[Beano]

Today I suddenly got a audio cut-out issue with XBMC 12.1 (official build, march 17 2013) on a Mac Mini (2013 model, OSX Darwin 12.3.0).

Let me first describe my setup...

It's a Mac Mini from 2013 which I use as a dedicated XBMC media center in my living room connected to my Bravia TV via HDMI and a simple dedicated HDMI switch. I use wired LAN. No other apps are running on it.

Audio is through the TV (Audio output: HDMI, Audio output device: HDMI), not using an amp. currently.
The auto updating of OSX (currently version is Darwin 12.3.0) is turned off since I never use it for anything else than XBMC.

There is only user on the Mac Mini (me!) and no other users are messing with it via the network.
I (or anyone else) has not changed anything in my network, TV settings, network, NAS, Mac XBMC setup, etc. NOTHING.

Everything has worked perfectly for 1½ years since I initially set up the system, and I have not updated XBMC either since everything has worked fine for me.

But suddenly today... out of the blue, I began to get this issue:
While playing video files (MKV and MP4), the audio suddenly cuts out for about ½ second and then resumes. No video buffering message but video seems to fast-forward for a brief moment (½ second) to catch up. This happens aprox. every 3-5 min. Both with local video files on the Mac Mini's own HDD, files on my NAS and from my Windows PC's SMB share. So I don't think it's a LAN network issue. The issue happens with every video file I have tried and the files worked perfectly before (not corrupt video files).

I have tried to cold start everything - Mac Mini, TV, NAS, router, etc. No luck. I have disabled Weather, web-server, UPnP, etc. but that didn't help either.

Any idea what happened and how I can fix it? Can it be a corrupt database? Or is the Mac defective?

Thanks in advance!


EDIT: I'm using the default Confluence skin btw. Have tried to disable RSS feed also tried to uninstall the plug-in I was using. No change.

[Beano]

Ok, tried to enable the debug log and noticed this around the time the auto cut-out:

----SNIP---
22:04:59 T:2893359656 NOTICE: Samba is idle. Closing the remaining connections
22:05:15 T:2960846848 DEBUG: Thread Jobworker 2960846848 terminating (autodelete)
22:05:15 T:2957119488 DEBUG: Thread Jobworker 2957119488 terminating (autodelete)
22:05:15 T:2960314368 DEBUG: Thread Jobworker 2960314368 terminating (autodelete)
22:05:15 T:2958716928 DEBUG: Thread Jobworker 2958716928 terminating (autodelete)
22:05:54 T:2955980800 DEBUG: CCoreAudioHardware::FindAudioDevice: Searching for device - HDMI.
22:05:54 T:2955980800 ERROR: CCoreAudioDevice::SupportsMixing: Device mixing support : 'No'.
22:05:54 T:2955980800 ERROR: CCoreAudioGraph::Stop: Audio graph not running. Error = -50
22:05:54 T:2955980800 ERROR: CCoreAudioGraph::Close: Error unitialize. Error = -50
22:05:54 T:2955980800 ERROR: CCoreAudioGraph::Close: Error close. Error = -50
22:05:54 T:2955980800 ERROR: CCoreAudioGraph::Close: Error dispose. Error = -50
22:05:54 T:2955980800 DEBUG: CCoreAudioGraph::CreateMixMap: Source Stream Layout: [Left] [Right]
22:05:54 T:2955980800 DEBUG: CCoreAudioGraph::CreateMixMap: User-Configured Speaker Layout: [Left] [Right]
22:05:54 T:2955980800 DEBUG: CCoreAudioGraph::CreateMixMap: Output Device Layout: [Left] [Right]
22:05:54 T:2955980800 DEBUG: CCoreAudioGraph::Open: Mixer Output Format: 2 channels, 48.0 kHz, 32 bits, 4 bytes per frame
22:05:54 T:2955980800 DEBUG: CCoreAudioGraph::Open: audioUnit, Input Stream Format [lpcm] Mixable Non-Interleaved 2 Channel 32-bit Floating Point LE (48000Hz)
22:05:54 T:2955980800 DEBUG: CCoreAudioGraph::Open: audioUnit, Output Stream Format [lpcm] Mixable Non-Interleaved 2 Channel 32-bit Floating Point LE (44100Hz)
22:05:54 T:2955980800 DEBUG: CCoreAudioGraph::Open: mixerUnit, Input Stream Format [lpcm] Mixable Non-Interleaved 2 Channel 32-bit Floating Point LE (48000Hz)
22:05:54 T:2955980800 DEBUG: CCoreAudioGraph::Open: mixerUnit, Output Stream Format [lpcm] Mixable Non-Interleaved 2 Channel 32-bit Floating Point LE (48000Hz)
22:05:54 T:2955980800 DEBUG: CCoreAudioGraph::Open: inputUnit, Input Stream Format [lpcm] Mixable Interleaved 2 Channel 32-bit Floating Point LE (48000Hz)
22:05:54 T:2955980800 DEBUG: CCoreAudioGraph::Open: inputUnit, Output Stream Format [lpcm] Mixable Non-Interleaved 2 Channel 32-bit Floating Point LE (48000Hz)
22:05:54 T:2955980800 INFO: CCoreAudioAE::Initialize:
22:05:54 T:2955980800 INFO: Output Device : HDMI
22:05:54 T:2955980800 INFO: Sample Rate : 48000
22:05:54 T:2955980800 INFO: Sample Format : AE_FMT_FLOAT
22:05:54 T:2955980800 INFO: Channel Count : 2
22:05:54 T:2955980800 INFO: Channel Layout: FL,FR
22:05:54 T:2955980800 INFO: Frame Size : 8
22:05:54 T:2955980800 INFO: Volume Level : 1.000000
22:05:54 T:2955980800 INFO: Passthrough : 0
22:05:54 T:2955980800 DEBUG: AERemap: Downmix normalization is disabled
22:05:54 T:2955980800 DEBUG: CCoreAudioAEStream::CCoreAudioAEStream - Converting from AE_FMT_S16NE to AE_FMT_FLOAT
22:05:54 T:2955980800 DEBUG: CCoreAudioGraph::Open: Mixer Output Format: 2 channels, 48.0 kHz, 32 bits, 4 bytes per frame
22:05:54 T:2955980800 DEBUG: CCoreAudioAE - audiodevicelist changed!
22:05:55 T:2961911808 DEBUG: CDVDPlayerAudio:: Discontinuity1 - was:117190845.996000, should be:117880592.390000, error:689746.394000
22:05:57 T:2893359656 DEBUG: Keyboard: scancode: 30, sym: 0009, unicode: 0009, modifier: 0
22:05:57 T:2893359656 DEBUG: OnKey: tab (f009) pressed, action is FullScreen
22:05:57 T:2893359656 DEBUG: CGUIWindowManager:reviousWindow: Deactivate
22:05:57 T:2893359656 DEBUG: ------ Window Deinit (VideoFullScreen.xml) ------
22:05:57 T:2893359656 DEBUG: CGUIWindowManager:reviousWindow: Activate new
22:05:57 T:2893359656 DEBUG: ------ Window Init (SettingsCategory.xml) ------
22:05:59 T:2893359656 DEBUG: Keyboard: scancode: 24, sym: 000d, unicode: 000d, modifier: 0
22:05:59 T:2893359656 DEBUG: OnKey: return (f00d) pressed, action is Select
22:05:59 T:2893359656 NOTICE: Disabled debug logging due to GUI setting. Level 0.
----SNIP---

[Beano]

More test results:

Playing a local video file from HDD...

1) With LAN cable connected and online: audio cut-outs every aprox. 2-4 minutes

2) Without LAN cable or wifi : no problems!

3) No LAN cable but connected via wifi: audio cut-outs again!

This is getting weird!

Thoughts?

[Beano]

Ok... think I'm getting close...

I suddenly remembered my Apple TV (3rd gen) was updated today with the latest OS. It a seperate unit, on a seperate HDMI port, not running any jail-breaks etc. and not using any library on the Mac Mini, but I disconnected (just the power) and after that, no cut-outs. None. Then reconnected the Apple TV and one cut-out happened, but after that, nothing. Maybe it was in a library-scanning mode or something, what caused the issue on the Mac Mini?
I will test more tomorrow, but for now it seem to run perfectly again

Edit: Well, I can now confirm the Apple TV with the new iOS8, IS the souce of the problem. When it's in sleep-mode (stand-by) I get XBMC cut-outs on the Mac Mini. Wow!!
Now I just hope I can find a workaround...

[Memphiz]

Post a full debug log (wiki) to pastebin.com and put the link in here - but based on the snipped you posted and a bit guessing it looks like the appletv3 results in a HDMI abort between the macmini and the TV (which leads to re-handshake and loos of the audio device for a few moments).

[Beano]

That's a possibility. I could try to disconnect the ATV from the TV and see if it still causes problems during sleep.

I'm also considering to downgrade the ATV firmware via iTunes.

[Beano]

On second thought, I don't think it's a HDMI handshake issue.

Why would the Mac Mini+XBMC work perfectly offline (playing local files on HDD) when the Apple TV is connected to network+HDMI and sleeping?
Seems to me it's Apple TV (with the new firmware) that's scanning for other Apple devices in the network while in sleep-mode. I have disabled Family Sharing, iTunes and iCloud AirPlay on Apple TV, but did not help.

[Memphiz]

You should post a debug log (wiki) really so i can see more ...

[Beano]

Sure

I made a new test today and here's the full log (with a few user-, server-, share- and file names removed): http://pastebin.com/hyXzy01X

I hope it's ok?


At test start, ATV was already in sleep-mode and connected to network via LAN and HDMI connected to TV, Mac Mini/XBMC turned off, Windows PC and NAS turned off (causing a few SMB warnings in the log).

15:53 : Turned Mac Mini on, XBMC started up and debug turned on as the first thing.

15:54 : Started playing a local 1080p video file.

15:54 - 15:57 : 3-4 audio cut-outs

15:57 : Pulled ATV from network (disconnected LAN cable), still in sleep-mode (power led off)

15:57 - 16:14 : No audio cut-outs!

16:14 : Reconnected ATV LAN cable. No cut-outs.

16:19 : Woke ATV with remote keypress. Ensured it was online again. Still no cut-outs in XBMC.

16:26 : Manually activated ATV sleep-mode via menu. No cut-outs.

16:30 : Woke ATV with remote keypress. Still no cut-outs.

16:45 : ATV sleep-mode automaticly kicked in (led turned off). Still no cut-outs after this.

16:50 : Stopped video playback and ended test.

It's strange that last night I got audio cut-outs every time ATV was in sleep mode. Several tests and consistently. But today I only got cut-outs initially (15:54 - 15:57), and not after the ATV re-entered sleep-mode (both manually and auto).

But it seems clear to me that the ATV is the trigger and when connected to the network, HDMI doesn't seem to be the trigger.

I'll try to cold start ATV later and see if it starts to cause cut-outs again.

[Memphiz]

2 possible reasons i can think of:

1. Please disable airplay on the atv2 for a test and see if this already fixes it
2. might be somthing like a ground loop issue. Do you have 3 pole sockets in your country? Does it help to connect one of the 2 devices to different circuits?

[Beano]

Thanks for the suggestions.

I haven't tried to disable AirPlay completely, only iCloud AirPlay, which didn't solve it. It's 100% sure not a grnd/socket issue.

Anyway, after my previous post, the audio cut-out issue returned soon after so I decided to downgrade the ATV firmware which solved the issue completely. More that two days and not a single hitch.

Someone have suggested that I block the ATV's IP on my Mac Mini, which I will try when/if I upgrade the ATV firmware in the future. Upgrading OSX to latest version might also fix it.

[AddVariety]

I just stumbled upon this thread. After thoroughly checking I can confirm that I have the exact same issue, caused by the Apple TV (who would've thought).

My configuration is as following:

• MacBook Pro retina 15-inch late 2013
  
• Synology DS214se NAS
  
• Netgear WNDR3700 router (802.11n)
  
• Apple TV 3 (1080p)
  
• Onkyo TX-NR609 AV Receiver
  
• Sony 46W4000 46 inch tv
  

All devices are completely updated, so OS X Mavericks 10.9.5, XBMC 13.2 (w/ Bello theme and tract add-on, not much else), and iOS 8 on the Apple TV.

I use XBMC in two different scenarios: when I watch alone, I run XBMC on the MacBook. When I watch with my wife, I connect it to the HDMI input of the Onkyo receiver. In both cases I had intermittent cut-out audio issues since a week or so. All videos come from the Synology NAS, nothing locally. And in all cases my MacBook is connected via Wi-Fi.

I had removed XBMC from the Applications folder and all data under the XBMC folder in ~/Library (so the user data as well). So in fact a clean reinstall, tested without add-ons and using the stock theme. In all scenarios it was getting audio cut-outs.

Come to think of it as I read this thread, it indeed occurred first during the previous weekend when I updated the Apple TV. So removing the Apple TV power cable solved all issues.

I haven't yet tested it with the Apple TV plugged back in, but will do so and report the results back here. Just wanted to share this before I forgot, since I think there will not be too many Mac+Apple TV+XBMC users, but the ones that have this set-up will want to find a solution just like me.

[Beano]

Thanks - that saves me from updating OSX and XBMC only to find out that the issue will not be fixed by it

Let us know if you find a solution.

Someone suggested blocking the ATV's IP on the Mac but I haven tried that myself yet. Currently running with the old ATV firmware.

[jm928]

I too am now suffering from this issue but I can't find a good way to block the airplay signal. Is there a simple way of doing this?

[Beano]

Not a solution as such, but I downgraded the ATV firmware.