Audio dropping out randomly

[snurble]

Context

Please provide any relevant information about your setup

• Add-on Version: 7.3.0+beta.3
• Kodi Version: 21.2
• Kodi GUI Language: English
• Operating System: OSMC 2025.08-1 (Vero V)
• Operating System Language: English

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Expected Behavior

Play the video with audio.

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Current Behavior

The audio blips sometimes and then randomly drops out for about three or four seconds at a time fairly regularly. If I rewind ten seconds I can hear what I missed, but it continues to do this the entire video.

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Steps to Reproduce

In the log I tested with this video and the audio cut out before I stopped it. This is a live stream archive but it happens with many videos I watch, if not all of them. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PRmS-gQyNjE

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Log

https://paste.osmc.tv/nuwohosavi

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Additional Information

Please provide any additional information that may be helpful.

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[tl-pierre]

Hi,
Same problem as #928 I think.

I use OSMC Vero V too, and I have the same problem for months.
A "solution" is to disable the high framerate video option, but then the maximum quality is 480p 🫤
Another solution is to change the video quality once it has started, to 720p or lower. Most of the time it fixes the problem for me (but setting globally the maximum quality to 720p doesn't work, strangely enough...).
The problem only affects certain videos ( probably the 60fps videos), for example :
All videos on this channel cause the problem : https://www.youtube.com/@TheLinuxEXP/videos
I have no problem with any of the videos on this channel : https://www.youtube.com/@VUFranceTV/videos

I've done quite a few tests on my own without finding a real solution, so I'm also open to any advice!

[snurble]

@tl-pierre Thanks for the reply. I think you're right that it's 60fps videos, I guess I just happen to watch a lot of them :) I've also had this problem for a while and it's frustrating so I really hope there's a fix that doesn't lower the quality.

[viper-666]

I have this error also for a while.
If I choose "Adaptive HLS " for the video quality the videos play. Sometime without sound in the first time, but press 10s for- or backwards bring the sound mostly back.
Also the very low video quality 480p or lower works.

[MoojMidge]

Do you have a debug log?

[viper-666]

Unfortunately not, after I get yesterday a "Unknown" error when I want to see a video I updated to the "v7.3.0+beta.7 ".
And til yet all videos runs without the audio problem.

[tl-pierre]

Hello,
@viper-666 do you also use OSMC Vero V ?

@MoojMidge I also feel that there is a significant improvement since the v7.3.0+beta.7. In fact, I thought the problem had been completely resolved because I hadn't had any issues for a few days; but then this morning I encountered the problem again with this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=TxzrISkBWag

Debug log : https://paste.osmc.tv/omiqakelig
Audio drop ~1.5sec every 10-15sec.

Thanks for your help!

[MoojMidge]

Strangely enough everyone who has reported this problem has been using OSMC, but can't recall if they were all Vero V devices.

It also appears to be related to watching streams that have a relatively high (for YouTube) bitrate and framerate that is greater than 30 fps, and then using a display mode with a doubled refresh rate i.e. 120 Hz, which I why I suspected it was some kind of hardware limitation.

Try disabling Kodi > Settings > System > Display > Whitelist > Allow double refresh rates and see if there is any difference.

[viper-666]

Hello, @viper-666 do you also use OSMC Vero V ?

No I have the problems on a Rasperry Pi4 with Libreelec and a Amazon Cube TV.

[MoojMidge]

I don't think you are actually experiencing this specific problem, which is why I asked for a debug log.

Having to use HLS for playback and needing to skip back were more likely to be caused by using an older version of the addon, which is why it appeared to be resolved when updating the addon.

[snurble]

Strangely enough everyone who has reported this problem has been using OSMC, but can't recall if they were all Vero V devices.

It also appears to be related to watching streams that have a relatively high (for YouTube) bitrate and framerate that is greater than 30 fps, and then using a display mode with a doubled refresh rate i.e. 120 Hz, which I why I suspected it was some kind of hardware limitation.

Try disabling Kodi > Settings > System > Display > Whitelist > Allow double refresh rates and see if there is any difference.

Hi, thanks for the reply. I can actually stop the issue by disabling 'adjust display refresh rate', but I have that on for smooth playback of movies and TV so having to go back and forth through the menus to turn it off for youtube is obviously a bit annoying. I can't allow double refresh rates because I don't actually use the whitelist so it's greyed out.

[MoojMidge]

The point is to disable double refresh rates, not enable it. It is enabled by default if you don't use a whitelist.

Disabling Adjust display refresh rate simply bypasses that process so you don't have the double refresh rates selected.

The double refresh rates themselves aren't a problem, but I suspect using a 120 Hz refresh rate is causing a problem on your devices and this problem gets triggered when double refresh rate is enabled and you are watching a 60 Hz YouTube video.

To confirm someone needs to follow some simple steps:

1. Set up the whitelist to use whatever resolutions and refresh rates you want and ensure that double refresh rate is disabled. It doesn't matter whether 120 Hz modes are selected or not, you can just select all available modes if you want.
2. With double refresh rate disabled play a 60 FPS YouTube video.
3. If the problem does not occur with double refresh rate disabled, then enable double refresh rate.
4. With double refresh rate enabled play the same 60 FPS YouTube video and see if the problem starts again.

[snurble]

This did boggle me a bit because I thought adjusting display refresh rate was adjusting the TV to 60hz for YouTube videos, but now looking at the TV info I see it was running them at 120hz.

In the testing I did, disabling double refresh rates did seem to fix the issue for the 60fps video I was watching (I think, the issue can be a bit random). But when I tested lower fps videos, I tried a couple of 4k 24fps music videos (checking the TV was running at 24hz) and the problem immediately returned for some reason. So it does seem to fix it sometimes? I will keep it disabled and see if I notice any more issues.

[MoojMidge]

In order to make any progress with this someone will need to perform some more systematic testing and provide logs of what works and doesn't work while only changing one thing at a time.

If a particular 60 FPS video plays correctly without double refresh rate enabled, but has audio skipping with it enabled, then a debug log showing both successful and unsuccessful playback needs to be provided.

If a particular 24/25/30 FPS video has audio skipping without double refresh rate enabled then a debug log showing this needs to be provided, because the issue may not be related to the refresh rate but instead could be related to the HW decoder being used and video resolution.