diff --git a/libao2/ao_oss.c b/libao2/ao_oss.c
index 7fa33e4603..7af6156245 100644
--- a/libao2/ao_oss.c
+++ b/libao2/ao_oss.c
@@ -256,16 +256,22 @@ static int init(int rate,int channels,int format,int flags){
 ac3_retry:  
   ao_data.format=format;
   oss_format=format2oss(format);
-  if (oss_format == -1) return 0;
-  if( ioctl(audio_fd, SNDCTL_DSP_SETFMT, &oss_format)<0 ||
-      oss_format != format2oss(format)) if(format == AF_FORMAT_AC3){
-    mp_msg(MSGT_AO,MSGL_WARN, MSGTR_AO_OSS_CantSetAC3, dsp);
+  if (oss_format == -1) {
 #ifdef WORDS_BIGENDIAN
     oss_format=AFMT_S16_BE;
     format=AF_FORMAT_S16_BE;
 #else
     oss_format=AFMT_S16_LE;
     format=AF_FORMAT_S16_LE;
+#endif
+  }
+  if( ioctl(audio_fd, SNDCTL_DSP_SETFMT, &oss_format)<0 ||
+      oss_format != format2oss(format)) if(format == AF_FORMAT_AC3){
+    mp_msg(MSGT_AO,MSGL_WARN, MSGTR_AO_OSS_CantSetAC3, dsp);
+#ifdef WORDS_BIGENDIAN
+    format=AF_FORMAT_S16_BE;
+#else
+    format=AF_FORMAT_S16_LE;
 #endif
     goto ac3_retry;
   }