MiSTer FPGA Forum

I recently purchased a new television and sound bar over the weekend, and noticed audio dropping out during some games (Super Mario 2, 3). The audio also output just fine when routed through the television's built in speakers.

I'm feeding audio into the TV (LG CX) via HDMI, and outputting via optical cable (it also had the same issue when output via HDMI) to a Vizio v21-h8 sound bar.

Any idea what the issue could be? Thanks!

This is a very widespread and known issue with many specific brands/models of sound bars (or receivers) where they will power down as soon as they detect any length of pure silence in a sound feed. It’s an energy-saving “feature”. Unfortunately they also take a fraction of a second to power back up when they detect sound coming in again, resulting in the drops you’re experiencing. There is usually no fix other than to purchase a sound bar or receiver that isn’t affected by this idiotic “feature”.

I don't know enough about this "feature" to know whether it's the same logic, but someone made a script to work around a similar issue.

viewtopic.php?p=198#p198