mjhjmtu

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

According to the codec information, you have 3 converter nodes (which accept a digital data stream) of 8 channels each, and 3 pin nodes (which are connected to the graphic card to embed the sound stream into HDMI).

So your hardware is indeed capable of 8 channels per HDMI plus 6 channels analog (unless the HDA soundcard has bandwidth restrictions, but I'll guess one just has to try that), and it could even do an additional 8 channels for another HDMI output if you had the physical output.

Setting up simultanous output on both HDMI channels in Pulseaudio may be a bit of a headache, though. You may have to fiddle with the profile sets in /usr/share/pulseaudio/alsa-mixer/ if you actually plan to do this.

You can split off channels as additional sinks easily in Pulseaudio with the module-remap-sink module.