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[jkauff]

I have a computer in my living room, but my main system is in the bedroom. Every device is connected via Ethernet (no WiFi). Both computers have MC27 installed.

When I load the remote bedroom library into the copy of MC on the living room computer, everything looks right. However, every few tracks, the audio cuts out. The track is still playing (visually), but no sound comes out. I have to stop the playback, then open the track again to get the audio back.

I can't figure out if this is a LAN problem, an MC problem, or something to do with the fact that I'm using the audio out of my GTX 1080 video card (over HDMI). Any ideas?

[JimH]

It may happen when the format of the file changes.  What types of files are you playing? 

Try only a single filetype, just stereo.

Try using MC's DSP Studio > Output Format to force everything to a single format.  Start at 44.1 to see if that works.

[jkauff]

My entire library is FLAC, in stereo, but the bit depth and sample rate vary from album to album. I'll try setting everything to 44.1.

[Wheaten]

if you want to do some simple and very basic monitoring of your network you can open the resource monitor.
WIN Key => type resource monitor => open tab "Network"
Network utilization, is an indication over the used bandwidth, low is good
Network IO, is an indication on the data that is being pushed over the network. When streaming and the top chart hits the bottom often it can have effect on the audio experience.
As this runs on the client only, you should monitor this on both server and client.

[jkauff]

Good suggestion. I doubt that it's a network problem, since the audio can cut out in the middle of a song while playback continues, but I don't know enough about how MC interacts with the network to rule it out. I think the MC audio path is being disrupted somehow when the source is a remote library. DLNA works fine, so I'm guessing the problem involves how Media Server sends data over the LAN.

[Manfred]

I have similar architecture. Also the server is connected via Ethernet to the living room Media Renderer.
Few questions:

- Do you use MC Client Server model or DLNA model?
- Do you have mounted your HD drives on the server on the client side?
- Do you use In-Memory play on the client side?
- HDMI goes to an AV Receiver and you bitstream audio?

[jkauff]

Few questions:

- Do you use MC Client Server model or DLNA model?
- Do you have mounted your HD drives on the server on the client side?
- Do you use In-Memory play on the client side?
- HDMI goes to an AV Receiver and you bitstream audio?

- In this case, I'm using Client Server. For DLNA I use JRemote.
- Hard drives are on the server side
- I don't think so. I'll check. Would that be good or bad?
- My stereo receiver is connected to the living room computer via HDMI. I don't do bitstreaming.

Thanks for jumping in.

[Manfred]

I don't think so. I'll check. Would that be good or bad?

I would call it positive: With In-Memory play the audio should not cut out. If yes, I would assume its the driver or the transport medium - in your case HDMI.

Hard drives are on the server side

On the Client you should mount your drives like Drive Letter(\\Name)(Drive Letter:). If not MC behaves different.

[jkauff]

On the Client you should mount your drives like Drive Letter(\\Name)(Drive Letter:). If not MC behaves different.

I'm not mounting the drives directly, just the library. I guess instead of using the remote library, I could clone the library on the Client side and use the network paths for the drives.

That still doesn't solve the mystery of why loading and playing the remote library doesn't work as it should. The between-rooms LAN bandwidth is only 30k, but that should be plenty for playing a series of FLAC files. The files are all on an internal SATA drive as well--I have external USB drives on the server, but I don't use them for music.

[jkauff]

Ok, everything seems to be working now. On the client, I set Play From Memory to "Load full file (not decoded)" and bumped the Prebuffering to maximum (20 sec.). I still get an occasional stutter, but not often enough to bother me.

Thanks to everyone who helped!