Audio codec switching mid stream with hdmi receiver passthrough produces error on GCWTV

Log excerpt (full adb bugreport sent via email)

2020-12-05 00:38:59.567 3568-3635/? W/APM_AudioPolicyManager: getOutputForDevices() could not find output for stream 3, sampling rate 48000, format 0x9000000, channels 0x3, flags 0x1
2020-12-05 00:38:59.568 3568-3635/? E/AudioFlinger: createTrack() getOutputForAttr() return error -38 or invalid output handle
2020-12-05 00:38:59.568 2888-2954/com.example.android.persistence E/IAudioFlinger: createTrack returned error -38
2020-12-05 00:38:59.568 2888-2954/com.example.android.persistence E/AudioTrack: createTrack_l(868): AudioFlinger could not create track, status: -38 output 326484847
2020-12-05 00:38:59.569 2888-2954/com.example.android.persistence E/AudioTrack-JNI: Error -38 initializing AudioTrack
2020-12-05 00:38:59.569 2888-2954/com.example.android.persistence D/AudioTrack: gather(): no metrics gathered, track status=-38
2020-12-05 00:38:59.570 2888-2954/com.example.android.persistence E/android.media.AudioTrack: Error code -20 when initializing AudioTrack.
2020-12-05 00:38:59.581 3532-3597/? D/audio_hw_primary: out_pause(0xeb2d9a80)
2020-12-05 00:38:59.581 3532-3597/? E/audio_hw_primary: out->pcm and adev->pcm are assumed same handle
2020-12-05 00:38:59.581 3532-16733/? D/audio_hw_primary: out_flush(0xeb2d9a80)
2020-12-05 00:38:59.582 3532-16733/? I/audio_hw_primary: do_output_standby_direct,out 0xeb2d9a80
2020-12-05 00:38:59.582 3532-16733/? I/audio_spdif_out: aml_audio_set_spdif_format tinymix AML_MIXER_ID_SPDIF_FORMAT 0
2020-12-05 00:38:59.582 3532-16733/? I/audio_hwsync: aml_audio_hwsync_init done
2020-12-05 00:38:59.586 3532-16733/? I/audio_hw_primary: ++adev_release_audio_patch: handle(105)
2020-12-05 00:38:59.586 3532-16733/? I/audio_hw_primary: patch set found id 105, patchset 0xeb2c6400
2020-12-05 00:38:59.586 3532-16733/? I/audio_hw_primary: source 0 type=2 sink type =1 amk patch src=11
2020-12-05 00:38:59.586 3532-16733/? D/audio_hw_primary: unregister_audio_patch: enter
2020-12-05 00:38:59.586 3532-16733/? D/audio_hw_primary: unregister_audio_patch: exit
2020-12-05 00:38:59.586 3532-16733/? I/audio_hw_primary: --adev_release_audio_patch: after releasing patch, patch sets will be:
2020-12-05 00:38:59.592 3532-16733/? I/audio_hw_primary: out_standby_direct(0xeb2d9a80),out 0xeb2d9a80
2020-12-05 00:38:59.593 3532-16733/? I/audio_spdif_out: aml_audio_set_spdif_format tinymix AML_MIXER_ID_SPDIF_FORMAT 0
2020-12-05 00:38:59.593 3532-16733/? I/audio_hw_primary: enable rawtopcm_flag !!!
2020-12-05 00:38:59.596 2888-2954/com.example.android.persistence E/ExoPlayerImplInternal: Playback error
      com.google.android.exoplayer2.ExoPlaybackException: MediaCodecAudioRenderer error, index=1, format=Format(61201/515, null, null, audio/ac3, null, -1, de, [-1, -1, -1.0], [2, 48000]), format_supported=YES
        at com.google.android.exoplayer2.ExoPlayerImplInternal.handleMessage(ExoPlayerImplInternal.java:542)
        at android.os.Handler.dispatchMessage(Handler.java:103)
        at android.os.Looper.loop(Looper.java:214)
        at android.os.HandlerThread.run(HandlerThread.java:67)
     Caused by: com.google.android.exoplayer2.audio.AudioSink$InitializationException: AudioTrack init failed: 0, Config(48000, 12, 40000)
        at com.google.android.exoplayer2.audio.DefaultAudioSink$Configuration.buildAudioTrack(DefaultAudioSink.java:1933)
        at com.google.android.exoplayer2.audio.DefaultAudioSink.buildAudioTrack(DefaultAudioSink.java:845)
        at com.google.android.exoplayer2.audio.DefaultAudioSink.initializeAudioTrack(DefaultAudioSink.java:639)
        at com.google.android.exoplayer2.audio.DefaultAudioSink.handleBuffer(DefaultAudioSink.java:731)
        at com.google.android.exoplayer2.audio.MediaCodecAudioRenderer.processOutputBuffer(MediaCodecAudioRenderer.java:623)
        at com.google.android.exoplayer2.mediacodec.MediaCodecRenderer.bypassRender(MediaCodecRenderer.java:2143)
        at com.google.android.exoplayer2.mediacodec.MediaCodecRenderer.render(MediaCodecRenderer.java:852)
        at com.google.android.exoplayer2.ExoPlayerImplInternal.doSomeWork(ExoPlayerImplInternal.java:892)
        at com.google.android.exoplayer2.ExoPlayerImplInternal.handleMessage(ExoPlayerImplInternal.java:467)
        at android.os.Handler.dispatchMessage(Handler.java:103) 
        at android.os.Looper.loop(Looper.java:214) 
        at android.os.HandlerThread.run(HandlerThread.java:67) 
2020-12-05 00:38:59.596 3532-16733/? D/audio_hw_primary: out_set_parameters(kvpairs(closing=true), out_device=0x400)
2020-12-05 00:38:59.596 3532-16733/? E/audio_hw_primary: Amlogic_HAL - out_set_parameters: parameter is NULL, change ret value to 0 in order to pass VTS test.

Device: Google Chromecast with GoogleTV

Sample file

I gathered the following audio-only sample (copyright issues), it switches from AC3 with 5.1 to stereo and back to 5.1 This is enough to freeze the player and prompt the above error when a receiver with passthrough is the audio output.

sample.zip

Json for demo player:

  {
    "name": "Audio passthrough tests",
    "samples": [
      {
        "name": "AC3 5.1 to 2.0 to 5.1",
        "uri": "https://martb.eu/exoplayer/ac3-5.1-to-ac3.stereo-to-ac3-5.1.ts"
      }
    ]
  },

(almost )100% reproducable with a DENON AVR X2100W and X1200W sometimes the switching magically works, but most of the time it doesnt.

VLC behavior: Just to rule out a device issue, i played the file with VLC and enabled passthrough, it correctly played the file. But it seems like theres custom code in there to allow it: libvlc decoder: restarting module due to input format change

Kind regards and thanks for your time, MartB

[stevemayhew]

@MartB I have a Denon receiver with an Android TV and assortment of other Android streamers, I can do a quick try with your stream, we have the fix @sneelavara mentioned back ported to release 2.11.

The fix deals with other unreported discontinuities just fine (we have a stream that goes AC3 to PCM and back). In our case it is HLS, so the change is technically illegal unless it is reported with an EXT-X-DISCONTINUITY tag

[sneelavara]

@MartB this is different than #8178 . The AudioFlinger error -38 used to happen for us during switching Audio track to AC-3 from non-AC-3 tracks. Sometimes commercials are in stereo and content is in 5.1 channel AC-3. In such case transitioning from content to commercial used to hit this error too.

We found the retry logic from 7dfdde9 , discussed in #7042 is very helpful. The AudioInit failure recovers with retries for us. We have tried this fix on AmLogic devices as well.