Hi,
I am having audio delay issues since upgrading to Kodi 17.1 from 16. Audio has synced flawlessly on the same hardware chain and sources for well over a year before upgrading. The only other thing to change was a software update on my NAS (FreeNAS) but this problem seems independent of source. Audio across many file types and frame rates is delayed by approximately 0.15s. It sometimes feels that settings affect how bad the delay is, but this is hard to be sure of or quantify, especially after staring at test videos for so long. To get the 150ms number I used Kodi’s sync adjustment until it seems good, but this is obviously not a precision measurement.
Setup:
Kodi: 17.1
OS X: 10.12.4
Mac mini (Late 2012)
HDMI connection to Panasonic TV.
Panasonic TV drives Onkyo receiver over ARC.
Debug log: http://paste.ubuntu.com/24270251/
I have tried a number of sources, but after establishing there is a problem, have done most testing on these two youtube videos using the YouTube addon: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ucZl6vQ_8Uo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s_PbyRpKrRk and also for a local source the BBC HD Audio Sync Test which is downloadable https://archive.org/details/BBCHDAudioSyncTest.
Here is what I have tried and discovered from removing different pieces of the setup.
- Play the same sources directly from OS X with VLC or Chrome – delay eradicated.
- Remove receiver and play from TV speakers – delay persists.
- Set “Adjust display refresh rate” to “Off” – delay persists but is maybe reduced slightly for 24p sources. It’s hard to tell as they don’t look as smooth.
- Set Kodi audio output to be Mac Mini internal speakers – delay eradicated.
- Enable passthrough – delay persists.
- Bin guisettings.xml and start again – delay persists.
- Upgrade OS X to latest – delay persists.
- Play audio over AirPlay to Airport Express which then connects via optical jack to the same receiver – delay eradicated.
- Test nightly build for 2017-03-27 – delay persists.
What I have yet to try:
- Nightlies. Edit: this made no difference
- Downgrading to version 16 again.
That the delay does not happen when playing to the internal speakers or AirPlay (this one was a surprise) leads me to believe that the issue is not inherent to the install.
That the delay does not happen when playing via other software on the Mac leads me to believe that it is not inherent to the chain of HDMI > TV > Receiver.
The two of these combined have left me pretty flummoxed though. It seems that it is something about the combination of Kodi and HDMI. At this point my knowledge is completely exhausted, so I’m hoping someone here can help point me in the right direction.
Please do let me know if there is any other information that would help. I’ve tried to be thorough but it’s easy to miss things.
Many thanks,
dmnc