R-Pi Media Centre & wireless headphones

Johnboy1951

I have a Model B R-Pi on which I normally use Openelec to stream LiveTV from my HTPC, which uses TVHeadend as the backend for the DTT & Sat tuners.

What I want to achieve is to use a wireless headphone as the output so that the TV sound does not interfere with others.

The headphone works using streams or video files ...... but I cannot seem to get the sound from the TV streams to go to the headphones regardless what settings I use.

Has anyone got this working, and if so what set up did you have to use to achieve it?

I have also tried Raspbmc without success.

Johnboy1951

sugarman wrote: »

Can you not just configure it from your htpc as opposed the Pi?

No .... the headphones are connected to the R-Pi not the HTPC.

Johnboy1951

sugarman wrote: »

Yeah but why can you not just plug them into the HTPC and configure it from there? OR use the audio out from the TV?

The HTPC is in another room, if it wasn't I would need the R-Pi to stream from it.
As I said the HTPC backend is serving the R-Pi with LiveTV streams.

The reason for the headphones is:

What I want to achieve is to use a wireless headphone as the output so that the TV sound does not interfere with others.

Bottom line ..... the headphones work for internet radio/video streams and local video, but do not work for LiveTV.

I want to be able to listen to LiveTV on the R-Pi through the headphones.

There is no problem with the sound over HDMI, or even on the Pi Analogue output ...... it just will not switch to the USB headphones for LiveTV.

degsie

You first mentioned wireless headphones and then usb headphones, so which is it?

niallb

Presuming they're wireless through a USB dongle rather than a 3.5mm jack, and the wireless part of it isn't an issue.
As far as your Pi is concerned it's just another soundcard.

Is your live tv outputting everything via HDMI ?

Take a look at SYSTEM -> SETTINGS ->SYSTEM -> AUDIO OUTPUT and see what's there. You should be able to choose the output soundcard,
and in theory that should be able to pass it to the USB sound output. It's probably passing through at the moment.
It's a pain to do that if you need to do it every time you change channel, but you can map a remote key to do it more easily.
(Look up audiotoggledigital or similar)

Johnboy1951

degsie wrote: »

You first mentioned wireless headphones and then usb headphones, so which is it?

USB wireless dongle to wireless headphones.

Johnboy1951

sugarman wrote: »

You need to clarify your setup, and what headphones they are.

If they're wireless, Bluetooth or WiFi. Then I still don't see the issue with connecting them to the htpc regardless of what room its in as it'll work through walls no problem. My Bluetooth ones work down the end of the garden sure.

They are not BT.

Quite simply the HTPC might be in use for some other function.
Maybe showing a different TV station.

As I said the Pi is streaming from the HTPC backend & tuners.

Johnboy1951

niallb wrote: »

Presuming they're wireless through a USB dongle rather than a 3.5mm jack, and the wireless part of it isn't an issue.
As far as your Pi is concerned it's just another soundcard.

Correct

Is your live tv outputting everything via HDMI ?

Yes all is working fine except use of the wireless headphones while watching LiveTV or stored video

Take a look at SYSTEM -> SETTINGS ->SYSTEM -> AUDIO OUTPUT and see what's there. You should be able to choose the output soundcard,
and in theory that should be able to pass it to the USB sound output. It's probably passing through at the moment.

Already done ....... as I posted I have sound through the headphones for internet radio, etc.

It's a pain to do that if you need to do it every time you change channel, but you can map a remote key to do it more easily.
(Look up audiotoggledigital or similar)

It is not a matter of the setting ..... the function fails on LiveTV.

The sound continues through the HDMI.

I have sound through the headphones until a TV station is selected for playing.
I can hear the 'selection' sound when I use the remote through the headphones.


It seems that there is no way to separate the audio from the video when using LiveTV or local video.
The settings are all there but they do not seem to be applied to LiveTV or local video.

EDIT:
Corrections made see following post.

Johnboy1951

CORRECTION:

I do not have sound through headphones for any local video ...... stored .mkv or .ts nor from LiveTV.

Sorry for the mis-direction.
I am getting myself confused with all that I have tried

niallb

I meant specifically to look at the audio output settings while a channel was playing. I understand it's working fine for you in other modules.

To confirm, you're saying you've used the system audio settings to try and switch while a channel is actually playing, and the switching fails?
I understand the frustration when you're certain about one of the pieces of the puzzle, and then realize you might have one piece too many :-)

I use tvheadend myself, and I can change the audio settings on my pi while a channel is playing.
Try the options on Audio stream and passthrough, as well as with and without stereo mixdown.
Are you using openelec 3.9 or 4.0, there might be a difference between XBMC 12 and XBMC 13 here.

niallb

One other thing I just remembered. I had no audio in any SD satellite channels recently, and it was because I'd mixed up the codec keys between my two Pi's. Do you have the mpeg2 codec purchased and installed on your Pi? (This is DECODE_MP2 in your setup)

This might mean that the sound output is not a problem, but that the audio stream may simply be unavailable.

Johnboy1951

niallb wrote: »

I meant specifically to look at the audio output settings while a channel was playing. I understand it's working fine for you in other modules.

Yes the Headphone setting is still the active one.

To confirm, you're saying you've used the system audio settings to try and switch while a channel is actually playing, and the switching fails?

Yes I tried that too.

I understand the frustration when you're certain about one of the pieces of the puzzle, and then realize you might have one piece too many :-)

I am beginning to think it is a hardware problem ..... but still trying

I use tvheadend myself, and I can change the audio settings on my pi while a channel is playing.

I can change it between Pi-HDMI, Pi-Analogue and Headphone but the sound is always out the Pi-xx.

Try the options on Audio stream and passthrough, as well as with and without stereo mixdown.

OK, will have a mess about there ..... have not changed Passthrough because I have this only fed to TV HDMI.

Are you using openelec 3.9 or 4.0, there might be a difference between XBMC 12 and XBMC 13 here.

Just checked ..... that Pi has Openelec 4.0.7 and Gotham


Do you have audio out to a USB connected headset?

Is there any way you can check whether a wireless headset would play the sound when watching local video or LiveTV?

I am beginning to think this is a limitation of the R-Pi and nothing else.

I have no problem doing this on the HTPC using Openelec.

Thank you.

Johnboy1951

I borrowed a pair of USB speakers which are normally used on a Laptop.

Plugging these in and rebooting causes four options to appear under Audio Settings

Pi: HDMI
Pi: Analog
ALSA: Logitech Z205 - Analogue
ALSA: Logitech Z205 - S/PDiff

As with the headphones, depending on settings, I can hear the GUI sounds through the speakers.

Regardless the settings, I cannot get the audio from the TV stream to go through the USB speakers.

I am most interested if anyone has succeeded in doing this.
There is possibly a combination of settings I have not tried.

Johnboy1951

Found this ...... an almost exact replica of what I have been trying, but with some extra info about dvdplayer.

It seems that what I am trying to get is just not possible on the Pi

http://openelec.tv/forum/124-raspberry-pi/72357-wireless-headset-not-bluetooth#114697

dvdplayer decodes everything in software. RPI's CPU is not capable of doing that. you have to choose: hw decoding and sound via hdmi only, or software decoding and sound via usb. you cant have both on that underpowered hardware