I've set up my new receiver Denon AVR-X1660H (https://usa.denon.com/en-us/shop/receivers/avrx1600h_d) to play audio from HDMI source. The chain is as follows:
FLAC 16/44.1 stereo from PC HDD -> foobar2000 1.5.1 @ Windows 10 -> NVIDIA GTX 1660 HDMI Output -> Denon AVR CBL/SAT HDMI Input -> wired 2.0 Speakers
The proble is that in foobar2000 the playback starts immediately, but the speakers start to sound after ~1.5 seconds. So I lose the first 1.5 secondsofthe audio. This happens with all sounds, including system sounds, but only when nothing was played before the current playback started, so it looks like Nvidia or Windows or AVR need some time to initialize HDMI output.
Is this a common porlbem for HDMI? Or maybe I have wrong setup somehow? If it is a common problem, what could be a workaround here? I have tried Affix Silence DSP already, but it places silence at the beginning of the each track, so I can't play them gaplessly then.
Use foo_dsp_pregap (https://foobar.hyv.fi/?view=foo_dsp_pregap) instead of Affix Silence
Also SPDIF Keep Alive (https://github.com/handruin/spdif-ka) and Sound Keeper (https://veg.by/en/projects/soundkeeper/) can be helpful.
SoundKeeper is detected as a troian https://www.virustotal.com/gui/file/a5be26ee36e58707a957ab539128134d9d7727d48c9c27b0ce54c8283f58447a/detection
SPDIF Keep Alive stops working after playing audio through WASAPI exclusive. The Pregap DSP causes some glitch after prepended silence :(
UPD: looks like Pregap works well in Noise mode. Thanks
SoundKeeper is detected as a troian https://www.virustotal.com/gui/file/a5be26ee36e58707a957ab539128134d9d7727d48c9c27b0ce54c8283f58447a/detection
False positives... Source code is available for inspection - https://bitbucket.org/veg/soundkeeper/src/default/
Is this a common problem for HDMI?
Yes. The tip in the pic would expain.
One known solution is to have some app playing digital silence all the time through the offending interface. That fixed the problem with my own nVidia/HDMI rig doing exactly what you describe.
The keep-alive apps linked above should help. Though you can just run any audio player looping silence.
Same here, I fixed it with Soundswitch 2.0 (by den Otter) after trying other solutions.
Only thing is, when you switch sample rate or number of channels, the input device will probably mute for a few seconds to adjust. This will never happen with the default output though, only with WASAPI exclusive (optional).
I have that 1-2 second issue with AC-3 audio (5.1) MPEG video but not PCM stereo either from plain audio files via HDMI or video MPEG stereo only, no AC-3 via HDMI.
G²
SoundKeeper is detected as a troian
I updated the binary (added standard VC++ entry point to calm down AV software) and moved source code to GitHub: https://github.com/vrubleg/soundkeeper/