Majority of DD+ passtrough audio broken on Vero4k with Pioneer since 1.5 Years

Help and Support
1

Hi there.

I’m back with an issue that I already reported back in January 2019 in the Beta forums: [TESTING] Kodi 18 (Leia) builds for Vero 2 & 4K - #918 by Dedi

At a specific Verio 4k build (348), most of my Dolby Digital Plus encoded audio stopped beeing played by my AVR (Pioneer VSX-923) using passtrough. The AVR starts blinking and no audio comes out.

ezgif-4-2e975f1cd478

  • While a few DD+ Videos still work, most of them stopped at that time.
  • Before all were working without any problems (build 344 and everything before). For a long time I kept going back to that build after a lot of update attempts.
  • It works when I use Kodi on my MS Surface with the same cable and AVR as the Vero4k uses while playing the SAME file.
  • I changed cables, tried any relevant setting, reinstalled completly. I also tried the new Lock HDMI HPD setting in the October release.

This points to a direct Vero4k or OSMC issue as Kodi itself seems not to be the cause. I already narrowed it down to the exact build back then. 344 works as well, 346 and 347 are builds that crash, and build 348 has the audio problems.

For this post I did some further testing:
All DD, DTS, DTS-HD MA, TrueHD streams that I tested were working without problems.
Dolby Digital Plus: 5 full seasons of different tv series and most movies don’t work, while I found 1 tv series and 1 movie that does work.

example movie working:

Audio
ID                             : 2
Format                         : E-AC-3
Format/Info                    : Enhanced AC-3
Commercial name                : Dolby Digital Plus
Codec ID                       : A_EAC3
Duration                       : 1 h 34 min![ezgif-4-2e975f1cd478|320x180]
Bit rate mode                  : Constant
Bit rate                       : 640 kb/s
Channel(s)                     : 6 channels
Channel layout                 : L R C LFE Ls Rs
Sampling rate                  : 48.0 kHz
Frame rate                     : 31.250 FPS (1536 SPF)
Compression mode               : Lossy
Stream size                    : 434 MiB (8%)
Title                          : European Spanish
Language                       : Spanish
Service kind                   : Complete Main
Default                        : No
Forced                         : No

example tv series working:

Audio
ID                             : 2
Format                         : E-AC-3 JOC
Format/Info                    : Enhanced AC-3 with Joint Object Coding
Commercial name                : Dolby Digital Plus with Dolby Atmos
Codec ID                       : A_EAC3
Duration                       : 1 h 0 min
Bit rate mode                  : Constant
Bit rate                       : 768 kb/s
Channel(s)                     : 6 channels
Channel layout                 : L R C LFE Ls Rs
Sampling rate                  : 48.0 kHz
Frame rate                     : 31.250 FPS (1536 SPF)
Compression mode               : Lossy
Stream size                    : 335 MiB (21%)
Language                       : English
Service kind                   : Complete Main
Default                        : Yes
Forced                         : No
Complexity index               : 16
Number of dynamic objects      : 15
Bed channel count              : 1 channel
Bed channel configuration      : LFE

example movie not working:

Audio
ID                             : 2
Format                         : E-AC-3 JOC
Format/Info                    : Enhanced AC-3 with Joint Object Coding
Commercial name                : Dolby Digital Plus with Dolby Atmos
Codec ID                       : A_EAC3
Duration                       : 2 h 0 min
Bit rate mode                  : Constant
Bit rate                       : 768 kb/s
Channel(s)                     : 6 channels
Channel layout                 : L R C LFE Ls Rs
Sampling rate                  : 48.0 kHz
Frame rate                     : 31.250 FPS (1536 SPF)
Compression mode               : Lossy
Stream size                    : 662 MiB (7%)
Title                          : English
Language                       : English
Service kind                   : Complete Main
Default                        : Yes
Forced                         : No
Complexity index               : 16
Number of dynamic objects      : 15
Bed channel count              : 1 channel
Bed channel configuration      : LFE

example tv series not working:

Audio
ID                             : 2
Format                         : E-AC-3
Format/Info                    : Enhanced AC-3
Commercial name                : Dolby Digital Plus
Codec ID                       : A_EAC3
Duration                       : 1 h 9 min
Bit rate mode                  : Constant
Bit rate                       : 640 kb/s
Channel(s)                     : 6 channels
Channel layout                 : L R C LFE Ls Rs
Sampling rate                  : 48.0 kHz
Frame rate                     : 31.250 FPS (1536 SPF)
Compression mode               : Lossy
Delay relative to video        : 12 ms
Stream size                    : 319 MiB (7%)
Language                       : English
Service kind                   : Complete Main
Default                        : Yes
Forced                         : No

Here are my logs after a fresh reboot, first played a episode that works for bit, then stopped and then played a episode that does not work for a bit.
https://paste.osmc.tv/bobuzeqila
Edit: same with debug enabled:
https://paste.osmc.tv/gojequcinu

Probably someone else with same problem: Dolby Digital Plus passthrough Pioneer VSX-922

If I can provide some more helpful information, please let me know.

2

It would be difficult to tell specific changes in a build from so long ago.

Have you tried reproducing with the latest Buster based version?

Sam

3

At least all changes with name and commitid are still in the forum thread and may help finding the cause.

Yes this is the october release. As there were quite some audio changes and the issue remained, I thought it’s time for another run at the problem.

4

Have you checked if there is a fiemware update for your receiver?

Sam

5

No new firmware was released the last years. I’m on the most recent one.

6

I’m not sure the issue is necessarily Kodi related
It is more likely to be kernel related.

7

Seems likely as it works on a different device with same kodi version.

8

Are there any more informations I can provide or is this issue doomed? That would be quite sad as it is something that was previously working.

9

I also have a VSX-923 but have not encountered any issues with E-AC3 or any other passthrough (AC3/TrueHD/DTS/DTS-HD). Can you share a short clip of a broken video so I can verify on my kit?

10

Hi

Honestly – we don’t know what the issue is. But we are interested in fixing it.

I’ve bought a VSX-LX303 but can’t rig it up just yet. I was planning to update this thread after testing it.

Thanks for chiming in @nrosier. Does your model have some kind of revision marking or date of manufacture?

@Dedi – can you let us know a film or show that doesn’t work? Maybe @nrosier can then test it with his AVR.

Sam

11

Sticker on the back marks October 2013
Software version: 1-147-020-***-106 (s9294.4003.1106)

HTH

1 Like
12

Cheers.

13

Let me know how the VSX-LX303 works out. Been thinking about getting a new AVR when I finally decide on a HDR TV :smiley:

14

Will do!

15

I actually had more troubles finding a non-working DD+ (E-AC3) demo file than a working one - complete opposite to my library :slight_smile:

I found 2 so far, the files have 4 audio tracks: it’s the audio track 3 (DD+)

I did test on several shows. Of course there are different releases, but if someone is interested:

Nonworking episodes tested: lovecraft s1e1, helsreom s1e3, STD s1e12-14, high score s1 all, Watchmen s1 all

Nonworking movies: windriver, the banker

*While the whole The Witcher Season 1 was working, as well as the movie “Platform”. *

Tell me if you need release infos.

My Pioneer VSX-923 is from MAY 2013,
Serial MEID000943TV
/PWVXE8
Firmware is the same: 1-147-020-016-106 (s9294.4003.1106)

16

Might this issue be the same cause? Audio dropping/cutting out in movies via VERO4K/OSMC (volume drops, and loud pops/cracks when playing DD+ audio)

17

I’d recommend waiting for the next update to see if some things are resolved there.

18

@Thierr I don’t think so, neither volume drops or cracks were ever a problem here. It’s just either working or not at all.

@nrosier any chance you were able to do a test with the files above?

19

Was this problem ever addressed? I have a few rips of some HD DVDs, and the ones with Dolby Digital Plus either:
Play with no sound
Play with stuttering audio and video
Sometimes play with the above problems and sometimes play with no problem.

My Vero 4K+ is connected to a Denon 6700 via HDMI, and it handles just about every other sound format I send. I read about this problem with DD+ on a Kodi forum: No Dolby Digital Plus (E-AC3) passthrough
. . .where this advice was given:
“Put the # of speakers to 2.0
It apears the option “Transcode to AC3” in Passthrough section → enable it and disable the E-AC3 capability.”

I did this, and all my movies with DD+ play flawlessly. I should point out that my AVR is capable of processing DD+, so this appears to be a limitation of Kodi (I’m on Kodi 21). I wonder why there is an option in Kodi to process DD+, but if you have it enabled, it will not work.

20

No, no one ever cared.

I’m on Libreelec now with the same behavior.

1 Like