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[jctcom]

For the most part JRiver MC 18 seems to be working well for me.

I do however have an issue with my 5.1 96KHz flacs that can't seem to play without a lot of buffering (When they manage to play with "Direct Connection")

At the time this is happening my CPU usage is between 2 - 8 % and never gets higher than 10%.  My RAM Usage is at about 30 - 35%  (Very close to what it is when MC is only running as server) and Swap usage is at a pretty constant 20%.

These numbers all seem quite low to me so why all the buffering?

System is a custom built based on Intel DX58S0 Motherboard with I7 940 CPU and 12GB Kingston Hyper X RAM. 

On a Gigabit LAN from Computer to Switch to NAS (Synology DS1512+)

Audio is via EVGA / Nvidia GTX 660 Ti HDMI port with latest drivers installed using clean install procedure.

HDMI connected to Onkyo TX-NR1008 receiver. using WASAPI with "Disable Event Style" unchecked  (Won't play them at all otherwise) 

As mentioned in another thread The ASIO is listed as an option but does not seem to actually connect to anything. (Lists "Realtek ASIO as the device Apparently there is a "Realtek High Definition Audio Subsystem" on the board.  It is disabled in the bios but I guess for some reason MC is still seeing the chipset.

Any ideas what I can do to stabilize this?  or what might be causing it to bog down?

Please let me know if there is any other info I can provide to help diagnose this issue.

Thanks in advance.

Carl.

[InflatableMouse]

Are these files on your NAS? If so, can you check network load in Task Manager and try it with a local file.

Are you using memory playback? If so, try disabling that to see if that changes anything.

[jctcom]

Hi there.  Just an update on my progress with this.  Still testing.

I have decided that the audio drivers for my EVGA GTX 660TI must not be up to snuff if they do not offer a proper ASIO driver so I have put my Claro Halo XT back in and connected directly to my AMP via 5.1 Analogue RCA in.  This seems to work much better (Although it took a bit of work to get the proper channels coming out of the proper speakers.  For some reason the "Windows" speaker settings have no correlation whatsoever with MC?  (Or maybe with most other programs as well?).

In any case I ripped a 24Bit / 96KHz / 5.1 test audio from a Blu-Ray calibration disc and swapped cables around till everything was coming out of the correct speakers.

As for the network bandwidth it is running between 600kb/s up to about 2MB/s when music is playing.  I know I can transfer files at up to 12MB/s so I don't think this should be an issue?  it seems kind of random now.  it will play 3 - 6 songs just fine and then all of a sudden 1 track will buffer every 4 - 10 seconds 2 - 6 times.  Then it will be fine again for a number of tracks.  Still much better than it was going through HDMI with the video card.

I have not gotten around to copying files to the local hard drive yet.  (I would have to copy over about 20 tracks for a satisfactory test).  I have increased the buffer from 1 second to 3 seconds.  So far that seems to have helped quite a bit.

I could not find any info in the forums about the Claro Halo XT Sound card and it's analogue outs.  Does anyone have any idea if this is in fact the better way to go?  it also has the Optical SPDIF out as well.  (the main advantage I can think of for the SPDIF is that I could then use some of the sound processing capabilities of the receiver if I wanted to?).

In any case this is where I am at currently with it.  I will keep testing and any input is greatly appreciated.

Carl.

[InflatableMouse]

I doubt your buffering issue is caused by Nvidia hardware or the drivers you were using. You could always update to the latest Nvidia drivers if you suspect them.

My original quesions remain: are you using memory playback and are the files on a remote file share (A NAS) and if so, you should really try and test with local files.

[jctcom]

Yes all the files are on my NAS Server.  I was using Memory playback and when I switched to Disc the problem got worse.

My issue with the NVidia drivers was not having any ASIO option available for it.  My feeling is that if they did not bother making an ASIO driver then they did not give the Audio portion of the card a lot of thought.  There are virtually no Audio settings available for the card other than the standard ones built in to windows.

I have not moved the files over to the local hard drive yet as I previously mentioned it would mean moving some 40GB of files for proper testing.

2 things. 
1.  What about the option of the 5.1 Analogue inputs vs. the SPDIF input?  Is one better than the other?

2.  Say for instance I did move the files over to the local hard drive and they played fine.  What would that mean?  It does not seem to be a question of actual network bandwith as the traffic never gets close to my Gigabit capacity nor my actual transfer speed capability to / from the NAS by a long shot.  Is there something else related to the files being on the NAS that could be causing this?

Setting the buffer to 4 seconds has helped a lot.  But still some buffering every 2- 4 songs.  I have now also turned off the "Play files from Memory" option again as I had not tried that since putting in the Claro Halo XT.

Carl.

[InflatableMouse]

1.  What about the option of the 5.1 Analogue inputs vs. the SPDIF input?  Is one better than the other?

I'm sorry I dont think anyone can answer that for you. You'll have to listen to them decide for yourself which one you prefer.

2.  Say for instance I did move the files over to the local hard drive and they played fine.  What would that mean?  It does not seem to be a question of actual network bandwith as the traffic never gets close to my Gigabit capacity nor my actual transfer speed capability to / from the NAS by a long shot.  Is there something else related to the files being on the NAS that could be causing this?

If everything played fine it would give an indication as to where we can look as the problem would have to be in something we excluded by moving the files to local storage. Network bandwidth/throughput is only 1 aspect of network performance. As the problem only occurs after 2 to 4 songs, I'm thinking maybe something on the NAS ... we'll see when we get there.

Setting the buffer to 4 seconds has helped a lot.  But still some buffering every 2- 4 songs.  I have now also turned off the "Play files from Memory" option again as I had not tried that since putting in the Claro Halo XT.

Carl.

Which buffer setting are you actually referring to? There's one under Tools/Options/Audio called prebuffering. There should be another one under 'Device Settings', default is 100ms, you could try increasing that one as well.

[jctcom]

I'm sorry I dont think anyone can answer that for you. You'll have to listen to them decide for yourself which one you prefer.

If everything played fine it would give an indication as to where we can look as the problem would have to be in something we excluded by moving the files to local storage. Network bandwidth/throughput is only 1 aspect of network performance. As the problem only occurs after 2 to 4 songs, I'm thinking maybe something on the NAS ... we'll see when we get there.

Which buffer setting are you actually referring to? There's one under Tools/Options/Audio called prebuffering. There should be another one under 'Device Settings', default is 100ms, you could try increasing that one as well.

No Problem.  I was just wondering Spec wise if there is an advantage of 1 over the other?

As far as the buffer(s).  I have the  one under "ASIO" setting set to 4 seconds now.  The "Prebuffering" one is currently set to "6 Seconds (Recommended)".

I think I have figured out what the issue is.   Though the traffic to the computer is not getting higher than 2MB/s I was looking at the resource monitor on the NAS itself and it is uploading up to 15 - 20MB/s at times which I think are corresponding with the buffering on the computer running MC when I am transferring files from the NAS to another location.

Maybe the NAS itself is hitting it's transfer ceiling.  So I am now trying to figure out how to either get the NAS to prioritize the network traffic?  or to reduce the speed capabilities to the other computers. 

There is a "Speed Limit" option on the NAS but it seems to be tied to only specific applications and does not seem to affect the actual file transfer speed for stuff I am transferring to / from it.

I am sure there is a way to prioritize traffic to the computer that I am using to play music on.  Probably via QOS on either my network switch or router?  But I am not sure how to set these settings.

I have a fairly high end switch I think:  Cisco GS748T.  If someone knows about QOS settings and can tell me how to prioritize the network traffic to the one computer I think it will help?

Carl.