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[mdx1]

I just started using JR MC on an HTPC running the Windows 7 Ultimate 32-bit.  The system has 2GB memory and is connected to a 1080p HDTV as the monitor.  

The sound device is the hiFace USB to SPDIF device made by M2Tech.  The output of the hiFace goes into the Musical Fidelity M1 DAC's coax input.  The JRiver MC is set to use the Kernel Streaming mode.

The MC was set to play all the albums(924)/songs(7068) in the "theater view" mode in order to properly "burn-in" the M1 DAC.  The music files are all lossless WMA format.  Most are from the regular CD rip at 16-bit/44.1kHz.  About 33 songs were  from the HDTrack at 24-bit/96kHz.  They were downloaded as FLAC and converted to WMA with dbPoweramp.

After 16 hours, I noticed although the music was playing, the MC was not responding to the remote, mouse or keyboard.  The Windows Task Manager showed the MC process was using over 1.7GB memory.

After terminating MC and restarted it to play all the songs, the initial memory footprint was 279MB.  After 1 hour, it became 479MB and was increasing.  Once the playing stopped, the memory stayed the same and the extra memory was not released.

Is this a known problem?

Thank you!

[Matt]

First, welcome to Interact.

As for the memory problem, it is not common.  It would be good to first try playing in Standard View (or minimized) to rule out a 3D display driver issue with Theater View.  It would also be good to disable any third-party or DSP plugins.

Let us know what you find, and we'll go from there.  Thanks.

[mdx1]

Matt,

Thank you for responding so quickly!

First let me say how much I enjoyed using the MC.  I was not happy with the sound quality of the Windows MC.  The foobar has the good sound but the look was awful.  The MC came highly recommended by the computeraudiophile site I now frequent.  The MC looks great in the Theater View mode and sounds great.  

You are right!  In the standard view or minimized, the memory footprint was small and stable, about 45,896KB, when playing all songs. The mini view was also stable.  The display view was also stable.

As soon as the theater view was entered, the memory footprint jumped over 200MB and started increasing.  Once it is backed to the standard view, the memory stabilizes again but not decreasing either.

[mdx1]

Bingo!

Once I turned the online media sideshow off, the memory stayed stable in the theater view mode.

By the way, I like the slideshow images although one image caught me by surprise (over PG-13).  How does MC go about gathering those images, by the title, composer or album names?

[Matt]

I would try updating your video drivers.  You could also lower the drawing quality in Options > Theater View in case it's a problem with anti-aliasing.

It is normal for memory usage to increase while Theater View is showing, but it is not normal for memory to leak.

You should be able to toggle Theater View forever (i.e. hold down Ctrl+4) and see no real change in memory usage at the end.

Thanks.

[Matt]

You can configure the online media sources in Options > Theater View > Theme.  Google sometimes provides chaotic or above PG-13 images.  The other two sources are more consistent, but arguably a little more boring.

I haven't been able to reproduce any sort of leak from the online slideshow.  Anyone else?

Thanks.

[mdx1]

Matt,

I found the MC on the Windows 7 machine had the Theater View Appearance Size set to 90%.  Once I set it to 100%, the memory became stable.  

However, on my Vista x64 PC with 8GB memory. the MC process memory footprint stayed the same (1992KB 7464 KB) regardless what I do.  It is now set to have the slideshow and the size is set to 90%.  The memory stays exactly the same, 1992KB 7464 KB.

Now on the Windows 7 32-bit machine, the MC process image name is called Media Center 15.exe under the Task Manager.  On the Vista 64-bit machine, the image name is called JRService.exe *32.  Both are running JRiver Media Center 15.0.142.  On both machines the shortcut indicates the executable name is "Media Center 15.exe".  Do you know why the task manager reports different image names?

Update:
I was mistaken.  The process image name is also called "Media Center 15.exe" under Vista x64.  The memory footprint is also going up even in the standard view mode if the slideshow is turned on and the size under appearance is set to less than 100%.  It is set to 80% on the Vista x64 machine right now.  I'll update my findings once I have some data.  

Earlier it was in the theater view mode playing all 7068 songs.  It crashed after 5 hours.  I did not catch the memory size but I could see there was a huge dip in the memory usage history graph on the performance page of the task manager.

[mdx1]

You can configure the online media sources in Options > Theater View > Theme.  Google sometimes provides chaotic or above PG-13 images.  The other two sources are more consistent, but arguably a little more boring.

Thank you for the tip.  I will uncheck the google image option during a party with small children.

[mdx1]

Once that is set to 100 (default), all is well.

What happens under the cover when the size is set to 90?

[JimH]

I found the MC on the Windows 7 machine had the Theater View Appearance Size set to 90%.  Once I set it to 100%, the memory became stable. 

Did you try updating the video driver?

[mdx1]

Did you try updating the video driver?

Not yet.  I will do it tonight.  It is using the Windows 7 stock driver.  The video is onboard VGA.  The Machine is a Dell 530s slim desktop.  It is 2 years old and came with Vista pre-intalled.  I will go to the Dell site to see if there is anything there for the Windows 7.

Update #1:

I just downloaded the driver from Dell.  It is for Vista 32-bit only and dated 8/2007.

The driver currently installed is listed from Intel, dated 9/2009.

I do not think the Dell driver should go on this Windows 7 machine.  I will however look for the current Intel Windows 7 driver for the G31/G33 graphics controller on the Intel site.


Update #2

I went to the intel driver update site and used their driver auto detect utility.  It said the video card is G31/G33 based and the driver is current.

http://www.intel.com/support/detect.htm?iid=gg_support-EN_01+home_detect

[mdx1]

Previous I said there was no leak in the Standard View mode.  It is because I was using the remote desktop which must use different display drivers.  Also I did not wait long enough to see the changes.

Now with it display to the 1080p TV, the memory increased from 140MB to 150MB in 45 minutes running the Standard View mode.

[Matt]

Now with it display to the 1080p TV, the memory increased from 140MB to 150MB in 45 minutes running the Standard View mode.

A 10MB change isn't necessarily a leak.  Memory usage will bounce around during normal usage.

Unless you're seeing 100+ MB chunks that never come back, it may be normal.

[mdx1]

I now understand why MC crashes after extended use.  It is related to the ever increasing memory footprint.  It has happened on my 32-bit Windows 7 and 64-bit Vista machines at least twice.

Here is the scenario that can make it crash.

1. Set the Size to less 100% under the Theater View Appearance section.
2. Enable the online slide show.
3. Select all the albums (over 7000 songs).  Each music file is tagged with album art.  The album art is about 50KB each.
4. Start the Theater View.
5. Start play.
6. Reshuffle the list.

After 12 hours, the memory should have gone up dramatically.  In less than 24 hours, the program will likely crash.

[glynor]

Update #2

I went to the intel driver update site and used their driver auto detect utility.  It said the video card is G31/G33 based and the driver is current.

http://www.intel.com/support/detect.htm?iid=gg_support-EN_01+home_detect

I have no idea if this is related to your memory leak problem, but the current Vista (both 32 and 64-bit) driver from Intel for the G31/33 is 15.​12.​4.​1666, which was dated 3/5/2009, not in September.  Perhaps the driver you have was pulled for some reason?

Windows 7 lists newer drivers (10/2009), but not any of the Vista ones.

http://downloadcenter.intel.com/SearchResult.aspx?lang=eng&ProductFamily=Graphics&ProductLine=Desktop+graphics+controllers&ProductProduct=Intel%C2%AE+G31+Express+Chipset

[Matt]

In a coming build:
Fixed: If Theater View theme online images failed to load (due to no internet, etc.) it could crash or lead to runaway memory usage.
Changed: The cover art in Theater View Playing Now doesn't automatically fadeout if there are no online images showing behind the cover art.

Thank you very much for your help tracking this down.

[mdx1]

I have no idea if this is related to your memory leak problem, but the current Vista (both 32 and 64-bit) driver from Intel for the G31/33 is 15.​12.​4.​1666, which was dated 3/5/2009, not in September.  Perhaps the driver you have was pulled for some reason?

Windows 7 lists newer drivers (10/2009), but not any of the Vista ones.

http://downloadcenter.intel.com/SearchResult.aspx?lang=eng&ProductFamily=Graphics&ProductLine=Desktop+graphics+controllers&ProductProduct=Intel%C2%AE+G31+Express+Chipset

Thank you!  I will download and try this driver this evening.


i downloaded and installed the latest win7 driver and rebooted.  It still shows the driver is dated 9/23/2009.

[mdx1]

In a coming build:
Fixed: If Theater View theme online images failed to load (due to no internet, etc.) it could crash or lead to runaway memory usage.
Changed: The cover art in Theater View Playing Now doesn't automatically fadeout if there are no online images showing behind the cover art.

Thank you very much for your help tracking this down.

Matt,

Thank you for the fix.  I am looking forward to the new build.

[mdx1]

In a coming build:
Fixed: If Theater View theme online images failed to load (due to no internet, etc.) it could crash or lead to runaway memory usage.
Changed: The cover art in Theater View Playing Now doesn't automatically fadeout if there are no online images showing behind the cover art.

Thank you very much for your help tracking this down.

Installed MC 15.0.150 and ran the shuffle play with all albums and online media slideshow enabled.

11:43 pm  175 MB
11:54 pm  201 MB
01:43 am  433 MB
09:05 am  433 MB
05:03 pm 433 MB

I will update the task manager reading in the morning evening again.

The memory footprint is kind of large but is no longer increasing.  The memory leak problem is fixed!!!

[glynor]

i downloaded and installed the latest win7 driver and rebooted.  It still shows the driver is dated 9/23/2009.

Did you uninstall the old one completely, making sure to remove the files from disk, reboot, and then install the new one?

If you are rolling back to an older driver, installing over-top will never work, particularly with video card drivers.  They can be "sticky".  That's why there are even specialized Driver Cleaners that you have to use in Safe Mode for many video card installs.

[mdx1]

Did you uninstall the old one completely, making sure to remove the files from disk, reboot, and then install the new one?

If you are rolling back to an older driver, installing over-top will never work, particularly with video card drivers.  They can be "sticky".  That's why there are even specialized Driver Cleaners that you have to use in Safe Mode for many video card installs.

You are right.  I did not uninstall the old driver.  I will try that again when I have sometime later this weekend.

Thanks,