Max2Play Home › Forums › General Questions on Hardware and Max2Play Versions › Use just one pair of speakers (or 2.1) for both TV and music output in lounge.
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MarioM Moderator.
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11. Februar 2022 at 13:56 #52038
Is it possible, using M2P and Raspberry Pi with audio hats, to play music served by Squeezebox and video served by Kodi on the same pair of speakers (or 2.1 using the Allo Piano 2.1 HAT)?
I don’t want to have to install two sets of speakers in every room where there is a television.
What would I need? How would I connect them?
I plan to have my RPi Squeezebox server upstairs in a cupboard and I prefer, if possible, to have the players in the cupboard also. Sometimes, however, the distance is too big for the speaker cable and I will therefore have the RPi players + DAC + amp + AC/DC transformer in the room, close to the speakers. Cabling is not a problem – the house renovation will be TOTAL 🙁
What setup do I need to get video from Kodi on the TV but the sound on the same passive speakers which I use for my Squeezelite RPi player?
The ideal would be a separate Kodi server in the cupboard outputting via Cat 6a cable to a player next to the TV (or even better in the cupboard) which sends video (via HDMi, I suppose) to the TV and audio to the DAC and amp HAT.
It surprises me that this isn’t mentioned in the HowTos etc. The nearest seems to be using analogue output from a TV or it’s receiver and then using a HIfiBerry DAC+ ADC to take the analogue signal. Surely it would be easier if the RPi could just ’split‘ the audio and video: sending video via HDMi to the TV and audio via the DAC and amp HAT to the speakers?
I’m obviously a beginner in all this, so apologies for wishing for the moon, if that’s what I’m doing.
14. Februar 2022 at 12:44 #52048Hi Quebrantahuesos,
All good, that is a perfectly understandable setup and should also be feasible in one way or another.
In my opinion, you have two options:
Send the analogue signal from the TV to the Squeezebox server and output it through the speakers or run Kodi directly on the Pi and use the speakers as audio output. My recommendation would be the latter.
With the first option, you have two problems: You need an extra sound card (or maybe even a whole system) that has an analogue input. And you will have to deal with latency problems. One sound card you could use here is the HiFiBerry DAC+ ADC, as you have already mentioned. Using the WaveInput plugin, you could use the input signal as a source for the Squeezebox server.
Did that answer your question?
With the second option, you might have a problem with performance. Depending on how powerful your Pi is, it could go down the tubes when playing large files with Kodi. Nevertheless, I think this is the best method. In Kodi’s settings, you can simply select the sound card as the audio output and off you go.
14. Februar 2022 at 13:04 #520492nd option appears much better for me.
To clarify: do you mean I should install Kodi on each RPi player in a room where there is a TV (and audio speakers) and then connect the RPi HDMI to the TV and select the HifiBerry as the sound card?
15. Februar 2022 at 15:04 #52055Yes exactly, this way you can use your Pis as Kodi players and output the audio directly through each sound card.
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