Audio device - PCM or HDMI?

The recommended audio settings page says to use either HDMI or PCM as the audio device (in Settings|System|Audio) for the more recent versions of the Vero. My receiver is a Denon AVR-S910W that can handle Dolby Digital Plus, DTS HD etc. just fine, so I’m using passthrough. What is the difference between HDMI and PCM? They both seem to work on my Vero 4K+. Coming from LibreELEC on a Raspbery Pi 2 which only had the HDMI option.
Can anyone explain the difference to me? Thanks.

As it stands today, there is no difference. In either case, audio goes to HDMI, TOSlink and analogue.

1 Like

Thank you @grahamh. Is there anywhere I can find out more about what these two signal devices actually mean? To me, PCM sounds like it would be TOSLINK…

It’s not written down anywhere. Basically, there are two ALSA devices which Kodi can see, but whichever you choose the kernel sends the same audio to its three physical devices - HDMI, TOSlink and the DAC.

1 Like

OK, thanks. So then why is PCM only recommended for the newer generation Vero devices?

That may be an old recommendation. There was a lot of work done on audio to get multi-channel PCM working perfectly.

If you notice a diffence between the two settings, let us know!

The recommendations in our wiki are up to date and they don’t recommend PCM over HDMI for Vero 4K and 4K +. As Graham said, it doesn’t make any difference on those devices which output device you choose. On Vero, Vero 2 and the RPis it does make a difference - that’s why it’s explained that way in the wiki.

1 Like