diff --git a/services/capture/src/capture-manager.js b/services/capture/src/capture-manager.js
index 0149656..bab7902 100644
--- a/services/capture/src/capture-manager.js
+++ b/services/capture/src/capture-manager.js
@@ -201,8 +201,13 @@ class CaptureManager {
       const audioFifo = `/tmp/dc-audio-${this._sessionIdForBridge}`;
 
       // Create the audio FIFO before spawning the bridge.
-      const { execSync: _exec } = await import('child_process');
-      try { _exec(`mkfifo ${audioFifo}`); } catch (_) { /* may already exist */ }
+      const { execFileSync: _execFile } = await import('child_process');
+      const { unlinkSync: _unlink, existsSync: _exists } = await import('node:fs');
+      // Remove any stale FIFO or file from a prior crashed session
+      if (_exists(audioFifo)) { try { _unlink(audioFifo); } catch (_) {} }
+      try { _execFile('mkfifo', [audioFifo]); } catch (e) {
+        throw new Error(`Failed to create audio FIFO ${audioFifo}: ${e.message}`);
+      }
 
       const bridge = spawn('deltacast-capture', [
         '--device',       String(idx),
@@ -211,14 +216,9 @@ class CaptureManager {
         '--signal-timeout', '30',
       ], { stdio: ['ignore', 'pipe', 'pipe'] });
 
-      // Log bridge stderr after the first line (non-JSON diagnostic output)
-      let firstLineDone = false;
-      bridge.stderr.on('data', (d) => {
-        if (firstLineDone) console.error(`[deltacast-bridge] ${d}`);
-        else if (d.toString().includes('\n')) firstLineDone = true;
-      });
-
       const fmt = await readFirstStderrLine(bridge, 35_000);
+      // Log any subsequent bridge stderr (diagnostics, warnings)
+      bridge.stderr.on('data', (d) => console.error(`[deltacast-bridge] ${d.toString().trimEnd()}`));
       // fmt: { width, height, fps_num, fps_den, interlaced, pix_fmt,
       //        audio_channels, audio_rate, device, port }
 
@@ -421,6 +421,14 @@ class CaptureManager {
 
     const processes = { hires: hiresProcess };
     if (bridgeProcess) processes.bridge = bridgeProcess;
+    if (bridgeProcess) {
+      bridgeProcess.on('exit', (code) => {
+        if (code !== 0 && code !== null) {
+          console.error(`[deltacast-bridge] exited with code ${code}`);
+          this.state.lastError = `deltacast bridge exited: code ${code}`;
+        }
+      });
+    }
     const uploads = { hires: hiresUpload };
 
     // ── HLS tee for network sources (live preview in the UI) ──────────