Files Longer Than 6 minutes Will Not Play

[KUOYAO]

Hi all,

I just got XXHighEnd yesterday.  Very good SQ.  Am encountering a few problems though.  First problem, files with music longer than 6 minutes won't play.  The duration cursor will move, but no sound.  It is something to do with improper activation, because other features like oversampling and Q-Control are inaccessible?

I'm using XXHighEnd 0.9u-14a --> RME AES-32 Sound Card

Pls help, thanks.

[PeterSt]

Hi,

This looks like you are using Engine#1, and with the longer than 6 minutes tracks this will turn into Engine#2 (in red !) automatically.
Is this right ?

If so ... Engine#2 (and Engine#3 btw) requires that your sound device is set as the Primary Sound Device.

Does that help you ?

Peter

[KUOYAO]

Hi Peter,

Thanks for your prompt reply.  Yes, I am using engine one and my soundcard is not set as primary driver.  The reason my soundcard is not the primary driver is that I get crackles when working with other applications in the background even though I’ve disabled all sound options.  Can XXHighEnd be configured to continue using Engine #1 without setting my sound card as primary driver?  I’m still using XP.

BTW: Last night I compared XXHighEnd extensively with other players that output via ASIO and I am very impressed with XX’s SQ. 

[PeterSt]

Hi KUOYAO,

Thank you for your nice words. But might you be able to get Vista ... that is way better for SQ (by means of Engine#3).

The reason my soundcard is not the primary driver is that I get crackles when working with other applications in the background even though I’ve disabled all sound options.

This is interesting by itself. I never heard of this so far, and should not be so of course.
On another note I would say that when all other sounds and stuff are disabled, there would no other device be left to select, and the device you want to use for playback is the only one, hence is primary. I must honestly say though, that I forgot a bit how things in XP work.
Anyway, are you sure you actually *disabled* all other sound devices ?

Can XXHighEnd be configured to continue using Engine #1 without setting my sound card as primary driver?  I’m still using XP.

Sadly, no. The way Engine#1 is working does not allow files larger than 64MB to be played. This is an XP limitation.
This is why Engine#2 was created, but Engine#2 has the limitation of not being able to change the sound device.
(and for others : Engine#3 does allow to change the sound device, but I just did not make this yet since this is somehwat harder to do in the environment concerned).

On the crackles ... I don't know which soundcard you use (but please tell me), and possibly you can get the latest drivers and then it works better ?

IIRC nobody ever reported crackles with XP (hence Engine#1 or #2), although by now nearly everybody is on Vista. But anyway, this should theoretically tell this is something special in your system. Maybe you can think of something "special" yourself ?

Peter

[KUOYAO]

Hi Peter,

I'm using the RME AES-32 Soundcard and digital out through AES.  My drivers/flash are all up-to-date.  The crackes when moving through applications are new to this computer (my old one using same card did not have this problem) as I sort of gave-up debugging because I now use ASIO and Foobar.

After going though the messages in this board, I've concluded that I better upgrade to Vista.  Just that it makes me nauseaus to have to pay the Microsoflt Tax every few years.