HDMI Audio Drops Out Periodically

[Fedge]

My Pi is hooked up via HDMI to my HDTV. When trying to play video, the audio will drop out for 1-2 seconds every few minutes. The video continues to play flawlessly, but the audio cuts out. When the audio comes back, it comes back correctly (no A/V syncing issues). It's almost as if someone is pressing mute periodically.

I have tried multiple different video and audio sources. I have tried playing back from both the SD card and over the network. This occurs in Rasbian, Raspbmc, and OpenElec. The sound does work completely smoothly when played through the analog audio jack. I am at a loss as to why the audio drops out over the HDMI connection. Can anyone help me?

Here's a list of things I've tried:

• * Swapped power supplies. Currently using a 1000mA supply.
  * Swapped HDMI cables
  * Swapped TVs
  * Multiple OSs (Raspbian, Raspbmc, OpenElec)
  * Within XBMC, toggled "Adjust display refresh rate to match video" on and off with no effect
  * Within XBMC, changed refresh rate from 60 Hz to 30 Hz to 24 Hz with no effect
  * Within XBMC, toggled passthrough of DD/DTS on and off with no effect

[Fedge]

I am still having this issue, and haven't found a solution yet. I've now tried different SD cards and confirmed that the HDMI cable and the TV to which it is hooked up are in working condition.

This is becoming more and more frustrating. Does anyone have any advice? I would be grateful.

[dandandan]

I have the same issue.

[dandandan]

Set resolution to 1080p@24hz, no more audio drops.

[Rweburns]

Hi , I am having the same issue but unfortunately switching to 1080p@24 doesn't fix the issue .

I am passing through to a denon amp and issue is like mute is pressed for a sec but does not get out of sync.

[Rweburns]

Hi , I have the same issue . Did you find a fix ? 1080@24 dosnt fix it for me

[Fedge]

No, I still haven't fixed this problem. I have continued to update software and attempt to troubleshoot but I haven't made any progress. This problem is extremely frustrating, as I cannot use my Pi for its intended purpose. It's very disappointing.

[pudding]

Same problem here too. Audio drop out for half a second, video unaffected. Occurs around every few minutes but varies. I've tried RaspBMC, Openelec and they have the same problem. Checked the XBMC and Pi logs and no messages.

This is running 1080p/24 and 1080p/60 with the same issue on a Yamaha receiver amp using passthrough DTS. Set the audio in XBMC to 2.0 and 5.1 with no difference.

Real shame as the Pi plays videos brilliantly but it's a fail for me until this is fixed.

[christov]

I have exactly the same issue,with what seems like an almost identical setup....
I get the audio cutting out in random places also, but it seems to only happen on 1080p content so far. But being an intermittent problem it's tough to say if this is the case or not.....

My Yamaha amp is being sent the dts and ac3 streams fine and as previous posters have said there is no sync delay when the audio cuts back in..... really odd behaviour!

[Rweburns]

Mine does improve when I overclock the pi . And I only now get it with large 15gb+ files that have 6.1 dts.

[pudding]

I've also found the problem is reduced if you overclock the GPU (as well as the CPU) but it still isn't eliminated. I also get the issue with 720p as well as 1080p. Having to overclock is sort of saying that the Pi isn't really powerful enough to do what I need, i.e. flawless 1080p video & audio with DTS passthru.

[JediMindTrick]

So is the consensus that the Pi just doesn't have enough under the hood? I just started playing with XBMC on my Pi two days ago and have been experiencing the same problem described in the forum. I assumed that because of how large the XBMC/RasPi movement is, the hardware was capable, but I guess that wasn't a correct assumption. I have a class 4 card in my Pi now, but a class 10 is on the way. Could this have anything to do with the audio cutout? What class cards are you guys using?

[Dandelion]

Having encountered this problem periodically, with no consistency at all (same file plays fine one day, full of glitches next time; sometimes this happens with local media, sometimes with media over NFS; sometimes the GUI glitches, sometimes smooth) I switched out my PSU from a powered USB hub with a switch-mode wall wart (rated 3a @5V) to an Apple 1st gen iPod Touch supply, and have since had no more issues. I have a suspicion that the mains supply in this house is very noisy. Possibly the old Apple power supply is smoother? Anyway, I'd advise checking the power supply to anyone getting glitchy and inconsistent audio/video.

[suchmich1983]

@Dandelion
It seems that I have the exact same issue like you. Sometimes the file runs smooth, sometimes I have these drops. Sometimes GUI is running flawless sometimes not.

Can you confirm that it helped replacing the power supply?

Thanks!

[Tinwarble]

I'm seeing a similar issue.

However, it appears, at least for me to only happen with files that have DTS (ES).

Audio
ID : 2
Format : DTS
Format/Info : Digital Theater Systems
Format profile : ES
Mode : 16
Format settings, Endianness : Big
Codec ID : A_DTS
Duration : 1h 27mn
Bit rate mode : Constant
Bit rate : 1 509 Kbps
Channel(s) : 6 channels
Channel positions : Front: L C R, Side: L R, LFE
Sampling rate : 48.0 KHz
Bit depth : 24 bits
Compression mode : Lossy
Stream size : 947 MiB (20%)
Language : English
Default : Yes
Forced : No

[Rweburns]

Same for me , only happens with dts es

[suchmich1983]

Isn't here a dev that can have a look to this? Really frustrating while trying to watch a Movie. There must be a reason!

Thanks and regards

[mcv100]

I'm experiencing this problem as well. I've tried fixing it using the performance scaling governor, so that it keeps my Pi running at 1000MHz. According to this info, that could fix skipping problems, but it didn't for me... Has anyone else found a solution that really fixes this annoying issue?

[Tinwarble]

I'm experiencing this problem as well. I've tried fixing it using the performance scaling governor, so that it keeps my Pi running at 1000MHz. According to this info, that could fix skipping problems, but it didn't for me... Has anyone else found a solution that really fixes this annoying issue?

No, it's most likely not a hardware issue so changing any of the clock settings will probably not do much of anything. The issue is with the firmware and how it handles DTS-ES as apposed to DTS, so it will be something the RPF will have to fix.

[MicroMina]

I'm also having the same problem. Was anyone able to solve this?

[Hoofee]

I've been searching for a solution to this issue for ages. Nothing I have tried has worked so far.

I'm using OpenElec 3.2.3.

The problem does appear to be related to DTS-ES. I can easily reproduce the issue with some mkv movie files and I've used the mediainfo Windows tool to check the DTS type. Always seems to be DTS-ES. Movies at 6.1, 7.1 whereas my speaker setup is 5.1. (other movies that have 6.1,7.1 play fine, just not as DTS-ES).

I've tried overclocking and a number of other options touted by others:

arm_freq=950
core_freq=450
sdram_freq=450
over_voltage=6

#force allow dts/ac3 passthrough
hdmi_force_edid_audio=1

#force hdmi even if not detected
hdmi_force_hotplug=1

# Force display mode to 1080p/60
hdmi_mode=16

# Force display mode to 1080p/24
# hdmi_mode=32

config_hdmi_boost=4
hdmi_drive=2


There is definitely a consistent issue here which is a pain in the butt and appears to have existed for a while. Seems something related to Pi seeing as it occurs across different O/S's as per the first post.

[Hoofee]

Just tested with a movie that has DTS-ES 5.1 and it still has the problem, so it doesn't seem to be anything related to the number of channels but more that it is just DTS-ES.

Bummer.

[dom]

Latest firmware has fixed an issue with audio underrun and DTS passthrough. Please update and test.

If there is still an issue, can you provide me with a link to a file that exhibits the issue, and I'll test it.

[pumpkinhead]

Anyone know how to update the kernel (i.e. rpi-update) on OpenElec to test this out?

[dom]

Anyone know how to update the kernel (i.e. rpi-update) on OpenElec to test this out?

Download:
https://github.com/Hexxeh/rpi-firmware/ ... tart_x.elf
https://github.com/Hexxeh/rpi-firmware/ ... ixup_x.dat

Replace the files on FAT partition of sdcard (e.g. by inserting the scard in a windows PC) with those.
I believe with OpenELEC you rename them to start.elf and fixup.dat (make sure the names match what's currently there).