March 2025 Update causes first second of audio to be skipped

Help and Support Vero V
21

I’m heading out now.
In a couple of hours, I’ll be able to re-install Vero V directly to March 2025, instead of upgrading.

I’ll do a debug log, including FFMPEG and audio player component tracing…
See what happens…

1 Like
22

I installed fresh version March 2025 on Vero V.
The only setting I changed was the timezone.
I copied a flac file to local storage, and scanned it to the music library.
Same error… skips first second or so…

I ran a debug session with FFMPEG and Audio components added…

https://paste.osmc.tv/sezowiqegi.xml

A lot of errors from FFMPEG, but again, this file is clean.
I sent a link to the file to thechrisgregory.

Let me know if there is anything else I can test…
Jim

23

@JimMinch Can you provide some flac files, please? Also a full debug log set would be fine, not just the kodi.log.

I tried to reproduce this on my VeroVs with USB DACs (CambridgeAudio + Topping), hdmi of a connected HP monitor and hdmi of an Sony AVR … and cannot reproduce this at all.

All my music collection is on flac format, so this is my daily use case. I also do not see these ffmpeg errors, being on latest greatest staging.

24

JimKnopf

I sent you a link to one of my flac files I have been testing with.
Let me know if you need more.

I’m not sure what a “full debug log set” means…
That’s why after debugging, I’ve been sending the “kodi.log”
I don’t know where other debugging logs would be ?!?

25

JimKnopf

I just sent another PM with a link to a full album of FLAC files.
Again, ALL of my flac files have the same error.
ALL of the files I have rebuilt with the latest FLAC command line encoder.
I also tried rebuilding with the latest FFMPEG.
Same errors on all.
ONLY on March 2025 21.2 Kodi.

26

Tried the provided flac files, here. All works like a charm with USB DACs and HDMI on the VeroV.

27

I’m using a new Vero V, tried upgrading to 21.2 and fresh install of 21.2

Are you running the version available thru update or download, or is your version of the “latest greatest staging” different ?

28

I’m using the current development staging, see post Ntp not working on new Vero V, and solution - #20 by sam_nazarko at the bottom how to get it. Of course on your own risk.

29

I tried your first song.
Seems to work. Debug didn’t show “invalid sync code”, but all the other ffmpeg errors were still there.

I noticed Kodi shows 2 streams, the embedded artwork being one of them.
Maybe the delay of reading the artwork allows the audio to catch up?

Also, running “metaflac --list” against your file shows no seektable in the file.

I think I’ll try embedding my artwork in a test file, and using metaflac to delete the default seektable.

2 Likes
30

I removed the seek table from a test file.
No luck.
I then embedded the album cover.
Song plays every note from the beginning.

31

So, right now, I could try the development staging, see if that works.
If not, I could copy my full library to a new folder, embed the covers, and try again.

I have many copies of my library, one more won’t hurt :grinning:

32

I embedded album art in a full album.
Copied to Vero V storage.
Album played no problem, even gapless…

I think I’ll still try the development branch.
Since you were able to play my files WITHOUT the embedded artwork, there still might be a change there…

33

For comparison, a log set from my test system, playing the track ‘Vorsicht Kamera’, https://paste.osmc.tv/sehiqejohi

start 2025-04-24 20:13:48.448
stop 2025-04-24 20:14:27.453
34

I upgraded to the development staging branch.
Installed autofs.
Went back to shared SQL library, and media files on my original SMB flac library.
So far, all is working.

So, embedding album art helped on vanilla 21.2
Staging branch works without embedding artwork.

I don’t know if any of this will help you solve things going forward, but if anyone else is having this problem, there are a couple of ways around it…

Thanks !!!

1 Like
35

OK, so I have the latest staged repo release installed (with the NTP update).

I played the beginning of each of the test FLACs @JimMinch provided me for testing.

I had debug logging turned on, along with ffmpeg, audio, video verbose logging.

Logs - https://paste.osmc.tv/azopabaniy

I didn’t see any of the original ffmpeg errors as described below -

However playback was not quite correct, there was indeed a small amount of playback skipped at the begining of each track (slightly less than a second). I am using a Yamaha RX-A2A AVR. Hopefully the logs will explain this.

I compared FLAC playback between my Vero-V and Vero 4K+, the Vero-V is definitely not playing from the very beginning of the file as compared to the Vero 4K+ playing the same files.

Note the errors from FFMPEG concerning broken stream, invalid channel mode and sample/frame mismatch, just after the start of playback by PAPlayer.

2025-04-24 19:29:27.136 T:3088 debug : ffmpeg[0xaff6c340]: [flac] broken stream, invalid padding
2025-04-24 19:29:27.136 T:3088 debug : ffmpeg[0xaff6c340]: [flac] invalid channel mode: 15
2025-04-24 19:29:27.136 T:3088 debug : ffmpeg[0xaff6c340]: [flac] sample/frame number mismatch in adjacent frames
2025-04-24 19:29:27.137 T:3088 debug : Skipped 20 duplicate messages…

I didn’t try gapless FLAC playback.

Chris.

1 Like
36

I was thinking there might be with visualisations but indeed, nope.

37

Just tried testing this skipped audio problem with some 24-96 FLACs, with the latest staged Vero-V repo build.

I played the beginning of the first 5 FLACs from this zip archive

Each one had a noticable delay before the audio started.

Standard Debug Log:
https://paste.osmc.tv/alazagagor

This standard debug log does not show any noticable FFMPEG errors, that we have seen before, yet the first second or so of each FLAC was skipped.

A more verbose log (with verbose FFMPEG logging)
https://paste.osmc.tv/gaxesuhevo

For each playback the following errors (??) are given by ffmpeg [flac]:

2025-04-25 14:45:32.056 T:3039 debug : ffmpeg[0xb03fd6f8]: [flac] invalid sample size code (3)
2025-04-25 14:45:32.057 T:3039 debug : ffmpeg[0xb03fd6f8]: [flac] header crc mismatch
2025-04-25 14:45:32.058 T:3039 debug : ffmpeg[0xb03fd6f8]: [flac] sample/frame number mismatch in adjacent frames
2025-04-25 14:45:32.059 T:3039 debug : Skipped 20 duplicate messages.

I hope this can be resolved sometime soon, it sure spoils the listening experience !

38

Agreed. I can reproduce the problem on Vero V, although there were only 3 tracks in that zip, they all start late - probably by less than a second but annoying nonetheless. As stated above, my own CD rips are fine (44.1/16).

Problem doesn’t exist on Windoze, but did exist when I loaded up a 21.1 Kodi and then a kernel from late last year (without a full reinstall). Maybe a full reinstall will also revert any ffmpeg changes - needs some more testing here.

39

Yep, slower stream data rate as compared to higher resolution (24/96), so that sounds like the sample data rate is an influencing factor, rather than problem with the FLAC file itself.

It does begin to ‘feel’ like its a problem with the device driver for the audio sink in the kernel - noting the results that @JimMinch has had with his tests. Is that device driver OSMC or Kodi responsibility ?

Also, PAPlayer has had a number of changes in 21.x by the looks of things too (I think I noted decreasing (!) buffer sizes for the raw audio), and of course it could be an issue with ffmpeg converting the FLACS to WAV streams for audio playback at the DAC.

40

Do you know if these errors are present in v21.1?
Apologies if you covered this before.

Sam