Common Software Problems I have

[michaeljeger]

OK here are my most common software problems I have.
I commented in another thread about the robustness of the software that could be improved so here are my major pain points.


One error message is about Engine 4 did not start in time.
No clue what it is about. Basically when it happens i have to restart the program. Happens about 1-2 times per day.

The second error message happens once in a while when navigating in the playlist. No clue of the reason.
Happens also randomly 1-2 times per hour.

See attached screen shots.

I used all the recommended settings of Peter for the NOS1a.
I never use unattended playback.

Regards, Michael

[PeterSt]

Hi Michael,

I used all the recommended settings of Peter for the NOS1a.
I never use unattended playback.

Uhm ... That wouldn't resemble -thus- anything of my settings.
(anyway I have clue of course)

Which Filter do you use ?

Peter

[michaeljeger]

I mostly use AcrPredict without Peak-Extend.

The only thing i change once in a while is peak-extend on/off.

No other filters are used.

Regarding to the settings those are the ones i use:

This should apply to all forms of playback :

Q1 = 14
xQ1 = 1
Q3 = 0
Q4 = 0
Q5 = 0
Device Buffer Size = 4096
SFS = 4
Clock resolution = 1

No tweaks, no unattended playback, no unattended playback.

regards, Michael

[michaeljeger]

The engine 4 thing just happened again. Second time today.
During playback of a track in the middle.

Very strange.

This time another errror message is added as well:

Music file does not exist (2): Unicode Track0001.wav

By the way.... this engine 4 error I have on both XXHighEnd PCs i have used up to this point, both with totally different hardware.

Michael

[AlainGr]

I have been thinking about this... Has someone tried to stay in Normal OS (as opposed to Minimize OS) just to see if this would also happen ? The idea behind this is that maybe something is stopped and it affects something else ?

Alain

[PeterSt]

Michael,

THis is not strange at all (to me);
The "not arrived in time" means just that and it indicates that the 14 seconds which is available to load the next track (this is true for Attended only) was not sufficient. Most probable cause : disk spun down and is slow at spinning up.
Remedie : don't let it spin down (this is a Power setting) - or not so quickly.
Not the best for SQ ? no, but Attended isn't either ...

The other errors are the result of the "14 seconds" culprit.

Anyway to keep in mind : this is not "instability" or anything. Just not enough knowledge of XXHighEnd yet (or the OS). But also and honestly : XXHighEnd has not been made really for Attended playback, or better : this is hardly used and thus there's also less knowledge around about it. Lastly, it is also *less* convenient to use but this is (very) personal and also requires some experience.

Hope this helps somewhat ...
Peter

PS: No, those 14 seconcs can not be extended.
PPS: Think about the slowness of your disk(s), the way it is (wrongly) formatted etc. etc.
PPPS: Disk spin-up can be ~1.5 seconds and a track of 20 minutes can load in 2 seconds including everything like conversion from FLAC (MP3 is ~two times slower).

[michaeljeger]

Hi Peter

Your assumption of the disc spinning down is incorrect.

I have a fast USB3 disk directly connected to the XXHIGHEND Computer.
It never spins down. It is a fast disk with more than 100MB/s transfer speeds.

The problem of the Engine4 error seems completly random. Sometimes it happens in the middle of the track when the next one is not loaded yet.

Yesterday, it happened in a 3 minute track at about 1:40 seconds in the track.

The reason I used attended playback is really I like to add tracks to the playlist quite often or jump tracks directly.
I find this easier to do in the player.

Regarding the SQ:
My ears cannot really detect a difference between attended/undattended. For this reason, I do not bother to use it.

Hopes this gives some more background info.

Regards, Michael

[PeterSt]

OK Michael.

Still I am 100% confident this can not be the software;
For your own interest or fun, switch on logging and when the culprit happened, grab the latest X3 and X3PB log files (from the TemporaryData subfolder to your XX folder) and stare for 30 minutes or so in those files (I say it like that because you'll have to learn to read it). Look at the times and see where it goes wrong. Then you will also automatically see that there's actually no software involved; only hardware. Something not responding in time ...

X3 is the track part loading;
X3PB is the playback.
Both work together.

In your case "you" may overcomplicate matters because XXHighEnd is also involved and it controls when the track parts are handed to XXEngine3 (where both mentined log files spring from). Now I can tell you to also look into the XX log file which is from XXHighEnd but you will get dizzy.
Anyway the times of all the logs will match. So you can compare them.

The better idea IMO is to copy a few tracks to your local OS disk and FIRST try what happens with that. But I think I already know ...

Peter

PS: If you don't have confidence in my saying that this is not software, you will never find it (haha).
PPS: Remember : You did not copy *any* of my settings because you changed the most important base : Play Attendedly. And I don't think you will find settings from others for this. But if someone has them to good satisfaction, I hope he'll respond.

[michaeljeger]

Hello Peter

I will look at the log file next time the Engine4 error occurs.
The strange thing is, once the error occurs, there is no interruption in playback. The playback is fine!
Just at the end of the track it stops. And after that I have to manually restart playback.
Since I do not yet know the root cause and the symptoms are so that playback seems fine and the error occurs randomly, to me it then looks like a software related issue.
If software is not the root cause and I had the problem now with 2 completly different PCs one possible conclusion following your reasoning that the software is ok that something is funny with the NOS1a?

So as I said I will look at the log next time.

Regarding the other error I reported and made a screenshot of:
Can you comment on the other error I have once in a while navigating in the playlist.
It's this super long cryptic error message, from my first screen shot.

Just to clarify again:

The upper screen shot message happens with navigating in the playlist once in a while. It alway occurs when I click on a new song in the playlist. Sometimes more cryptic error messages follow. After that restarting XXHighEnd might be required.

The lower screen shot is the Engine4 playback halts error we were discussing in the last posts, that happens randomly at playback (very rareley, about once a day)

Thanks, Michael

[PeterSt]

The upper screen shot message happens with navigating in the playlist once in a while. It alway occurs when I click on a new song in the playlist. Sometimes more cryptic error messages follow.

Oops, forgot about that (but it is not convenient to have more than one "issue" in a topic);
But I can't tell, unless you can tell when exactly it happens. For this you can try this :

Have your logging on and when such a message occurs, do nothing (let the message stay) and grab the current (latest) XX log file and post it to the forum (as attachment). Maybe (!) I can see something. Meanwhile try to tell me what you exactly did (nothing happens "now and then" - there's always a sequence involved). But for example, it could happen during playback going on only. Or when Coverart should show but it doesn't. Etc. etc. (and more etc.). But let's start with that log file.

Peter

[michaeljeger]

Ok. here are some log files that maybe show the playlist error when navigating in the playlist.
The error happens if I klick around in the playlist, then use some cursor arrow key to the right.
After about 10 seconds of random clicking in playlist with cursor keys it ususally happens.
Now obviously, you might tell me that this is not proper use of the playlist and how the software should be used.


Attached are all the log-files.

Once the Engine-Error occurs, I will post again.

[PeterSt]

Was playback going on ?

Thanks,
Peter

[michaeljeger]

Hi Peter

Yes, it seems to only happen when playback is going on.

Regards, Michael

[PeterSt]

Michael, I was afraid of that. And I am also afraid that this will be very difficult to solve; I recall that many years ago by now I allowed this "clicking around" but for some special purpose I forgot. Notice that (IIRC) for this to be allowed there's a 3 times clicking required on the same track before it really gets active (you can see that by when the Coverart in the left pane shows). So now I don't know when it goes wrong at the 3rd click.

But I can have a look ...

Peter