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[ToasterPC]

Just reinstalled Windows 11 from scratch and installed JRiver, but it seems this problem is still present and getting worse, as now I'm not able to get any proper audio input at all.

How could I go about troubleshooting this issue?

[JimH]

Providing details would help.

Occasional noise may be coming from the DAC.

[JimH]

Previous report:

https://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php/topic,130481.msg946522.html#msg946522

[ToasterPC]

Ok, fair enough.

Most of the details from the previous thread are still as described, but to reiterate:

• This has been happening on the same computer for the purposes of this report, but I can reproduce the issue in at least another computer from the same manufacturer (Dell/Alienware m15 R6).
• The Windows version that has been used to reproduce the error is Windows 11 Pro for Workstations Compilation 23H2 (22631.2861).
• The problem has appeared consistently since the OS was reinstalled but has shown itself in several measures since the device was purchased.

To reproduce the issue, it is enough to follow the following steps:

• Install the latest version of JRiver Media Center 31 (31.0.87 64-bit at the time of writing)
• Following the instructions described in the Wiki, create separate zones for each of the available audio output devices and a zone used for Playback.
• Enable the WDM Driver in the Feature List of the Options menu.
• Reboot the computer
• Using ZoneSwitch, select the Playback zone and move it to the end of the list.
• Using the same procedure, select the desired device zone and list it at the top.
• Select the JRiver DSP device in the computer's Sound Control Panel.
• Select the device as an output in the active device zone.
• Open any audio-playing app (So far tested TIDAL, Plexamp, Microsoft Edge, the Netflix UWP app and Windows Media Player)
• Playback gets recognized by the system, and using software like Rainmeter to show a Spectrometer displays the corresponding track as expected.
• JRiver though shows only a sample of white noise, which fortunately I was able to capture and attach here using the Disk Writer as an output device.
• Depending on the mood of the device, the problem might come and go by itself, require a reboot, closing and opening the program, or a combination of all of the previous answers. having the computer go to sleep or change the order and availability of the output devices tends to worsen the issue.
• At the moment the problem can be seen to happen to the following devices:

• FiiO BTR7 USB DAC through ASIO
• The Realtek Onboard DAC of the computer through WASAPI (both the Onboard Speakers and the 3.5mm Jack)
• The HDMI output through the Nvidia RTX 3070 Laptop GPU using DirectSound going to a Samsung UN40EH5300F LED TV
• The Bluetooth A2DP LDAC output to a pair of Sony WH-1000XM4 using DirectSound (While using the Luculent Systems Alternative A2DP Driver)

As per the logs, I'm not sure how useful it would be, but I managed to capture the following attachment.

I hope the information provided can help lead us in the right direction, but in the meantime I'd like to thank you in advance for the help and wish you happy holidays!

If there's anything else you might need, please let me know.

[JimH]

   Enable the WDM Driver in the Feature List of the Options menu.
   Reboot the computer
   Using ZoneSwitch, select the Playback zone and move it to the end of the list.
   Using the same procedure, select the desired device zone and list it at the top.
   Select the JRiver DSP device in the computer's Sound Control Panel.

Do you mean select WDM?  It's a driver, not a DSP device.

   Select the device as an output in the active device zone.

This should be the sound device.

   Open any audio-playing app ...

If you test after setting up, but without doing any zones or zone setup, what happens?  Can you make WDM work at all?
If not, the DAC isn't doing its job.
If so, maybe you've found a problem we don't know about.

Turn off anything you have set in DSP Studio.

[ToasterPC]

Do you mean select WDM?  It's a driver, not a DSP device.

Sorry, you're right. I meant the JRiver audio device that shows up after enabling WDM.

This should be the sound device.

Yes, I have selected the FiiO DAC in the corresponding zone.

If you test after setting up, but without doing any zones or zone setup, what happens?  Can you make WDM work at all?
If not, the DAC isn't doing its job.
If so, maybe you've found a problem we don't know about.

Turn off anything you have set in DSP Studio.

Okay, just restored JRiver to factory defaults and attempted again to run without using any of the DSP's features.

It seems that it can work, albeit intermittently.

As of now, keeping the driver as a stereo device instead of the 7.1 I had it setup as seems to make the experience a bit more stable, though after clicking "Configure" in the Sound Control Panel the glitchyness tends to come back even after a reboot. Several attempts have led to the static sound coming back, but there doesn't seem to be a consistent reason for the behavior.


At least in this case, I've got my doubts the issue is with the DAC itself, given that the same behavior can be reproduced on all of the output devices, and skipping the WDM driver altogether and just using any of the outputs directly through Windows leads to no issues whatsoever.

[JimH]

How about testing without any other zones?

Power settings in Windows? 

NVIDIA has had recent problems that could affect HDMI.  There's a thread on the forum about audio and video pauses.

[ToasterPC]

How about testing without any other zones?

At the moment I haven't created any zones, I'm just using the default "Player" zone and manually selecting the output device.

Power settings in Windows?


NVIDIA has had recent problems that could affect HDMI.  There's a thread on the forum about audio and video pauses.

I'm not too sure which ones I should change, but at the moment I'm running everything at default with the Balanced power plan and wired to AC. I've also checked the link you sent on the previous thread, but from what I'm able to gather it shouldn't make much of a difference given that the driver version they are speaking about is about five years outdated compared to the current one (416.81 vs 546.29). Then again, if there's something else I should be checking, please let me know.

[JimH]

Experiment with the Windows power settings to see if it makes a difference.

New drivers are sometimes not the best ones.

What is "wired to AC"?

[mattkhan]

I would try to take the WDM driver out of the equation so you can see whether the source is producing garbage or whether the WDM driver is doing it

e.g. you could use https://vb-audio.com/Matrix/ to route into MC asio line instead of the WDM driver

if that works then it gives some clue as to where the actual problem lies

[ToasterPC]

Experiment with the Windows power settings to see if it makes a difference.

New drivers are sometimes not the best ones.

What is "wired to AC"?

I agree about the drivers, but going that far back would put my driver version before my device existed, so I have some doubts about how well everything would work at that moment.


By wired to AC I meant that I'm doing all of this with the laptop plugged into its charger, instead of running off the battery.

I would try to take the WDM driver out of the equation so you can see whether the source is producing garbage or whether the WDM driver is doing it

e.g. you could use https://vb-audio.com/Matrix/ to route into MC asio line instead of the WDM driver

if that works then it gives some clue as to where the actual problem lies

Thanks for the tip!


Okay, I did give Matrix a try and after struggling to figure it out I think I might have gotten something out of it.


Routing TIDAL to "VBMatrix In 1" with maxed out volume works with no issues, and using Matrix to output that to FiiO's ASIO Driver works perfectly as well, but trying to route it to JRiver's ASIO In using the same 2 channels in the 64A Slot proves to be spotty at best.


I'm completely unable to go anywhere above 44.1kHz for the sample rate, and so far, I'm only able to get some sound if the FiiO driver is used as a WASAPI device, set to Play, and then immediately rebooting.


After that, I get sound when starting everything again, though with some skips in the playback, and changing any settings anywhere along the chain breaks playback again.

Also tried using the Realtek ASIO driver as an output in VBMatrix just to be sure and got nowhere as well.


So far it seems that both Matrix and FiiO's ASIO are working well, and JRiver's ASIO is at least receiving audio itself, but getting further than that in the chain has me stumped at the moment.

[ToasterPC]

Hello!


It's been a few weeks since the topic was active, is there anything else I should be doing?

[JimH]

Can you try another DAC?  Just to test.

[ToasterPC]

Can you try another DAC?  Just to test.

The only other DAC I have is the Onboard Realtek audio of the laptop, but the results are the same.

Would it help at this point to move to MC32 and try to troubleshoot from the newest codebase?

[JimH]

It would be easy enough to try MC32.

Don't set up any zones or use Zoneswitch.  What you described above doesn't make sense to me.

Try other settings for volume.  Click on the speaker icon in the upper left corner.  Set it to Internal, for example.

Does playback work without WDM?

[ToasterPC]

It would be easy enough to try MC32.

Don't set up any zones or use Zoneswitch.  What you described above doesn't make sense to me.

Try other settings for volume.  Click on the speaker icon in the upper left corner.  Set it to Internal, for example.

Does playback work without WDM?

Okay, just went ahead and uninstalled MC31 completely, then rebooted and installed MC32.


I am able to play back a FLAC file without issue and using internal volume, as seen in this screenshot:




However, trying to playback from WDM leads to the same issue:





I have to stop playback several times in order to be able to get the sound to work properly, but it doesn't always do so itself, regardless of if I'm sending a Stereo signal or a Surround one with the Output format options enabled in the DSP.

[ToasterPC]

It would be easy enough to try MC32.

Don't set up any zones or use Zoneswitch.  What you described above doesn't make sense to me.

Try other settings for volume.  Click on the speaker icon in the upper left corner.  Set it to Internal, for example.

Does playback work without WDM?

Hey there!

It's been a while since the thread was opened, is there anything else I could try to keep troubleshooting?

[JimH]

Start on the last page here and work backward. 
https://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php/topic,24031.350.html