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Author Topic: MC23 and Play Album from Memory  (Read 2560 times)

655dmd

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MC23 and Play Album from Memory
« on: September 13, 2017, 08:36:37 pm »

I have been a happy user of MC20 and decided to try out 23 for its play album from memory feature.  I am trying to confirm its functionality.  I understand it is limited to 1.5gb from reading other posts on the matter and know of the pros and cons of using decoded versus full file. But my experience has been somewhat "mixed".

Without getting into details I am using Google Cloud and Microsoft Onedrive (1.8tb total FLAC) and Netdrive to map to G: and M: drives respectively. I have a 300mbps internet connection and 16Gb RAM with a fair to middling Lenovo g50-45 AMD quad core 1.8ghz with 500gb SSD, and Windows 10.

I know cloud drives are slow. But I have had it with buying new hardware for now... For critical listening, I use my SSD.  Generally, I like to play my other files randomly or by playlist which will always include files residing on the cloud.  Obviously, usually, there is few seconds gap between selections of cloud files even in gapless mode.

Cutting to the chase...I was hoping that load files into memory would eliminate the silence (due to loading?) between songs, but as far as I have experienced, it is not working.  Am I missing something? A lot of FLAC files can fit in just 1.5gb, so why does the silence still remain. I can stream a full FLAC song, even DSD without buffering or stuttering so the problem must still be loading the file before it plays.

When I first tried 23 I thought it worked gaplessly, and even with smooth crossfade using a playlist that included only my cloud files. It could have been my imagination.  Lately, it doesn't seem to have any effect no matter what I do.  I even extended the 23 trial so I can figure this out.  I have a couple of more days left. Hence my post to the Interact forum. Are there any other settings that I need to option to experience gapless when playing cloud files using play files full/decoded from memory?

No matter what, for me, JRiver is the best media player I have ever used.  I am confident that in the near future my cloud playback experience will eventually improve.

Thanks in advance for your help.

David
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dtc

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Re: MC23 and Play Album from Memory
« Reply #1 on: September 13, 2017, 09:13:50 pm »

Play from memory works one track at a time, no matter how much memory you have. It loads a file, plays it, then loads the next file, etc.  I only use the option to load the compressed file and decode on the fly. It loads the whole file in the gap between tracks. It starts after the previous track ends and only starts playing when the whole file is loaded. That prevents glitches from the loading process.  In the past, it started loading the compressed file during the last few seconds of the previous track, but that could causes glitches in some cases. The current implementation changes that. Given that process, I do not think it can be used for true gapless play.
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RD James

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Re: MC23 and Play Album from Memory
« Reply #2 on: September 14, 2017, 01:37:17 am »

They said that filling the available memory with upcoming tracks was going to be a feature for MC22 and then never talked about it again.
That, and moving to 64-bit are the two most important changes they could make right now as a media player in my opinion.
Even queuing up the next track in memory would be a significant improvement, though I'd prefer to fill the whole 1.5-2GB that 32-bit can handle.
 
The best you can do right now is to use the "load full file (not decoded) into memory" option, and set prebuffering to 20 seconds.
You can extend this via the registry in: Computer\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\JRiver\Media Center 23\Zones\<ZONE ID#>\Audio Settings
There is a "Secondary Buffer Minimum MS" setting. If you increase that to say 180,000 rather than 20,000 the next track will buffer when there is approximately 3 minutes left rather than ~20 seconds.
However if you touch the settings for that zone it will be reset to the default of 6 seconds, and once the next track is buffered you can no longer seek during playback. The latter is probably why they have a limit of 20 seconds instead of allowing you to set this manually.
 
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mojave

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Re: MC23 and Play Album from Memory
« Reply #3 on: September 14, 2017, 11:54:00 am »

Have you tried with memory playback set to no memory playback? The streaming overhead needed with this method is so small that gapless should play fine.
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Awesome Donkey

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Re: MC23 and Play Album from Memory
« Reply #4 on: September 14, 2017, 04:37:57 pm »

That, and moving to 64-bit are the two most important changes they could make right now as a media player in my opinion.

Funny you mention that...

https://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php/topic,112258.0.html

Oh snap. :D
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I don't work for JRiver... I help keep the forums safe from Viagra and other sources of sketchy pharmaceuticals.

Windows 11 2023 Update (23H2) 64-bit + Ubuntu 24.04 LTS Noble Numbat 64-bit | Windows 11 2023 Update (23H2) 64-bit (Intel N305 Fanless NUC 16GB RAM/256GB NVMe SSD)
JRiver Media Center 32 (Windows + Linux) | Topping D50s DAC | Edifier R2000DB Bookshelf Speakers

Awesome Donkey

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Re: MC23 and Play Album from Memory
« Reply #5 on: September 15, 2017, 12:10:55 pm »

Also for the other part (full album memory playback)...

https://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php/topic,112276.0.html

Double snap?!? :D
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I don't work for JRiver... I help keep the forums safe from Viagra and other sources of sketchy pharmaceuticals.

Windows 11 2023 Update (23H2) 64-bit + Ubuntu 24.04 LTS Noble Numbat 64-bit | Windows 11 2023 Update (23H2) 64-bit (Intel N305 Fanless NUC 16GB RAM/256GB NVMe SSD)
JRiver Media Center 32 (Windows + Linux) | Topping D50s DAC | Edifier R2000DB Bookshelf Speakers

RD James

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Re: MC23 and Play Album from Memory
« Reply #6 on: September 15, 2017, 01:12:12 pm »

 :o
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