HDMI Audio

[Panix]

I was wondering about the current state, too. I'm helping to build a HTPC for a Linux user so I'm wondering whether to recommend Nvidia or ATI.

It is just to play video/audio via HDMI. Not worried about hardware acceleration or anything like that.

I read that AMD/ATI cards are not universally supporting HDMI with the radeon driver. Big surprise. Aside from the fact, the Radeon Feature webpage was down and there's mixed reports about the FOSS driver supporting HDMI, what is the update?

I looked at a HD 6450 since it's about $20 but I think you have to be using kernel 3.3? Does HDMI work with the Noueveau drivers? Or is it better to use the blob regardless of which side you go with?

AMD/ATI still doesn't support Linux and the articles here show more developers signing off. So, I've been proven right, yet again. So, why is anyone still recommending the company? They are investing even less into Linux, not more.

[awerner]

Has there been any progress on the multichannel HDMI issue during the last months? I recently got a nice little Zotac AD11 with E450 and would love to be able to send LPCM streams over HDMI.

From what I understand, all required knowledge is avaliable, but the audio driver needs to be updated, so basically the folks at ALSA would have to implement this knowledge?

Thanks,
Alex

[crazycheese]

Sorry, what are the three cases ?

http://phoronix.com/forums/showthread.php?70035-HDMI-Audio&p=257219#post257219

What I'm saying is that there are two more or less completely unrelated hardware blocks. There's usually an audio controller in the chipset along with the audio controller in the GPU. The one in the chipset is connected only to regular jacks on the motherboard; the one in the GPU is connected only to the HDMI output block and GPU hardware combines the video and audio info into a single stream.

The issue AFAIK is that the audio driver either doesn't support or isn't enabling multichannel output. No graphics knowledge is required to work on the audio driver. You do need some GPU knowledge to work on the combiner block in the GPU - Alex has already said that the GPU info we released recently should be enough to enable *combining* multichannel audio with video on the HDMI output if the audio controller is *generating* a multichannel audio bitstream - but Rafel and others already have that knowledge.

This is fair, but I am not a programmer, I hope you are not surprised. I can spare 10? for this feature if you setup "properly HDMI multichannel audio output" on kickstarter. I think its fair. Thanks!

[bridgman]

So there is issue and all three cases are not possible? Or how can I understand this?

Sorry, what are the three cases ?

What I'm saying is that there are two more or less completely unrelated hardware blocks. There's usually an audio controller in the chipset along with the audio controller in the GPU. The one in the chipset is connected only to regular jacks on the motherboard; the one in the GPU is connected only to the HDMI output block and GPU hardware combines the video and audio info into a single stream.

The issue AFAIK is that the audio driver either doesn't support or isn't enabling multichannel output. No graphics knowledge is required to work on the audio driver. You do need some GPU knowledge to work on the combiner block in the GPU - Alex has already said that the GPU info we released recently should be enough to enable *combining* multichannel audio with video on the HDMI output if the audio controller is *generating* a multichannel audio bitstream - but Rafel and others already have that knowledge.

[crazycheese]

Ok, this means more than 2 channel HDMI is not usable with amd hardware.

[curaga]

He's saying they need someone with knowledge of both graphics cards and alsa, and they don't have any

[crazycheese]

So there is issue and all three cases are not possible? Or how can I understand this?

[bridgman]

Nothing to do with radeon or fglrx. We're talking about the audio driver here, not the graphics driver.

As Alex said, the register info we recently released should have all the bits required to blend multichannel audio into the HDMI video stream; the issue here is enabling multichannel in the audio driver.

[crazycheese]

Are you talking about the audio driver (separate driver, separate hardware block) or the graphics driver (which controls mixing the audio bitstream with the video stream) ?

In the case of fglrx I believe the graphics part is multichannel-capable but the audio driver is stereo-only.

As far as I know (rumors, rumors) radeon opensource has only minimal HDMI support in 2.0.

When installing fglrx instead, can user access all audio channels via HDMI interface? Three examples:
1 When I play multichannel film which I legally own, that was ripped for purpose of playback (because linux is prevented by hollywood to have those bits; I am not aware of any commercial solution) - yet I have the complete box on the shelf with disc with original - and I have fglrx, can I use HDMI to play all streams? (PS. This way seems to be legal in germany).

2 Im using my machine to make a party and I want to make area sound effects by having multiple boxes getting individual signals

3 When I am game and I would like surround gaming

[bridgman]

Are you talking about the audio driver (separate driver, separate hardware block) or the graphics driver (which controls mixing the audio bitstream with the video stream) ?

In the case of fglrx I believe the graphics part is multichannel-capable but the audio driver is stereo-only.