ActiveAE - large audio sync error

Intropy · December 29, 2023 at 5:52 AM

I'm running 11.0.4 on a Raspberry Pi 5. It is connected to a Yamaha rx-a1070 receiver.

When playing video I see hundreds of lines in the logs saying:

Code

warning <general>: ActiveAE - large audio sync error

This coincides with major stuttering of video and audio. This happens with some videos but not all. The only commonality I've found is that all the errors seem to be with either DTS, Dolby Digital +, or Dolby TrueHD. Another thing I've noticed is that if I'm playing a DTS stream my receiver's front display says "DTS". But when the stuttering happens it reads "Decoder off", sometimes switching rapidly back and forth between the two as the playback moves haltingly forward.

**chewitt** · December 29, 2023 at 10:09 AM

Where is the stream played from (internet, local drive, nas in network)? and if internet/network; how is the Pi connected (wifi or ethernet)?

infoalter · December 29, 2023 at 10:15 AM

Power off the receiver (standby). Press and hold down STRAIGHT button on the front panel, then press Power on (Main Zone)

You see in the display the "Advanced Setup" menu. Use "PROGRAM" keys to navigate all menu items, find "4K MODE" , press "STAIGHT" to select item. The setting should be "1". Change that to "2"

Power off everything. Power on TV first, AVR second, Libreelec media player last. Maybe reboot twice?... sometimes it helps :))

PS It helped me when having the same symptom. If this does not help, you can always switch back the receiver setting following the same procedure

Intropy · December 29, 2023 at 4:21 PM

Some settings that may be relevant.

Audio output device: ALSA vc4-hdmi-0

Number of channels: 7.1

Output configuration: Best match (I've also tried optimized)

Passthrough enabled with the same output device.

AC3, E-AC3, DTS, TrueHD, and DTS-HD all set to on.

Quote from chewitt

Where is the stream played from (internet, local drive, nas in network)? and if internet/network; how is the Pi connected (wifi or ethernet)?

The videos are all played from a NAS on the local network. The NAS is connected by wired ethernet (1000BASE-T), and the raspberry pi is connected via wireless networking (both the Pi 5 and the AP support 803.11ac, but it shows in the AP software as connected on 2.4GHz, so the connection might be using 802.11n). Are you thinking about possible problems with streaming the bytes down quickly enough? It's plausible. I've been concerned by my inability to get cat 6 through the attic to this part of the house, but I have tested with video with a lower total (video + audio) bitrate and had them fail and then had higher bit rates play fine.

**chewitt** · December 29, 2023 at 4:44 PM

Copy a 'problem' test file to the local SD card. If it plays fine (which it probably will) the finger points at the nework being unable to sustain the required data rate. If you bump to an LE12 nightly it's possible to fiddle with cache settings in the GUI (in LE11 you can do the same though advancedsettings.xml) but cache fiddling is a double edged sword and causes as many problems as it solves. If you increase the cache size the RPi5 may be able to cope better with temp glitches in connectivity and data rates, but you'll also need to read more data over the flaky connection before playback starts. The read-factor may be the better tool to adjust, and reducing the cache or read-factor can sometimes also be the solution, not increasing. It's all about what works in YOUR network so it's all about testing and experimentation not reading forum posts on what worked for someone else.

If the file doesn't play well from SD card .. then it's something else, but my money's on the evil that is WiFi connectivity. I'm playing a wide assortment of very large filesize media from a wired NAS to a wired RPi5 with zero issues.

Intropy · December 29, 2023 at 5:17 PM

Quote from infoalter

You see in the display the "Advanced Setup" menu. Use "PROGRAM" keys to navigate all menu items, find "4K MODE" , press "STAIGHT" to select item. The setting should be "1". Change that to "2"

When I switched "4K MODE" to "2" I was not able to get any picture to display at all. Switching back fixed it. I also noticed in the "Advanced Setup" menu you pointed me at there was a "DTS MODE". I tried changing that to 2 and didn't see any effect there either.

Quote from chewitt

Copy a 'problem' test file to the local SD card. If it plays fine (which it probably will) the finger points at the nework being unable to sustain the required data rate.

I did this, and it plays fine. Good intuition. Now to figure out how the heck to get cat 6 all the way over here...

**chewitt** · December 30, 2023 at 6:01 PM

Cache fiddling can sometimes smooth out the drops/glitches in WiFi, and other times it can't, but if it can it's free. I've also used an old router in bridge mode to traverse longer distances than the weak-as-hell onboard WiFi that lots of boards (not only RPi flavoured ones) have these days. Even old routers usually have better antennae and more receiving power.

ActiveAE - large audio sync error

Similar Threads

[RPI4] frame drop/skip

USB DAC with 5.1 output, no sound out of Center and LFE outputs