass also in Kodi videos to an external player, but this do not work when you try to use the sony video player and try to open smb files. This works only for USB files attached direktly to the tv or for dlna files.

[rooobb]

I do not know how Kodi works, but with Archos you can see that it is Archos itself that read the SMB share and pass the flow to Video. When Video app run you see "Streaming" as title rather than the video title you are reading.

From what you say Kodi rather pass the address of the file to Video that is not capable of accessing SMB share

[kinggo01]

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@mpiet1 wrote:

OK i understand. It is generally possible to pass also in Kodi videos to an external player, but this do not work when you try to use the sony video player and try to open smb files. This works only for USB files attached direktly to the tv or for dlna files.

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Because external players started from whatever are still the same. What they don't support won't work. And SMB is not supported. And kodi can't help you with that. You can see movie info and such but all other features like subtitle shifting or downloading won't work.

The only way I know how to access SMB and then watch the movie with sony player is to use ES file explorer (and maybe others) to access the file over the SMB and then open it with sony player. In that case you'll get working passthrough but you'll lose external subtitles.

[mpiet1]

Yes i know that. There is also a way using an emby media server and the emby plugin for Kodi.

But some weeks ago google released a samba client tool to mount smb files in the internal file system.

Link

I hope kodi will support the access to that mounted files in future...