Audio–Video inference returns only "!!!!!!!"

When trying to run inference with the released VideoLLaMA2.1-7B-AV checkpoint using both audio and video input, the model returns meaningless outputs consisting only of "!" characters, instead of a natural language response.

Reproduction Steps
Minimal script used (based on repo instructions):

///////////////////////////////////////// Inference script /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
import sys
import os
sys.path.append('./')

from videollama2 import model_init, mm_infer
from videollama2.utils import disable_torch_init
from huggingface_hub import snapshot_download

def inference():
disable_torch_init()

# --------- Load model weights ----------
model_path = "./checkpoints/VideoLLaMA2.1-7B-AV"
if not os.path.exists(model_path):
print("Downloading model weights …")
snapshot_download("DAMO-NLP-SG/VideoLLaMA2.1-7B-AV", local_dir=model_path)

# --------- Initialize model ---------
model, processor, tokenizer = model_init(model_path)

# --------- Input video (with audio track) ---------
video_path = "test_audio_latest3.mp4"
preprocess = processor["video"]

# Audio + Video
av_tensor = preprocess(video_path, va=True)

# --------- Question ---------
question = "Describe what is happening in the video and also analyze the sound (voices, background, or emotions)."

# --------- Inference ---------
output = mm_infer(
av_tensor,
question,
model=model,
tokenizer=tokenizer,
modal="video", # video modal with va=True for AV fusion
do_sample=False,
)

print("\n=== Model Answer ===")
print(output)

if __name__ == "__main__":
inference()
///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// Inference Code Ends //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

Expected Behavior
The model should return a descriptive natural language answer that integrates both the video and audio information.

Actual Behavior
The output is only:
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Questions for the Authors:-

Are the released VideoLLaMA2.1-7B-AV checkpoints fully supporting audio–video inference?

Is there any special preprocessing needed for the audio track (e.g., specific codecs or formats)?

Should the modal="video" argument be replaced with "av" for correct fusion?

Could the "!!!!" outputs be a sign that audio alignment weights were not included in the release?