Audio periodically skips in kodi with pipewire-pulse
Kodi log gets filled with:
2020-12-05 17:33:59.688 T:31880 ERROR <general>: Sink Timer expired for more than buffer time: 200l
2020-12-05 17:33:59.714 T:31879 WARNING <general>: ActiveAE - large audio sync error: -1225.917003
2020-12-05 17:33:59.714 T:31879 WARNING <general>: ActiveAE - large audio sync error: -1226.339411
2020-12-05 17:33:59.714 T:31879 WARNING <general>: ActiveAE - large audio sync error: -1221.353083
2020-12-05 17:33:59.714 T:31879 WARNING <general>: ActiveAE - large audio sync error: -1221.774954
2020-12-05 17:33:59.715 T:31879 WARNING <general>: ActiveAE - large audio sync error: -1216.787359
2020-12-05 17:33:59.715 T:31879 WARNING <general>: ActiveAE - large audio sync error: -1217.209214
2020-12-05 17:33:59.715 T:31879 WARNING <general>: ActiveAE - large audio sync error: -1212.221522
2020-12-05 17:33:59.715 T:31879 WARNING <general>: ActiveAE - large audio sync error: -1212.643449
2020-12-05 17:34:00.029 T:31880 ERROR <general>: Sink Timer expired for more than buffer time: 200l
2020-12-05 17:34:00.055 T:31879 WARNING <general>: ActiveAE - large audio sync error: -1390.619264
2020-12-05 17:34:00.055 T:31879 WARNING <general>: ActiveAE - large audio sync error: -90739.634050
2020-12-05 17:34:00.056 T:31879 WARNING <general>: ActiveAE - large audio sync error: -90724.652817
2020-12-05 17:34:00.371 T:31880 ERROR <general>: Sink Timer expired for more than buffer time: 200l
2020-12-05 17:34:00.712 T:31880 ERROR <general>: Sink Timer expired for more than buffer time: 200l
2020-12-05 17:34:00.968 T:31880 ERROR <general>: Sink Timer expired for more than buffer time: 200l
2020-12-05 17:34:00.993 T:31879 WARNING <general>: ActiveAE - large audio sync error: -1012.577010
2020-12-05 17:34:00.993 T:31879 WARNING <general>: ActiveAE - large audio sync error: -1012.583919
2020-12-05 17:34:00.994 T:31879 WARNING <general>: ActiveAE - large audio sync error: -1012.588567
2020-12-05 17:34:00.994 T:31879 WARNING <general>: ActiveAE - large audio sync error: -1012.594163
2020-12-05 17:34:00.994 T:31879 WARNING <general>: ActiveAE - large audio sync error: -1013.599533
2020-12-05 17:34:00.994 T:31879 WARNING <general>: ActiveAE - large audio sync error: -1013.605066kodi version 19.0 beta 1
pipewire cfe43cbe
"Sink Timer expired for more than buffer time": https://github.com/xbmc/xbmc/blob/19.0b1-Matrix/xbmc/cores/AudioEngine/Sinks/AESinkPULSE.cpp#L1091
"large audio sync error": https://github.com/xbmc/xbmc/blob/19.0b1-Matrix/xbmc/cores/AudioEngine/Engines/ActiveAE/ActiveAE.cpp#L1975
I experience this with all video files I tried. Kodi also has a music player, where playback is fine, though I still get "Sink Timer expired for more than buffer time: 200l" errors in the log file when playing music, but no "large audio sync error".
Kodi also has support for an ALSA backend. If compiled with both PulseAudio and ALSA support, it first tries to set up PulseAudio and if it fails falls back to ALSA (see https://github.com/xbmc/xbmc/blob/19.0b1-Matrix/xbmc/platform/linux/PlatformLinux.cpp#L82)
You can use an environment variable KODI_AE_SINK with values ALSA or PULSE to force either backend.
I'm mentioning this because the audio also skips when using the ALSA backend.
In my experience it's easier to hear the issue when there's music playing.