Audio only works sometimes and I can't figure out why.

  • I'm using LibreELEC 8.0.2 on a Dell Optiplex 990. I have it plugged into my Onkyo receiver, but I have to use a VGA to HDMI converter since this PC is kind of old. The converter uses USB to send audio, and I have "USB Headphones" selected in Kodi. I turn off the PC when I go to sleep, since it's a bit loud. Every time I turn it on I just pray I'll hear the start up sound, because if not, I'm screwed. No amount of messing around in the Kodi settings or adjusting the hardware fixes the issue. I just turn it off and hope that the next time I want to watch something it works. One time it was working fine while playing an album, but once I paused it and tried to play an episode of a TV show, the audio stopped working again. The only other setting I changed from the default is the "Keep audio device alive" option being set to "Always".

    • Official Post

    It's a startup timing/sequencing issue. The USB device hasn't initialised and loaded drivers before Kodi starts. Kodi evaluates the available audio devices once at startup and nothing is present; hence the device "disappears" and reverts to some other default. If the device has loaded drivers before Kodi is started the device is visible and can be selected.

    You can solve the problem by setting the badly named "wait for network" startup delay in LE settings. A small delay should give the drivers time to load before Kodi starts. Something like 5 seconds should do the trick if it's borderline.

  • It's a startup timing/sequencing issue. The USB device hasn't initialised and loaded drivers before Kodi starts. Kodi evaluates the available audio devices once at startup and nothing is present; hence the device "disappears" and reverts to some other default. If the device has loaded drivers before Kodi is started the device is visible and can be selected.

    You can solve the problem by setting the badly named "wait for network" startup delay in LE settings. A small delay should give the drivers time to load before Kodi starts. Something like 5 seconds should do the trick if it's borderline.

    I'll try this, thank you.