I’ll give that a shot and let you know how it goes.
OK here’s another log dump, this time with debug logging enabled:
https://paste.osmc.tv/lawoyezexo
I had a dropout of BOTH audio and video right around 4:16pm-4:17pm.
Does this new log dump show any smoking gun?
OK I may have solved the problem with the most elementary fix. So far I’ve watched three different 4K titles with no audio or video dropouts. Even bitstream passthrough is working fine now.
The fix? A different BRAND HDMI cable. As noted above, everything in my setup had Twisted Veins HDMI 2.0 cables. I’d swapped out the cable connecting the Vero to my Marantz with another (fresh out of the package) Twisted Veins cable which resulted in no change. I figured that ruled out a bad cable but failed to consider whether the cable BRAND was fundamentally flawed.
Thus far it appears this is the case. I replaced the Twisted Veins cable with (of all things) a generic HDMI 2.0 cable from Monoprice I had laying around. Now things appear fine. So much for reliable “brand name” cables, although the oddity is the rest of the system (from the Marantz to the Samsung, for example) retains the Twisted Veins cabling and carries 4K stuff without issue.
I’ll keep an eye on things and see if the problem crops up again. However, given that I couldn’t watch a single 4K movie without at least SOME dropouts and now I’ve watched several without any dropouts, I’m tentatively concluding the issue is resolved.
I use only premium (and pretty expensive) HDMI cables, but some 4K true HD x265 MKV files give me audio dropout. I’m gonna put in debug and record this event, I really hope to do it.
Glad to hear that the solution was so simple
Sam
I feel like an a$$ for (hopefully) solving the problem in such a simple fashion. However who would’ve thought a reputable brand-name company would allow such a problem?
I’m not stupid enough to plunk down major cash for these “premium” HDMI cables that claim to offer “superior picture and audio” and all that crap. The ones and zeroes in an HDMI stream don’t become magically clearer or sharper with 99.9% oxygen-free copper and gold-plated connectors. It either works or it doesn’t. Not to say I trust bargain-basement cables either but hucksters selling $100 three-foot HDMI cables will also never get my business.
Moral of the story: keep a different brand HDMI 2.0 cable laying around to test with if you ever get random audio/video dropouts. Even certified cables apparently have enough non-conformance to have issues sometimes.
Several years ago when rpi’s were very new, I too thought twisted veins cables looked like quality products. Purchased a multi pack and found out shortly thereafter that they didn’t even support CEC. Made a mental note to avoid that brand ever since. Enjoy your functional system!
Thanks! The oddity here is I have several other peripherals attached to my Marantz, all pushing 4K content, all connected via Twisted Veins HDMI 2.0 cables and they’re doing it flawlessly. The Vero was the only item experiencing issues. Perhaps it’s something specific to the HDMI PHY in the Vero.
Please note I’m NOT implying a deficiency in the Vero. Having worked in IT for almost three decades I’ve come across all kinds of issues where quality product A (like an network switch) won’t properly talk to quality product B (sometimes from the same vendor!) due to them having different PHY brands. Every spec has tolerances. If vendor A hits one end of the tolerance and vendor B hits the other end, cabling vagaries can sometimes be enough to throw the whole thing out of whack.
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Are you playing the exact same content in the exact same output format connected to the same HDMI port on the other devices?
If the TMDS clock is lower on other devices, you’ll probably get away with a lower spec cable
It’s 4K although I don’t believe it’s HDR. I’ll have to check the refresh rate to see if it’s 60Hz as well.
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“Gold-plated connectors”…for an OPTICAL device!
The sad thing is I bet thousands of people purchased this thing thinking they were getting a quality device.
Well, they are not corroding 
Bet those photons love that gold plating though 
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