XXHighEnd

Sometimes replay does not start at first track in playlist in unattended play. Its very random play can start at most any track in play list. Always though I can see its processing the required tracks when Play button pressed. It happens with different PC's, OS or XX versions but is maybe more frequent since using ramdisks.

Colin

Colin,

I'd say this must be an issue with the contents of the Playlist. That is, I can't think of anything else.
And I have never seen such a thing.

When you can let this happen again, can you show a screenshot of the Playlist in order ?

Peter

Hi Peter

This problem continues to occur & also now on a different PC.

There's nothing wrong with playlists.

Attached are 2 log files one shows problem it played track 3 when track 1 was selected as start track. The other log was when it played track 1 OK.

Colin

Hi Colin,

Thank you doe this (I'd say) hard work and dedication. Super. Bbbut :

I'm afraid that the log shows exactly what happens - those tracks are really selected. And, it should be so that you can also really see that. Point of course is and remains : why does it happen ?

Do you some times play with a selection of tracks ? thus, select a few tracks by means of clicking/tapping them and then press Play ?
I'd say that only in such a case something like your issue can occur. But then the NEXT time XXHighEnd was started (and then play again).

If you can find the general line in this, I can probably solve it ...

Thank you again !
Peter

Hi Peter

I put a single album into playlist and play from first track which is the highlighted track but often it starts play from a track further down the list.

The problem can happen with first play from startup and after selecting new playlist.

Colin

(strikethrough is mine)

Possibly there's a misunderstanding right there;
Any selected track is just remembered. Even after a reboot.

But I'll present you the most absurd situation where you don't expect anything to be wrong :

1. Start playback - Unattendedly.
2. Stop playback by means of Alt-s.
3. Go for lunch, vacation or just a coffee.
4. Press Alt-p (assumed AutoHotkey is still running which implies no reboot in between).

Playback continues where it left off, right ?
(if all is right it does, but this may fail some times)

This means that internally those selected tracks remain selected, and playback always commences at the selected track(s). Btw, this is exactly whay your "wrong" log file shows.

Of course you accept the above sequence as true;
Now change #4 into : use Alt-x.
You will see exactly what I just described; playback stopped at say track 4 and when bringing up XXHighEnd you will see track 4 selected (maybe it is 5). BUT :
This depends a bit ... I think it will be so that when the whole Playlist finished playing (can also be the previous day) that the first track selected of this last "play session" will be selected. And for sure not the last (but can also be the first).

For the necessary confusion there's also this :
When in Settings there's the "Use Touch Facilities" activated, it is the most easy to accidentally select more tracks. This feature conflicts somewhat with another feature which tells that playback should always start at track one (when the playlist is new). Therefore the message is built in "Is it correct that Track #1 is selected ?" (similar). Answer that with No and playback will start at that selected track you don't even see.


Just confirming that I read that. But still. It is way too easy to have tracks selected without you really doing that while all is completely normal and by design (see descriptions above). I never ever see such a thing going wrong, but, I understand what I all friggled together. One anomaly I see happening some times :
Something with a message during start up (like Audio Device has changed since last time (similar)) and now some random track is selected (somehow). But now there is always that message when this happens and you should recognize that (situation from now on).

Otherwise I really don't know ...

Something else : you can't have your logging on with the low SFS setting you use and play in good fashion meanwhile. So how did it happen that you had logging on for the "wrong" situation, while the right one was made after that (as in "see ? it can also be OK" and NOT as in "see ? it was right and right after it is wrong". :wacko:
Explanation could be : but Peter I know how to incur for it.
Ok ... then show me how to copy the behaviour ! haha
Just kidding. But it seems strange that you could log it (while your logging should be off, normally).

Peter

1. Start playback - Unattendedly.
2. Stop playback by means of Alt-s.
3. Go for lunch, vacation or just a coffee.
4. Press Alt-p (assumed AutoHotkey is still running which implies no reboot in between).

Playback continues where it left off, right ?

Not always, its can be several tracks further on. If I the do Alt-X it can show the highlighted track to be even further on than the one that's now playing.

I can't detect any pattern in when the wrong or right track plays. It can happen in min or normal OS.

Only thing that is consistent is when I get problem do Alt-X then stop play, reselect desire track ( usually tk 1) and then restart unattended play, its always plays the selected track.

'Use touch facility' is off. I only turned Logging ON to see if it gave a clue to cause of problem.

Because it happens on 2 very different PC I think it must be a software problem. I'm surprised no one else has encountered the problem.

Thanks
Colin

Colin,


Did you write that yourself ? Doesn't look so ! (counts for the remainder as well). Anyway :
Maybe there's a clue, although I don't think so, but what you described in that quote is exactly right. IOW, now I don't know why you said it. To me it feels the same as :
"The only thing which is consistent is when I press play, music starts". haha


I can't guarantee it, but I don't think so. What you will see is the one but last track selected from a full playlist played (which should be the last track and which you can call a bug if you like (and which I can't solve - somehow).

Side note : When I read this (quote) I almost get the idea that something is wrong with a track in the playlist. Like : at the 5th track memory is full, some hidden error occurs, GUI vanishes and music starts playing all right. Meanwhile the selected tracks (which you see happening at the start of Unattanded) stopped selecting at that 5th track and when you now bring up XXHighEnd that 5th track may show selected.
May it tell you something : the start of the tracks is in a separate thread, thus has its own life and thus also can error while the main thread happily continues (and shuts down itself when Unattended starts).


That is very logical.


But now it's not so much any more.
Combine the two and we have some kind of pilot error.
Nah, also not, but it all may highly depend on what you do and what you see or what you are disturbed about or etc. ... but one thing is 200% sure : it never ever happened to me.
The difference (at least) : I know what I am doing and it could well be that I e.g see a not intended selected track and unselect it - and possibly I also know what to avoid. This latter is quite crucial.
Maybe an example in the area : press (click) a track once it is is "half" selected. Exactly nobody ever complained and I think it is nowhere dealt with in the forum as well. Still this anomaly can cause a lot of trouble, like you thinking it is selected while it is not at all, which can even lead to no selected tracks at all and next then what when you press play ? (probably track 1 will be selected under the hood).
But moral : everybody will learn how to deal with it and there's nothing much to complain (only I do as I must have spent over 40 hours all together to solve that stupid issue - but I can't).

:heat:

So no, there is no problem. But it will be - or has to be so that the means you use to play in general, implies a probem after all. It is more likely, though, that you can't see through what's happening and why. Maybe another example :


Yes, recognizable. And the reason for it I can come up with (because I just know) is that pressing Alt-n(ext) twice - and maybe even shortly after eachoter, mixes up things internally. The proof ? just try a couple. You will soon see that tracks are skippend (so Next now does 3rd next etc.). The base mechanism is again those selected tracks, but now internally. Next thing is easy (hey, for me it is !) : Don't apply that one time too many of Alt-n but instead bring up XXHighEnd (Alt-x). You will see that "3rd next" track being the selected one (probably the 2nd) and next tell me what you just did (quote).
Where is the bug ?
For this example certainly not the track selection being strange. The Alt-n is though.
...
And so I never use that too fast after eachother. Next I never have that selection problem either.
This is how "pilot error" is between large quotes.

Sorry for the long story ! it's only that I feel guilty, but of course am clueless just the same.
Peter

PS: Be careful indeed that you are not using a RAMDisk with IMDisk, and where the RAMDisk is defined too small. This obviously does incur for memory problems and they mostly do not show because IMDisk does not detect them (better : such errors are not caught by Windows, thus also not by the program and meanwhile anything strange can (no, will) happen.

Want a laugh ?

Pilot-error-me could also observe the Title of this topic for once and notice the REplay. Ok, I was staring at that earlier on, but all I could envision (when the topic was just new) that someone names "play", "replay" this time. Yep, that happens when working in another language than your own.

But I now got the clue from this part again :


and maybe actually all in your last post emphasizes it, if one only has the Title properly in mind : REplay.
And with/after all of my own typing, this Russian now also becomes quite clear :


So ... about special usage ...
What you apparently do regularly, is having problems of some kind, stop playback, do that via a workaround like Alt-X and then click stop (Ctrl-Alt-X does that in one go) and then click Play again.
Ha !
I would never ever do that !!!
Wayyyy to unreliable.

Ah, that is what you started the topic for eh ?
ok ok

So :
1. I never ever ran into the problem because I never ever have a reason to run into throubles, bring up XXHighEnd and "re-play";
2. I thus indeed never ever ran into the problem described.
3. For the rest of the world must count the same.

:seeyou:

Now allow me to rephrase the problem :

When you bring up XXHighEnd, another track can be selected than the one which is playing.

Correct. And let's say that this is so because there never has been a reason to have that right. However, since what I talked about in my previous post still holds, internally it should work right, as it is the base for Alt-n but also for things like Alt-z. And man, it is crazily complicated to begin with. Say it is even running time related. Like in : when at 01:00 playback starts, and 15 minutes later you press a key, the tracks in between are counted for their running time in order to know where we're currently playing. And, it is only 4 months or so ago that I found a bug in the "Running Time as bar" option because I never was so smart to think that people might press Pause, while somewhere this calculation was going on. It resulted in the track not continuing at the spot it was paused when Pause was used a second time in the same track. That bug too I have been trying to find for ages.

Now we're done;
Like I said, I will never rely on that "feature", because it wasn't made. It may work, but then is by coincidence.
Of course the whole lot is so complicated because of the combination of no-GUI and with-GUI. But for fun, think about the situation :
- Play Unattended;
- Bring up XXHighEnd after 12 minutes, the 4th track just running to its end;
- Press Stop 5 minutes later.
In this situation the whole "static state" has been determined when XXHighEnd was brought up. But this was 5 minutes back and in another track.

I won't even begin thinking of solving this, especially because it actually is not a problem at all. Inconvenient perhaps.
:sorry: and especially :sorry::sorry: about not interpreting the Title of the topic well.
Peter

Hi Peter

Sorry but I see my title for this subject should be 'Play starts at wrong track'

That is I load a playlist, track 1 is highlighted, press PLAY (unattended) and often it starts playing a track further down the list.

So only because of that problem I Alt-X, stop play, highlight track 1 and press PLAY.

Colin

LOL

Colin,

I assume this can happen with just one album in the playlist only. Correct ?

I assume this can happen with normal Redbook CD. Correct ? (try to be clear about not being sure at the moment, if so).

What is your literal means of getting tracks in the playlist ? (I say literal, because it will imply some subsequent button clicks etc. and I want to know exactly how you do it in the offending situation)

Peter

Hi Peter

Yes just one album in playlist.

Yes happens with redbook

To load a playlist I:-
Press Clear
Press L
Drag album from List
Press Play

Colin

Ok, so we have that clear;

I just tried for 5 minutes but see nothing go wrong. However :

Can I actually see it with the dragging alone ? Thus, can I see another track highlighted by this means, or must I really press Play. And if this latter, can I see it happing then, or must I really wait for the music to play ? (and then see it by the Wallpaper Coverart or just hear the wrong track playing)

Thanks,
Peter

I don't think its anything to do with draging to playlist, I always check 1st track is highlighted before play.

When coverart shows I see wrong track selected.

Could 'Nervous Rate' be cause ?. Nervous Rate reduced to 1 seems to make it worst, Nervous Rate 99 might have cured problem, time will tell.

Colin

If that helps it would surprise me.
Let's keep in touch.

Peter

It was not long before PLAY started at wrong track with Nervous Rate=99. I don't think its any better given the random nature of the problem.

Colin

Hi Colin,

I don't think it can matter, but it is far away related :

Do you have this [ C ] button (close to the bottom) active ? If not, tracks are locally cached and add extra complexity.
If not, try it with that button active for a while. It's set (for its default) by means of "Always clear Proxy before Playback" (under Memory and Disk utilization).

Peter

Hi Peter

'C' button is active.

Colin

No help from here other than to say I had this issue but it was very sporadic and it hasn't happened in weeks.

Thanks, nice to know I'm not completely alone with this problem.

Colin

Though I doubt this would help, try ticking the "Don't do anything with cover art box" in settings. I think it stopped happening here after I ticked that box; however, I'm not using cover art for other reasons.

Just tried NO COVER ART but problem still happens.

Thanks anyway
Colin