Dropouts upon Bluetooth playback start

[loft]

Hello,

I've been using Poweramp for quite a long time now (probably over a decade) and I've been very happy with it. 

In the recent year(s) I've notice on small inconvenience which I blamed on my old phone. But since it manifests on the new phone, I decided to address it.

I am listening most of the time via Bluetooth through my VW headunit, EarStudio receiver or OnePlus Wireless Z headphones. Music is mostly AAC(-LC) or mp3. Settings are the default ones (just wiped Poweramp's data to make sure). I have no sound modifiers installed. The phones are either a OnePlus 5 (Android 10 based OxygenOS 10.0.1 - rooted) or Samsung S21 (Android 11 based OneUi 3.1, July 2021 patch - untouched). 

If I pause the music for 20-30 seconds and start playback again, for the first 10 seconds of playback several dropouts can be heard. This happens with both phones, on all 3 playback devices indifferent of the song played. The behavior is limited to Poweramp (I've tried Spotify, YoutubeMusic Youtube, Amazon Music, etc.) The dropouts/cutouts sound like someone would rapidly lower the volume for a second or less. They seem to be fading, not instant volume changes.

If there is anything I can do to avoid this, I am open to suggestions. I'm happy to assist with debugging.

Thanks!

 

PS: I've sent a log from the app. The email starts with a link to this post.

 

[Bencherished]

I will suggest that you try wired headphone and also play through the phone speaker just to make sure it's not your Bluetooth devices. Also try using your headphones with some other person's phone. 

You may have an app installed on both your phones that may be causing this issue, just double check, especially when you said you've cleared cache for Poweramp. 

[maxmp]

@loft please try to capture video/audio from the device when the issue happens (share it with gpmaxmpz@gmail.com). If video captures that audio behavior, we’ll know it’s not the BT stack, but something is happening before audio is transmitted.

[loft]

Thanks for both your answers! They were really helpful in further diagnosing the issue.

As you can see here, something is changing the phone's volume. The app in foreground is the controller for me EarStudio ES100 Bluetooth receiver. The problem was there even after I uninstalled it. This time around I also noticed the issue with Spotify. 

Now I am faced with the challenge of navigating through logcat and figuring out which app is responsible for the volume change.

Thanks a lot!

[loft]

Hello Max,

Today I was trying to further debug the issue with the volume changes and came over the following findings. 

I used the method described here https://android.stackexchange.com/questions/214249/what-app-is-changing-my-volume and found the follwing logs:

While inside Poweramp's settings, the DVC section: https://pastebin.com/2yA4E7uj , https://youtu.be/NjU7w7ahvTE .

Shortly after turning on the screen: https://pastebin.com/1mBceGme .

After resuming playback fromthe headset's play button: https://pastebin.com/aR6GuNKx .

It seems that Poweramp is the one changing the volume.

[loft]

Just checking back. Is there any development to this? 

[maxmp]

@loft Poweramp changes volume (+1/-1) on BT connection to detect if Absolute volume is enabled or disabled. This happens for 5sec or less. (When absolute volume is enabled, there is no actual volume change on the Android device, volume is always set to a value close to 100% and we can detect that by those volume changes). 

On all devices I have available for tests (hundreds) this approach works, but if it doesn't work for you, e.g. volume jumps more than for +1/-1 step (meaning APIs to change the volume are broken in the firmware), you can just disable "No DVC for Absolute Volume" option. As Poweramp won't be able to detect absolute volume, please ensure you have Absolute volume disabled if you want DVC enabled, or disable DVC (preferable per the specific Audio Output "No DVC" option).

Also volume changes on that Direct Volume Control settings page are absolutely OK and by design as it detects Absolute Volume constantly there. Also, volume may be changed by few steps more/less if you volume is set to 0 or 100% already.