[looie144]

Issue: Audio output device setting spontaneously changes on Kodi

(Setup: see bottom of post)

Settings on Kodi (14.2), in Settings>System>Audio Output>Audio output device is “Default, HDMI,” passthrough (Default, HDMI) is enabled. I want this setting to remain.

However, several times a day the setting sometimes spontaneously changes to “Airplay, Denon AVR-S900W” or “Airplay, OSMC” and my Denon receiver switches to “Airplay.”

Sometimes this spontaneous switch occurs after using a different input on the Denon reciever, such as watching TV or listening to online music/internet radio. But sometimes the switch occurs overnight when there is no input from my side. I cannot detect a pattern for this spontaneous switch.

The Denon receiver input gets switched when changing between devices although when quitting viewing/listening the Denon receiver gets switched to Standby(Off). The mini remains on 24/7. This system is controlled by a Harmony remote.

After the spontaneous change, the “Default, HDMI” setting is not visible/available until I restart Kodi. After I restart Kodi, the “Default, HDMI” setting is available.

After re-setting the Audio output device to “Default, HDMI” Kodi operates normally until I use the receiver for other media (TV, DVD, Internet Radio, music from RaspberryPi). The issue doesn't occur every time I change inputs on the receiver; I cannot detect a pattern.
This issue began after updating the mini from OSX 10.6.8 to 10.10.3. I upgraded to be able to update Kodi to 15 and beyond going forward. I have since updated the mini to 10.10.4.

Is there a way to disable Airplay from appearing in the System>Audio Output>Audio output device list? I can't understand what's driving this issue.

Log: (The last System>Audio Output>Audio output device setting before reboot for log was “Default, HDMI”).

http://xbmclogs.com/ppnadk85h

Setup:
OSX Version 10.10.4
Platform MacMini 4.1 (mid 2010)
Processor Name: Intel Core 2 Duo
Processor Speed: 2.4 GHz
Number of Processors: 1
Total Number of Cores: 2
L2 Cache: 3 MB
Memory: 4 GB
Install Method dmg
Version of Kodi 14.2
Skin name Transparency 7.1.5

Other devices using Kodi:
MacBook Pro (mid 2014) OSX 10.9.5, Kodi 14.2
Retina iMac (5k, mid 2015) OSX 10.10.3, Kodi 14.2
ATV 1 w/crystalHD using wrxtasy's 14.2 build
RaspberryPi using OSMC's Kodi 14.2 (I use this solely to output analog music to unpowered outdoor speakers).

4 X 2TB hard drives connect by USB to MacMini
NFS shares setup on MacMini
mySql server on MacMini

Denon AVR S900W receives HDMI output from MacMini

[Memphiz]

This is a plain osx issue. The appearance/vanish of the airplay audio device is totally in control of osx. If you want HDMI then don't set your device to default, HDMi but "HDMI" in Kodi.

You will hear dropouts though whenever osx detects your denon airplay. This is a known bug of osx 10.x and should be fixed in the upcoming osx release. The airplay detectiom is simply unstable.

At the end - osx sets the airplay device as default output and because you have set kodi to use the default device - it will follow this route.

[looie144]

[If you want HDMI then don't set your device to default, HDMi but "HDMI" in Kodi.]

Thank you. I changed my Audio input device to HDMI, DENON-AVR; Is this what you mean?

screenshot: https://www.flickr.com/photos/134019049@N07/?

I'll watch this and see if it sticks.

[Memphiz]

yep

[looie144]

After three days of the "HDMI, DENON-AVR" audio input device setting sticking, I decided to change back some of the other "cures" for the issue (which I neglected to report in my initial post) that I'd previously attempted, namely:

+ reverted permissions to 755 in /System/Library/CoreServices/AirPlayUIAgent.app/Contents/MacOS/AirPlayUIAgent, which I'd previously changed to 000
+ replaced com.apple.airplay.plist, which I'd deleted from Users/testLibrary/Preferences
+ reinstalled iTunes 12.2, which I'd previously uninstalled.

After these changes, which returned the mini to the state it was in before, the Audio output device setting started to spontaneously change to “Airplay, Denon AVR-S900W” again--after having remained at "HDMI, DENON-AVR" for three days.

This is a known bug of osx 10.x and should be fixed in the upcoming osx release.

@Memphiz-I'm NOW at OSX 10.10.4 and the setting isn't behaving; is this the "upcoming osx release" you were referring to?

I'm going to add the above three changes to the system again and see if I can make the setting stick and then remove them one at a time to see if I can identify the culprit.

Good or bad idea?

[Memphiz]

i mean osx 10.11