7.1 Audio
Audio output methods over HDMI are lacking some key functionality including:
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Ability to send audio data (DTS-MA, Dolby True-HD, etc) as-is (passthrough) over HDMI.
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Ability to send up to 7.1 LPCM audio over HDMI
Right now VLC sends 2 channel audio over HDMI unless --spdif is specified and then it sends 5.1 but quality is limited (AC3 limits). The ideal situation is where someone can specify the channels (and vlc downsamples if the specified channels are less than what is in the audio source) and the ability to set the output format (lpcm, pcm, ac3, dts, dd, etc) that will be sent out HDMI (or even s/pdif for similar behavior in Linux)