[Bug]: Audio issues when the passthrough audio option is turned OFF

[branches78]

Problem description

Hello, I was wrong about my initial report, the issue is NOT with the auto frame rate feature, the problem lies when attempting to decode any audio codec to multichannel PCM when the passthrough audio option is set to OFF.

For example, if I play a video with a Dolby TrueHD 7.1, what I get is a slow video playback with an slow audio playback.

I'm going to change the title of this topic to better reflect the problem.

Steps to reproduce the issue

As explained above.

Expected behavior

No response

Your phone/tablet/androidTV model

Homatics Box R 4K Plus and Onn 2023

Operating system version

Android 12

Application version and app store

6.2.31 sideloaded

Additional system information

No response

Debug logs

No response

[courville]

What happens if in the "Match content frame rate" of Android 12 settings you select "never" and let nova do the "traditional" adaptive frame rate selection? All (?) videos "on the Internet" are not using VRR (i.e. changing rate while playing). Thus sticking to old habits should not be an issue IMHO. But please test and report.

[branches78]

What happens if in the "Match content frame rate" of Android 12 settings you select "never" and let nova do the "traditional" adaptive frame rate selection?

It does nothing, it's exactly the same as when keeping the "non-seamless" option ON in Android 12 settings and keep the option turned OFF in Nova.

[courville]

I hope we are debugging nova with an Android 12 beta firmware and not debugging an Android 12 beta firmware with nova.

Comparing your two tables with audio passthrough off on two different Android 12 firmwares, I get several entries that leads to PCM 5.1 with former firmware and PCM 2.0 on the new one with same version of nova. Is my reading correct?

[branches78]

I hope we are debugging nova with an Android 12 beta firmware and not debugging an Android 12 beta firmware with nova.

We are debugging Nova on an Android 12 beta firmware because the slow playback is an issue of the firmware but I still need a confirmation from the OEM, unfortunately, I don't have the Onn 2023 anymore and I can't test it against so I'm kind of blind at the moment.

Please ignore the previous table because I am comparing Android 11 with Android 12 while on the new one I just compared the passthrough option when it's ON and OFF with the same Android 12 firmware.

I can make a comparison with the passthrough option ON and OFF on Android 11 if you want.

Perhaps it stopped decoding the audio as multichannel PCM due to the latest security patch applied to the firmware which is dated september 5th 2023, you could investigate if that's the reason why.

[branches78]

This is my ultimate test when the passtrhough option is OFF on Android 11 and 12 (just forget the previous screenshots, I actually deleted them), my devices are connected directly to my Pioneer VSX-834 receiver:

[courville]

FTR homatics is S905X4, realme 4k S905Y4, onn 2023 S905Y4: all amlogic.

[branches78]

Hello @courville, I received another firmware update for the Homatics box with a security patch dated oct 5th 2023 and this is the current result:

[branches78]

With the current security patch installed on the Homatics Box R 4K Plus which is on Android 12 beta and the latest version of Nova I installed from GitHub, every codec now gets downmixed to stereo when the passthrough option in the app is OFF.

[branches78]

Looks like this has improved a lot!, tested with a Chromecast with Google TV and with the latest security patch dated march 2024, the only one still not working correctly is PCM 6.1: