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[steveklein]

I've got a PC in my bedroom and a laptop in my living room. I am trying to link the zones such that I can play music in my bedroom and it also play in my living room. Computing power should not be an issue; This is just simple .mp3 playback at 320kbps bitrate (and often lower). Both computers are connected to the same home network so bandwidth shouldn't be an issue either. Both systems are running Windows 7 and the same version of MC 17.

The listening experience is not usable. Often only a second (or less) of music plays and then it cuts out and there is a few seconds of silence, and then another second or two plays, etc. etc.

Also, the experience isn't much better when I try to play the music on my laptop directly. The music is all stored on my bedroom PC and when I use the access key to load the library, it works... But when playing music on the laptop, often times only a minute or two of a track plays and then the track is skipped even though I am not issuing a next track command.

Anyone seen similar issues or have ideas on how to fix this?

[JimH]

That's a very odd problem.  It sounds bandwidth related.

Is it possible that a virus checker is checking every audio file you play?

Is part of the network wireless?

Are the files on a server, so that whatever is playing them uses the network twice?  Once to load the file, once to play it.

[GreggP]

I have a similar problem. Since the OP hasn't responded, I'm going to add to this thread to try and keep this in one convenient location for everyone.

I've had problems with multizone playback for quite awhile. I think I first tried this feature with MC15, but gave up because I could never get it to work. I assumed that one of the PCs just didn't have the processing power and memory to handle this. I've since upgraded to MC17 and I've also replaced the slow PC with a new more robust system. Here are the details:

I have a bunch of PCs connected to a home network. My routers and switches are all gigabit and the performance is pretty good. Streaming audio or video from one PC to another works fine, even ripped Blu-rays with 1080p and 7.1 DTS-HD audio. Also connected to the network is an unRaid server where all my media is stored. Several of the PCs on my network are running MC17, but I am just dealing with two of the PCs for linking zones. I will refer to them as PC1 and PC2.

I am trying to synchronously play music in multiple locations in my home using the linked zone feature. PC1 is connected to an amp that plays music in my living room. PC2 is connected to an amp that plays music in our family room, which is located in our basement.

Both PCs are running Windows 7 64-bit and have fairly fast modern Intel CPUs (i5s) and 4 GBs of RAM. Each of these PCs use the unRaid media server for storing content (all the audio, video, photos, etc. that are stored on the server are shared by all the PCs connected to our home network). Both of these PCs are running the same version of MC17 - 17.0.182. They both have 'Use Media Network to share this library and enable DLNA' enabled. Both are set to display cover art in the 'Playing Now' view.

I'm using PC1 to initiate the zone linking and I am not sure if it makes any difference which PC is used. On PC1, I select an album and pick PLAY. Then I choose the Player from the 'Playing Now' list and drag it over the PC2 Player. MC17 immediately creates the link and starts playing the song in PC1's playlist. The song is playing in sync on both PCs. This is great. However, this was after stumbling around with different combinations. During one attempt, I got a message box asking me to identify the "Master" and I chose the PC1 player. It worked for the first song, but then it stopped playing the rest of the songs in the playlist. This usually happened when I tried to initiate the link from PC2. I would try to play PC1's playlist on PC2 and after the first song, it would continue playing on PC2, but stop playing on PC1. Other times, it would just keep repeating the first song.

Playing a playlist from PC1 and initiating the link from PC1 works. On PC2's screen, only the currently playing and the next song are listed in the 'Playing Now' view. The link info between these PCs is only shown on PC1. There isn't any indication on PC2 that the two PCs are linked.

The transitions to the next song are pretty glitchy. This is probably similar to the OP's buffering issue, but not nearly as bad. When it transitions from one track to the next, I hear a little audio snippet of the next song and then some silence. After several seconds the next song started playing. I assume this is probably a syncing issue. I also noticed that the cover art in the 'Playing Now' view of PC1 disappears and is briefly replaced by the 'Play Doctor' screen during the silent delay between tracks. The next song starts playing in both zones and PC2 again only shows 2 tracks in the 'Playing Now' list - the current and next songs.

Does this seem about right, does everyone have audio glitches between tracks with this feature?
Is there something I can do to get this to work better when linking from either computer?

[dtc]

I just starting using linked zones to connect 2 computers. I am having the same problem as GreggP.  On one computer, when a new track starts it plays a few notes, goes silent, then starts up 5+ seconds later. Sometimes, one of the tracks never plays on one computer, but it picks up with the next track.

My configuration is a server with local storage controlled by a client using Tremote. The playback problems are for the audio connected to the server. Both computers have USB to S/PDIF converters running in Wasabi event style. Memory playback is turned off. The client playback seems to play OK.  I do not hear the first new notes followed by silence on the client, just on the server. Also, it can take up to 10 seconds for the next track to start up, which seems like a long sync time. The connection is wireless, but both computers are running at very minimal load. Also, the audio on the 2 systems is out of sync by 1 or 2 seconds. There is no virus program running on the server, but there is on the client. MC is 17.0.182.

I am new to using zones with Tremote, so maybe I am not set up right. But, currently it is too intermittent to be useful, plus not playing some tracks is a major problem.

Any help is appreciated.

[dtc]

I got the 2 zones to sync using the Adjust Link Timing option. I had not seen that before.

I still get a full 10 seconds gap between tracks. Is that normal? That is much longer than without linked zones? Any way to lower that time?

[GreggP]

I'm not having the sync problems. It seems to be working pretty well as far as that goes, but the 10 second gap is an issue.

I also wanted to point out that during this gap I hear a snippet of the next track.

So, I'll get about 1-2 seconds of silence, then 3-4 seconds of the start of the next track, and then silence for another 5-7 seconds. Then it will start playing at the beginning of the next track again and play to the end of the track. Then we start over with the same problem during the transition to the next track.

[Matt]

I'm testing, and it's not working all that well with TRemote.

I use local zones often at home with good success, so I think it's specific to TRemote.

I'll post more when I know more.

[dtc]

Thanks Matt. At least you can duplicate the problems.

Some more information. I have been using a fast desktop as the client to a Netbook server and that is where I see the problem that GreggP reports. When I switch the two - desktop as the server and the Netbook as the client I do not get the delay. I know the Netbook is slow, but it is hard to believe that the Netbook would introduce a 10 second gap. I think something else is going on. As far as I can tell, both systems use the same MC configuration. I can use either one as the client or server without linked zones and everything works fine.

Thanks for looking into it.

[Matt]

The model for linking remote zones (Tremote or DLNA) is to stop playback at the end of each track.  This is to avoid a pause from a resync from occurring in the middle of a song.

However, I think this is the wrong model.

Especially with Tremote, I think it would be better to let each zone continue playing.  Then, if drift crosses some threshold, a resync (which sounds like a pause / unpause) should be performed.

This is because starting playback is the most squishy thing from a timing perspective.  Once the buffers are filled, the timing will stay mostly in step.

This new model is too large of a change for v17.  I'm going to switch it for v18, and would appreciate testing once it's available (not too long now).

[dtc]

That makes sense. Sounds like the linked systems have 2 master clocks rather than a master and slave, or something like that.  Maybe trigger a re-sync between tracks based on drift and the length of the next track.

I will say, by adjusting the link timing I get get to the point when there is very little drift. Maybe the algorithm could even monitor the drift and automatically adjust the link timing on the fly to minimize the need to sync. Well, I can always dream

Can you re-produce the  problem of having a few notes of the new track played, then silence, then the start of the track? That would still be an issue when you re-synced, even if that did not happen as often.

I have also had problems when sometimes the tracks even get out of sync. So track 3 is playing on one system and track 4 on the next. It seems one system repeats and the other moves on to the next track. It only happens occasionally and I have not seen a pattern to when it happens.

Thanks for your efforts. I can test the issues on 18 when it is out - which will force me to get the new license, rather than just procrastinate.

Thanks.

[sp33dy]

An interesting read. I've posted up a 'locking' problem with MC17, using Stream Magic 6 and iPad with My River. With testing today, leaving iPad off and Zone's unlinked. The streaming for MC to Magic 6 has been flawless. In order to make the My River seamless, I linked the PC Player zone to the Magic 6 zone and I get all the delay problems you've already discussed. However, I also experience a complete failure of MC at random intervals. My suspicion is that the linked Zone's might be implicated in the locking I'm experiencing. I'll continue to test and diagnose. This locking problem is putting me off from purchasing MC right now.

Kind regards

Carl

[sp33dy]

OK, this could be a My River app issue.

If I used the app to stream music to iPad alongside MC17 streaming to Magic 6, all is ok; given MC17 is playing to the individual Magic 6 channel.

If I set My River to the Magic 6 Zone and try to change a track, it looks MC17 up eventually. Narrowing the problem. Will raise a problem on iPod/iPad section.

Kind regards

Carl

[JimH]

Please use this thread for My River help:
http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=67120.0