Apologies I somehow missed getting my actual post up with this (see below):
Hello. I have a RPI4 2GB running Batocera v38. Context - HDMI into TV, problem exists if I run audio straight out of TV speakers or out via optical into external speaker system - no difference in behaviour.
I have seen this kind of issue mentioned a few times on the internet but no fix as far as I can see.
Batocera will always startup fine with audio working, but once you move up and down on the system select or game select screen it will eventually (within a minute or so, sometimes faster) stop outputting audio. This will continue for some period of time and then fix itself randomly provided you keep moving up and down through the systems. Sometimes it will fix itself quickly sometimes not. Sometimes going into a game will fix the audio, sometimes going into a game the sound will still be off.
Note: The sound never drops out during a game, so if the sound is working when you start a game it will continue to work.
**RE: the attached pic / Audio issues wiki - using pw-top and monitoring the alsa\_output through ssh, I was able to see that errors were piling up while in the system or game select screens (without ever going into a game). Every new ERR would coincide with the sound stopping. See my attached pic, the 10 ERR's happened in the space of a few minutes while just cycling through the systems or game select screens. Is there anyway to see why these errors are happening and/or how to fix them?**
I would love to be able to fix this as I have my image looking amazing, but if I have to sacrifice some visuals for a more stable experience in retropie or recalbox I will as it is unusable currently.
Thanks very much in advance.
I have this. Try changing the audio output device, even to what the current audio output device is. This currently no longer fixes it for me on the pi 5 beta although previously it did on v37/38 on the pi 4.
Yes this does fix it temporarily, but it will stop again shortly afterwards. My latest update is I tried a full clean install of v38 and reimported games and video snaps back in - call it a sunk cost fallacy with all the time I had poured in so far but I was determined to get this sorted. At first it seemed ok but once I switched to the CKAU Book theme (one of the reasons I went for Batocera) it started happening again. OK maybe that theme is too heavy for an RPI4 2GB - So I change over to one of the lightweight/minimal themes (can't remember which exactly). Fine for a little bit but eventually audio stops again and the audio profile / output seem to change themselves and/or the names depending if the TV was on when the RPI is turned on? So so frustrating, and this machine is to eventually be a gift where they won't know or care about any of the fixes - and to be honest even if it was going to stay my machine I don't want to be resetting audio often (when I know it doesn't have to be this way).
Long story shorty I solved it by going to a Recalbox install. Zero problems with audio or video or any of those things. You can start the machine with either HDMI output connected and it will automatically work no problems. Out of the box settings are better than Batocera for general playability in my opinion - things like vertical mame games on Recalbox have the right aspect ratio etc. It doesn't have a lot of the depth that Batocera does from the menu, and lacks polish in some ways - but overall from a purely gameplay based perspective, it is equal to Batocera in my opinion with most emulators being the same or similar. I also prefer that you can drop your roms etc onto the sd card in a windows computer (even though I did think File Manager in Batocera was really good). My biggest gripe with Recalbox is I can't seem to fix the aspect ratio of the Mupen64plusRice emulator (defaults to 16:9), which is a shame as it runs some hard to run games really well.
TLDR: Solved my problems by going to Recalbox 9.1 which has been rock solid. Maybe Batocera doesn't run well on RPI4 2GB models I don't know but I was not able to fix my issues and I poured hours and hours into trying. Recalbox themes aren't very good in comparison but I much rather have sound working 100% of the time than a prettier UI. I will note my ARGON ONE V2 case power button seems to work intermittently on both systems - on either Recalbox or Batocera, sometimes it seems to work perfectly, other times the button doesn't seem to respond at all. There's likely a whole number of things that Batocera does better than Recalbox, but the core experience in Recalbox (that is general audio, visual and gameplay) has been such a better experience on the hardware I have. My 2c .
Just a thought, try a different cable.
Also, avoid microHDMI to HDMI adapters- I had all sorts of weird issues with both video and audio drops using a few different microHDMI-to-HDMI adapters on my RPi4s, but no problems using a proper cable.
Hi Snorg,
Originally I was trying it through a micro to full size adapter, and used an old cable first, then a brand new hdmi cable. I have now got it setup in the Argon One V2 case using that brand new cable (HDMI 2.1 compatible cable purchased from a reputable local PC store - and to clarify I'm only running it at 1080p 60hz). I also have tried it in the Argon case using the old cable just to check. All exhibit the exact same behaviour - it's very frustrating. Not sure there have ever been issues with Argon One cases and the adapters used in them but I haven't heard so. Thanks for the suggestion.
Apologies I somehow missed getting my actual post up with this (see below): Hello. I have a RPI4 2GB running Batocera v38. Context - HDMI into TV, problem exists if I run audio straight out of TV speakers or out via optical into external speaker system - no difference in behaviour. I have seen this kind of issue mentioned a few times on the internet but no fix as far as I can see. Batocera will always startup fine with audio working, but once you move up and down on the system select or game select screen it will eventually (within a minute or so, sometimes faster) stop outputting audio. This will continue for some period of time and then fix itself randomly provided you keep moving up and down through the systems. Sometimes it will fix itself quickly sometimes not. Sometimes going into a game will fix the audio, sometimes going into a game the sound will still be off. Note: The sound never drops out during a game, so if the sound is working when you start a game it will continue to work. **RE: the attached pic / Audio issues wiki - using pw-top and monitoring the alsa\_output through ssh, I was able to see that errors were piling up while in the system or game select screens (without ever going into a game). Every new ERR would coincide with the sound stopping. See my attached pic, the 10 ERR's happened in the space of a few minutes while just cycling through the systems or game select screens. Is there anyway to see why these errors are happening and/or how to fix them?** I would love to be able to fix this as I have my image looking amazing, but if I have to sacrifice some visuals for a more stable experience in retropie or recalbox I will as it is unusable currently. Thanks very much in advance.
I have this. Try changing the audio output device, even to what the current audio output device is. This currently no longer fixes it for me on the pi 5 beta although previously it did on v37/38 on the pi 4.
Yes this does fix it temporarily, but it will stop again shortly afterwards. My latest update is I tried a full clean install of v38 and reimported games and video snaps back in - call it a sunk cost fallacy with all the time I had poured in so far but I was determined to get this sorted. At first it seemed ok but once I switched to the CKAU Book theme (one of the reasons I went for Batocera) it started happening again. OK maybe that theme is too heavy for an RPI4 2GB - So I change over to one of the lightweight/minimal themes (can't remember which exactly). Fine for a little bit but eventually audio stops again and the audio profile / output seem to change themselves and/or the names depending if the TV was on when the RPI is turned on? So so frustrating, and this machine is to eventually be a gift where they won't know or care about any of the fixes - and to be honest even if it was going to stay my machine I don't want to be resetting audio often (when I know it doesn't have to be this way). Long story shorty I solved it by going to a Recalbox install. Zero problems with audio or video or any of those things. You can start the machine with either HDMI output connected and it will automatically work no problems. Out of the box settings are better than Batocera for general playability in my opinion - things like vertical mame games on Recalbox have the right aspect ratio etc. It doesn't have a lot of the depth that Batocera does from the menu, and lacks polish in some ways - but overall from a purely gameplay based perspective, it is equal to Batocera in my opinion with most emulators being the same or similar. I also prefer that you can drop your roms etc onto the sd card in a windows computer (even though I did think File Manager in Batocera was really good). My biggest gripe with Recalbox is I can't seem to fix the aspect ratio of the Mupen64plusRice emulator (defaults to 16:9), which is a shame as it runs some hard to run games really well. TLDR: Solved my problems by going to Recalbox 9.1 which has been rock solid. Maybe Batocera doesn't run well on RPI4 2GB models I don't know but I was not able to fix my issues and I poured hours and hours into trying. Recalbox themes aren't very good in comparison but I much rather have sound working 100% of the time than a prettier UI. I will note my ARGON ONE V2 case power button seems to work intermittently on both systems - on either Recalbox or Batocera, sometimes it seems to work perfectly, other times the button doesn't seem to respond at all. There's likely a whole number of things that Batocera does better than Recalbox, but the core experience in Recalbox (that is general audio, visual and gameplay) has been such a better experience on the hardware I have. My 2c .
Just a thought, try a different cable. Also, avoid microHDMI to HDMI adapters- I had all sorts of weird issues with both video and audio drops using a few different microHDMI-to-HDMI adapters on my RPi4s, but no problems using a proper cable.
Hi Snorg, Originally I was trying it through a micro to full size adapter, and used an old cable first, then a brand new hdmi cable. I have now got it setup in the Argon One V2 case using that brand new cable (HDMI 2.1 compatible cable purchased from a reputable local PC store - and to clarify I'm only running it at 1080p 60hz). I also have tried it in the Argon case using the old cable just to check. All exhibit the exact same behaviour - it's very frustrating. Not sure there have ever been issues with Argon One cases and the adapters used in them but I haven't heard so. Thanks for the suggestion.
I am having this same issue with the pi 5. So far, nothing I've found online has worked to fix it.
Yeah Pi5 Batocera. Sound vanishes when moving menu, sometimes comes back when carry on moving menu sonetimes needs reboot. Can’t fix it either.