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[neovibe]

Hi,

ever since I started using MC12 I get regular crashes when I do a lot of jumping between tracks of albums stored in cue+file format. I was waiting for it to go away after the constant build updates but after dozens of builds it has persisted.

some more information:
- happens mostly when I do a lot of jumping between tracks of albums stored in cue+file format - simply stops everything - including audio, sometimes the are where you usually see the track time starts showing 'Buffering...' and gos nowhere from there; sometimes I can exit using the close button on MC's window but the process won't end so I have to kill it manually in the task manager before I can launch MC again; other times I can't even exit and have to kill it manually.
- I have seen no relation with the audio file type
- Happens with a huge variety of files (not a matter of a specific property of some cue files, at least as far as I could figure out)
- Happens in very different setups, for instance a laptop using the regular line out and a desktop using ASIO out.
- Seems to happen more often when I consistently use the 'next' button than when I manually select the track on the playlist, but this is not a scientific conclusion.

This also happens with Media Jukebox on another PC...

hope someone can help me out, it's getting pretty frustrating.
thanks in advance

[JimH]

Please copy your system info from MC Help and post it here.

Check the "Weird Problems" link in my signature for ideas.

Uninstall your virus checker (to test).

[neovibe]

I have different virus checkers in the different PC's but will try. I'll check the weird problems too.

here is the sys info from the laptop where I'm running MediaJukebox. Crashed just a few minutes ago by the way...
will post the sys info of the other system when I get home.

Media Jukebox 12.0.47C:\Program Files\J River\Media Jukebox 12\

Microsoft Windows XP 5.1 Service Pack 2 (Build 2600)
Intel Core 2 2009 MHz MMX / Memory: Total - 1039 MB, Free - 467 MB

Internet Explorer: 7.0.5730.13 / ComCtl32.dll: 5.82.2900 / Shlwapi.dll: 6.0.2900 / Shell32.dll: 6.0.2900 / wnaspi32.dll: N/A
Ripping /   Drive F:   Mode:Normal  Type:Auto  Speed:Max
  Digital playback: Yes /  Get cover art: Yes /  Calc replay gain: Yes /  Copy volume: 32767
  Eject after ripping: Yes /  Play sound after ripping: No 

Burning /  Drive F: HL-DT-ST DVDRAM GSA-4083N   Addr: 0:0:0  Speed:16  MaxSpeed:16  BurnProof:Yes
  Test mode: No /  Eject after writing: Yes /  Direct decoding: Yes /  Write CD-Text: Yes
  Use playback settings: No /

Portable Device Info
  Removed devices:

Device info dump for 'My Device':

WMDMName:
DeviceUID: {B1A0982F-562A-4F6D-B806-2A1A1BC4C090}
CanonicalName:
VendorName: ; VendorID:
ProductID: ; FirmwareVersion:
WMDMSerialNumber: NULL
WMDMWriteOurOwnPlaylists:
DeviceType: 4; DeviceID: ; DeviceName: ; UnsupportedDevice: 0
IsDrive: 1; DriveLetter: ; DrivePath: C:\DVD5; MainDriveLetter:
IsJanusCapable: ; IsIpod: ;iTunesDBVersion:
SupportsAlbumArt: ; AlbumArtEnabled: 1; CoverArtTagRule: ; SaveCoverArtToFolderJPG:
GetPlayStatsFromDevice: 0; SupportsFolders: -1; PlaylistFormat: 0; EjectMode: ; AlwaysPumpCOMMessages: 0
SupportedFileTypes: *
ContextMenus:
MemoryTypes:
InstallURL:
ApplicationName: Media Jukebox
ImageName:
RootBasePath:
AudioBasePath: [Artist]\[Album]\
ImageBasePath: Images\
VideoBasePath: Video\
DataBasePath: Data\
PlaylistBasePath: Playlists\
DatabaseBasePath:
AudibleBasePath: Audible\
MatchKeyExpression: If(IsEqual([Media Type], Image), [Name]
[File Size, 0]
, [Name]
Clean([Artist], 1)
[Album]
[Genre]
FormatNumber([track #, 0])
[Media Type]
)
ChangeKeyExpression: [Rating]

ResyncIfDateModified:


Interface Plugins:
  last.fm (Active)

[Alex B]

As a test, I loaded my cue library (about 3000 cue tracks) to MC12's Playing Now. I had MC set to suffle mode so the tracks appeared in a random order.

In general, I couldn't reproduce the problem by doing anything that resembles a normal listening situation. I played tracks from here and there, pressed all player buttons randomly, moved the position slider back and forth and so on.

Only after I started to do these changes very vigorously without letting MC settle down at all (i.e. I pressed a new button or changed the playing track as fast as I could) I was once able to make it crash after making about 100 changes. MC started to play a very short loop and became unresponsive.

What are your playback settings (track switching mode etc) and are you using any DSP effects?  Are the files on a local hard drive or on a network location?
Can you reproduce a crash by doing certain things again exactly as you did when it crashed the first time?

[neovibe]

hi, thank you for your test.

the situation I'm describing seems to be a bit different from that you reproduced:
- it is very rare that it locks playing a short loop, normally it happens only when changing track, so the current one stops and the other one stays 'buffering...' indefinitely until I kill the process.
- changing track position doesn't ever cause it, only switching tracks.


I couldn't ever find a certain sequence of things that would consistently reproduce this, it happens consistently but in a very random way, so if you never noticed this during regular usage of cue's, I have a feeling you won't be able to reproduce it by doing a very specific sort of things. It might be OK for a couple of hours and then crash or it can happen twice in a short time.

What I believe is consistent every time it happens is changing track repeatedly over a certain period of time, not exactly doing it very fast before MC has any chance of responding but more like listening to 5 seconds of each track and skipping to the next 5 times or more(say, when you're listening trough a new album you just got). Could happen after you've run through one album or after many...

I *think* that if during this 'track browsing process' I occasionally press the 'stop' button I can reduce the chances of this occurring, but this is not scientific. It's as if it had a maximum (random) number of track changes (between stops), after which it crashes, but doesn't seem to be directly related to how fast you do it.

I think it's more sensitive to using the 'next' button than selecting tracks from the playlist (not confirmed).

I have never been able to connect this with high cpu loads or short memory, happens no matter how many programs I'm running at that time and in two computers totally different in hardware and with completely different sets of applications running in the background.

All files are in a local hard drive and my playback settings are (for this machine):
wave out (happens with asio too)
no dsp whatsoever
do not play silence is off
use gapless for albums on
switch tracks is gapless
seek is smooth-fast
stop is fadeout-fast

I think the buffering time has no effect on it but I could try increasing it and see...

hope this helps

thank you for your time, everyone

[neovibe]

just as a note, I've skipped some 50 tracks pressing 'next' every 2 or 3 seconds and selecting points on the progress bar and I haven't managed to make crash. Just as I had written the first post with a much more 'gentle' activity it crashed...


anyway, checked that "Weird Problems" thread and found nothing helpfull for this case

[hit_ny]

- it is very rare that it locks playing a short loop, normally it happens only when changing track, so the current one stops and the other one stays 'buffering...' indefinitely until I kill the process.
- changing track position doesn't ever cause it, only switching tracks.

When it seems to get stuck, hit the stop button and wait for it to stop. Might take a minute or two. Kill the volume (external) till it gets back if necessary.

Then try playing as usual.

It's never a good idea to kill MC as it might be saving info back to the library and might have gotten delayed for whatever reason, in which case you risk corrupting the library.

I have the task mgr or process explorer minimised to the tray so usually i notice this sort of freeze happens when the CPU is pegged, tho you indicated that was not necessarily the case.

I've seen this type of behaviour happen with cue file playback randomly and i'm on a much lower powered CPU than you are. Everytime i think its a bug, it goes away and i don't see the problem for many weeks if not months. A program restart or a reboot seems to make it go away.

I can't seem to reproduce it at will tho doing what you described sounds like a likely way to get it to happen.

My guess is MC is doing something in the background and has not completed before the track change happens. But you are on a C2D so would have thought there was ample power to dish out for any work.

[neovibe]

Your expression "My guess is MC is doing something in the background and has not completed before the track change happens." got me wondering about something I hadn't thought of before: throwing ratings into the mix!

that process of quickly browsing/skipping through tracks is often accompanied by rating those tracks, so I tried it with the same files I was listening stably for hours but now rating them as I skipped and got it to crashe. I changed tracks very aggressively but that just increased the odds, it would happen anyway I believe, just would take longer.

this is what happened:
- at a track change requested by me the audio stopped but the time kept counting as if it were playing.
- when I clicked something it changed to the next track and the message to 'buffering...'.
- from then on it became totally unresponsive, not even highlighting buttons as the mouse hovers them.
- cpu load is now the same as idle, MC is shown at 0% cpu and 24mb mem.
- I can use the pc normally but can't bring back the MC window when I click it on the taskbar.
- nothing changes after 5min
- I kill it and restart, and the last track I rated doesn't show the last change in rating.

Maybe it is dependent on the environment or maybe it isn't. Can someone please try, won't take more than 30 track changes if you're agressive with it.

Assuming we've found the cause and assuming it can be reproduced, can something be done about it?

thanks again

[Matt]

just as a note, I've skipped some 50 tracks pressing 'next' every 2 or 3 seconds and selecting points on the progress bar and I haven't managed to make crash. Just as I had written the first post with a much more 'gentle' activity it crashed...


anyway, checked that "Weird Problems" thread and found nothing helpfull for this case

I think we found this problem.  A newer build of Media Jukebox and Media Center will be available later this week with a fix.

Let us know how it works out.

[neovibe]

I think we found this problem.  A newer build of Media Jukebox and Media Center will be available later this week with a fix.

Let us know how it works out.

does that reply take into account my last post?
or doesn't it change anything?

cheers

[Matt]

does that reply take into account my last post?
or doesn't it change anything?

cheers

Yes.  Thanks for all the details.

We found a place where one thread was sending a message to another thread, but the other thread couldn't answer because it was waiting for the first thread.  We had to abuse the player to get it to happen, but timing bugs are always sporadic.

Again, just let us know if you still have the problem after the new build is available.

[neovibe]

Yes.  Thanks for all the details.

We found a place where one thread was sending a message to another thread, but the other thread couldn't answer because it was waiting for the first thread.  We had to abuse the player to get it to happen, but timing bugs are always sporadic.

Again, just let us know if you still have the problem after the new build is available.

will do, thanks

[neovibe]

are these fixes already on MJ 048?

tried the same thing and it didn't crash. did something new, when it 'should' crash, it showed 'buffering' and a percentage for a sec or 2 and then play the next track... before, whenever it showed 'buffering' it would never get back up.

I'll keep testing.

[JimH]

are these fixes already on MJ 048?

I think so.

[neovibe]

Have been testing MJ and it seems to be fixed.

also gave MC12 (531) a thorough workout yesterday and it never crashed.

problem solved, thanks guys