Can't passthrough audio in Kodi

[Phil181]

As for AAC 5.1, it certainly passes through with no issues, using the media player (or Kodi with wrapper).  I often watch movies with this audio track and get all 5.1 channels to my Yamaha AVR (via HDMI).

The weird issue is still playing AAC 7.1 (that I noted years ago here).  It will pass through fine, as long as there is another audio track in the same file! 

[Cojondongo]

I have tried different official and custom firmwares, none allow passthroug.

I bought it as an audio player, using the optical output with an SMSL Sanscrit Mini DAC connected to a high-end tube amplifier and a pair of original Pro-Ac Response 2.5 the sound is really very good.

But you always think of improving a bit and a week ago I replaced the DAC with a model from the same manufacturer, SMSL, this time the Sanskrit 10th MKII, with a display and much more capacity in terms of sampling rate, 32kHz ~ 192kHz, data bits. 1bit ~ 32bit, DSD64 ~ DSD512.
My surprise has been to find that regardless of the file it plays it always plays at 44kHz, it doesn't matter whether it is 41kHz or 768kHz the DAC always works at 44kHz.

I have tried with the following firmwares:
Q10 PRO FIRMWARE 2.1.4. INSTALL ON ANDROID 7 v2.0.4 + ONLY. FUTEKO. HMD-2.1.4 2019-05-31-01
update_Q10Pro_HMD-2.1.7 2020-08-18.140128
update_Q10Pro_ (update & themed & Kodi18.2) [v1.1] -HMD-2.1.7 2020-08-18.140128 (from pcristi)

First without updating Kodi and after updating, choose the passthrough mode you choose, the result is always the same 44kHz.

I have tried different sources and it shows the sample rate correctly.

I think some thing are missing in the kernel.

[pcristi]

Android driver is always resample to 48kHz on that SoC.
Passthrough over HDMI will get 48kHz, 88.2kHz, 96kHz and 192kHz.
Better HiFi experience will provide with USB DAC and dedicate player like USB Audio Player PRO.

[Cojondongo]

Plugging the DAC into a USB port, it hadn't occurred to me, I'll give it a try.

Extracting the signal from the HDMI and reconnecting it to the DAC could be another interesting option ...

Thanks for the info.

[Cojondongo]

Android driver is always resample to 48kHz on that SoC.
Passthrough over HDMI will get 48kHz, 88.2kHz, 96kHz and 192kHz.
Better HiFi experience will provide with USB DAC and dedicate player like USB Audio Player PRO.

I have finally been able to test the HDMI output to extract the audio through an HDMI Audio Extractor and I have not been able to go higher than 48KHz.
I'm going to try other Firmwares to see if I'm lucky and one of them allows me to get closer to 192KHz.

[avenger89]

Ok, I am getting somewhere.  I had AC-3 transcoding on which was causing the issue. Once I turned that off, I got audio instead of static.  So I now have DD and DTS and AC3 all playing correctly. 

However my box is not playing AAC 5.1 correctly.  It only outputs in 2.0.  When I play the same file over Plex or USB in my receiver directly, it decodes it correctly.  I have a lot of live concerts that bands released themselves digitally using AAC as the only codec so I hope I can play in 5.1.

This is via Kodi, the wrapper, and the video player from the media center.  I did some searching and it seems like the box can play 5.1 but not 6.1 or 7.1 correctly?  Why can I not play 5.1 now?

And a big thank you to everyone who has responded and helped me in this thread. It is greatly appreciated.

I had the same issue.. But turning on-off both AVR and Himedia resolved the issue. Also I set my Denon AVR to Direct.