MacBook Pro M1 2020 Skipping Video/Audio via HDMI

My MacBook Pro M1 2020 (Ventura 13.2.1) used to play video to my TVs via a USB-C to HDMI adapter, but now it will only play video from clips or games in fast forward or at normal speed without audio. It is set to play audio out to the devices, not the MacBook speakers. It was fine a week ago, but now it won't work on multiple TVs, HDMI cables, and adapters, so I'm confident it's a software issue with my computer.


Note: Apple grabbed the OS 11.1 from a different laptop but won't let me change the listing. It is 13.2.1.

MacBook Pro 13″

Posted on Mar 24, 2023 6:53 AM

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46 replies

Oct 7, 2023 11:00 PM in response to fOrest94

fOrest94 wrote:

I have the same problem only after waking up from sleep either fast forwarding video or audio distortion occurs. Only rebooting or using the MacBook speakers helps.
Has anyone tried to reset the SMC and NVRAM (PRAM) parameters? Will this help?


MacWorld claims that it is impossible to reset NVRAM on an Apple Silicon Mac using regular Terminal commands. Allegedly there is a Terminal command that you can use from Recovery mode.


The StackExchange thread indicates that you can read and write specific parameters, but that the special startup key combination to clear all of the parameters is no more.


https://www.macworld.com/article/676207/how-to-reset-nvram-on-an-m1-or-intel-mac.html

https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/406873/is-there-an-equivalent-to-resetting-nvram-on-an-m1-mac



Oct 8, 2023 1:38 AM in response to jordandupton

Thank you all for your response!

I found a couple of solutions that might help someone: you can close the coreaudiod process (responsible for audio playback), which should then start automatically, or you can also terminate a process that has been running in the background for a very long time and is somehow related to audio. I've also heard of a way to install Garage Band, maybe that will help, although it's quite strange.

My problem disappeared with time, maybe one of the MacBook updates solved it.

Oct 12, 2023 9:38 AM in response to jordandupton

I've been having the same issue for about 6 months and as others have mentioned on this thread would have to restart my laptop after setting my sound output to my monitor whenever I wanted to use an external speaker. A few days ago I updated to Sonoma and haven't had the issue since. I know that's not a viable solution for everyone, but another solution to potentially solve this.

Nov 16, 2023 1:18 PM in response to jordandupton

I've just been restarting every time I try outputting video/audio on HDMI since I have my M1 Pro 14" since over a year ago. Doesn't matter what source of video, be it local files or web streaming stuff, always I need to restart then it outputs HDMI ok.


I seen reddit and here talk of doing an SMC reset, seems to be on Arm Macbooks SMC reset is done when powering off then waiting 30 seconds before powering back up. I might try that, wonder if in combination with one of the latest OS updates this might be fixed.


Could it be this is a hardware fault somewhere around HDMI output function by Apple that they may have fixed in new batches of the Macbook?


Weird is this bug happening accross several Macbook models from M1, M1 Pro, M1 Max and M2?

MacBook Pro M1 2020 Skipping Video/Audio via HDMI

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