Linux no Dolby and DTS with SoundBlaster AE-5

[VladtheImpaler]

I'm not getting Dolby or DTS from my Sound Blaster AE-5 over spdif.  

I'm currently on Linux Mint 21.2 Edge (Edge uses a newer 6.2 Kernel), but I've also tried the latest versions of Manjaro, Fedora, and Nobara which is based on Fedora.
I get normal audio when the device is set to basic, but nothing when using spdif and trying to pass AC-3 or DTS.  I do get Dolby and DTS when playing movies with VLC,
so it seems the hardware is functioning properly.

My server is Windows running 10.8.12 and the Player is 1.9.1.  I've also made sure I'm using the latest Alsa firmware.  Players on Windows work fine.
I've also made sure Alsamixer and PulseAudio control are setup properly and enabled AC-3 and DTS, but again it works with VLC so the basic setup doesn't seem
to be the problem.

I know just enough about Linux to be dangerous, so I this seems like a Jellyfin bug to me, but I'd love some input.

[tmsrxzar]

not a jellyfin configuration, it's a system configuration

example https://blogs.gentoo.org/mgorny/2021/07/...pulseaudio

also, there are more than 1 Dolby and more than 1 DTS, be clear what you are trying to do because DTSHD* does not work over spdif and neither will Atmos

[VladtheImpaler]

Thanks for the info... I tried the changes and I still have no sound, but now the video is garbled for a few seconds then it smooths out.  Very odd.

I'm only passing normal Dolby and DTS, not the HD versions... Jellyfin only gives me options for the 5.1 when set to spdif. 

Not sure why VLC works fine but Jelly has trouble.

[VladtheImpaler]

Got it working, that guide fixed the issue for other players that use mpv, but not Jelly.  Turns out the flatpak version is bugged so I installed the snap version.

Now to figure out why the volume is stuck at 100% and why video is garbled for the first few seconds.

[VladtheImpaler]

Thought I would add to this in case it might help other newbies

Hardware involved: Sound Blaster AE-5 Plus, Radeon 7900XTX

I had no luck getting the flatpak version of Jellyfin Media Player to output 5.1 over spdif on any Distro. On some Distros the snap version would work, but not on my preferred Linux Mint. Directly installing the .deb fixed the audio problem but introduced a hardware decoding bug. When moving around the timeline the screen would become garbled(green blocks) and jumpy, but it would clear up after a few seconds. Because I'm using a 7900XTX I have to upgrade the Kernel on Ubuntu/Debian based Distro's to version 6+, I use 6.5 on Mint. The problem is upgrading the Kernel doesn't upgrade the Kernel firmware, which I ignorantly thought was the case. So I downloaded the latest Kernel Firmware and copied the AMDGPU folder, then rebuilt initramfs, and now hardware acceleration works properly.