Albums pausing

[acg]

Hi Peter,

I have a recurring situation where some albums will stop playing part way through the playlist.  This happens on both hi-res and redbook.  XXHE may get through say three songs and then fail to start the fourth.  The fix is easy, I just go to click Alt-P on the shortcuts menu and the next song usually starts up.  After that sometimes the rest of the album will play out and sometimes XXHE will get stuck on another song or songs.  All tracks are played (eventually) and none are missed during the stop starting.

It ALWAYS happens on the same albums and for the same tracks in those albums.  For example, if I start playback from Track 1 and it pauses after playing Track 4, I can duplicate it by restarting playback from Track 4 (or Track 3 or Track 2 for that matter) and I will still get the "pause" even though the previous tracks have not been played this time.

Changing SFS to a high value (greater than 2) does seem to change the behaviour of the albums, but considering most will play happily at 0.10 or even 0.05 I am hoping for another solution.

Any thoughts?

Regards,

Anthony

[PeterSt]

Hi Anthony,

Since when is this happening ? (time / situation)

Peter

[acg]

Hi Anthony,

Since when is this happening ? (time / situation)

Peter

I think it has always been happening with 2.05 in some way.  Before I sorted out the correct setting for "Balanced Load" and/or "Nervous Rate" (I cannot remember exactly which setting I had wrong, but when it was changed to the current values in my sig it was like I had a whole new XXHE) those same tracks that used to stutter at their start now just pause, or at least that is how it seems to me, I might be wrong.  It is the same albums misbehaving.

[PeterSt]

Well, maybe you can find back the topic yourself, but what I recall is that we were dealing with this in this forum, unless it was someone else. Anyway, your system will have limits, depicted by the whole.
Do you still have that other PC around ? if so, it could be a good idea to try that with the same settings. That's at least a reference for me myself ... (dunno what to do with that yet, but it's better than thinking that your system is not on par).

Also, when you'd set all like you see in my sig, the sound may not be what you want, but at least that works so it could be a nice test. Btw, I play with 0.06 lately but this could be because of further improvements since 2.05. Otherwise 0.11 will work (if all is right).

Let me know ! (or ask etc.)
Peter

[acg]

Well, maybe you can find back the topic yourself, but what I recall is that we were dealing with this in this forum, unless it was someone else. Anyway, your system will have limits, depicted by the whole.
Do you still have that other PC around ? if so, it could be a good idea to try that with the same settings. That's at least a reference for me myself ... (dunno what to do with that yet, but it's better than thinking that your system is not on par).

Also, when you'd set all like you see in my sig, the sound may not be what you want, but at least that works so it could be a nice test. Btw, I play with 0.06 lately but this could be because of further improvements since 2.05. Otherwise 0.11 will work (if all is right).

Let me know ! (or ask etc.)
Peter

I do have the other pc and it does the same things, but I will put it in play tomorrow to see because it has not been used in a while.  As far as I know the XXHE settings on both AudioPC's are exactly the same as in your signature.

Most albums play fine at 0.05 for me...but some of them don't.

[PeterSt]

Something else :

If you are confident that one track (!) in the playlist (!) can be repeated for this behaviour, you can send me that file and tell me where it should stop (minutes into the track).

I can always try to observe what happens with it ...

Peter

[PeterSt]

Most albums play fine at 0.05 for me...but some of them don't.

Yes, but that's the thing (to grasp for you);
We can explicitly NOT say that when an album or track works with 0.05, they thus all must work. So I too can play with 0.05, but not forever, so to speak. I don't even start thnking about this, and switch back to 0.06. Not because I'm a fool or not eager, but because to me it is totally logic that limits are not fixed but depend on a 100 variables in such a system, including the length of the previous (!) track and where the current track is to be loaded from (think far and close memory if you like). And would my 0.06 not allow for VolUp etc., then I won't complain to anyone that this does not work; I buy a faster processor or more logically : I will try 0.07.
etc. etc.

Peter

PS: I now don't think it is useful to send that file as it seems clear that you cross limits (??). And you were honest with that of course :

most will play happily at 0.10 or even 0.05 I am hoping for another solution.

[PeterSt]

Again something else :

When you play completely from RAM (RAM OS Disk, no Playback Drive, Always Copy to XX Drive) then if *then* playback stalls, something in the whole system stalled for quite some time (think something like a second). This is very very hard to imagine and therefore something should be seriously wrong.

That playback would stop in the middle of a track could happen, 5 years or so ago. I only want to say : I never ever run into such a thing and this is not because I know what I am doing or something; it just won't occur. And if I have my SFS too low, things just start to stutter heavily - that's all.

Peter

[Arjan]

Hi Anthony,

Just my 2ct. I had similar issues. It was solved by lowering the Q1. Also my connection between music server and audio pc had to be lowered to 100mbit. But I think Q1 did the trick for me. I can now lower sfs to 0.07 without issues.
Regards.

[PeterSt]

Also my connection between music server and audio pc had to be lowered to 100mbit.

Arjan, that's a "hefty" one !
Really smart thinking ...

Thanks for sharing,
Peter

[acg]

Something else :

If you are confident that one track (!) in the playlist (!) can be repeated for this behaviour, you can send me that file and tell me where it should stop (minutes into the track).

I can always try to observe what happens with it ...

Peter

It never stops in the middle of a track, it always stops at the end of a track, or the start of the next one, which is probably the same thing.  So the track plays out...silence...Alt-P...next track plays.  This happens with both my PC and the other one.  Thinking about it this could be the reason for Play button sometimes being active after an album finishes (in another thread).

[acg]

Hi Anthony,

Just my 2ct. I had similar issues. It was solved by lowering the Q1. Also my connection between music server and audio pc had to be lowered to 100mbit. But I think Q1 did the trick for me. I can now lower sfs to 0.07 without issues.
Regards.

Yes, I have a gut feeling that this is a network problem of some sort.  I will try your suggestion tomorrow.  If that does not work I will use the other AudioPC I have here as music server and see if that changes anything.

[PeterSt]

Anthony, we have been trhough this before, in IIRC the same fashion. Then too you later told that it is in between tracks. This is NOT the same as in the middle. Please find that other topic (should be your own).

Theoretically there can't be network traffic *IF* you have set all as should. Test it ? Activate Keep LAN Services and deactivate Persist. Remember the Always Copy to XX Drive.
Now get playing to work (from the RAM OS Disked PC).
Works ? then boot into Normal OS en Deactivate Use Remote Desktop; boot back into MinOS and control the Audio PC by normal keyboard, mouse and monitor.

Now you plainly don't have any network connection during playback.

Peter

[Arjan]

Hi,
The connection was not the issue in my case for the album playback. It gave me ticks during playback and sometimes losing the RDP connection. It seems that my connection is not 1Gbit all the time, with 100Mbit (setting of the card) it is stable. The ticks came from automatic reconnecting of music server to audio pc all the time during playback. (bad 5e cable I think)

Lowering the Q1 from 14 to 4 did the trick for me to get continuous playback of an album. And SQ is still fine!

regards

[acg]

Other AudioPC is in the system now...has the same XXHE settings and is the same computer except for the cpu...it pauses on the same tracks as my AudioPC.