diff --git a/media/libmedia/AudioTrack.cpp b/media/libmedia/AudioTrack.cpp
index 8daf08b..dc4f90e 100644
--- a/media/libmedia/AudioTrack.cpp
+++ b/media/libmedia/AudioTrack.cpp
@@ -1005,7 +1005,8 @@
     sp<IAudioTrack> track = audioFlinger->createTrack(mStreamType,
                                                       mSampleRate,
                                                       // AudioFlinger only sees 16-bit PCM
-                                                      mFormat == AUDIO_FORMAT_PCM_8_BIT ?
+                                                      mFormat == AUDIO_FORMAT_PCM_8_BIT &&
+                                                          !(mFlags & AUDIO_OUTPUT_FLAG_DIRECT) ?
                                                               AUDIO_FORMAT_PCM_16_BIT : mFormat,
                                                       mChannelMask,
                                                       &temp,
diff --git a/services/audioflinger/AudioFlinger.cpp b/services/audioflinger/AudioFlinger.cpp
index 755d480..eb00c82 100644
--- a/services/audioflinger/AudioFlinger.cpp
+++ b/services/audioflinger/AudioFlinger.cpp
@@ -541,10 +541,8 @@
         goto Exit;
     }
 
-    // client is responsible for conversion of 8-bit PCM to 16-bit PCM,
-    // and we don't yet support 8.24 or 32-bit PCM
-    if (!audio_is_valid_format(format) ||
-            (audio_is_linear_pcm(format) && format != AUDIO_FORMAT_PCM_16_BIT)) {
+    // further format checks are performed by createTrack_l() depending on the thread type
+    if (!audio_is_valid_format(format)) {
         ALOGE("createTrack() invalid format %#x", format);
         lStatus = BAD_VALUE;
         goto Exit;