w3c / w3c/webcodecs

Require `AudioDecoderConfig.description` for channels > 2 with Opus?

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#826 18 comments 0 reactions 1 assignee View on GitHub

@tguilbert-google is already working on this.

Since Jul 14, 2026.

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Description

I'm surfacing this issue, originally reported against Chromium's implementation.

The following fails on Chromium but works on Firefox

const config = {codec: 'opus', numberOfChannels: 6, sampleRate: 44100};
console.log(await AudioDecoder.isConfigSupported(config)); // {supported: true}

const decoder = new AudioDecoder({ error: console.error, output: console.log });

decoder.configure(config);

If the channel count is greater than 2 we can either:

  • have isConfigSupported() return {supported: false} when AudioDecoderConfig.description isn't set
  • generate extradata behind the scenes

Is this worth calling out in the spec, or adding a non-normative note?

@padenot, wdyt?

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