Audio does not survive TV's off->on



Sony TV KD-55X9300D, Firestick 4K MAX, Kodi v21.0 runs on the stick. Firestick is powered from external source, not TV. There is a Kenwood receiver connected via ARC, TV controls it. All good.

Since recently (3 weeks ago), with no obvious change (probably something updated even though it is disabled), the audio in Kodi on the stick is broken after I turn TV off (which is standby) and then on – there is no audio, playback (any local media or TVheadend source) stops after a few seconds.

The fix is – exit Kodi and start again; or go to audio properties of a stuck media and tick “audio passthrough”, and it does not matter what the passthrough was – on or off – it seems like the audio subsystem of Kodi just needs a kick. I tried playing with “keep audio device alive” – no luck there either. The issue is the same whether I have the receiver on or off.

Any hints how to fix it? Kodi is 95% of playtime so it would be wonderful if it could work right after waking the TV up.

Kodi on the TV does not have this issue but it is horrendously slow (TV is quite old and never was fast), hence the firestick.