Often "audio only" or video works for a while then freezes while audio continues

[SteamedLobster]

I have a Quattro HDHomeRun on the latest 2025 beta 1 firmware (this issue happens on the 2023 current released firmware as well). I have good DVB reception and if I plug the same antenna into my Humax Aura STB or directly into my TCL TV I have no playback issues. On the HDHomerun lots of issues such as starting playback with a black screen and "audio only" or frozen video with audio or stuttering/pixelated video. I'm playing back in the silicon dust app on Android TV 12 (TCL TV), Android TV 9 (Humax Aura STB), and Android TV 14 (Homatics box). Same issue on all of them. Any ideas? If I use Plex sometimes works for a while they a Plex error playing video dialog box will appear.

Example tuner status output

Virtual Channel 101 BBC ONE Lon HD
Frequency 545.844 MHz
Program Number 17536
Modulation Lock t8dvbt2
Signal Strength 100%
Signal Quality 87%
Symbol Quality 100%
Streaming Rate 2.495 Mbps
Resource Lock 192.168.1.51

[jasonl]

We would like to get some diagnostic data to see what is happening:

1. In a web browser go to http://hdhomerun.local
   NOTE: That address will go do the first HDHomeRun device found on your network. If you have more than one HDHomeRun device, use the "device ID" printed on the bottom of the unit instead of "hdhomerun" in the address. For example, if your device ID was 104FFFFF then you would go to http://104fffff.local
2. Click "System Menu"
3. Check the "Send diagnostic information" box (if this box is already checked, please un-check then re-check it)
4. Go back one page
5. Click "Channel Lineup"
6. Click on "Detect Channels"
7. After the scan finishes, open the HDHomeRun app
8. Go into the app settings: the gear icon in the top right corner of the "Live/Recorded/Discover/Tasks" page
9. Enable the option to "Send diagnostic information"
10. Watch a problem channel until the video stops and leave it going for at least 5 minutes after that before you change channels or exit or do anything else

Reply back and provide us the device ID of your HDHomeRun and the time it froze and we will check the logs. You can find the device ID on a label on the bottom of the HDHomeRun itself.

[SteamedLobster]

Thanks! I followed the instructions and luckily the issue repro'd immediately. Device ID is 1252D0CE and the issue hit as soon as I tuned to the channel around 8:01AM UK time (GMT/BST) today Tue 22nd April. Let me know if anything else is needed. In this repro the HDHomeRun app on Android TV tuned to a black screen with "audio only" then after a few seconds a frozen from of video and now I get audio cutting in and out with that frozen frame of video at 8:04AM UK time.

I waited until 8.07AM and then tuned to another HD channel and got the same "audio only" black screen with audio playing.

As I mentioned in original email with the same antenna feed put into my TV or my Humax Aura STB (instead of to the HDHomeRun) each of these channels plays back perfectly.

Thanks again!

[SteamedLobster]

One other issue that seems to trigger from time to time. Whether I use the HDHomeRun app or something like Plex or SparkleTV Player with HDHomeRun tuner as the source. Sometimes on tuning to a channel playback is what can only be described as "jittery" yet Plex's onscreen diagnostics don't report dropped frames. This is noticeable on any channel but especially one ones where a scrolling news ticker exists (for example Sky News or BBC News on UK DVB Freeview). Yet other times can tune to those channels and absolutely no jitter at all. Its random. Sometimes switching channels and back fixes it. Again I don't see this if the same antenna feed is directly connected to the TV's own tuner or the Humax Aura STB TV tuner.

[jasonl]

Does that box have an option to match the framerate on video playback? If so, can you disable it and see if that changes anything?

[SteamedLobster]

For which issue?

I tested again today with auto frame rate match on the Android box disabled. Info below.

I didn't get the black screen "audio only" as that can be intermittent but I did immediately get frozen video screen with audio cutting in and out at 7.57am UK time and then video resumed at 7.58 to 7.59 AM. Wed 23rd April.

Then at 8am I tuned to a new channel and got the black audio only screen then a second or so of video then frozen frame with audio.

8.04am tuned to a new channel and got black screen audio only. Then a few seconds later a frame of frozen video with no audio then back to black audio only screen at 8.05 or so.

Send diag data was still enabled for all of the above on the tuner and in the app....

On the jitter issue will keep an eye out for that with AFR now disabled on the android tv device itself. The jitter on tuning a channel is very intermittent but happens in the HDHomeRun app and in Plex and in SparkleTV player.

[jasonl]

Does it have an option to lock it to a specific output resolution/refresh rate? If so, can you set it to 4K 50Hz? It's starting at 4K 59.94 and I'm just trying to rule out the change as the cause of the issues. I think it's more likely a problem with the video decoders in the devices though. The video decoders in a lot of devices do not handle interlaced AVC content correctly, especially as used in the UK where the encoder dynamically switches between 25p and 50i modes depending on the content. Do SD channels play normally?

[SteamedLobster]

My Humax Aura Android 9 based device (Broadcom SOC) lets me fix 4k/50hz so I set that and installed the HDHomeRun app on that and enabled diag log reporting. On that device so far I've seen a brief flash of "audio only" on tuning to the channel and then normal playback so far. To early to say if issue hits or not.

If I switch the Aura back to "auto" for AFR to match the content I don't see the "audio only" black screen flash up at all just the playback starts. However, When I tuned to channel 4 HD at about 9.15am local UK time it hit a black screen with "unable to play channel unspecified error" screen. So something failed there.


This Aura box does also see an issue where Plex live tv playback from the HDHomeRun tuner will fail after a period of time with "video error" Plex dialog. Same as on my other 3 devices (with entirely different soc's) with Plex when using the HDHomeRun tuner.

It's also odd that I see the problem with the HDHomeRun app across a TCL TV with Pentonic 700 SOC (Mediatek) on Android 12, and a Homatics 4K R Plus device with Amlogic S905 SOC with Android 14 in HDHomeRun app but I can play back recorded 25/50i content on both of those fine (for example in Plex recorded live tv from the HDHomeRun)?

It's only live content direct from the HDHomeRun that seems to be the problem both in the HDHomeRun app itself and when watching in Plex live TV as well.

If Broadcom, amlogic, and mediatek all had issues with 25/50i decoder transitions I would expect to see a lot complaints in various forums given its super common in UK? Also wouldn't it repro if I recorded a show in Plex as well?

EDIT: sorry on question of SD channels correct there I have not seen this tuning to SD channels.

EDIT 2: also just to confirm see the issue easily reproach on the Homatics box with AFR on or off. The other devices seem to show a brief "audio only" black screen but have not yet reprod the freezing video or stuck audio only screen on the HDHomeRun app so does seem issue is more prevalent on the amlogic Soc with the other boxes so far just showing a brief "audio only black screen but then playing ok aside from the 9.15am fail on channel 4 tune on the Aura box above. However the Plex live tv "video error" happens across all devices.

EDIT 3: Found the option to fix 4k50hz on the Homatics box and same issue when forcing that. On this box get black screen with intermittent audio and/frozen video. This was 9.51am UK Time with some testing prior on other fixed resolutions like 4k25hz and 1080p etc.

Edit 4: what is odd on the Homatics though is with settings back on the defaults (AFR off, resolution switching to automatic not fixed to 50hz) some tunes to these HD channels work fine. Other times the audio only error etc.

Edit5: the other oddity is if I use the Homatics box using the HDHomeRun tuner in the sparkletv app I never see the audio only screen which reprod almost immediately on the HDHomeRun app on the same device but do occasionally get a black screen which then recovers. Playback seems more reliable there off the same tuner versus the HDHomeRun app itself which nearly 100% errors out. This tuning would have been going on from around 10.05am uk time.

[jasonl]

Are you sure it was Channel 4 HD and not BBC Four HD? I see BBC Four HD at that time, and that failed because BBC Four HD splits time with CBeebies HD and isn't active at that time of day. The app should probably give a more useful message though.

I think we may just need to get one of these devices to engineering to debug with. Can you provide a link to the Homatics device?

[SteamedLobster]

Ah might have been I slipped down in the UX and selected BBC 4 instead yes.

I did spend the rest of the day viewing the HDHomeRun tuner output in the SparkleTV app (this is an IPTV app but it allows you to also add and use a HDHomeRun tuner) and that played tv fine all day long whereas the HDHomeRun app would have almost immediate issues (black screen audio only, frozen video etc). On the Sparkle app I recall perhaps once or twice during the day screen went black for a second then recovered but 99.9% of the time it was playing back the same output ok.

This is the box

https://www.homatics.com/products/box-r-4k-plus

I bought it from here where it came with Android 14. Some older stock sometimes comes with Android 11 or 12 and you have to fill out a request to Homatics to get Android 14 . Mine came with it.

https://a.aliexpress.com/_EJ6RX7M

[SteamedLobster]

One other thing I notice in SparkleTV this morning (8.31am UK TIME) is when I select BBC 1 HD the TV switches to 60hz. When I select ITV 1HD the TV switches to 50hz. Isn't BBC1 HD also meant to be 50hz?

Is the HDHomeRun sometimes sending wrong frame rate?

If I turn off AFR on sparkleTV (8.36am) then 60hz is forced for ITV1 HD and scrolling news tickers look terrible.

Yet now at 8.36am it's reversed and bbc 1 tunes flip tv to 50hz and itv 1 tunes flip it to 60hz so it makes zero sense to me....

[jasonl]

Appears it's not currently available to ship to the UK, so that will be a problem since the person who would be working on it is based there.

The HDHomeRun device passes the original video data from the broadcaster untouched. What the player does with that is going to depend on how the player is designed.

[SteamedLobster]

I live in the UK and the Aliexpress vendor thart I linked to above shipped it to me. Definitely a number of people have these in the UK as that vendor was recommended to me by someone else in the UK as well.

There is very different behavior to how the SparkleTV app, Plex, and the HDHomeRun TV app handle the TV signal being sent out by the HDHomeRun tuner. Sparkle seems to have few (if any) problems. Plex and the HDHomeRun app have lots of issues, with the HDHomeRun app being unusable due to the audio only screens and frozen video frames. Plex will just fail intermittedelnty with "video error" it could play for hours or it could fail within seconds. HDHomeRun App usually fails instantly or within a few seconds. Since Sparkle also uses ExoPlayer I don't understand why it works and HDHomeRun app doesn't. Sparkle might drop to a black frame for 1-2 seconds maybe once every few hours. HDHomeRun app can't deal with the same stream.

[jasonl]

Are you able to order it now? This is what I see when I select a location in the UK.

Screenshot 2025-04-28 201005.png (41.2 KiB) Viewed 3723 times

[SteamedLobster]

Yes works here I don't seem to be able to paste a screenshot into this post but it says delivers to UK for me.

I'm obvioulsy in the UK trying to place the order and have a UK aliexrpess account.

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005007032870356.htm