Speech garbled when talking to Ring devices

[Dave-8080]

Bug Report

Describe the Bug

Speech garbled when talking to Ring devices. I have homebridge running natively on a Synology DS920+. The only plugins. installed are Homebridge TPLink Smarthome and Homebridge Ring. Video streaming and alerts work fine. I can also listen on my iPhone to both the Ring gen 1 doorbell and Wired Stickup camera. However, when I speak to the Ring device from my iPhone, the speech that comes out of both devices is unintelligible. This problem does not occur with the Ring app for iOS.

To Reproduce

Steps to reproduce the behavior:

• Start Homebridge
• Attempt to ... speak to Ring doorbell
• See error

Expected behavior

A person listening to the doorbells speaker can understand me

Screenshots/Logs

If applicable, add screenshots and log output to help explain your problem.

Additional context

This issue does not occur with the official Ring app on iOS

Homebridge Ring Config

Post homebridge-ring platform config without sensitive information

    "bridge": {
        "name": "Homebridge 3A53",
        "username": "- sensitive info -,
        "port": 51408,
        "pin": "101-16-089",
        "advertiser": "bonjour-hap"
    },
    "accessories": [],
    "platforms": [
        {
            "name": "Config",
            "port": 8581,
            "platform": "config"
        },
        {
            "name": "TplinkSmarthome",
            "addCustomCharacteristics": false,
            "deviceTypes": [
                "plug",
                "bulb"
            ],
            "_bridge": {
                "username": "0E:AC:DB:1A:50:E3",
                "port": 50680
            },
            "platform": "TplinkSmarthome"
        },
        {
            "refreshToken": - sensitive info -
            "hideDoorbellSwitch": true,
            "avoidSnapshotBatteryDrain": true,
            "beamDurationSeconds": 59,
            "cameraStatusPollingSeconds": 10,
            "locationModePollingSeconds": 0,
            "_bridge": {
                "username": "- sensitive info -",
                "port": 46498
            },
            "platform": "Ring"
        }
    ]
}

HIGHLIGHT THIS TEXT AND POST CONFIG HERE
DO NOT INCLUDE YOUR REFRESH TOKEN OR EMAIL/PASSWORD (replace them with xxx)

Environment

• OS: Synology DSM 7
• Node.js: [e.g. 12.14.1] v16.15.1
• NPM: [e.g 6.13.4] 8.11.0
• homebridge-ring: 11.0.6
• homebridge: 4.48.1
• hoobs: N/A

[rfiorentino1]

When I was able to get the live stream working a few months ago, I was also seeing issue, but assumed it was something to do with my particular setup. This is just a guess, but it may be due to mismatched sample rates/bit rates/encoding between what ring is providing/expecting and what the plugin is converting between. Might be something worth looking into, though I doubt amazon/ring post what their default values are for those kinds of things.

[Dave-8080]

Thanks for looking into it, and your awesome plugin.

…

On Jul 9, 2022, at 1:00 AM, rfiorentino1 ***@***.***> wrote: When I was able to get the live stream working a few months ago, I was also seeing issue, but assumed it was something to do with my particular setup. This is just a guess, but it may be due to mismatched sample rates/bit rates/encoding between what ring is providing/expecting and what the plugin is converting between. Might be something worth looking into, though I doubt amazon/ring post what their default values are for those kinds of things. — Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#984 (comment)>, or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AZ64EOAK5JVEFCH37O7EDC3VTEBNPANCNFSM527DWKFQ>. You are receiving this because you authored the thread.

[rawrmcrawrrawr]

I also have the same issue. Discussed here: #966
Looks like the return audio is being converted from AAC to Opus. Could be something related to the conversion?

[rfiorentino1]

Interesting. Thank you for connecting these 2 issues, and sharing the log, that actually was really helpful. From an audio perspective, I do think the issue is in the conversion between Mac and the lib opus encoder. The plugin is currently taking a mono 16K stream, and converting it to a stereo 48K stream, which I don't thin the doorbell can handle. I would try keeping the rates the same, so 16K mono both ways, and see what happens/if it improves audio and reliability.
A good place to start may be line 285 of the output arguments calling the lib Opus library, which seems to be creating a 48K stream :)

[dgreif]

It's very likely that there is something wrong with the audio conversion in this case. I fixed a similar issue (#930) recently, where some cameras were still using PCMU instead of opus. It's very possible that the Ring Doorbell Pro is using a different bit rate or something along those lines.

@Dave-8080 is your doorbell located such that you would feel comfortable sharing it with me for a few days to debug? If so, please send a Ring invite to dustin.greif@gmail.com. Hopefully access to it will give me some insight into what it's expecting for stream settings.

[Dave-8080]

I’m updating the doorbell to a Ring video doorbell 2020 because of battery drain. If the issue is still Ty, I’ll be glad to share it.

…

On Jul 10, 2022, at 2:09 PM, Dusty Greif ***@***.***> wrote:  It's very likely that there is something wrong with the audio conversion in this case. I fixed a similar issue (#930) recently, where some cameras were still using PCMU instead of opus. It's very possible that the Ring Doorbell Pro is using a different bit rate or something along those lines. @Dave-8080 is your doorbell located such that you would feel comfortable sharing it with me for a few days to debug? If so, please send a Ring invite to ***@***.*** Hopefully access to it will give me some insight into what it's expecting for stream settings. — Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub, or unsubscribe. You are receiving this because you were mentioned.

[rfiorentino1]

If it would be helpful, I do have a 2021 ring video doorbell pro that I'd be happy to share an invite to for debugging

[dgreif]

@rfiorentino1 is yours exhibiting the same garbled audio when using 2-way, or does it just not stream at all?

[rfiorentino1]

The last few times that I've actually been able to stream audio/video, the return audio from my phone to the camera was very garbled/pitched down like the above post describes. I currently can't get live streams to work, hence #985 but last working one was probably about a month ago, after the update that closed #930
I'm about to try downgrading to version 9.24 to see if I at least get streaming back, I'm curious after reading through the comments in #930. I'll report back :)

[rfiorentino1]

Interestingly 9.24.0 works flawlessly for me every time. The audio seems to be a little less clearer generally, as far as frequency goes, than the newer versions of the plug-in, but the streaming part works every time

[lawb]

FWIW I have the same issue and I am happy to help test if required.

[rawrmcrawrrawr]

@dgreif I can also provide access to my Ring Doorbell Pro to help with this issue if needed.

[dgreif]

@Dave-8080 thanks for sharing the camera. I tested it with homebridge and it appears that the audio goes through, but the voice is distorted. I was able to recreate this problem on my end with my own cameras, so feel free to remove my access. Can you confirm that you are able to actually hear your words, but that they sound distorted when using homebridge 2-way audio?

[Dave-8080]

Yes, that describes it.

…

On Jul 16, 2022, at 7:45 PM, Dusty Greif ***@***.***> wrote: @Dave-8080 <https://github.com/Dave-8080> thanks for sharing the camera. I tested it with homebridge and it appears that the audio goes through, but the voice is distorted. I was able to recreate this problem on my end with my own cameras, so feel free to remove my access. Can you confirm that you are able to actually hear your words, but that they sound distorted when using homebridge 2-way audio? — Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#984 (comment)>, or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AZ64EOGFJZQW6S4HEGBOL7LVUNCRJANCNFSM527DWKFQ>. You are receiving this because you were mentioned.

[rfiorentino1]

I've been running version 9.24.0 of this plug-in for the last few weeks because that's the last stable version for me for whatever reason. However, I fixed a troublesome Apple TV today, which was causing issues with a homebridge doorlock, and decided to update Ring again to the latest version, to see if it worked and also to confirm this garbled audio issue. When running on 11.0.7, I now seem to get streaming with video/audio about 60% of the time, but still not nearly as consistent as 9.24.0 which streams consistently every single time.
I do however still have the garbled audio issue with 11.0.7, glad you were able to replicate it with other cameras on your end. not sure if access to my doorbell is still helpful, but it's there if you need it. Thank you so much for looking into all of this

[dgreif]

Thanks for the info. I think you can both revoke my access at this point since I'm able to replicate with my own cameras. I haven't identified a fix yet, and have a busy couple weeks coming up. Thanks for your patience while I get this sorted out!

[Jocala]

Just dropping in to confirm this issue on my ring devices. Ive tested doorbell2 and stick-up cams.

[aounakram]

Same issue here on ring doorbell 3 plus, stick up cam (3rd gen) and video doorbell 2

[jeph]

Same issue here on Ring Peephole cam

[Yorlinq]

I have just added my new Ring Video Doorbel Pro 2 (firmware: 10.0.18) via your plugin and it almost works great :)

I also have the same sound-bug. Me speaking thru Homekit to the doorbell makes mu voice sound al scrambled up. When I try this via the original Ring app, my voice is Cristal clear.

I use Homebridge version 1.6.0
I use Ring plugin version 11.6.0

Maybe there's an audio setting of some kind I've missed or is this bug still active?

Many thanks for your hard work making this dream of many..... real 🙏🏻

Hope to hear from you soon.

[dgreif]

I still haven't tracked down what is causing this bug. I believe it is present for all users and camera models

[dgreif]

@tsightler was able to track down some better config options for 2-way audio in #1299. It seems to be much better now, so I'm going to close this issue.

These changes will be available in v12 of the plugin.