Audio/video problems through HDMI

[jacadito]

Hi all,

I've been reading this forum for several hours (thanks to ALL of you for sharing and helping !) but couldn't find a solution related to my specific problems. Particularly for the audio problem I couldn't find a trace of such problem anywhere else.

I'm running an Orbsmart S82 (= Tronsmart Vega S89) on 111k4 stock ROM, connected to an Onkyo TX-SR608 receiver. My receiver converts any video input to a HDMI 1080p 60Hz signal towards my TV. Audio is not forwarded to the TV. In below scenarios video is coming from a Synology NAS via a cabled Gigabit LAN.

Before I had a WD TV Live with no problems at all. So I guess below problems must be related to the Orbsmart and not to my receiver, cables, or (lack of) LAN speed.

Scenario 1: HDMI video at 1080p 60Hz, HDMI audio passthrough
Audio: [not solved yet]

I'm getting audio dropouts when playing music from f.i. Spotify or Youtube. At irregular moments (but quite frequent = sometimes multiple times in a minute) I have no sound for a few seconds. During those seconds the HDMI indicator on my ONKYO receiver is blinking (= doing a handshake ??). Then the HDMI indicator becomes solid again and the sound comes back, but in some cases the sound doesn't get back at all until I switch my receiver to another input source and then switch back to the Orbsmart (which I think comes down to forcing a new handshake).
When playing a movie through XMBC I have the impression that this only occurs with MP3 or AAC sound, not with DD or DTS apart from maybe once at the beginning of the playback.

Video: [solved: see my next post]

there is a slight but disturbing video stutter, especially during camera panning. I tried several hardware acceleration settings in XBMC but noticed no improvement. Apart from the stutter, there are no video dropouts at all (so during an audio dropout the footage continues).

Scenario 2: HDMI video at 1080p 60Hz, SPDIF audio passthrough
Audio: everything works fine and remains stable, no dropouts !
Video: same as in situation 1

Scenario 3: HDMI video at 720p 60Hz, HDMI audio passthrough
Audio:

the dropouts described in scenario 1 only occur every 5-10 minutes, and in all cases the sound comes back

Video:

works fine... but video quality is "only" 720k...

In my opinion this excludes any HDMI connector soldering issues as potential source of the problems above.

Scenario: HDMI video at 720p 60Hz, SPDIF audio passthrough
Audio: everything works fine and remains stable !
Video: works fine... but video quality is "only" 720k...

So Scenario 2 (video through HDMI - audio through SPDIF) is OK, but I need a superfluous optical connection for the audio. Obviously I'd like to have Scenario 1 working.
All suggestions are welcome

[jacadito]

Video problems solved - audio problems remain

I've been reading a bit further and was able to solve the video stutter as such:
In XBMC settings - video - playback I set

• "Adjust display refresh rate to match video" to "On start/stop"
  (what would be the difference with the "Always" setting ?)
• "Pause during refresh rate change" to "1 second"
  I arbitrarily took a 1 second pause without really knowing what it's good for.

Furthermore

• I've set the S82 to send 1080p 50Hz to my Onkyo receiver
• I've set the receiver to passthrough whatever resolution and frequency it gets from the source.

I can now see on my television that when I start a movie in XMBC the frequency switches to 24Hz and there is no more video stutter, playback is smooth as it should be

However I'm still on SPDIF audio, as the HDMI 1080p audio playback problem is still there.
There is no quality difference compared to HDMI audio, so strictly speaking all is fine. However I'm keen to know what's wrong with the HDMI audio. Any ideas ?

[wheelboy]

Scenario 1: HDMI video at 1080p 60Hz, HDMI audio passthrough
Audio: [not solved yet]I'm getting audio dropouts when playing music from f.i. Spotify or Youtube. At irregular moments (but quite frequent = sometimes multiple times in a minute) I have no sound for a few seconds. During those seconds the HDMI indicator on my ONKYO receiver is blinking (= doing a handshake ??). Then the HDMI indicator becomes solid again and the sound comes back, but in some cases the sound doesn't get back at all until I switch my receiver to another input source and then switch back to the Orbsmart (which I think comes down to forcing a new handshake).
When playing a movie through XMBC I have the impression that this only occurs with MP3 or AAC sound, not with DD or DTS apart from maybe once at the beginning of the playback.


Well thats your onkyo doing it .I have an onkyo also a tx-nr-636. I had exactly the same problem. with one small diffrence i had to unplug my onkyo wait few secs till i heard a tic .plug it in and problem was gone.I had this untill i got a firmware update last sept than it was gone.

[jacadito]

Audio dropouts through HDMI - continued

Scenario 1: HDMI video at 1080p 60Hz, HDMI audio passthrough
Well thats your onkyo doing it .I have an onkyo also a tx-nr-636. I had exactly the same problem. with one small diffrence i had to unplug my onkyo wait few secs till i heard a tic .plug it in and problem was gone.I had this untill i got a firmware update last sept than it was gone.

I have an Onkyo TX-SR608. I've continued investigating in the meantime but can't really conclude that it must be my receiver. After all I never had problems with my previous WD TV Live connected on the same LAN, as well as to the same receiver with HDMI only.
There's lots of reading about audio dropouts on the web but most of the time there's no clear diagnosis or unique recommendation or solution (in many cases the problem description isn't even clear to start with). There are cases with Onkyo receivers, but I've also read cases with other brands.
I bumped into one particular thread on the minix forum (search for the words minix audio dropout in google) that swivels around the same issues, but also remains inconclusive so far.

I'm fine now with audio through SPDIF, but it shouldn't be like that. I'm still intrigued to at least find the root cause, and maybe a solution.

[jacadito]

Only with Onkyo - or also with other receivers ?

Samsung describe on their website the possible causes of intermittent audio dropouts:

http://support-us.samsung.com/cyber/popup/iframe/pop_troubleshooting_fr.jsp?idx=51629&modelname=LN-T4671F

As I had no problems whatsoever with my WDTV Live previously, and don't have any problems with any other device hooked up to my receiver, I tend to conclude that that the S802 is sending a weak HDMI signal and/or has issues with the HDMI handshake protocol.

It is of course possible that Onkyo receivers in particular are more sensitive or more demanding with regard to the quality and strength of the HDMI signal.

Anybody with similar issues: can you list the brand and model of your receiver here ?

[looun]

i have the same problem
if i connect S89 hdmi to onkyo amplificator with KODI there is not audio, no sound.
if i connect S89 hdmi to TV with kodi there is audio, but every 1 minute there is audio dropouts .


i try Finless 2.1 ROM and last stock rom 111K4.


It is hardware problem?
thanks.

[looun]

i have the same problem
if i connect S89 hdmi to onkyo amplificator with KODI there is not audio, no sound.
if i connect S89 hdmi to TV with kodi there is audio, but every 1 minute there is audio dropouts .


i try Finless 2.1 ROM and last stock rom 111K4.


It is hardware problem?
thanks.

i have fix it, i have changed hdmi cable ! the cable inside box is a shit.

[mg3point]

jacadito Have you resolved this, i have the same setup with the same issue. I have a vega s89-h and an onkyo tx-sr608. The video plays back without issue, but the audio keeps cutting in and out and i too notice the hdmi light on the receiver blinking. I've tried switching HDMI cables and i still dont notice a difference. Was this ever resolved?

[jacadito]

It's still not resolved. I keep using the workaround which consists of image through HDMI and sound over SPDIF. No issues at all with that setup.

[mg3point]

I just tried to update the firmware to 111k and that still didnt solve it. Very frustrating. Sounds like i am making a trip down the road for an SPDIF cable. It used to work fine no issues until the last month or so, i dont know what happend.

edit: I did go get a SPIDF cable and it fixed the issue.