diff --git a/clients/android/native/src/decode/async_loop.rs b/clients/android/native/src/decode/async_loop.rs
index eede78c1..2a5b44a2 100644
--- a/clients/android/native/src/decode/async_loop.rs
+++ b/clients/android/native/src/decode/async_loop.rs
@@ -21,7 +21,7 @@ use super::setup::{
     android_hdr_static_info, boost_hot_threads, boost_thread_priority, codec_mime,
     configure_low_latency, create_codec, try_set_frame_rate,
 };
-use super::{DecodeOptions, FRAME_PARK_CAP, IN_FLIGHT_CAP, PENDING_SPLIT_CAP};
+use super::{DecodeOptions, FRAME_PARK_CAP, IN_FLIGHT_CAP, NO_OUTPUT_PATIENCE, PENDING_SPLIT_CAP};
 
 /// One decoded output buffer ready to release: its codec buffer index + the pts the codec echoed
 /// (from the output callback's `BufferInfo`), used to pair the `decode` HUD stat, and the
@@ -253,6 +253,12 @@ pub(super) fn run_async(
     // presented. The blocking event wait is excluded (idle, not work) — same accounting as the sync loop.
     let mut work_accum_ns: i64 = 0;
     let mut fatal = false;
+    // No-output backstop (see [`NO_OUTPUT_PATIENCE`]): the last time the decoder handed us a frame,
+    // and how many AUs it had been fed by then. Silence only counts while AUs are actually going in,
+    // so an idle stream never asks for anything. Seeded at start so a decoder that never produces a
+    // first frame — the missed opening IDR — is caught by the same window.
+    let mut last_output = Instant::now();
+    let mut fed_at_output: u64 = 0;
 
     while !shutdown.load(Ordering::Relaxed) && !fatal {
         // Block for the next event (idle wait — excluded from the work tally). The short timeout
@@ -344,6 +350,12 @@ pub(super) fn run_async(
                 h.report_actual(work_accum_ns);
             }
             work_accum_ns = 0;
+            // The one line that separates "the stream never reached glass" from "it reached glass
+            // and looked wrong" — the periodic tally below only starts at 300 frames, which is no
+            // help at all on a session that renders none.
+            if rendered == 1 {
+                log::info!("decode: first frame presented (fed={fed} discarded={discarded})");
+            }
             if rendered > 0 && rendered % 300 == 0 {
                 log::info!("decode: fed={fed} rendered={rendered} discarded={discarded}");
             }
@@ -356,7 +368,27 @@ pub(super) fn run_async(
         if aus_dropped > 0 {
             gate.arm(now);
         }
-        if (gate.poll(client.frames_dropped(), now) || aus_dropped > 0)
+        // Fed but silent: the decoder is holding nothing it can decode — the opening IDR never
+        // reached it, or its reference chain is gone. Ask for a fresh one and arm the freeze, so the
+        // concealment it may start emitting on the way back is withheld until a clean re-anchor
+        // (`gate.poll` keeps re-asking on the deadline until one arrives).
+        let starved = !had_output
+            && fed > fed_at_output
+            && now.duration_since(last_output) >= NO_OUTPUT_PATIENCE;
+        if had_output {
+            last_output = now;
+            fed_at_output = fed;
+        } else if starved {
+            log::warn!(
+                "decode: no output for {} ms with {} AU(s) fed — requesting a re-anchor keyframe",
+                now.duration_since(last_output).as_millis(),
+                fed - fed_at_output
+            );
+            gate.arm(now);
+            last_output = now; // one request per patience window, not per iteration
+            fed_at_output = fed;
+        }
+        if (gate.poll(client.frames_dropped(), now) || aus_dropped > 0 || starved)
             && last_kf_req.is_none_or(|t| now.duration_since(t) >= Duration::from_millis(100))
         {
             last_kf_req = Some(now);
diff --git a/clients/android/native/src/decode/mod.rs b/clients/android/native/src/decode/mod.rs
index 0edeaaad..fdab3e4c 100644
--- a/clients/android/native/src/decode/mod.rs
+++ b/clients/android/native/src/decode/mod.rs
@@ -41,6 +41,27 @@ const PENDING_SPLIT_CAP: usize = 256;
 /// gets evicted.
 const RENDERED_CAP: usize = 64;
 
+/// How long the decoder may be FED while producing nothing before we treat it as un-anchored and
+/// ask the host for a fresh IDR.
+///
+/// The shared gate's per-AU streak ([`punktfunk_core::reanchor::ReanchorGate::on_no_output`]) can't
+/// be used verbatim here: it counts one-in/one-out decodes (the desktop clients' `LOW_DELAY`
+/// libavcodec path and Apple's VideoToolbox), while MediaCodec is pipelined — inputs and outputs
+/// don't pair up, so "this AU produced no output" isn't a thing this loop can observe. A wall-clock
+/// silence window is the same signal in the shape Android can measure.
+///
+/// Why it matters: the host opens a stream with an IDR and, under infinite GOP, sends no other one
+/// unless asked. Miss that one — the decode thread only starts at `surfaceCreated`, so a slow TV box
+/// can be handed the stream mid-GOP — and every later AU references a picture the decoder never had.
+/// A hardware decoder doesn't error on that; it simply emits nothing. Without this backstop the
+/// session sat there forever: AUs arriving, a healthy HUD, and a black surface, because nothing in
+/// the Android loops ever asked for the keyframe that would re-anchor it.
+///
+/// 500 ms because it must never fire on a decoder that is merely slow to spin up: even the pokiest
+/// hardware decoder emits its first frame within a couple of frame periods, and a wedge that only
+/// costs half a second before it self-heals is not a bug the user reports.
+const NO_OUTPUT_PATIENCE: std::time::Duration = std::time::Duration::from_millis(500);
+
 /// Whether low-latency mode uses the event-driven async decode loop (default) or the synchronous
 /// poll loop. Flip to `false` to A/B the two on the HUD (`design/…`); the async loop presents a
 /// decoded frame the instant it's ready instead of waiting out a poll interval. Only consulted when
diff --git a/clients/android/native/src/decode/sync_loop.rs b/clients/android/native/src/decode/sync_loop.rs
index fd8e775b..387668e4 100644
--- a/clients/android/native/src/decode/sync_loop.rs
+++ b/clients/android/native/src/decode/sync_loop.rs
@@ -24,7 +24,7 @@ use super::setup::{
     android_hdr_static_info, boost_hot_threads, boost_thread_priority, codec_mime,
     configure_low_latency, create_codec, try_set_frame_rate,
 };
-use super::{DecodeOptions, IN_FLIGHT_CAP, PENDING_SPLIT_CAP};
+use super::{DecodeOptions, IN_FLIGHT_CAP, NO_OUTPUT_PATIENCE, PENDING_SPLIT_CAP};
 
 /// The synchronous poll loop — the original decode path: the only one when low-latency mode is off,
 /// and the [`USE_ASYNC_DECODE`] A/B fallback when it's on. Feeds and drains on this one thread; the
@@ -144,6 +144,12 @@ pub(super) fn run_sync(
     let mut fed: u64 = 0;
     let mut rendered: u64 = 0;
     let mut discarded: u64 = 0;
+    // No-output backstop (see [`NO_OUTPUT_PATIENCE`]): when the decoder last handed us a frame, and
+    // how many AUs it had been fed by then. Silence only counts while AUs are going in, so an idle
+    // stream asks for nothing; seeded at start so a decoder that never produces a FIRST frame — the
+    // missed opening IDR — is caught by the same window.
+    let mut last_output = Instant::now();
+    let mut fed_at_output: u64 = 0;
     // AUs larger than the codec input buffer, dropped whole (see `feed`/`feed_ready`).
     let mut oversized_dropped: u64 = 0;
     // The AU waiting for a free codec input buffer. `feed` is non-blocking; on transient input
@@ -313,6 +319,11 @@ pub(super) fn run_sync(
         );
         rendered += r;
         discarded += d;
+        // The one line that separates "the stream never reached glass" from "it reached glass and
+        // looked wrong"; the tally above counts AUs FED, which a black session racks up happily.
+        if r > 0 && rendered == r {
+            log::info!("decode: first frame presented (fed={fed} discarded={discarded})");
+        }
 
         // ADPF: attribute this iteration's feed+drain time to the frame being produced, and report
         // the accumulated per-frame work once one is actually presented (r > 0). Under back-pressure
@@ -355,8 +366,29 @@ pub(super) fn run_sync(
         // a decode-error trigger rarely fires — the gate arms the freeze on the drop-count climb
         // instead. An overdue freeze (held REANCHOR_FREEZE_MAX with no clean re-anchor) re-asks while it
         // keeps holding: never resume to gray — a dead stream is the QUIC idle-timeout watchdog's job.
+        //
+        // Fed but silent is its own recovery trigger (see [`NO_OUTPUT_PATIENCE`]): a decoder that
+        // never got the opening IDR emits nothing at all and errors on nothing, so none of the
+        // signals above ever fire and the surface stays black for the life of the session.
         let now = Instant::now();
-        if gate.poll(client.frames_dropped(), now)
+        let had_output = r + d > 0;
+        let starved = !had_output
+            && fed > fed_at_output
+            && now.duration_since(last_output) >= NO_OUTPUT_PATIENCE;
+        if had_output {
+            last_output = now;
+            fed_at_output = fed;
+        } else if starved {
+            log::warn!(
+                "decode: no output for {} ms with {} AU(s) fed — requesting a re-anchor keyframe",
+                now.duration_since(last_output).as_millis(),
+                fed - fed_at_output
+            );
+            gate.arm(now);
+            last_output = now; // one request per patience window, not per iteration
+            fed_at_output = fed;
+        }
+        if (gate.poll(client.frames_dropped(), now) || starved)
             && last_kf_req.is_none_or(|t| now.duration_since(t) >= Duration::from_millis(100))
         {
             last_kf_req = Some(now);