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[pd77]

Hello - new owner of J River - amazing piece of software, especially for the technically minded. I am running this on a small PC I use in my Media room, attached to my large HDTV and HT receiver. The PC to receiver connection is HDMI, and is working fine for 2 channel (music) and multichannel (movies) output. The issue I'm stumped on is the audio stream from the PC/Software to the receiver - no issue during playback of a peice of music or a movie, but when "idle" and/or changing between audio and video and images - the amp goes crazy due to loss of signal on HDMI - the stream seems to start and stop very often, even when moving between picture albums with no audio playing. So the questions:

Is there a way to get the stream to persist? Play silence rather than flap?
Is there a way to minimize the stream changes?

The config is fairly standard - WASAPI, source bitdepth and rates...
Appreciate the help - love the package.
Rookie
 

[Matt]

Welcome, and thanks for the kind words.

Is there a way to get the stream to persist? Play silence rather than flap?

I'm a little confused by this, because you said playing images (with no audio playing) causes it to flap.

So I wonder if any time the video card uses 3d accelerated graphics it causes a flap?

If this is the case, updating to the latest video drivers would be a good place to start.

[pd77]

Thanks - hadn't considered that. I'm moving from Windows Media Center (upgrading in a big way) on the same PC - never saw this before. I'll look into the graphics config first.

[pd77]

Matt - I'm still stumped (could be me). In normal display mode - no issues with audio over HDMI, but in Theater Mode the problem persists. On the main screen, moving between the menu items, no issues. When I select a sub screen, or move between icons on a sub screen - the audio over HDMI turns off, then on again - I can see and hear the amp reseting to the new stream. The video is rendering fine - no issues, so not thinking video is the problem. I may have inadvertently mis-configured something, but I can't see anything that would cause this, especially when no audio is playing. Again - 2 channel music and multichannel movies sounds fine when they are playing - this is an idle problem.

Any ideas or guidance much appreciated. I could try a different amp, but that's a last resort hassle, and at this point I have no reason to suspect it - the HDMI audio is working fine from 2 other devices.
Thanks again.
jeff

[fitbrit]

My setup is doing this a lot too recently. Do you have an nVidia graphics card?

[pd77]

Yes, it is NVIDIA.

[pd77]

I'm going to try a reinstall tonight - maybe something went wrong along the way. My second system uses an outboard DAC via USB, no issues there.

[fitbrit]

I think it's known as the silent stream bug, but it seems to have become worse recently. It causes my Onkyo receiver to click and flash its HDMI logo frequently, but inconsistently. Right now, all is fine, but two nights ago I was just reading webpages (with MC running) and all sorts of activity was going on between the HTPC and AVR.

[pd77]

Sounds like I have an extreme case of this - my receiver is Onkyo as well. I will try the reinstall just in case.

[pd77]

Last post - appreciate the help. I am able to recreate the problem outside  Media Center, so this is not related to the JRiver install. Must be a PC or Receiver problem - maybe be a further opportunity to upgrade....

[JimH]

You might be able to upgrade the Onkyo firmware.

[fitbrit]

You might be able to upgrade the Onkyo firmware.

I'm pretty sure it's not the Onkyos at fault. I do have the latest firmware. This seems like a long-standing nVidia bug. I think I got to the bottom of it though. A browser pop up window had launched in the background and was playing short sounds at regular intervals. This was causing all sorts of HDMI port activity, which the 'silent-stream bug' made infinitely more annoying. The bug causes the first split second of audio to be missed, which was the full duration of the sounds being played. This resulted in there being no audible sound being played, but the AVR going nuts via signals coming from the HDMI port.

[Matt]

I'm pretty sure it's not the Onkyos at fault. I do have the latest firmware. This seems like a long-standing nVidia bug. I think I got to the bottom of it though. A browser pop up window had launched in the background and was playing short sounds at regular intervals. This was causing all sorts of HDMI port activity, which the 'silent-stream bug' made infinitely more annoying. The bug causes the first split second of audio to be missed, which was the full duration of the sounds being played. This resulted in there being no audible sound being played, but the AVR going nuts via signals coming from the HDMI port.

Another thing that can play sounds is Theater View navigation.  So make sure Theater View sounds are off (they are by default).

[fitbrit]

Another thing that can play sounds is Theater View navigation.  So make sure Theater View sounds are off (they are by default).

Thanks for the tip.

[dean70]

You can also try setting the default Windows sound device to the onboard sound, so any "Windows" sound effects dont get routed through the HDMI port, but go via the analogue jacks on the mainboard.