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[gazjam]

Using Current version of MC17.
Wondering about Memory Play feature for a setup using NAS?

MC is installed on a machine with only a SSD installed for Windows 7.
It is networked to my sedrver which has all my Audio Flac files stored on it.

I have set (as per online "best audio on JRiver" guides) files to play from memory rather than disk using Memory Play feature.
There is a few seconds of Buffering before a track plays and I wonder if Memory Play is the culprit.

Can I disable Memory Play with NO sound quality drop as my files are received over a network?
Do the files get played from memory ANYWAY if the music arives via the network?


Thanks, this delay is a nuisance I would like to get rid of, but if I have to keep it I have to keep it!

[Matt]

Welcome.

I would recommend disabling 'Play from memory' if you use a NAS.

[InflatableMouse]

Under Tools/Options, Audio, there is also an option Prebuffering which default is set to 6 seconds.

You may want to try lowering that if disabling 'Play files from memory' does not solve your issue.

[gazjam]

Welcome.

I would recommend disabling 'Play from memory' if you use a NAS.

Thanks Guys.
I had lowered the prebuffering to 2 secs and playback stuttered on 24/96 material.
Switching off memory play solved the problem completely.
 
Matt,
Looking into it in a bit more detail (if you don't mind?) I had read on Computer Audiophile site that JRiver playing from a NAS plays the files from memory ANYWAY hence Memory Play feature isn't needed as teh benefits of memory play are in place already.

That right?

Thanks.

[Vincent Kars]

Correct
Memory playback loads a track in memory so no access to the local HD by JRiver during playback.
As JRiver is reading the data from a server, there is no access to the local HD by JRiver for the audio.
What it reads from the server is stored in memory

[gazjam]

Thanks Vincent.

(Great Site btw )

[candycane]

Another source of potential misinformation and confusion on this topic:  Someone is asserting that MC is not as well-designed for network playback as other applications (starting on post #5):

http://www.computeraudiophile.com/f10-music-servers/nas-vs-ssd-12639/#post167241

I sense he's out of his depth and his network looks awesomely prone to setup issues being the source of any unusual latency, but in the audiophile world rumors and unsubstantiated opinions repeated often enough frequently become gospel and impossible to kill.  It would be great to see if anyone has compared playback latency across different player applications that are all properly configured on a typical and properly configured network.

[Matt]

Another source of potential misinformation and confusion on this topic:  Someone is asserting that MC is not as well-designed for network playback as other applications (starting on post #5):

Media Center works great as a network player.

All I/O is done in a background thread completely detached from playback threads.  It's the ideal architecture in my opinion.

When you enable memory playback, you're asking the program to read each new file at full speed right as playback starts (the read does not block playback starting).  For a hard drive, this probably takes less than one second.  For a network resource, this fast pull can cause too much stress on the NIC and cause delays or audio stutters.  If that happens to you, just turn off memory playback.

[gazjam]

Cheers  Matt,

finally please sort my audiophillianervosa...

Playing from a NAS I am doing, theres NO hit on audio quality disabling Memory Play as its reading from memory ANYWAY as I'm receiving my Flac files over the network?


Sorry! (and thanks )

[Matt]

Playing from a NAS I am doing, theres NO hit on audio quality disabling Memory Play as its reading from memory ANYWAY as I'm receiving my Flac files over the network?

Exactly.

And remember that technically playback is always from memory.  When you deliver audio to a sound card the data must be in memory.

The memory playback option in Media Center simply toggles whether a file is read all at once to memory, or whether it's read smoothly to memory during the course of playback.

I personally think smooth I/O is technically superior and sonically identical.  But many audiophiles requested full memory cached I/O, which is why it's available as an option.

[audioriver]

I personally think smooth I/O is technically superior and sonically identical.

Can you please explain why it is technically superior? Something related to Windows' virtual memory perhaps? When I was using other players in the past, I had problems (momentary audio pauses) when there was intense HDD activity from other applications, so MC's 'play from memory' option comes extremely handy: these problems are gone.

[JimH]

When I was using other players in the past, I had problems (momentary audio pauses) when there was intense HDD activity from other applications ...

That would be very unusual on a modern PC, and a small buffer in the player would solve any possible problem.

[rayooo]

Using Current version of MC17.
Wondering about Memory Play feature for a setup using NAS?

MC is installed on a machine with only a SSD installed for Windows 7.
It is networked to my sedrver which has all my Audio Flac files stored on it.

I have set (as per online "best audio on JRiver" guides) files to play from memory rather than disk using Memory Play feature.
There is a few seconds of Buffering before a track plays and I wonder if Memory Play is the culprit.

Can I disable Memory Play with NO sound quality drop as my files are received over a network?
Do the files get played from memory ANYWAY if the music arives via the network?

Just out of curiosity, do you point JRiver to your NAS via a mapped network drive? or, just point JRiver to the direct network address?
(Not sure I said that correctly)

When in the past using the mapped mode and pointing JRiver a "Z" drive or such, I had all kinds of random issues, buffering/re-buffering etc.

Since entering the network address directly, it's been absolutely ROCK solid now for many months. (well now that I've said that it's sure to stop working any second now)

In any case, I can run the standard buffering settings, even play from memory... and the response is instant. even on 24bit/192khz, any track-to-track jump is instant.
If looking, I might see a "buffering" display for a tenth of a second, if you blink ya miss it.

...guess this is as good a place as any to thank everyone who works on MC.  I use it for high-rez audio exclusively and it's friggin fantastic! !

[gazjam]

I have my MC Library pointing to a drive on another computer via (I guess) a mapped network drive?
MC is reading the drive "\\WORKSTATION\Media Drive\Music\", where WORKSTATION is my other computer and Media Drive/Music is the drive/Folder where my music library is held.
Shows up as on my "Network" on Windows 7.

How would I set up MC17 to access the network location directly..sounds like a better way to do it!

Thanks.

[rayooo]

I have my MC Library pointing to a drive on another computer via (I guess) a mapped network drive?
MC is reading the drive "\\WORKSTATION\Media Drive\Music\", where WORKSTATION is my other computer and Media Drive/Music is the drive/Folder where my music library is held.
Shows up as on my "Network" on Windows 7.

How would I set up MC17 to access the network location directly..sounds like a better way to do it!

Thanks.

I think you're set the same as I am.  In my case in-  Tools/Options,   file location:  \\DISKSTATION\Music\HiRezAudio      (no mapped drive letter stated)

If I use a WirelessN connected Ultrabook to the NAS, running with "Play from Memory" enabled, It can buffer for up to 20 seconds with 192k sampled files.

On my "main" playback computer, it's a wired gig E connection to NAS and even with "play from memory" enabled it's always virtually instant playback.
I should note that me having "play from memory" enabled is simply a hold over from many months ago when I was experimenting with various playback settings.

There was then and still is, just a ton of conflicting information being passed around on "audiophile" sites about various settings for music playback applications.
SSDs sound better and worse than spinning HDs, 7200RPM sounds better and worse than 5200,  Direct attached storage sounds better and worse than Ethernet connected. It goes on and on.
 
 

[Vincent Kars]

You can specify a share on a server in 2 ways
\\ServerName\share or
\\IP-adres\share

If you map a networked drive  you specify or the server name or its IP-address.

Sometimes there are problems in a network resolving the names.
You don’t have this problem specifying the IP.
But if your NAS doesn’t have a fixed IP one day this might not work.

[gazjam]

Just out of curiosity, do you point JRiver to your NAS via a mapped network drive? or, just point JRiver to the direct network address?
(Not sure I said that correctly)

When in the past using the mapped mode and pointing JRiver a "Z" drive or such, I had all kinds of random issues, buffering/re-buffering etc.

Since entering the network address directly, it's been absolutely ROCK solid now for many months. (well now that I've said that it's sure to stop working any second now)

In any case, I can run the standard buffering settings, even play from memory... and the response is instant. even on 24bit/192khz, any track-to-track jump is instant.
If looking, I might see a "buffering" display for a tenth of a second, if you blink ya miss it.

...guess this is as good a place as any to thank everyone who works on MC.  I use it for high-rez audio exclusively and it's friggin fantastic! !

How do you do this in JRiver settings?
Bit confused, sorry.

Tried adding library in MC and couldnt work it out.

This solution looks as though it will be ideal for my situation.
Thanks.

[rayooo]

I hope this helps (see below)
In my case, "file location" is selected by using windows, viewing the network..in my case DISKSTATION\Music\HiRezAudio 

[HiFiTubes]

I'm set up like you Rayooo, and I'm using a Synology DS441j. Lately though, I have started to get some buffering. I think I need to reboot my NAS. I never used to have delays using mem. playback with 192kHz or DSD and using network location rather than mapped.

@ Matt - Since we are talking memory, is there a cap on how much memory MC uses as an application overall? I have 16GB and it's reall all I run on this machine to manage 400K files. I'd like MC to be able to utilize it.

IIRC - there was a way to edit how much RAM was utilized by the mem. read for Playback From Memory as well.

Just out of curiosity, do you point JRiver to your NAS via a mapped network drive? or, just point JRiver to the direct network address?
(Not sure I said that correctly)

When in the past using the mapped mode and pointing JRiver a "Z" drive or such, I had all kinds of random issues, buffering/re-buffering etc.

Since entering the network address directly, it's been absolutely ROCK solid now for many months. (well now that I've said that it's sure to stop working any second now)

In any case, I can run the standard buffering settings, even play from memory... and the response is instant. even on 24bit/192khz, any track-to-track jump is instant.
If looking, I might see a "buffering" display for a tenth of a second, if you blink ya miss it.

...guess this is as good a place as any to thank everyone who works on MC.  I use it for high-rez audio exclusively and it's friggin fantastic! !

[audioriver]

That would be very unusual on a modern PC, and a small buffer in the player would solve any possible problem.

It was frequent, and the PC was quite modern, although not top-of-the-line. Problems came up when I copied large files between regular 7200rpm internal HDD's. If you add to the equation a slow, USB 2.0 external drive (love USB 3 btw) it's not difficult to see a CPU-wise powerful system hard-pushed.