Audio cutting when screen goes off

[FFELIPES]

Hi, everyone! I'm new here and have been trying to find people with the same problem I've got but haven't found it anywhere. 

So, I've been using Premium Poweramp Equalizer with all ADB permissions applied so it works pretty well on Spotify, YouTube, and every other source of audio on my phone. 

The problem is that, even having tried every phone setting option not to have a battery restriction on the equalizer and on the applications with audio output for background function, and with pre-amp set to 0, limit function enabled, really mild bass and treble increases (6% and 12%, respectively) and even Dolby Atmos function disabled, whenever the screen goes off it's a matter of just a few minutes until the audio of whatever source I'm listening to on my in-ears starts to consistently clip and cut. This doesn't happen when the screen is on and only happens with the screen off whenever the Poweramp Equalizer is running. Funny thing is that this doesn't happen at all when my phone is playing something through a Bluetooth speaker with the screen off. 

Does anyone here have some info on how I might be able to solve this problem? 

My phone is a Samsung A23 (SM-A235M/DS), unrooted, Android 13, One UI 5.1 and with the latest Equalizer build, which is the 960-963.

Thanks in advance!

[FFELIPES]

UPDATE: Guys, actually I came to realize that the cause of the problem really was the Dolby Atmos function. By reading some instructions given here and there, the last thing I got to know about was the incompatibility between the equalizer in the background and Dolby Atmos - which when I turned off and reinitialized the phone and performed long tests, the audio cutting simply disappeared. 

Apparently this is common sense for Samsung devices or, at least, for intermediary ones like mine. 

Anyhow, I'm glad it's solved.

May this thread be useful for whomever person that might come across the same issue 😁

[FFELIPES]

On 6/15/2023 at 4:26 PM, FFELIPES said:

UPDATE: Guys, actually I came to realize that the cause of the problem really was the Dolby Atmos function. By reading some instructions given here and there, the last thing I got to know about was the incompatibility between the equalizer in the background and Dolby Atmos - which when I turned off and reinitialized the phone and performed long tests, the audio cutting simply disappeared. 

Apparently this is common sense for Samsung devices or, at least, for intermediary ones like mine. 

Anyhow, I'm glad it's solved.

May this thread be useful for whomever person that might come across the same issue 😁

Unfortunately... I was wrong lol 

After some more time the audio cutting while the screen's off came back. I've searched for every possible solution for this (battery restriction-related options on the Android, known player options on the app, reduced the audio blocks...) and I still didn't manage to get a definitive solution to this problem. 

As an alternative, what I've been doing now is listening to audio with the Poweramp Equalizer Visualization on with EQ bands blocked while the phone's in my pocket. That is, I have to keep the screen on, otherwise the same problem will eventually happen again but that's far from an ideal solution for this. 

If anyone here has any contributions to this topic, please do. I can't think of anything else to solve this once and for all. 

[Josh Targo]

similar issue. using Poweramp equalizer 963 on samsung galaxy A50 with Tidal hifi.  works ok if tidal or Poweramp are on screen, but if minimized or screen locked, the music starts to heavily glitch and skip. battery optimization is off, allow background activity is on (but gray).

[andrewilley]

This can only be caused by the device throttling available processing power when the screen is off, or when the app is minimised in the case of players. I use a Galaxy A70 with no issues at all playing from Poweramp with the screen off. I can't comment on Tidal I'm afraid, as I don't use it. Are you using regular output modes, not power-hungry high-res options for example?

Andre

[Josh Targo]

not sure what power hungry modes are. block sizes are both set to 4096, but happens with 2048 too (is this the equivalent of the buffer sizing in regular Poweramp?).  tidal is just streaming flac, not 24 bit masters. what about common android settings for this? I have allow background use and turned off battery optimize.  is there anything else i'm missing?

[maxmp]

I would try to disable battery optimizations/enable background for the player app, as it produces audio and if throttled, audio will stutter.

Recent firmwares across many OEMs have multiple levels of app "optimization": if the "optimizer" doesn't understand that's a music player playing, it may throttle cpu for app beyond required for the smooth playback - esp. when screen is off.

The Poweramp Equalizer app do not require this treatment in general as it doesn't process audio (at least the audio data which goes to output), but still recommended as any new player started may be ignored by Equalizer if it's killed in the background.

https://dontkillmyapp.com is a solution here.

[Josh Targo]

background is on and optimization is off for both Tidal and PAEQ.  Would black size have anything to do with it?  What is block size? it's not explained anywhere what it is or what the settings mean. is the default 4096 ok, or should it be turned down? or up?

[maxmp]

@Josh Targo any block size will work without stutter on modern Androids. The smaller block sizes had issues on Android 9. 

[Josh Targo]

Does block size affect sound quality or should I just leave it on 4096?  I have a samsung A50 with android 11

I did a full uninstall and re-install of PAEQ and Tidal and it seems to be ok now.   I'll post again if the glitch comes back.

[maxmp]

@Josh Targo larger block size increases “smearing”. That can be noticeable around hit hats and similar percussion sounds. 

[Josh Targo]

so for maximum quality, should I set them all the way down to 2048?  The app says "larger block size increases frequency resolution" which sounds like the opposite of what you just said. also there is "block size" and "block size for hi res" what's the cutoff between the two? how do I choose settings?

[maxmp]

@Josh Targo there is a tradeoff between smearing vs frequency resolution. The default value is the best and shouldn't be changed unless issues arise. Thanks!