Chromium will not run its WebRTC audio decoder for a remote track
that is only consumed by a MediaStreamAudioSourceNode. The track
must also be attached to an HTMLMediaElement to "kick" the decoder
into running. Without the anchor the worklet's queue fills with
zeros — the 'started' event fires, ctxState=running, RTP packets
arrive at 50 pps, yet PulseAudio Playback shows the chrome stream
present with the level meter dead at 0. Fox 2026-06-07 fedora
chrome silent for days; firefox unaffected (its decoder runs
unconditionally for MediaStreamSource consumers).
Each attach now creates a hidden muted <audio> bound to the same
MediaStream. The element makes no audible output (muted=true); its
sole purpose is to keep chromium's decoder running so the worklet's
MediaStreamSource sees real samples. setWorkletStream swaps the
anchor's srcObject alongside the source node so an in-place stream
swap doesn't strand the anchor on a dead track. detachListenerStream
tears the anchor down with the rest of the chain.
Tests pin the contract: anchor created on attach, anchor follows the
stream on setWorkletStream, anchor torn down on detach.
Russell Ballestrini
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