Topic: Buffering Delays Playing ISO Files (Read 7738 times)

ACHiPo · « **on:** December 07, 2015, 08:58:04 am »

I'm having problems playing DSD files--they will play for 10-20 sec, then buffer for ~5 sec before resuming.

I just set up a music server (HAL MC3) using 2 5TB HDDs for storage. I'm using an Oppo 105 as a DAC. Other resolution files (PCM) play fine and sound great. The DSD files sound good, too, when they play.

I've adjusted buffering and prebuffering, and bitstreaming with no discernible effect.

On another forum someone suggested increasing the buffer to 2GB, but I couldn't find where to adjust that setting.

Thanks for your help in advance.

blgentry · « **Reply #1 on:** December 07, 2015, 09:19:12 am »

How powerful is the machine you are trying to play from? In particular, what's its JMARK score? Help > Benchmark > Run Benchmark.

Brian.

Matt · « **Reply #2 on:** December 07, 2015, 09:20:57 am »

Yeah, honestly it just sounds like your machine isn't powerful enough for realtime playback. You can move the pauses around a little bit by adjusting the buffering, but it just doesn't make data fast enough so there's only so much to be done.

Matt · « **Reply #3 on:** December 07, 2015, 09:50:34 am »

You could try enabling memory playback because then there's something reading the file as fast as it can before playback. That's kind of a wild card though, so I can't say if it'll help.

ACHiPo · « **Reply #4 on:** December 07, 2015, 11:13:01 am »

I tried playing from memory--no difference, although that seems counterintuitive so maybe I need to do something differently? The machine has 8GB plus 128gB SSD. I'll run the benchmark tonight when I get home.

ACHiPo · « **Reply #5 on:** December 07, 2015, 09:38:24 pm »

Quote from: blgentry on December 07, 2015, 09:19:12 am

How powerful is the machine you are trying to play from? In particular, what's its JMARK score? Help > Benchmark > Run Benchmark.

Brian.

JMARK is 522. What does it mean, and what's "good"?

DarkPenguin · « **Reply #6 on:** December 07, 2015, 10:22:58 pm »

It is meant to be an indication of the suitability of a machine to run MC. 522 is the lowest I think I've heard anyone mention. (Not that I pay attention to such things.)

Hendrik · « **Reply #7 on:** December 08, 2015, 05:27:15 am »

Quote from: ACHiPo on December 07, 2015, 09:38:24 pm

JMARK is 522. What does it mean, and what's "good"?

522 is pretty low, thats likely the reason you can't play such DSD files.
A powerful desktop PC gets up to 5000 or so these days, and for SACD ISO playback you'll likely need at least 1000 or more.

DSD is pretty complex to decode.

ACHiPo · « **Reply #8 on:** December 08, 2015, 08:03:25 am »

What factors go into determining the JMARK score, or more specifically what can I do to the computer to improve its performance? Would the fact that I was running TeamViewer when I ran the benchmark test impact performance?

I also ran the benchmark on my desktop and it came back at 1622. This machine also has buffering issues playing a .dsd file which suggests the problem is not the Oppo, and the JMARK score would need to be much higher if that's the issue.

Is there a way I can dump the dsd or iso files into memory and play them from there? Would that solve the issue at the expense of delays before playing?

JimH · « **Reply #9 on:** December 08, 2015, 08:33:12 am »

You probably can't do much to improve the score.

http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=54396.0

ACHiPo · « **Reply #10 on:** December 08, 2015, 10:39:01 pm »

Ok so given that my relatively "sucky" music server has a JMARK of 500ish and my all-in-one (slightly less sucky) has a JMARK of 1500ish, and none of them play iso or dsd files, what does that tell me?

I have a really hard time believing I need a higher performance media computer, when my Oppo 105 plays DSDs just fine. Maybe I need different software?

JimH · « **Reply #11 on:** December 09, 2015, 07:05:11 am »

Can you play the files if they are local? In other words, try eliminating network bandwidth as a factor.

Any antivirus software involved?

ACHiPo · « **Reply #12 on:** December 09, 2015, 07:48:55 am »

Quote from: JimH on December 09, 2015, 07:05:11 am

Can you play the files if they are local? In other words, try eliminating network bandwidth as a factor.

Any antivirus software involved?

Playing the files from the SSD (local) doesn't make a difference. Can anyone tell me how I can l can load an entire album into RAM, as that should fix the problem?

I did load antivirus (Norton from Comcast) since the computer is on my network. I will try uninstalling to see if that fixes it. I'm also going to try Foobar to see if it is an issue with JRiver.

JimH · « **Reply #13 on:** December 09, 2015, 08:54:08 am »

This is worth a look:

Antivirus Problems

muzicman0 · « **Reply #14 on:** December 09, 2015, 10:12:23 am »

The OP asked if TeamViewer would affect the results...I just did a quick test, and the answer is not really...I got a little over 5300 run while not remoted in with TeamViewer, and 5212 when using TeamViewer. So maybe a little, but not really.

It was a good test to run, since my initial score was 2684, and I couldn't for the life of me figure out why it was so low until I checked the Windows Power Options, and it was set to 'Power Saver'. Once set to 'High Performance', my scores went up!

blgentry · « **Reply #15 on:** December 09, 2015, 10:33:09 am »

I thought I remembered reading the JMARK 1400 to 1500 was enough for single rate DSD decoding? Are these files single rate DSD? Or double? Or quad?

I would definitely try turning of the anti-virus and maybe even completely uninstalling it. As a test. AV software plays hell with MC.

Brian.

ACHiPo · « **Reply #16 on:** December 09, 2015, 11:33:40 pm »

Quote from: blgentry on December 09, 2015, 10:33:09 am

I thought I remembered reading the JMARK 1400 to 1500 was enough for single rate DSD decoding? Are these files single rate DSD? Or double? Or quad?

I would definitely try turning of the anti-virus and maybe even completely uninstalling it. As a test. AV software plays hell with MC.

Brian.

SUCCESS!

Antivirus--uninstalled with no change, so that wasn't the issue.
Changed output decoding to 176400 for all inputs fixed the problem.
It's not a JMARK issue.

Thanks!

ACHiPo · « **Reply #17 on:** December 11, 2015, 07:55:49 am »

Quote from: muzicman0 on December 09, 2015, 10:12:23 am

The OP asked if TeamViewer would affect the results...I just did a quick test, and the answer is not really...I got a little over 5300 run while not remoted in with TeamViewer, and 5212 when using TeamViewer. So maybe a little, but not really.

It was a good test to run, since my initial score was 2684, and I couldn't for the life of me figure out why it was so low until I checked the Windows Power Options, and it was set to 'Power Saver'. Once set to 'High Performance', my scores went up!

My results are consistent with yours--my JMARK went from 522 to 531 when I stopped TeamViewer.

Also after reinstalling AV I continue to be able to play iso files fine. I did come across some other high-res files that had buffering issues, however, so I'm debating taking my chances without AV--a bit scary since it's on the network and has a beaucoup bucks worth of media.

Does the negative impact of AV show up on the JMARK score? I forgot to run JMARK when Norton was removed.

Thanks,
Evan

muzicman0 · « **Reply #18 on:** December 11, 2015, 08:52:12 am »

You can run the Microsoft AV (Security Essentials or Defender), and exclude your media library and JRiver applicaitons...I believe Glynor has a link in his signature on how to set that up. That is how I have my system running.

blgentry · « **Reply #19 on:** December 11, 2015, 09:00:37 am »

This link shows how to tame windows defender so it will work correctly with MC.

Regarding the "fix" to this by moving down to 176k: I think this points to exactly a JMARK problem. Since a lower output bit rate works correctly. This implies less processing for MC to do, so less resources are needed. Whether my analysis is right or wrong, I'm happy that you can play music on your system now!

Brian.

Fangio · « **Reply #20 on:** December 11, 2015, 01:08:26 pm »

Quote from: blgentry on December 11, 2015, 09:00:37 am

This link shows how to tame windows defender so it will work correctly with MC.

Many users are pointed to this useful article, but it needs updating to reference MC21. Particularly the very handy copy/paste piece.

jctcom · « **Reply #21 on:** December 11, 2015, 01:18:29 pm »

Actually I just did this on my Windows 10 computer.

The new version of WIndows Defender is a bit different layout than the older one and I don't see any way to copy / paste even if the paths were corrected for MC21.

Carl

Fangio · « **Reply #22 on:** December 11, 2015, 04:41:15 pm »

I recently switched to Win 10 too. Go to: Settings > Update & security > Windows Defender > Add an exclusion > Exclude a .exe, .com or .scr process and paste it in the small box. It worked for me.

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Author Topic: Buffering Delays Playing ISO Files (Read 7738 times)