CCwGTV4k stops playing until reboot

[CharlieMurphy 92]

I get a couple frames on live channels, with no sound. Reboot has always fixed it and did in this case. I haven't nailed down how to reproduce this, but it's happening daily. I thought it was switching between ATV and ETA but I went back and forth several times and it was fine. This started after Android 12.

Log submitted from AndroidTV at 2:43am EST.

Username: Charlie

Thanks!

Edited November 5, 2022 by CharlieMurphy

[ebr 16176]

6 hours ago, CharlieMurphy said:

Log submitted from AndroidTV at 2:43am EST.

Hi.  Can you please tell me exactly what happened in this log?

Thanks.

[CharlieMurphy 92]

Device refused to play sound and more than two frames. I went to settings and force stopped Emby to start fresh. Opened app played one channel from an internet source and let it go through it's thing for about 30 seconds or a minute. No sound, about two frames. Backed out to guide and played a channel from HDHR same result, waited a minute backed out of stream and sent the log.

Basically, force close followed by trying two channels. Power cycled it after the logs were submitted and it was fine again.

[CharlieMurphy 92]

It's doing this daily since the update, I'm going to try some other apps to see if there's some sort of conflict that I could repeat. Could it be caused by another app that uses exoplayer and leaves it in this state?

[CharlieMurphy 92]

Do I have a way to see the client log myself? If it could be something related to my network or TV, I can experiment.

 

[ebr 16176]

21 hours ago, CharlieMurphy said:

Do I have a way to see the client log myself? If it could be something related to my network or TV, I can experiment.

 

Hi.  You could install the ADB and tail the logcat.

[CharlieMurphy 92]

Good call, I'll do that next time if I can figure it out. Was anything helpful in what I submitted? It didn't have issues yesterday, or today yet.

[ebr 16176]

It is not anything on your network.  It is something with the codec on the device most likely and maybe a bug introduced by the latest firmware update but cannot be sure about that.

Exactly what audio equipment is involved and how is it connected?  Also, how is audio configured in settings for both the app and the device itself?

[CharlieMurphy 92]

Sound bar via optical connection. CCwGTV(4k) audio is set to "Automatic." "Show Formats" listed Dolby Digital as enabled. DD+, Atmos, and DTS are disabled.

Didn't see anything not set to default within Emby and I don't remember changing anything.

Edited November 6, 2022 by CharlieMurphy

[ebr 16176]

2 hours ago, CharlieMurphy said:

Sound bar via optical connection

Okay, so that may be part of the issue since there is no data on that connection and it is of limited bandwidth. 

2 hours ago, CharlieMurphy said:

audio is set to "Automatic."

What other options are there?  Have you tried them?

[CharlieMurphy 92]

I haven't messed with them since the update, I will try that next time things get weird. Seems to just allow you to manually select audio codecs though, and Dolby Digital only, I think should be correct anyway.

[CharlieMurphy 92]

It did this last night again. Instead of rebooting I went into device settings and switched audio to manual and left it with the same selection it had determined with the auto setting, which is only Dolby Digital enabled. Went back to Emby and it played normally.  Not only that but it seems like streams start more quickly in general this way.

This seems like a CCwGTV bug to me. The same audio codecs are selected manually or automatically and yet the behavior is clearly different. I will report back if anything changes but this seems like a functioning workaround so far.

[ebr 16176]

26 minutes ago, CharlieMurphy said:

The same audio codecs are selected manually or automatically and yet the behavior is clearly different

By specifying it manually, you have stopped the system from trying to determine it automatically - which isn't going to work properly for you since you are using an optical connection.  That may be why it works better (and is faster).

[CharlieMurphy 92]

Before the update CCwGTV did determine it properly though in all the various setups I interact with. Within my own setup, Rokus, TiVo Stream 4k, Walmart's Onn streamer and Android 10 CCwGTV... I haven't had to adjust anything for them to detect the supported codec (only DD) with an optical sound bar in years. CCwGTV had auto detect like this in Android 10 and it worked without intervention.

Add in that it works for a day or two before falling apart, it feels buggish to me.

[ebr 16176]

17 hours ago, CharlieMurphy said:

Before the update CCwGTV did determine it properly though

There is no way for the device to determine support for any format with an optical connection.   It was just making an assumption and it worked out.

Yes, there very well may be a problem in the firmware or Android update but, by manually specifying the audio format, you have probably bypassed some logic and worked around it - maybe.

[CharlieMurphy 92]

Sometimes it transcodes avc for no obvious reason. Tonight it did that, plus no sound at all. I tried the regular Android (not TV) app before I rebooted and video direct played, but still no sound. I checked a couple other apps and they DID have working sound. I went into Android settings and swapped the surround sound back to auto, again without rebooting it this time, and now it's fine. Something definitely isn't right still. Instead of rebooting though, toggling the sound setting seems to correct the issue no matter where you leave it.

[Luke 42078]

42 minutes ago, CharlieMurphy said:

Sometimes it transcodes avc for no obvious reason. Tonight it did that, plus no sound at all. I tried the regular Android (not TV) app before I rebooted and video direct played, but still no sound. I checked a couple other apps and they DID have working sound. I went into Android settings and swapped the surround sound back to auto, again without rebooting it this time, and now it's fine. Something definitely isn't right still. Instead of rebooting though, toggling the sound setting seems to correct the issue no matter where you leave it.

Hi there, did you explore the stats feature in the video player to learn why it was transcoding?

[ebr 16176]

Any opportunity to replace that optical connection is likely to save you a lot of these headaches.  I understand if that isn't possible but I do believe that is at the root of most of your audio issues.

[CharlieMurphy 92]

I guess I don't understand that still. Every app works perfectly with optical for about 5 years on Roku and CCwGTV, and now I'm only having an issue on Emby. A friend of mine got this real POS Klipsh soundbar 6 month ago and it's ONLY option is optical. Of the setups with soundbars I've interacted with, 90% are optical. It's gonna be 10 years before we are clear of it.

Edited November 25, 2022 by CharlieMurphy

[CharlieMurphy 92]

11 hours ago, Luke said:

Hi there, did you explore the stats feature in the video player to learn why it was transcoding?

I didn't know to. I will next time. The logs from this issue were submitted with the OP. I can do that again next time as well.

I didn't expect the sound setting to fix it since I was putting it back where it wasn't working originally, but now I know and will test before fixing it next time.

[CharlieMurphy 92]

Also of note regarding ditching optical soundbars for Emby... I was happy with Roku and swapped over to CCwGTV because Emby on Roku with live TV locks tuners and makes a mess (I go back to test every couple months). I have already conformed to one single app with all my streaming devices and all these otherwise acceptable optical sound bars would be real sad in e-waste, it's more practical for me to give in to tivimate.

[ebr 16176]

Perhaps there will be another update to the firmware on the CC that will also alleviate the issue as these problems all started with their update it appears.

[CharlieMurphy 92]

Update incoming. Time will tell.