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[Awesome Donkey]

This tutorial aims to aid users into setting up JRiver Media Center 24 onto computers running the following Debian-based GNU/Linux operating systems/distributions/variants (others listed here *may* work, but your mileage may vary!);

Debian
Ubuntu
Linux Mint

Recommended distros/versions:

Debian 8.x Jessie
Debian 9.x Stretch
Ubuntu 18.04 LTS Bionic Beaver
Ubuntu 18.10 Cosmic Cuttlefish
Linux Mint 18.3 Sylvia
Linux Mint 19 Tara
Linux Mint 19.1 Tessa

Ubuntu Studio and Linux Mint Debian Edition have not and likely will not be tested! Again, your mileage with those may vary. There *may* be issues with Ubuntu 16.04.x LTS too (e.g. segfaults) so unless the issue(s) aren't identified and corrected, you might want to consider upgrading to Ubuntu 18.04 LTS as soon as possible once it's released to avoid any possible issues.

NOTE: This tutorial does borrow ideas and parts done by InflatableMouse and his excellent Debian Wheezy tutorial found here, so please thank him.

Before we continue, please note the following;

- Media Center 24 for Linux is developed on Debian Jessie/Stretch - support for distros other than Debian Jessie/Stretch, e.g. like Ubuntu and Linux Mint are not officially supported!
- This tutorial will focus on the operating systems above, any others you're on your own with.
- This *should* also apply to Ubuntu/Mint derivatives like Xubuntu, Kubuntu, Lubuntu, Linux Mint (MATE), Linux Mint (Xfce), elementaryOS, etc. However, extra steps may be required!
- Before installing, please read the outstanding issues topic! Many of the issues noted for Debian also apply to Ubuntu/Linux Mint!


Step 0 - Debian Only - Adding yourself to the required groups:

NOTE: If you're indeed using Debian, you'll likely will need to install sudo and add your user account to the sudo group FIRST as explained in this tutorial before proceeding with this tutorial: http://milq.github.io/enable-sudo-user-account-debian/

This step is for Debian only - you can skip this step if you're using Ubuntu/Linux Mint! Got sudo installed and your user account added to the sudo group already? If not, read the note above! If you do, let's begin then! By default on Debian user accounts aren't automatically added to the adm and audio groups upon creation of the account (like with the case of sudo). This is absolutely required if you're running Debian Jessie or Debian Stretch! Okay, in a detailed nutshell we're going to set your user account as an administrator, add your user to the sudoers file and add your user to the audio group. Fortunately, all of this can done in just two simple steps! If for whatever reason you're using the root account on Debian or again you're using Ubuntu/Linux Mint/etc., you may skip this step.

First, open a Terminal (by either pressing CTRL+ALT+T or by searching for the terminal in your desktop environment) then type the following command and press Enter. You WILL be prompted for the root password!

Code: [Select]

su
Next, either type the following command or copy and paste the command into the Terminal and press Enter. Be sure to change youruser to the name of your user account you chose when installing Debian!

Code: [Select]

usermod -a -G adm,audio youruser
If the command was successful, it's time to reboot the PC to make sure the changes above are applied properly. You can probably just log out of the account and log back in, but to be safe it's easier to just reboot the PC.

That's it! Proceed to step 1!


Step 1 - Add the JRiver APT Repository:

The APT repository is required to install Media Center 24 and keep Media Center 24 updated with every new release. There's three available repositories; Latest, Stable and Beta. Decide for yourself which one you want to use - descriptions of each are below. Choose and use only either the latest or stable repo - you *can* use the beta repo alongside either the stable or latest repos!

First, open a Terminal (by either pressing CTRL+ALT+T or by searching for the Terminal in your desktop environment) and either type the following command or copy and paste the command in and press Enter (you *may* be prompted for your password);

Code: [Select]

wget -q "http://dist.jriver.com/mediacenter@jriver.com.gpg.key" -O- | sudo apt-key add -
Next, with the Terminal still open, we need to download and add the correct mediacenter.list file to the /etc/apt/sources.list.d/ directory. Also, you can pick which repository you want to use (Latest, Stable or Beta - choose either the latest or stable repos, but the beta repo can be run alongside either one!) so either type one the following commands or copy and paste the command in and press Enter;

Media Center 24 (Latest) Repository:

This repository is using the latest up-to-date release of Media Center 24. There *may* be instability issues! NOTE: I'd personally recommend using the latest repo unless you're intending to run a "stable" system (e.g. HTPC or a Raspberry Pi).

Code: [Select]

sudo wget http://dist.jriver.com/latest/mediacenter/mediacenter24.list -O /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mediacenter24.list

Media Center 24 (Stable) Repository:

This repository is using the latest stable release of Media Center 24. It may be out-of-date compared to the Latest repository and is updated every few months (so you might have to wait for bug fixes), however these builds have been thoroughly tested and are considered stable.

Code: [Select]

sudo wget http://dist.jriver.com/stable/mediacenter/mediacenter24.list -O /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mediacenter24.list

Media Center 24 (Beta) Repository:

This repository is for beta builds - not intended for users who prefer stability! These builds are likely buggy, may crash, etc. But this repo can be used alongside either the stable or latest repos!

Code: [Select]

sudo wget http://dist.jriver.com/beta/mediacenter/mediacenter24.list -O /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mediacenter24beta.list

And that's it for adding the repo(s). Proceed to step 2!


Step 2 - Updating the packages list:

After adding the repository, we need to reload/refresh the packages list. This step is absolutely required or the next steps will NOT work! With the Terminal still open either type the following command or copy and paste the command in and press Enter;

Code: [Select]

sudo apt-get update
That's it! Proceed to step 3!


Step 3 - Installing Media Center 24:

It's finally time to install Media Center 24! First, open a Terminal (by either pressing CTRL+ALT+T or by searching for the Terminal in your desktop environment) or re-use the Terminal from the previous step. Next either type the following command or copy and paste the command in and press Enter (you *may* be prompted for your password);

Code: [Select]

sudo apt-get install mediacenter24
During this process it should say something along the following;

Code: [Select]

The following extra packages will be installed:
  lame libcue1 libreplaygain1 musepack-tools vorbis-tools
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  lame libcue1 libreplaygain1 mediacenter24 musepack-tools vorbis-tools
0 upgraded, 6 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
However, if you receive an error like;

Code: [Select]

dependency problems prevent configuration of mediacenter24:
 mediacenter24 depends on ....
This means all dependencies have not been met. Don't fret, this can usually be taken care of by using the following command in the Terminal by either typing the following command or copying and pasting the command in and press Enter;

Code: [Select]

sudo apt-get install -f
It'll show you the missing dependencies, after looking them over just press enter to install them. Now assuming all dependencies are met, you've been successful at installing Media Center 24 in Ubuntu/Mint/etc! However, I recommend rebooting since this will allow MC to load up fonts correctly - otherwise if you run MC without rebooting first, fonts may look pretty horrendous!

Now, after rebooting you can start Media Center either go into the GNOME menu, Xfce menu, Unity dash, KDE menu, LXDE menu, Cinnamon menu, MATE menu, etc. and search for Media Center 24 or you can run it from the Terminal by either typing the following command or copying and pasting the command in and press Enter;

Code: [Select]

mediacenter24
Now, we're going to cover installing the license for those who have purchased in step 3!

[Awesome Donkey]

Step 4 - Installing A Media Center 24 Linux License Or Master License:

This portion of the tutorial will explain how to manually install your purchased license (either Linux licence or Master licence) in Media Center 24. Thanks for purchasing a license and supporting the development!

First, make sure MC24 is closed and either download the .mjr by either restoring the license here or if you just purchased a Media Center 24 Linux or Master license, then use the .mjr file downloaded with your purchase. After downloading your license file, open a Terminal and either type the following command or copy and paste the command in and press Enter (you *may* be prompted for your password);

If you're using a Linux license:

Code: [Select]

mediacenter24 /RestoreFromFile "Media Center24 Linux-YYYYYY.mjr"
NOTE: Replace the X's and Y's with the correct numbers from your specific .mjr file AND adjust the path to your file.

If you're using a Master license:

Code: [Select]

mediacenter24 /RestoreFromFile "Media Center24 Master-YYYYYY.mjr"
NOTE: Replace the X's and Y's with the correct numbers from your specific .mjr file AND adjust the path to your file.

If your code is located in the default downloads directory, the following command should work (remember to replace the X's and Y's with the correct numbers and change Linux to Master if you're using a Master license!);

Code: [Select]

mediacenter24 /RestoreFromFile ~/Downloads/"Media Center24 Linux-YYYYYY.mjr"
If you do not encounter an error while restoring your license from the file, open Media Center 24 up then go to the Help menu > Registration Info... - if it's registered, congratulations, your MC24 for Linux is now registered!

Additional information and discussion regarding licenses can be found in this topic.

Once you're done, you should be ready to go! Congratulations, you've successfully installed Media Center 24 on your Ubuntu/Linux Mint machine! The next step will aid you in keeping Media Center 24 up-to-date.


Step 5 - Updating Media Center 24:

Okay, so you've got Media Center 24 installed and you might be wondering "how do I keep MC 24 up-to-date?". Well, there's several different ways available to accomplish this.

The easiest method to check for updates and update Media Center 24 if an update is available? Simple! Just open a Terminal and either type the following command or copy and paste the command in and press Enter (you *may* be prompted for your password);

Code: [Select]

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get dist-upgrade
Let the command run and it should prompt you with a list of updates for your Linux distribution of choice. Just type Y (or yes) and the system should be updated. It's HIGHLY recommended to run this command once a week - not just for MC24 updates but for keeping up with the latest patches for vulnerabilities and various other potential security concerns.

The other ways to update Media Center 24? Well, if you Have Synaptic Package Manager installed you can update your system from there as well. Or you can just use the built-in update manager, if one is available for your Linux distro of choice!

Okay, what's next? The next post contains various information and tips you may find handy. Enjoy!

[Awesome Donkey]

Get Thread Priorities Working:

On Windows, Media Center can set thread priorities and thus playback is prioritized but until now on Linux, this wasn't the case. Because of the lack of thread priorities on Linux, some issues could occur (e.g. pops/jumpy music playback when resampling to 4X DSD (aka DSD256). If you're encountering issues like this, this may be the solution for you! You need to be using Media Center 23.0.21 and above, as thread priorities have been implemented on Linux! Setting it up requires a couple extra steps to allow allow non-root users to be able to do this. Still want to try this? Okay, follow along (this is the easiest way to set it up)...

First, we need to make sure your user account on Linux is part of the audio group. If you're on Debian, you already did this as step 0 in the first post so you can skip this first part and move down to the second (editing limits.conf). However if you're on Ubuntu, Linux Mint or any of their derivatives you may still need to add yourself to this group. Okay, try the following command in a Terminal by either typing the following command or copying and pasting the command in and press Enter (you *may* be prompted for your password);

Code: [Select]

sudo usermod -a -G audio youruser
NOTE: Replace yourname with your Linux user account name you're logged into.

If you encounter no errors, you can move onto the next step!

Now, we need to edit limits.conf to allow non-root users to do this. So with the Terminal open try either typing the following command or copying and pasting the command in and press Enter (you *may* be prompted for your password);

Code: [Select]

sudo gedit /etc/security/limits.conf
This will now open in the text editor. Scroll down to the bottom of this file and add the following;

Code: [Select]

@audio           -       rtprio          100
Save the file, then either logout or reboot the computer. To test this you can now open Media Center 24 and start playing music. When a Terminal window open while playing music in Media Center, you can either type or copy/paste the following command into the Terminal;

Code: [Select]

ps -T -eo pid,tid,class,rtprio,ni,pri,comm | grep mediacenter24
Now, if you see this as the output...

Code: [Select]

2946  2946 TS       -   0  19 mediacenter24
2946  2956 TS       -   0  19 mediacenter24
2946  2966 TS       -   0  19 mediacenter24
2946  2967 TS       -   0  19 mediacenter24
2946  2968 TS       -   0  19 mediacenter24
2946  2970 TS       -   0  19 mediacenter24
2946  2972 TS       -   0  19 mediacenter24
Something went wrong and thread priorities are not working. Re-read the tutorial and please try again!

However, if you see this as the output...

Code: [Select]

10059 10059 TS       -   0  19 mediacenter24
10059 11871 TS       -   0  19 mediacenter24
10059 11872 RR      56   -  96 mediacenter24
10059 11873 RR      46   -  86 mediacenter24
10059 11875 RR      99   - 139 mediacenter24
It's working! The RR      99 part is what we're looking for. Congrats, threaded priorities are working now!



Get Pulseaudio Output Working:

If desired, you can also output using Pulseaudio - keep in mind though that ALSA output is bit-perfect. I'd highly recommend sticking with ALSA instead of Pulseaudio since Pulseaudio requires resampling to one sample rate, but if you wish to use Pulseaudio for whatever reason you'll need to set it up...

Pulseaudio *should* work out-of-the-box on Debian 8+/Ubuntu 14.04+/Linux Mint 17+ however if you want to cover all your bases on getting Pulseaudio working try the following commands in a Terminal by either typing the following command or copying and pasting the command in and press Enter (you *may* be prompted for your password);

Code: [Select]

sudo apt-get install libasound2-plugins
NOTE: You don't need to use this command in Debian Jessie/Stretch 64-bit, Ubuntu 15.04+ 64-bit and Linux Mint 17+ 64-bit!

Just open Media Center up, go to Tools > Options > Audio > click the Device settings... button and select pulse as the output device but keep in mind you may need to specify the default output device Pulseaudio uses via the pavucontrol utility.



Setting Default Pulseaudio Device Via PulseAudio Volume Control (pavucontrol):

When trying to use the Pulseaudio output in Media Center, you might find yourself with this type of error when trying to play music...



This means the correct output device for Pulseaudio isn't being used, thus why this error is encountered. Fortunately, there's a way to fix this. Open up a Terminal window and either type the following command or copy and paste the command in and press Enter (you *may* be prompted for your password);

Code: [Select]

sudo apt-get install pavucontrol
After installing, either start PulseAudio Volume Control by typing pavucontrol into the Terminal or by typing in Pulseaudio into the Unity dash until you see PulseAudio Volume Control. Once open, you'll want to go to the Configuration tab like seen here;



Notice how there's multiple output devices listed here? As seen above, what I want to use as the default is my Schiit Modi 2 Uber aka USB Modi Device. In this example, to set this card up I setup the Configuration tab to the following...



And take a look at the Output Devices tab now. See how it's using the USB Modi Device as the default device?



Please setup your device(s) accordingly for your own needs! And if desired setup your input devices via the Input Devices tab! If everything looks good, try playing music through Pulse again in Media Center. If sound works, congrats, you have working sound via Pulse!



How To Remove Media Center 20, Media Center 21, Media Center 22 and Media Center 23:

If you've updated from Media Center 20 and/or Media Center 21 and/or Media Center 22 and/or Media Center 23, you might find yourself with several versions of Media Center installed. If you don't want multiple versions of Media Center installed, you can remove the old Media Center.

Step 1: Backup your library and settings. Read the wiki article on how to backup your library and settings.

Step 2: Open a Terminal and input the following (you *may* be prompted for your password - answer yes when it prompts!);

For Media Center 20:

Code: [Select]

sudo apt-get remove mediacenter20
For Media Center 21:

Code: [Select]

sudo apt-get remove mediacenter21
For Media Center 22:

Code: [Select]

sudo apt-get remove mediacenter22
For Media Center 23:

Code: [Select]

sudo apt-get remove mediacenter23
Step 3 (Optional): If you want to completely remove Media Center 20/21/22/23's files, with the Terminal open and input the following (you *may* be prompted for your password - answer yes when it prompts!);

For Media Center 20:

Code: [Select]

sudo rm -rf '/usr/lib/jriver/Media Center 20'
For Media Center 21:

Code: [Select]

sudo rm -rf '/usr/lib/jriver/Media Center 21'
For Media Center 22:

Code: [Select]

sudo rm -rf '/usr/lib/jriver/Media Center 22'
For Media Center 23:

Code: [Select]

sudo rm -rf '/usr/lib/jriver/Media Center 23'
And...

For Media Center 20:

Code: [Select]

sudo rm -rf '~/.jriver/Media Center 20'
For Media Center 21:

Code: [Select]

sudo rm -rf '~/.jriver/Media Center 21'
For Media Center 22:

Code: [Select]

sudo rm -rf '~/.jriver/Media Center 22'
For Media Center 23:

Code: [Select]

sudo rm -rf '~/.jriver/Media Center 23'
Step 4 (Optional): If you want to remove the old mediacenter20.list and/or mediacenter21.list and/or mediacenter22.list and/or mediacenter23.list file from the /etc/apt/sources.list.d/ directory;

For Media Center 20:

Code: [Select]

sudo rm /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mediacenter20.list
For Media Center 21:

Code: [Select]

sudo rm /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mediacenter21.list
For Media Center 22:

Code: [Select]

sudo rm /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mediacenter22.list
For Media Center 23:

Code: [Select]

sudo rm /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mediacenter23.list
If all goes well, your Media Center 20/21/22/23 installation(s) should be removed.



How To Remove Media Center 24:

If you don't like Media Center 24 or it's the wrong fit for you, you can easily remove it!

Step 1: Open a Terminal and input the following (you *may* be prompted for your password - answer yes when it prompts!);

Code: [Select]

sudo apt-get remove mediacenter24
Step 2 (Optional): If you want to completely remove Media Center 24's files, with the Terminal open and input the following (you *may* be prompted for your password - answer yes when it prompts!);

Code: [Select]

sudo rm -rf '/usr/lib/jriver/Media Center 24'
And...

Code: [Select]

sudo rm -rf '~/.jriver/Media Center 24'
Step 3 (Optional): If you want to remove the mediacenter24.list file from the /etc/apt/sources.list.d/ directory;

Code: [Select]

sudo rm /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mediacenter24.list
If all goes well, your Media Center 24 installation should be completely removed.



Adding Additional Skins In Media Center 24:

Media Center 24 for Linux supports additional skins, like the Windows and Mac builds. I've created Linux-based skins (based on the excellent Modern Cards) with a Adwaita skin for GNOME 3 (the default theme is Adwaita), a Ubuntu Ambiance (GNOME) skin, a Arc Theme skin, a Mint-X Cinnamon skin and a Elementary OS skin. You can find them in this topic.

Now the easiest way to add skins is by doing the following; open the Home folder (using the native file manager on your distro), pressing CTRL+H to show the hidden files then going to the .jriver folder. From there open the Media Center 24 folder and you're met with multiple folders, including a Skins folder. Open Skins then Standard View and the folders inside contain the additional skins. Just drag and drop the skin you want to add (make sure you drag and drop the extracted skin folder from the Skins/Standard View directory inside the downloaded skin's archive) and change the skin within Media Center 24. If you don't see your skin listed, then the skin probably wasn't installed correctly.



Tutorial changelog:

1.0 (04/14/2018): Media Center 24 tutorial for Ubuntu/Mint/etc. is up! I did drop elementaryOS from the list as I'm not testing/using it anymore, but it *should* work, not sure.

[Awesome Donkey]

Did both an upgrade and clean install of Ubuntu 18.10 Cosmic Cuttlefish in VMs today and... Media Center 24.0.55 works perfectly with it.

Ubuntu changed their default theme finally, so I'll have to add that on my skin to-do list.

[Pegasus59]

How do you setup multiple libraries in Linux Mint?
At the moment, my workshop PC connects to my NAS, which has 3 libraries (music, blues & classical).
It dumps all of these into the NAS library.
Also, the tagging that works in Windows doesn't appear to work the same way in Linux.
Instead of grouping tracks by album, in Linux most of the tracks are grouped under artists.
which is a PITA as I have a large number of various artist / multiple artist albums.

[bob]

How do you setup multiple libraries in Linux Mint?
At the moment, my workshop PC connects to my NAS, which has 3 libraries (music, blues & classical).
It dumps all of these into the NAS library.
Also, the tagging that works in Windows doesn't appear to work the same way in Linux.
Instead of grouping tracks by album, in Linux most of the tracks are grouped under artists.
which is a PITA as I have a large number of various artist / multiple artist albums.

How are you connecting to the NAS?
If you load the library by choosing it from the lists of libraries under playing now you are using it as a DLNA library which is much less flexible (because not all tag information is transferable over DLNA)  than accessing the NAS files as a mounted share.

[Awesome Donkey]

I did a Linux Mint 19.1 Tessa install, and of course MC24 works fine with it.

[bob]

I did a Linux Mint 19.1 Tessa install, and of course MC24 works fine with it.

Thanks for the report!

[dcpete]

Great instructions, thanks.  I had problems with this step under Ubuntu.  It gave me an error.

Code: [Select]

@audio           -       rtprio          100
So I did a fresh install of the latest Debian Stretch (9.7).  All went well with the install.  But following the Thread Priorities instructions exactly, it didn't take, even though I got no errors.  I see this...

Code: [Select]

dcpete@Debian-DCP:~$ ps -T -eo pid,tid,class,rtprio,ni,pri,comm | grep mediacenter24
 2764  2764 TS       -   0  19 mediacenter24
 2764  3038 TS       -  10   9 mediacenter24
 2764  3039 TS       -  10   9 mediacenter24
 2764  3040 TS       -  10   9 mediacenter24
 2764  3041 TS       -  10   9 mediacenter24
 2764  3042 TS       -  10   9 mediacenter24
 2764  3047 TS       -   0  19 mediacenter24
 2764  3049 TS       -   0  19 mediacenter24
 2764  3051 TS       -   0  19 mediacenter24
 2764  3053 TS       -  10   9 mediacenter24
 2764  3054 TS       -   0  19 mediacenter24
 2764  3058 TS       -   0  19 mediacenter24
 2764  3226 TS       -   0  19 mediacenter24
 2764  3227 TS       - -17  36 mediacenter24
 2764  3229 TS       -  10   9 mediacenter24
 2764  3232 TS       -  10   9 mediacenter24
 2764  3235 RR       1   -  41 mediacenter24
dcpete@Debian-DCP:~$

No "99" like I am supposed to see.  Also, I definitely have audio issues as described.  The sound kind of breaks up here and there.  So I guess this is the problem I need to solve.

Thanks for any suggestions.

Thanks, Chris

[Awesome Donkey]

You don't need to manually set up thread priorities anymore if you're using the latest MC24 build, it does it automatically. I'd recommend reversing the changes.

The thread priorities part of the tutorial will be removed when MC25 is out.

[dcpete]

Hmmm, that's interesting. I tested this before applying the thread priority fixes and observed this audio problem.  So I'm seeing the same issue with Ubuntu and Debian.  I'm using the coax digital connection on the motherboard.  This same hardware used to run Windows and don't remember having this issue under Windows, although I'm not absolutely certain I tested the coax digital connection then.

Chris

[bob]

The current thread code only sets the output thread to REALTIME (priority 1) and adjusts the TS priorities of the other threads.

You PS is as expected.

The reason you don't have to enter the stuff in the limits is that MC does that now as part of the package installation. As long as your user is in the audio group you should be good to go.

[dcpete]

Ok. Thanks for that info. How do I verify my user is in the audio group? I didn't see any errors when I added to the group, so assumed all went well.

Chris

[bob]

Ok. Thanks for that info. How do I verify my user is in the audio group? I didn't see any errors when I added to the group, so assumed all went well.

Chris

Your PS shows it's working...

[dcpete]

Ok, I was assuming the onboard audio had gone bad on this motherboard, so I went out and bought a known good soundcard that works in Linux.  It is an Asus Xonar DGX and has a toslink connector.  The soundcard works fine in my machine, but I am still getting a stuttering/dropout while playing music under MC.  It's not really subtle.  It's pretty noticable.  I mean I can hear a wobble every 10/20 secs or so.  So it seems it's a MC/Linux thing still.  I'm on the latest MC 24.0.74 and running the supported OS.  It's an older motherboard but should be more than up to the task.  It's an Asus P5B which has a quad core Intel processor and an Nvidia GTX950 video card and 8G memory.  Everything else seems to run perfectly on this machine.  I'm going digital direct into my Denon receiver.

I also just tested another Windows machine that I use for backup mainly.  Running the latest Windows version of MC (24.0.74) off the onboard toslink to the same receiver, same input,  it's perfectly fine.

The thread priority thing sure sounded promising and seemed like it would have explained the symptoms I am seeing.  So I am at a loss now.  It seems to be something tied to my hardware (and not the soundcard/chip) and Linux/MC.

Thanks for the suggestions so far.  Much appreciated.

Chris

[bob]

Ok, I was assuming the onboard audio had gone bad on this motherboard, so I went out and bought a known good soundcard that works in Linux.  It is an Asus Xonar DGX and has a toslink connector.  The soundcard works fine in my machine, but I am still getting a stuttering/dropout while playing music under MC.  It's not really subtle.  It's pretty noticable.  I mean I can hear a wobble every 10/20 secs or so.  So it seems it's a MC/Linux thing still.  I'm on the latest MC 24.0.74 and running the supported OS.  It's an older motherboard but should be more than up to the task.  It's an Asus P5B which has a quad core Intel processor and an Nvidia GTX950 video card and 8G memory.  Everything else seems to run perfectly on this machine.  I'm going digital direct into my Denon receiver.

I also just tested another Windows machine that I use for backup mainly.  Running the latest Windows version of MC (24.0.74) off the onboard toslink to the same receiver, same input,  it's perfectly fine.

The thread priority thing sure sounded promising and seemed like it would have explained the symptoms I am seeing.  So I am at a loss now.  It seems to be something tied to my hardware (and not the soundcard/chip) and Linux/MC.

Thanks for the suggestions so far.  Much appreciated.

Chris

Not sure what you are seeing there. We've been running on Raspberry pi's without dropouts and they are orders of magnitude slower than what you are using.

The Audio settings in MC should be set to a hardware device (hw or hdmi).

You can tune the buffer setting in the Audio device settings.
The defaults are 500000, and 100000 microsecs.
You should be easily able to drop those each by a factor of 10, even 100 to reduce latency.
If you get dropouts as you reduce those there is something wrong with your system, either in the input chain (are the files on disk, on a NAS, etc?) or something really broken in your ALSA config or hardware.

[dcpete]

Thanks for all the advice.  I decided there must be some sort of card conflict in this computer.  So I yanked out one of the cards, turned out to be a USB 3 card.  That was the problem.  I am back to the motherboard coax digital connection and it's playing back fine now.

Speaking of the Raspberry, I did setup a Raspberry MC with JRiver preloaded sd card.  It plays back fine.  It's just that I like theater view and the Raspberry is a no go on that as we discussed in another thread.  This computer does all that just fine.

Chris

[JimH]

Well done finding the cause!