For quite some time (maybe ever since I started using MC 10) I have not been able to get the crossfade option to work correctly. I always assumed it had something to do with my "Output" options, but I tested that thoroghly today, and wasn't able to fix it. I did also discover two odd things ...
1. The "Seeking" crossfade works fine. It also seems to work when I manually switch from one track to another. When MC switches tracks itself, though (when one song ends and the next starts) the crossfade settings have no effect (other than "standard" which does correctly add the specified gap).
2. When I go into the Options panel and set the crossfade settings, I noticed today that as I click the OK button and the form is closing, the crossfade settings switch to "Standard" with a Gap of 0.1 very briefly just as the form is closing. I only see this sometimes, though it probably happens every time, but too quickly for me to see. This appears to be exactly what the crossfade is doing as well, as it switches to the next track quickly, but not quite gapless and certainly not crossfaded.
If anyone has any ideas, I would be happy to try them, as I would really like to have this function.
Two other notes ...
I have a Creative Audigy 2 Souncard. (I have tried setting the Output options to basically everything in there, though if someone has a real specific setting for this card I'd be happy to listen.)
Also, most of my files are located on another machine and shared over the network (mounted as a network drive on the local machine). I seriously doubt that this is the problem because (1) it works when I manually switch tracks, and (2) it works fine with other media players. I don't really have any other network related problems (I worked hard to build a reliable network with reliable equipment).
Here is the system info:
Media Center Registered 10.0.127 -- C:\Program Files\J River\Media Center\
Microsoft Windows XP 5.1 Service Pack 1 (Build 2600)
Intel Pentium III 1001 MHz MMX / Memory: Total - 1048 MB, Free - 670 MB
Internet Explorer: 6.0.2800.1106 / ComCtl32.dll: 5.82 (xpsp1.020828-1920) / Shlwapi.dll: 6.00.2800.1400 / Shell32.dll: 6.00.2800.1233 (xpsp2.030604-1804) / wnaspi32.dll: 4.71 (0002) , ASPI for Win32 DLL, Copyright © 1989-2002 Adaptec, Inc. / Aspi32.sys: 4.71 (0002)
Ripping / Drive D: AOpen DVD-1640 PRO Mode:Normal Type:Auto Speed:Max
Drive E: Mode:Normal Type:Auto Speed:Max
Digital playback: Yes / Use YADB: Yes / Get cover art: Yes / Calc replay gain: Yes / Copy volume: 32767
Eject after ripping: Yes / Play sound after ripping: No
Burning / Drive E: LITE-ON LTR-48246S Addr: 0:1:0 Speed:40 MaxSpeed:48 BurnProof:Yes
Test mode: No / Eject after writing: Yes / Direct decoding: Yes / Write CD-Text: Yes
Use playback settings: Yes / Normalization: None