5.1/7.1 HDMI output

[Martin-Hausleitner]

Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe.
So I have a 5.1 av receiver that has a HDMI CEC input. The device has Spotify connect Airplay and Chromecast support but with every playback there are extreme latencies

Describe the solution you'd like
Now I would connect the rasp to the receiver via HDMI or an HDMI sound card. And so the hardware is also 5.1 Dolby Atoms compatible. The only question is if your software can do that. The next problem is what comes with such a method is that I have to switch on the receiver myself which is extremely annoying. That is why I mentioned HDMI CEC before. So the rasp can switch on the receiver.
I would also like to watch a fim on a windows pc but with the sound of the 5.1/7.1 system

[tmigone]

Hi @Martin-Hausleitner, I think it might be possible to add 5.1 audio support. I'm not sure a Raspberry Pi can handle it, but it's possible. I created an issue in the relevant repository where this will be explored: balena-io-experimental/audio#65

As for latency and watching a movie, unfortunately that will never be possible with balenaSound. We cover this in our docs here:

balenaSound uses many technologies to provide audio streaming capabilities. All these layers of software introduce a small amount of delay that in the end add up to something that can be noticeable. We understand that this means that balenaSound is not suitable for certain applications (streaming audio from video sources for instance) but we believe this is an acceptable tradeoff for all the cool features we offer.