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[Kambriel]

I can't remember when it started, but for a while now it seems that MC will make very small pausing - clicking - flickering - sticking random events. Not severe, but noticeable. I've tried to keep an eye on it, and it doesn't seem to be related to mouse movement, what other programs are doing, scrolling in IE, or other things like that. Anyone else notice this? (I'll try keeping it minimized for a bit to see if that makes a difference.)

[Omni]

See this thread.

[Kambriel]

Your post seems more like what I'm experiencing than the first post. I don't hear crackling, although I've noticed that when I listen to a lot of tracks at once (12 or more) the sounds seems to 'attenuate' like it's having a clipping problem (even though the clipping protection is on for over the top volume, this is a 'squeezing of the sound' even at normal levels.)

Is there maybe a memory hole somewhere? I notice it most when I have headphones on, it's like the sound cord on the headphones is picking up a high frequency inductance that goes away when I start a song, but even during the silence at the beginning of the song. (So it isn't hardware, or it would wait for the volume to create a signal that would cancel the 'silence hiss' type of thing... follow me?)

Anyway, I notice the playing now screen flicker slightly, occasionally, randomly... even when my mouse is still and nothing is playing. This sort of flicker will accompany a very slight stutter in the music when I do have something playing.

[JimH]

What else is running?  Sounds like what you'd expect if some piece of software was going off to report your activities from time to time.

Just kidding.  Sort of.

[Kambriel]

HAHAHA! I know where you're coming from on that!

Well, it happens when all I have is MC open, and Internet Explorer. (I've become addicted to this Interact forum!

Come to think of it, I am using 5.1 in the DSP settings... which doesn't allow visualizations to hear the music, and makes the computer freeze when in the visualization pane. (Not right away, but before a minute always.) I wonder if that's making things a little dicey?

I'll go back to 2 channel stereo (bleh!) and see if that makes a difference...

[JimH]

It could be our bug, but take a look at _everything_.  Virus checker, anything in the lower right corner.  Even OS components can do strange things.

[Kambriel]

Things seem be more stable in 2 speaker mode. I'll keep looking at it and trying it both ways, but I do notice that the effects in DSP studio don't work when in 5.1 speaker mode either.

[Omni]

Kambriel,

No, I haven't noticed any sound quality issues... just the the occasional  skip.  A while back, I was certain replay gain was broken, but I just chalked it up to a WMA9 Loseless issue.  (Now that I have switched back to APE, I haven't tested it.)


Jim (or whoever reads this in your absence),

I usually have all of the following going on:

• Visual Studio (either v.6.0, .NET 2002, or .NET 2003 depending on what I coding at the time)
• Texas Instruments' Code Composer Studio v.2.1 (embedded system equilvalent to Visual Studio)
• Outlook
• DOS window and/or Bash window
• Excel
• Matlab and/or Mathcad
• web broswer (Opera, Mozilla, or IE)
• Norton Antivirus

Okay, I admit, it sometimes gets pretty intense.  Also, TI's tools are still essentially DOS based, and this is where the skips started showing up, i.e., when I compile my code.  But as I noted in my other thread, this never caused MC a problem before.

Omni

Edit:  Put antivirus S/W in list.

[Kambriel]

Media Center Registered 9.1.201 -- d:\Media Center\

Microsoft Windows XP  Workstation 5.1 Service Pack 1 (Build 2600)
AMD Athlon 1794 MHz MMX / Memory: Total - 523 MB, Free - 272 MB

Internet Explorer: 6.0.2800.1106 / ComCtl32.dll: 5.82 (xpsp1.020828-1920) / Shlwapi.dll: 6.00.2800.1106 (xpsp1.020828-1920) / Shell32.dll: 6.00.2800.1145 (xpsp2.021108-1929) / wnaspi32.dll: 4.71 (0001) , ASPI for Win32 (95/NT) DLL, Copyright © 1989-2002 Adaptec, Inc. / Aspi32.sys: 4.71 (0001)

Ripping /   Drive G:   Copy mode:ModeBurstBigBuffer   CD Type:Auto   Read speed:Max
 Drive H:   Copy mode:ModeBurstBigBuffer   CD Type:Auto   Read speed:Max
 Digital playback: Yes /  Use YADB: Yes /  Get cover art: No /  Calc replay gain: Yes /  Copy volume: 32767
 Eject after ripping: Yes /  Play sound after ripping: No  

Burning /  Drive H: PLEXTOR  CD-R   PX-W1210A   Addr: 0:1:0  Speed:12  MaxSpeed:12  Use MJ Engine:Yes
 Test mode: No /  Eject after writing: Yes /  Direct decoding: Yes /  Write CD-Text: Yes
 Use playback settings: No /  Normalization: None


I can already tell it's more stable with 2 speaker mode. (Which sux, cause I LOVE the rear speakers!!)

So, something in the 5.1 encoding isn't very efficient. It isn't spiking the task monitor though, just banging MJ a bit. Anyone else use 5.1 speaker mode? What's your experience?

[Omni]

Anyone else use 5.1 speaker mode?

Yes, but not helpful.  I use my sound card driver's channel splitter, not MC's.   Of course, when I was briefly using the M-Audio Revolution 7.1, I used DSP Studio to do the task (since M-Audio's driver was horrible in this one regard), but again, not helpful here.  

I reply, really, only to say that I absolutely agree with you about 5.1 sound vs. 2.1 sound.  I could never go back!

Omni

[Kambriel]

Okay, it seems that whatever the settings, MC is sensitive to other windows scrolling text and selecting items. (Or scrolling text and selecting items in MC itself.) Seems typing will do the same thing. More sensitive when 5.1 is enabled, 'it SEEMS,' but it still does it at default settings.

Also, when 5.1 is enabled it's much more likely to 'hiccough' when it starts buffering the next song in a playlist.

I figured out what was making Playing Now flicker... I had my sound up, and the vibration was pinging the mouse... MC saw the mouse movement and unhid the scrollbars.

So, that's what I've found. I pegged the processor to 90% by using the fireball visualization in windowed mode at highest display setting... (with 2 speaker stereo... can't test that in 5.1) sounded fine even between songs as long as I wasn't doing a lot of scrolling, clicking, or typing.

Edit: When in 5.1 mode there is ALMOST ALWAYS a small skip between songs.

[Kambriel]

Well, I'm happy to say that after re-configuring my motherboard I get all speakers working with 2 speaker (stereo) output from MC. So the complaints I had with 5.1, while still valid, aren't a concern to me anymore. (In fact it sounds even BETTER now!)

However, keyboard and mouse activity, especially scrolling windows and clicking buttons STILL make MC stutter a bit at times. It seems to do it quite a bit for a little while, then go away for a while, then come back. Very very odd.

Edit: Omni, thanx for the idea of doing surround off of the stereo output from MC... that was just the ticket!