Release T2a

[pannal]

p3i T2a

While we merged the functionality of the avdvplus R6 settings and kernel, strings and certain automatic relationships were not updated. This is a bugfix release over T2.

Changelog

• Rename LAV Filters mode to Audio Fixes mode and re-introduce Debug and Seek/Sync modes
• Align VS10 fillers with avdvplus R6
• Align strings and settings with avdvplus R6
• Set Audio Fixes to Off by default
  Our Audio Fixes setting isn't directly coupled to the video settings compared to avdvplus as they're mostly unnecessary and should be usable without using any specific video modes.
• Add German settings translations

General info on this release

If you're coming from avdvplus R6, you should feel right at home now. If you're a user of T1/T2, the newly aligned Settings/System/CoreELEC Video/DV settings might be confusing at first, as their default, to keep in line with R6, are Player-Led. If you have a DV capable display, you might want to set this to Display-Led.

Sorry for the confusion in T2!

Tip

If you're coming from a build that's not T2, and you're using audio offsets, double check them as you might not need them anymore.

Installation

1. Dirty

Drop the update tar into your CoreELEC update folder and reboot - this can be used as a dirty upgrade from CPM A14 or any of the U3k and avdvplus builds.

Should hitting reboot result in a black screen (long standing issue with any build), wait 10 seconds to make sure this wasn't just a fluke, then unplug and re-plug the device's power. The upgrade will commence afterwards.

Caution

Resetting Settings/System/CoreELEC to defaults after doing this is necessary. Not the CoreELEC Settings Addon!

2. Dirty (safe)

Drop the update tar into your CoreELEC update folder, shut down the device, pull the power plug for 30 seconds, replug.

Caution

Resetting Settings/System/CoreELEC to defaults after doing this is necessary. Not the CoreELEC Settings Addon!

3. Flash

Use the provided Flash img.gz to prepare your SD card as you would with any other CoreELEC build.

advancedsettings.xml

If you'd like, you can add the following to your advancedsettings.xml, which further improves UI rendering, but is not strictly necessary:

<advancedsettings version="1.0">
  <gui>
      <fronttobackrendering>true</fronttobackrendering>
      <geometryclear>false</geometryclear>
  </gui>
</advancedsettings>

Make sure the XML format is correct, otherwise the file will not be read at all. If you already have such a file, only add the <gui></gui> parts.

Thanks

A massive shoutout to everyone involved in this build!

Full Changelog (Kodi core): https://github.com/pannal/xbmc/commits/T2a
Full Changelog (CoreELEC-Settings): https://github.com/pannal/service.coreelec.settings/commits/T2a
Full Changelog (Kernel): https://github.com/pannal/linux-amlogic/commits/T2a

---

This discussion was created from the release Release T2a.

[nissel]

There still seems to be a few issues with the VP / DV settings:

1. Set DV Output Signal Type For VP set to DV as HDR10 422 is still outputting as 444 (444 setting is also 444 output)
2. VP off and DV output type set to DV as Player Led HDR10 422 is also outputting at 444 (444 setting is also 444 output)
3. The Auto VP setting does not seem to work, as VP always appears on (inverted OSD colours)
4. With auto VP enabled the Set DV Output Signal Type For VP option should be viable so you can pick which mode you want to switch to.

[CE-Repo]

I can confirm points 1 and 2.
4:2:2 is output as 4:4:4.

[CE-Repo]

@pannal
https://www.avsforum.com/posts/64427045/

[pannal]

Huh. Thanks for reporting. T2a was meant to align the settings. I'll take a look at wrong paths in T2!

Turns out swapping out your video path isn't the easiest thing to do :D

[nissel]

@pannal https://www.avsforum.com/posts/64427045/

That fix is already in p3i too, that is working fine

[pannal]

This might be a leftover of me trying to fix pink GUI in DV P8 with VP. I'll fix that oversight in T2b, sorry guys :)

[PetroDeineka]

In Release T2 and T2a don't work Audio on S/PDIF

[pannal]

But in T1 it does?

[PetroDeineka]

I'm sorry. The battery in my volume control just died)))

[pannal]

Hahaha, no worries. Random happens :D

[abc1nr3]

How cant I find Dolby vision setting anymore?
Besides my Bravia 7 can’t enable Dolby vision mode when playing movie. Sholud I still put the Dovi.ko inside it?

[pannal]

Yes, you should always have dovi.ko, but you should also already have that. Check Settings/System/CoreELEC and set it to Display-led instead of Player-led.

[abc1nr3]

Thank you!Should I enable Set DV Metadata Level 5 to original source instead of 0”?

[pannal]

That's up to you, if you use subtitles, I'd enable that and the following toggle as well.

[PetroDeineka]

I output sound via S/PDIF (previously there was a bug with sound being duplicated from one speaker to another. After the last update, this problem disappeared. Thank you.)

When Low Latency is checked,
the sound quality is worse, so I unchecked it.
My delay is about 160 milliseconds, so I made a correction.

Output via S/PDIF is better than when the default sound is via S/PDIF. Lav Audio works.

Translated with DeepL.com (free version)

[pannal]

Interesting. Low latency audio is togglable for a reason - it's an experimental feature of Kodi 22 which I ported back to 21. Works surprisingly well, though. Never tested it with SPDIF yet, though. Thanks for reporting!

[PetroDeineka]

I just had HDMI on my TV and S/PDIF on my TV Box. When I set S/PDIF on the TV and S/PDIF + speakers connected via S/PDIF to the TV Box, the bugs disappeared and Lav Audio started working. I think it will work the same way on older versions.

[PetroDeineka]

Is there any way to add Upscale: Jinc like in MadVR?

[PetroDeineka]

Kodi - System - Audio - Maintain original volume on downmix - On or Off
Working only EAC-3 and AC-3, DTS, DTX MA
Don't work with TrueHD (remains loud)
I testet on Kodi on Android TV and on TV Box (T2a). Tested HDMI and Toslink
This is a Kodi setting, it needs to be disabled and added programmatically onely Normalise Matrix feature like Lav Audio Decoder on PC.

On PC - PotPlayer (All Audio settings - Off) + LavAudio = Working
TrueHD, E-AC-3, AC3 have the same time voliume

[pannal]

Are you sure? This sounds like PCM software playback vs. Passthrough.

[PetroDeineka]

I double-checked again. Both outputs behave identically in this case.
TV Box - PCM software playback - to S/PDIF - Stereo (2.0)
TV - Kodi 23.2 Omega - Passthrough - to HDMI - Dolby Atmos (6.2.2 or 4.2.2)

[pannal]

You'll get an AI answer to this, but only because it sounds reasonable.

● Right, so on the TV Box with S/PDIF stereo, TrueHD is definitely decoded to PCM and downmixed to 2.0. The normalize
path (rematrix_maxval = 1.0) should apply there.

If they say TrueHD "remains loud" even on the PCM path, there are two possible explanations:

1. The setting works, but the effect is insufficient — rematrix_maxval = 1.0 only clamps the downmix matrix
   coefficients so no output channel sum exceeds 1.0. It doesn't apply a fixed attenuation. TrueHD content (especially
   Atmos) is often mastered at higher reference levels than AC-3 (which typically has dialnorm baked in). So even with
   the matrix normalized, TrueHD can be perceptibly louder because the source material itself is hotter.
2. There's actually a code path where normalize doesn't kick in for TrueHD — worth investigating if there's something
   about how TrueHD is decoded that causes it to bypass the resampler entirely (e.g., if input and output layouts happen
   to match, no resampler is created, no matrix is applied).

The user's comparison to LAV Audio's "Normalize Matrix" suggests they want a consistent attenuation across all formats
— which is a different thing from what rematrix_maxval does. LAV applies a global gain reduction proportional to the
channel count, ensuring uniform perceived volume regardless of source format.

--

● Yeah, it's most likely a mastering level difference. AC-3/EAC-3 typically has dialnorm metadata that reduces levels,
while TrueHD doesn't — so even with the matrix normalized, TrueHD sounds louder because the source content is louder.

Their -6dB workaround in the player is honestly the right approach. What LAV Audio's "Normalize Matrix" does is
essentially the same thing but automatically — a fixed attenuation based on channel count. It's a convenience feature,
not a fundamental capability gap.

Not something worth implementing in this build I'd say — it's a Kodi-wide design choice (and upstream hasn't added it
either).

[PetroDeineka]

Working only EAC-3, AC-3 and DTS, DTX MA, but don't work for Dolby TrueHD.
And on a PC, it works for everything, including Dolby TrueHD in Lav Audio.

On a PC, the volume for AC3, E-AC3, and TrueHD remains virtually unchanged. Tested on The Fate of the Furious (2017).
With TrueHD, the sound is deeper, richer, and slightly louder, but practically at the same level.

On a PC, the sound in Blade Runner 2049 in Dolby TrueHD is quieter than at -6dB in Release T2a + Lav Audio - On.
In the second option, the sound is overloaded.
I think that Lav Audio does not reduce the volume by a fixed amount when normalizing the volume, but adjusts to each track to avoid overload.
In Release T2a + Lav Audio - On - Dolby TrueHD just screams! Regardless of whether S/Pdif or USB DAC is used.
This makes the sound quality worse! If you have to manually adjust it every time from -6db to -10db, it's just not convenient and not the best solution in terms of sound quality.
Therefore, I ask that, if possible, the sound processing be left entirely to Lav Audio with all the settings available on the PC.

[Makarik9423]

@pannal
Hello, please tell me if it is possible to implement tone mapping of subtitles in 4K HDR and Dolby Vision movies. When compiling remuxes, the subtitles are made for HDR, but they are displayed incorrectly on Ugoos: sometimes the colors are dull, sometimes white is gray. In the settings, the HDR brightness is set to 100.

[Makarik9423]

Sorry, I am neither pannal nor cpm. You need to request pannal to pull the relevant HDR PGS code from cpm into the pannal build process.

Where can I find and install the cpm build for testing?

[Makarik9423]

@pannal
Can you explain what this is about? That would be great.

[bluesea168]

Sorry, I am neither pannal nor cpm. You need to request pannal to pull the relevant HDR PGS code from cpm into the pannal build process.

Where can I find and install the cpm build for testing?

https://github.com/cpm-code/personal-HEVC/releases

[pannal]

You need to request pannal to pull the relevant HDR PGS code from cpm into the pannal build process.

On my list for T2b/T3 :)

[pannal]

I've got the first implementation of this in a dev build. Please join the Discord and test the latest build!

[PetroDeineka]

I hope that Lav Audio Decoder - Do not mix stereo sources - is already enabled
‘With this option enabled, stereo sources will not be mixed. This is useful when you want to mix all surround sound sources, for example, to 5.1, but leave stereo unchanged.’

Is channel mixing not additionally duplicated by your Kodi player?

[PetroDeineka]

This option - on ? When Lav Audio - Full

[pannal]

This option - on ? When Lav Audio - Full

I'll check.

[PetroDeineka]

Thanks

[pannal]

the LAV components used here are sync-only — there's no "Do not mix stereo sources" equivalent because LAV's audio decoder/mixer isn't part of this pipeline at all. Channel mixing is Kodi's stereoupmix setting (off by default = stereo stays stereo). No double mixing can occur since LAV isn't doing any mixing here.

[PetroDeineka]

7.1 to 2.0, 5.1 to 2.0. Is downmixing done using Lav Audio?

[PetroDeineka]

Coreleec have - Include LFE when downmixing - onely have 3 option:
1 - off
2 - 50%
3 - 100%

PC have 0.00 - 3.00

You can made - Include LFE when downmixing 0-100% (100 level) in Coreleec ?

[PetroDeineka]

So you want a more fine grained control over LFE downmixing?
Yes! Or even better, as it is on a PC

Thank you, I will try my best.

By the way, when I add FLE Mix Level, the volume becomes quieter because the dynamic range increases as Normalize Matrix works.

[PetroDeineka]

It is important that there is no double processing of Kodi + Lav Audio sound, but only Lav Audio.
On a PC in Pot Player, I turn off any audio processing.

[pannal]

Next version will have full control over that. Via a slider.

[PetroDeineka]

When is the new version expected to be released?

[pannal]

When it's ready, no further comment, sorry :)

[hipsofjw]

I know this is kind of crazy since I've never seen it on any xbmc-related player, but would it be possible to maintain mono audio output over HDMI if one has a mono source? I realize most people want it sent to the left and right front channels, but I much prefer a real mono experience.

Great work! Upgraded from CPM and this build is sooo much faster. It also crashes or bugs out way less.

[pannal]

Please continue here: #22