diff --git a/tests/codec_be_on_mr_nonselection/test_param_file.py b/tests/codec_be_on_mr_nonselection/test_param_file.py
index e760edd4702fd68859a1c309d31a543a21737d70..e4928584cf650bde2e7f63a6c4782905089e464e 100644
--- a/tests/codec_be_on_mr_nonselection/test_param_file.py
+++ b/tests/codec_be_on_mr_nonselection/test_param_file.py
@@ -60,9 +60,6 @@ from tests.constants import (
     MAX_ENC_STATS_DIFF,
     SCRIPTS_DIR,
     MAX_ENC_DIFF,
-    DMX_DIFF,
-    DMX_MLD,
-    DMX_SSNR,
 )
 from tests.renderer.utils import check_and_makedir, binauralize_input_and_output
 
@@ -316,8 +313,12 @@ def run_test(
     bitrate = enc_split.pop()
     in_sr = sampling_rate
 
-    # bitrate can be a filename: remove leading "../"
-    if bitrate.startswith("../"):
+    # bitrate can be a filename: change it to an absolute path
+    if not bitrate.isdigit():
+        if compare_enc_dmx:
+            pytest.skip(
+                "Rate switching + --compare_enc_dmx currently skipped due to DEBUGGING code limitations with varying number of transport channels"
+            )
         bitrate = Path(bitrate[3:]).absolute()
 
     testv_base = testv_file.split("/")[-1]