HDMI audio doesn't start playing immediately

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HDMI audio doesn't start playing immediately

2020-08-02 09:06:47

I've set up my new receiver Denon AVR-X1660H 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.

Re: HDMI audio doesn't start playing immediately

Reply #1 – 2020-08-02 10:50:38

Use foo_dsp_pregap instead of Affix Silence

Re: HDMI audio doesn't start playing immediately

Reply #2 – 2020-08-02 19:41:06

Also SPDIF Keep Alive and Sound Keeper can be helpful.

Re: HDMI audio doesn't start playing immediately

Reply #3 – 2020-08-02 21:02:08

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

Re: HDMI audio doesn't start playing immediately

Reply #4 – 2020-08-02 21:29:20

Quote from: Steve Forte Rio on 2020-08-02 21:02:08

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/

Re: HDMI audio doesn't start playing immediately

Reply #5 – 2020-08-05 10:44:35

Quote from: Steve Forte Rio on 2020-08-02 09:06:47

Is this a common problem for HDMI?

Yes. The tip in the pic would expain.

Re: HDMI audio doesn't start playing immediately

Reply #6 – 2020-08-05 12:11:24

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.

Re: HDMI audio doesn't start playing immediately

Reply #7 – 2020-08-05 18:23:24

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).

Re: HDMI audio doesn't start playing immediately

Reply #8 – 2020-08-06 02:16:24

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