I have a GIGABYTE GA-H170N-WIFI motherboard which I'd like to use as a basis for home audio system. It has got two HDMI outputs and 5.1 analog audio output.
The question is, how do I find out how many independent audio channels does the sound card/subsystem support? Can I really have 8 independent audio channels per HDMI output, plus 6 analog channels (not to mention up to 8 channels on the S/PDIF output) running at the same time, sending different signals? Furthermore, is it possible to convince PulseAudio to "split" the HDMI audio channels and provide them as 8 independent sinks?
Thanks!
Update: my /proc/asound/card0/codec#2
Codec: Intel Skylake HDMI
Address: 2
AFG Function Id: 0x1 (unsol 0)
Vendor Id: 0x80862809
Subsystem Id: 0x80860101
Revision Id: 0x100000
No Modem Function Group found
Default PCM:
rates [0x0]:
bits [0x0]:
formats [0x0]:
Default Amp-In caps: N/A
Default Amp-Out caps: N/A
State of AFG node 0x01:
Power states: D0 D3 CLKSTOP EPSS
Power: setting=D0, actual=D0, Clock-stop-OK
GPIO: io=0, o=0, i=0, unsolicited=0, wake=0
Node 0x02 [Audio Output] wcaps 0x6611: 8-Channels Digital
Converter: stream=0, channel=0
Digital: Enabled KAE
Digital category: 0x0
IEC Coding Type: 0x0
PCM:
rates [0x7f0]: 32000 44100 48000 88200 96000 176400 192000
bits [0x1a]: 16 24 32
formats [0x5]: PCM AC3
Power states: D0 D3 EPSS
Power: setting=D0, actual=D0
Node 0x03 [Audio Output] wcaps 0x6611: 8-Channels Digital
Converter: stream=0, channel=0
Digital: Enabled KAE
Digital category: 0x0
IEC Coding Type: 0x0
PCM:
rates [0x7f0]: 32000 44100 48000 88200 96000 176400 192000
bits [0x1a]: 16 24 32
formats [0x5]: PCM AC3
Power states: D0 D3 EPSS
Power: setting=D0, actual=D0
Node 0x04 [Audio Output] wcaps 0x6611: 8-Channels Digital
Converter: stream=0, channel=0
Digital: Enabled KAE
Digital category: 0x0
IEC Coding Type: 0x0
PCM:
rates [0x7f0]: 32000 44100 48000 88200 96000 176400 192000
bits [0x1a]: 16 24 32
formats [0x5]: PCM AC3
Power states: D0 D3 EPSS
Power: setting=D0, actual=D0
Node 0x05 [Pin Complex] wcaps 0x40778d: 8-Channels Digital Amp-Out CP
Amp-Out caps: ofs=0x00, nsteps=0x00, stepsize=0x00, mute=1
Amp-Out vals: [0x00 0x00]
Pincap 0x0b000094: OUT Detect HBR HDMI DP
Pin Default 0x18560010: [Jack] Digital Out at Int HDMI
Conn = Digital, Color = Unknown
DefAssociation = 0x1, Sequence = 0x0
Pin-ctls: 0x40: OUT
Unsolicited: tag=00, enabled=0
Power states: D0 D3 EPSS
Power: setting=D0, actual=D0
Devices: 0
Connection: 3
0x02* 0x03 0x04
Node 0x06 [Pin Complex] wcaps 0x40778d: 8-Channels Digital Amp-Out CP
Amp-Out caps: ofs=0x00, nsteps=0x00, stepsize=0x00, mute=1
Amp-Out vals: [0x00 0x00]
Pincap 0x0b000094: OUT Detect HBR HDMI DP
Pin Default 0x18560010: [Jack] Digital Out at Int HDMI
Conn = Digital, Color = Unknown
DefAssociation = 0x1, Sequence = 0x0
Pin-ctls: 0x00:
Unsolicited: tag=00, enabled=0
Power states: D0 D3 EPSS
Power: setting=D0, actual=D0
Devices: 0
Connection: 0
In-driver Connection: 3
0x02 0x03 0x04
Node 0x07 [Pin Complex] wcaps 0x40778d: 8-Channels Digital Amp-Out CP
Amp-Out caps: ofs=0x00, nsteps=0x00, stepsize=0x00, mute=1
Amp-Out vals: [0x00 0x00]
Pincap 0x0b000094: OUT Detect HBR HDMI DP
Pin Default 0x18560010: [Jack] Digital Out at Int HDMI
Conn = Digital, Color = Unknown
DefAssociation = 0x1, Sequence = 0x0
Pin-ctls: 0x00:
Unsolicited: tag=00, enabled=0
Power states: D0 D3 EPSS
Power: setting=D0, actual=D0
Devices: 0
Connection: 0
In-driver Connection: 3
0x02 0x03 0x04
Node 0x08 [Vendor Defined Widget] wcaps 0xf00000: Mono
cat /proc/asound/card*/codec\#*
to see if you can use audio in both HDMI outputs at once, or just in a single one. This may also give an indication how many channels you can transfer over HDMI. Look atcat /proc/asound/card*/eld\#*
to see what formats/how many channels whatever you connected to HDMI will accept. Yes, you can split channels in both Pulseaudio and ALSA. – dirkt Jan 13 '18 at 20:21