Update from android 9 to 14 - problem

[trog]

I read it as a sarcastic swipe at anyone who thinks disconnecting power for an extended period has any benefit, not just Aura owners.

But is there a correlation between Aura owners and such comments? Anyway you should not also be reading anything into my comment it was just meant to be flippant.

 

[Owen Smith]

I am starting to get the feeling that prpr does not have much empathy for Aura owners and their multiple issues

Nor do I. The Aura is a cursed product, just buy an older Humax PVR on ebay and a streamer (if you need one) to replace this pile of garbage.

 

[EEPhil]

I read it as a sarcastic swipe at anyone who thinks disconnecting power for an extended period has any benefit, not just Aura owners.

That'll include Humax itself. I'm sure I've seen it mentioned - but as luck would have it, I can't find the quote. Of course that also depends on  your definition of extended in this context. My experience of the various Humaxes is that a 10-30 minute shutdown is enough.

 

[EEPhil]

Nor do I. The Aura is a cursed product, just buy an older Humax PVR on ebay and a streamer (if you need one) to replace this pile of garbage.

The Aura EZ is the cursed product. Freely and no ability to move files around.

At least the original Aura works, for some of us, most of the time. At the moment, before update, mine does the things I want - even if it sometimes requires a workaround.

 

[Goober]

I haven't checked yet to see if the update is available to me, but after reading this lot I am going to hold fire I think.

Someone please tell me when it is safe to pull the trigger on the new update/s.

 

[Black Hole]

My experience of the various Humaxes is that a 10-30 minute shutdown is enough.

Explain why even 10 minutes is better than a few seconds. All that is needed is for the PSU capacitors to discharge sufficiently that the system receives a hardware reset when power is restored. We're not talking about putting the system into standby without interrupting power.

It would be possible to design a system that held onto its state without power, but it is a fundamental principle that restoring power sends a hard reset across the system, so that everything re-initialises in case it was in an unknown state.

The exceptions to this are:

• The PSU is designed to run the system off-power for a period, to dodge brown-outs, but once the "light have gone out" that should be enough;
• The fault is temperature related;
• The fault is influenced by external factors with a time element;
• Firmware bugs or oversights fail to reinitialise all memory and registers;
• Somebody's crap design fails to reinitialise all hardware from a power-on reset.

 

[EEPhil]

Explain why even 10 minutes is better than a few seconds.

I can't. Just that for one of the Humaxes (5000T?) my experience was that a few seconds didn't do the job.

Somebody's crap design fails to reinitialise al hardware from a power-on reset.

Sounds about right.

 

[Black Hole]

Sounds about right.

Yes, I know we have a downer on Humax's design department, but if the design was that bad things would never make it to market.

 

[Andrew!]

After all the other issues I finally ran some .MKV films last night on the aura via usb using VLC and to my horror the surround sound was not working correctly .
The DTS, AAC streams came out as Dolby digital + and sound wrong , I guess no surprise.
I ran through all the settings on VLC and the Aura audio/video:
I am using the Aura Audio setting Home Cinema using Aura - Amp - TV , The amp is a Denon AVR x2300 that detects the audio stream and switches to the format, working fine before update to Android14.
I used to use Audio pass through on VLC to get correct DTS 5.1 output using advanced/audio/ audiotrack but had to change to OpenSL ES as the passthrough stopped working since Android 14.
I tried all the combinations and appart from no sound or 2 tracks it was a washout.
All the tracks info in VLC are correct showing 5.1 sound or DTS/AAC.

I have installed KODI to check if VLC is the cause and pretty much get the same .
I set the number of channels to 5.1 , passthrough and it had Audio track (RAW) Android IEC packer showing no other choice.
The player clearly shows DTS /AAC 5.1 in the info strap but hits the amp as Dolby Digital + or the amp is not recognising correctly and defaulting to Dolby.

Has Android 14 changed the way Audio is passed to the AMP despite the pass through.
Turning off passthrough just caused other issues.
Some 5.1 music stored as DTS also gets output as Dolby Digital.
My system had been handling Audio perfectly before, this is horrible and I did not spot it at the start of the debate as I was using allot of 2 channel stuff and it is not so noticeable.

Any Ideas?

 

[EEPhil]

Any Ideas?

Not really, I only use stereo.
I have seen Dolby Advanced Settings in Audio Output. Is MS12 Transcoding OFF? What about the Surround Sound settings? If you haven't fiddled with them you might be able to select the format(s) you want. I can't test - no surround sound!

 

[davey64]

After all the other issues I finally ran some .MKV films last night on the aura via usb using VLC and to my horror the surround sound was not working correctly .
The DTS, AAC streams came out as Dolby digital + and sound wrong , I guess no surprise.
I ran through all the settings on VLC and the Aura audio/video:
I am using the Aura Audio setting Home Cinema using Aura - Amp - TV , The amp is a Denon AVR x2300 that detects the audio stream and switches to the format, working fine before update to Android14.
I used to use Audio pass through on VLC to get correct DTS 5.1 output using advanced/audio/ audiotrack but had to change to OpenSL ES as the passthrough stopped working since Android 14.
I tried all the combinations and appart from no sound or 2 tracks it was a washout.
All the tracks info in VLC are correct showing 5.1 sound or DTS/AAC.

I have installed KODI to check if VLC is the cause and pretty much get the same .
I set the number of channels to 5.1 , passthrough and it had Audio track (RAW) Android IEC packer showing no other choice.
The player clearly shows DTS /AAC 5.1 in the info strap but hits the amp as Dolby Digital + or the amp is not recognising correctly and defaulting to Dolby.

Has Android 14 changed the way Audio is passed to the AMP despite the pass through.
Turning off passthrough just caused other issues.
Some 5.1 music stored as DTS also gets output as Dolby Digital.
My system had been handling Audio perfectly before, this is horrible and I did not spot it at the start of the debate as I was using allot of 2 channel stuff and it is not so noticeable.

Any Ideas?

Not that I use the Aura for watching media on USB, but as you were having issues I thought I'd give it go.

I downloaded VLC and Kodi and both are set for Audio Passthrough.

The Aura is connected to a Marantz AVR.

I selected 4 .mkv files for testing, one Stereo, one Dolby Digital, one Dolby Digital +, one DTS.

Using both VLC and Kodi the stereo file would display on the Marantz as Pro Logic II,
the Dolby Digital as Dolby Digital + and the DTS as Dolby Digital +
One DTS file would play without sound using VLC, but okay on Kodi.

Although files not playing or displaying as they should, sound was fine

With VLC at the top left the source and display dimensions were displayed in a grey box
and would not disappear after a few seconds as it should do. An Aura thing not a VLC thing.

Audio Output on the Aura set to Home Cinema via HDMI
MS 12 Transcoding Off.

 

[Andrew!]

Thanks for trying,

I tried all the combinations and ended back at the one you chose which was how I used to have it.
M12 Transcoding off

What audio setting in advanced did you use
audiotrack or OpenSL ES
audiotrack allows passthrough and OpenSL ES hides it.

I used audiotrack for years but the update made audio stop working and I switched to OpenSL ES where the pass-through checkbox stops showing under Audio and at the bottom of the video screen .... options.
I downloaded the nighttime install and added it as a parallel version it has a green icon (I had some success using it some years back for the played marker not showing, it fixed it).
It allows me to test both settings without going nuts scrolling up and down menus the versions show the same version number this time.

I Just finished testing a range of files with your settings and powered down both Aura and AMP to get a clean test and checked HDMI main cables were seated.
Using my nighttime version of VLC set to your settings I got:
2 Track stuff seems to work but over that it gets a bit messy.
AAC 5:1 seems to fail most almost 100% AAC 2 Channel works , it used to be detected as multi track digital basically multiple PCM streams.
AC3 works as it is Dolby.
DTS is mixed Mono DTS works DTS Core taken from DTSMA does not
One surprise was that EAC3 (Dolby digital Pro with Atmos) worked I had a track I kept but I have converted all the others to AAC as it never worked before but it shows as Dolby Digital +.
Surround DTS Music is flat as a pancake and my surround sound demos are all sounding stereo.
The amp seems to be ignoring the signal type and defaulting.

When I updated to Android 14 I got an update immediately after for VLC which seemed a good thing at the time but since then its been down hill and trying out KODI yields similar results.
The output from the Aura is not the same and messes up the amp.
I dread trying to sort this out with Humax , emails seem to go unanswered and with 2 Products in the tests like VLC they may use that for cover.

Its good to get comparison feedback though.
Back to watch some films and leave settings alone for a bit.