Firestick: Audio drops on AC3

[gmjh123]

Hi. I asked a question a few days ago about audio issues with your add ons (your advice was to try keep audio alive enabled which I did but it made no difference) What I've found over the past few days is that The Disney Channel has no audio issues and also loads and plays Dolby Vision instantly with a perfect picture. Hulu and Paramount Plus almost instantly start dropping audio for a second about every 20 seconds. My question is, is Disney coded differently from Hulu which causes either Kodi or my Fire 4k Max to play Disney streams perfectly and Hulu and Paramount to have audio skips?. I've noticed that Disney had no audio choices other than Dolby Atmos (which I don't activate) but both Hulu and Paramount have various AC3 and EC 3 choices. This makes the audio choices and possibilities much bigger and then I'm never sure which choice to pick or which choice is causing the micro audio drops.(I've spent countless hours trying all the possible combinations but they all have the same one second audio drops on all possible combinations). But it seems likely that this choice of ec3 AC3 etc is what's causing the problems. I'm playing on Fire 4k max through a Hisense tv (set at passthrough for audio) then to a Sonos Beam.(but I played direct to the TV speakers and the audio drops are the same)

I've also played your Hulu and Paramount streams directly from the TV, through a Chromecast Android Google, and through an Invidia Shield. All have exact same audio drops on any type of Dolby Digital. If I manually switch to aac or disable Dolby Digital in the stream there's no audio drops at all and the issue is solved but then of course it's just stereo. I

I cannot understand why my system will play all sources of Dolby Digital perfectly from any other source apart from these two add ons. I also can't understand why it will play Dolby Digital from Disney perfectly but screws up from your Hulu and Paramount add ons. Do you agree that because Disney has no audio choices (and is doing something automatically) that means the audio choices in Hulu and Paramount are the cause of this issue? And again are these add ons coded differently by you? Thanks very much

[matthuisman]

Provide full Kodi debug log with the issue happening Pretty sure firestick + AC3 = problems

Anyway, there won't be anything I can do. I just tell Kodi what to play. All the add-ons do that. They don't control playback.

One thing you could try is disable the slyguy proxy in the slyguy common add-on settings. Then try playback and see if any better. That's the only thing of mine that could be the cause. Otherwise it'll be out of my hands

[gmjh123]

Ok thanks very much. I did spend some time googling what you mean by "common add on settings" and couldn't find an answer. Can you tell me where this slyguy proxy setting is? Thanks very much. Also, I said above that the issue is exactly the same on other devices apart from the fire stick (Hisense tv, Nvidia shield etc) so I don't think it's the fire sticks fault. There's also the question of why your Disney add on plays perfectly and the other two don't. Maybe there's no answer for that. I'll get a debug log soon. But in the meantime if you can tell me where the slyguy proxy settings are that would be great. Thanks again.

[matthuisman]

addons -> services > slyguy common > configure > advanced > disable the slyguy proxy

It will disable a bunch of features - but the point is to see if audio improves

[gmjh123]

So I tried disabling the proxy and it made the issue much worse. I've uploaded my Kodi log file here. On playing episode 1 of The Bear on your Hulu add on the sound dips out about every ten seconds. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Gx76WV15Xx0ucnH6rLmIVAdCCuxPD-Rr/view?usp=drivesdk I tried uploading via Log file uploader but it wouldn't do it as it's bigger than 1mb (what sort of crazy limit is that) and pastebin was completely incomprehensible to me. It's quite a while since I've uploaded a debug log file so it's probably not what you want or I've done it wrong.

I appreciate what you said about you not being able to do anything at your end but any help you can give about why this audio error occurs would be great. As it happens on absolutely everything connected to my TV I'm thinking the Kodi log will show no errors and it's my my TV (which can process all Dolby digital audio from all sources including Kodi) just cannot process Kodi add on Dolby audio. God knows why

Anyway thanks very much again.

[gmjh123]

Hi did you have a chance to look at the log? Also is there any difference between your repository ending .xyz and the one ending with .uk? Thanks

[matthuisman]

"I've also played your Hulu and Paramount streams directly from the TV, through a Chromecast Android Google, and through an Invidia Shield. All have exact same audio drops on any type of Dolby Digital"

Sorry - the official apps have the same issues? I think that tells us its a hardware thing and we shouldnt spend time trying to debug Kodi issue about it??

[matthuisman]

one thing you could try is

addons -> inputstream -> inputstream adaptive ->"Don't use secure decoder if possible" -> True

See if that helps. If not, then try addons -> slyguy common -> advanced -> widevine level > L3 then restart kodi and test

[gmjh123]

one thing you could try is

addons -> inputstream -> inputstream adaptive ->"Don't use secure decoder if possible" -> True

See if that helps. If not, then try addons -> slyguy common -> advanced -> widevine level > L3 then restart kodi and test

Regarding your post above this one, no I don't have any issue with the official apps. I don't have any problem with any 5.1 feed from anywhere other than your Hulu add on. I tried changing the inputstream setting and the widevine level. Both resulted in no video and no audio (with the default settings I just get no audio)

I read someone on your reddit page who has pretty much the exact same issue. https://www.reddit.com/r/MattHuisman/comments/fkyi8f/comment/k1zki9a/ I installed the nightly build and for fire stick and Google TV box nothing changed. No audio at all on 5.1 Hulu feeds. Audio is fine on your other add ons, Paramount Plus Disney etc. On the Android TV kodi however (which has no HDMI for it's feed of course) Hulu 5.1 plays perfectly. So I'm thinking, like the other guy, this is an HDMI audio handshake issue. I have no idea if this is the fault of your add on, Kodi, or my devices. I also have no idea why it's just Hulu which won't play 5.1 audio. Thanks.

[matthuisman]

you keep changing what addons it happens in etc.

Can you please be very clear what addon has the issue. Is it just Hulu Kodi addon with 5.1? Everything else is OK??? Paramount, Disney etc all 5.1 is OK?

[gmjh123]

Well it keeps changing because I try different Kodi settings and different Kodi builds. Disney is always stable and has no issue on any device. On the stable 20.2 Kodi, Hulu and Paramount Plus play with stuttering audio drops. On the nightly Kodi Paramount Plus plays fine but Hulu has no audio at all (apart from the' no HDMI connection' of my actual TV kodi) I know it's confusing but there's an even more confusing array of devices settings and Kodi builds for me. The short answer is Hulu has gone from having stuttering audio to no audio at all.