More > JRiver Media Center 26 for Mac
Playing Nows Delete for Unknown Reason
RoderickGI:
I no longer use any Apple products, and I've never had a Yamaha AMP or used Music Cast. So I may be of limited help.
Using Dynamic DNS and having your external Public IP Address change will not be causing this issue.
If your router is changing the IP Address of devices on your LAN, this could be causing the problem. I recommend that you set up IP Address Reservation (also known as a Static Lease, but do not use Static IP Addresses) for all your network devices involved in music playback. A search of the forum will find lots of discussion on P Address Reservation.
I think this is the problem.
--- Quote from: RoderickGI on July 30, 2020, 11:46:27 pm ---Ah. When a Zone becomes unavailable MC stops playback and switches to the default Player Zone.
--- End quote ---
Do a test to see if you can replicate the issue.
1. Start playback to your Music Cast Zone of a list of tracks in Playing Now.
2. We want it to just disappear from the network.
Either:
Power down the AMP ( primary zone (Media Room)) by pulling the power cord, as long as you think this is safe. Do not shut it down using normal means, as it might tell the network it is shutting down.
Or:
While MC is playing to the primary zone (Media Room), force a change of the IP Address of that AMP, perhaps by its own internal menu system.
3. Immediately check MC. The primary zone (Media Room) should have disappeared, and the Zone in MC should have changed to the default Player Zone if it exists. If the Player Zone doesn't exist, then I think some other Zone will be selected.
Did that reproduce the issue?
Is there only one track in Playing Now, and is it in the Player Zone?
dichotomous1:
Since I dug into this last, the playlist contents clearing has occurred a few more times. The thing is, I can't find anything consistently connected to the event. It's happened at different times. Always same result: I leasve the computer with the current zone playing now list in view. I notice there music isn't playing. (so far I've not noticed playback stopping mud track, I think thats why I don't catch it the second it occurs) Return to the computer and the view is now on Player, with the last track played as the only track shown. When I toggle to the zone I was playing (Media Room) the playing now list is empty, not even the last track played is shown.
What triggers the saving of Recent Playing Now lists located in the Smart Playlist tree? I noticed it doesn't consistently list what was perviously played the saved times are random. Are they supposed to clear out daily? I do recall one of the times this Playing Now list cleared out, I went to grab a copy of the track lust from the Recent Playing Now Smartlest and there was nothing saved. I'm going to try to see if those get effected when this occurs next.
I tried the cutting the power method and result was No Change. The MC zone view stayed on Media Room and continued playing with seconds ticking off track time.
Couple of days ago, I came back to find an error message on the screen. A screen-shot of the error along with the logs for every time the event occurred since last post are here: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/gbuw5x9i7kzl89v/AADm5N9BvmT5HLCU5VQ_UJEJa?dl=0
I have a new computer coming in a couple of days. I will see if this event occurs while running MC on it. I've also not tried playing from my MacBook to see if this goes down. Ill give them a try and let you know.
J
RoderickGI:
--- Quote from: dichotomous1 on September 17, 2020, 08:23:49 pm ---I tried the cutting the power method and result was No Change. The MC zone view stayed on Media Room and continued playing with seconds ticking off track time.
--- End quote ---
You might have had to wait for the next track change to see the issue. I should have thought of that.
But the error message you posted tells a story. It isn't that the Music Cast Zone has disappeared, it is that MC has lost control of the Music Cast DLNA Renderer. So when it tried to send the next track to the Renderer it couldn't. MC does monitor the Renderer to see if some other Controller has taken control, and I think it stops trying to control the Renderer if that happens.
Could some other device have connected to the Music Cast DLNA Renderer, and tried to send music to it, or maybe someone just viewed what was being played with another DLNA Controller, such as a phone App? Maybe someone occasionally checks what is playing, or how many tracks are left to play, late in the day, and that is causing the problem.
I haven't tried to test having another DLNA Controller taking over control to see what happens, but I have seen that message and it does disrupt playback. Also, any issue would only happen at track change, because with DLNA the full file is sent to the Renderer at the beginning, and the DLNA Controller would only notice it has lost control when it tries to send the next file.
dichotomous1:
To clarify: the logs previously posted were for the playlist clearing out event. The screenshot of the error message was the only time I have ever received any sort of error message relating to DLNA control. And after reading your response, I don't think it was related to the playlist clearing out event. I'm sure you are correct about another iPhone throwing a wrench in the works. Let's just say, on a Tech Savvy scale of 1-10, I give myself a 5, my iPhone toating other half is <0
The playback stopped and the Playing Now list cleared out again last evening, by the time I noticed, I was on to other things so I just closed the MC app. When I reopened today I notice all the Recent Playing Now smart playlists that were there last night are gone. Is that set up to clear out on app close? Now I'm curious when exactly those clear out and if that is somehow related. I'm also going to test today to see if it is triggered from me using the JRemote iOS app. I've never altered or created a playlist with it, only skipped tracks within the Playing Now list I create on my desktop.
RoderickGI:
I didn't check the logs again to see if a DLNA event happened in them. Understanding DLNA events from the logs is difficult, usually. I can't look now but might get a chance later.
However, the symptoms you described; Playing Now being cleared for the Zone you were playing to (Media Room in this case), and just one file showing in the default Player Zone, is consistent with a DLNA Controller taking control of the DLNA Renderer (Music Cast) and either viewing the play queue, or trying to play something using Music Cast directly, or doing something which would indicate that MC is no longer the DLNA Controller for the Music Cast DLNA Renderer Zone. MC does monitor to see if another Controller has taken control of a DLNA Renderer it is playing to, and will release control if that happens.
Once that happens, MC will likely switch to the default Player Zone on track change, and the track it was trying to send to the DLNA Renderer will be placed into the Player Zone Playing Now list. At least that is what I have observed previously.
One way you may be able to confirm this is if you know for sure that the single track in Playing Now was that last track actually played, or the next track to be played. In the scenario I described it would be the next track to be played, not the last track that was played. Perhaps you can try to confirm that when next it happens.
I don't use the JRemote App on iOS, but do use the JRemote2 App on Android. That has settings called "App follows server zones" and "Server follows app zones". If the MC Server is set to follow the App Zones, and someone opens the JRemote2 and changes the Zone then MC will change Zone. That doesn't cause the problem for me playing to a MC Renderer, but it might playig to Music Cast DLNA Renderer. Usually though, MC handles playing to two or more different Zones (audio devices) just fine. But if the Music Cast App was opened on iOS, that may not be the case.
Honestly, the Recent Playing Now Smartlists are a bit of a mystery. MC manages them automatically of course, and it seems to create one when a change is about to be made to Playing Now, such as when a new track or tracks are added to an existing Playing Now list. I've also seen MC create one when I hit Stop, and when I hit Play after adding a bunch of tracks.
I used to think the list of Recent Playing Now's stayed for a day or so, but maybe that was only when I didn't restart MC. Just now restartnig MC cleared all Recent Playing Now's. That behaviour is confirmed in the Wiki: https://wiki.jriver.com/index.php/How_Playing_Now_Works
Basically, it is a handy feature during a session, where tracks are being added to Playing Now, or perhaps a playing session involves selecting Album by Album to add to Playing Now. But it a little mysterious for me to rely upon.
That's why I tend to build Playlists rather than building a list in Playing Now, if I am concerned about keeping the list. Then I just play the Playlist, and add to it if I require. Playlists are always saved and retained, no matter what else I do in MC.
If I do spend a long time building a list in Playing Now I might save it as a Playlist every now and then, just in case I get called away, have a power failure, a PC lockup, or make some mistake that could mean I lose the work.
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[#] Next page
[*] Previous page
Go to full version