Kodi crashes when playing 2-ch audio with Auto Passthrough
#1
Hello Everyone,

I hope this post is in the correct forum. I have Kodi 18.7 installed on my Nvidia Shield TV Pro device and I am new to Kodi. Until now I have been using Serviio as my media server. It seems to run well except for one thing: when I play mp4's with 2-ch audio, Kodi crashes and locks up completely, to the point that I have to shut off the Ndivia Shield TV and restart it. I seem to have narrowed it down to the Auto Passthrough setting in Kodi, but I'm not sure. Here's the details:

The mp4's in question are home movies that were converted from VHS. The original conversion was done to avi, then converted to MP4 using Handbrake. It's 2ch audio that was set to "Auto Passthrough" in Handbrake during the conversion. It's important to note that Kodi is the only player that is having trouble with the audio. So far the videos have played flawlessly using Serviio and on any device that I've played them on - computer, PS3, TV, etc. When I play these videos on the Shield TV using another player, there is no issue playing them.

On my computer I use MediaInfo software to see the video file properties. The mp4 video files in question show TWO audio tracks, both described as "320 kb/s - 32 khz - 2ch - AC-3 (Dolby Digital)".

When I play these videos in Kodi, there is video but no audio. Sometimes the video stutters and then locks up. When I look at the audio settings during playback, Kodi describes the audio track as "undetermined - AC3 Stereo - 2channels". So, at this point, the video plays but there's no audio. If I stop the video and try to exit Kodi using the power button, Kodi won't exit - it locks up and I have to restart the device. Another interesting side effect is that the Kodi navigation button-click sounds also go away when this happens.

When I go into Kodi Settings and disable "Allow Passthrough" in the Audio settings, the videos then play normally with the audio track. As I test, I re-encoded a video using AAC codec instead of Passthrough. The video played normally.

Again, Kodi is the only player that seems to be having trouble with these video files. Interestingly, when I play movies that have been converted with Handbrake Kodi seems to have no trouble with them, but those movie files are always 5.1 Ch Dolby Digital or DTS and I always choose "Passthough" audio in Handbrake when I convert them.

Since Kodi is installed on the nVidia shield, I'm not quite sure how to get any logs from it.

Any ideas?
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#2
In the passthrough settings if you enable 'Dolby Digital (AC3) capable receiver' & 'Enabled Dolby Digital transcoding' that may fix the issue.
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#3
(2020-08-04, 15:58)FXB78 Wrote: In the passthrough settings if you enable 'Dolby Digital (AC3) capable receiver' & 'Enabled Dolby Digital transcoding' that may fix the issue.

Thanks for the reply! I have already enabled the "...AC3 Capable Receiver" in the settings but I do not see any settings for transcoding. Under the "Allow Passthrough" option I see a greyed-out option for "Passthrough output Device" and that says "android, audiotrack".

Thanks.
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#4
Hmmm, I'm not overly familiar with Shield/Android but I think if you disable "Player -> Sync Playback to Display" it should give you the transcoding option.
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#5
Transcode Option will only be there if:

- You set Speaker number to 2.0

Transcode will only reencode content it would not need (e.g. AC3 to AC3), if:

- You enable Sync Playback to Display (don't confuse it with Adjust Refreshrate)
First decide what functions / features you expect from a system. Then decide for the hardware. Don't waste your money on crap.
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#6
(2020-08-05, 09:01)fritsch Wrote: Transcode Option will only be there if:

- You set Speaker number to 2.0

Transcode will only reencode content it would not need (e.g. AC3 to AC3), if:

- You enable Sync Playback to Display (don't confuse it with Adjust Refreshrate)
Thanks for all the replies, everyone.

Just to follow up. Interestingly enough, the "Sync Playback..." option was turned off already by default. When I turned it ON, my 2ch videos started playing normally. I find that odd since Auto Passthrough is supposed to be disabled when that feature is turned on. Perhaps there's something in my encoding that causes that issue? In either case, my videos seem to be playing normally at the moment.

My home videos were recorded to from VHS to AVI format then I converted them to MP4 using Handbrake (to reduce file size). Perhaps I should re-encode all of them to MP4/AAC for better compatibility?

To answer fritsch's comment: My speakers are set to 7.1 since my receiver supports it. I basically followed the "HDMI" column of this chart: Audio_quickstart_guide (wiki)

Any other comments are appreciated.
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#7
(2020-08-06, 13:31)vikenk Wrote:
(2020-08-05, 09:01)fritsch Wrote: Transcode Option will only be there if:

- You set Speaker number to 2.0

Transcode will only reencode content it would not need (e.g. AC3 to AC3), if:

- You enable Sync Playback to Display (don't confuse it with Adjust Refreshrate)
Thanks for all the replies, everyone.

Just to follow up. Interestingly enough, the "Sync Playback..." option was turned off already by default. When I turned it ON, my 2ch videos started playing normally. I find that odd since Auto Passthrough is supposed to be disabled when that feature is turned on. Perhaps there's something in my encoding that causes that issue? In either case, my videos seem to be playing normally at the moment.

My home videos were recorded to from VHS to AVI format then I converted them to MP4 using Handbrake (to reduce file size). Perhaps I should re-encode all of them to MP4/AAC for better compatibility?

I should add that I find it interesting that Kodi defines my audio format as "undetermined - AC3 Stereo - 2channels". I'm concluding that the "undetermined" status of the audio track is causing confusion.

VikenK
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