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[Gork]

Just discovered (after YEARS of using MC) that I could "easily" set my PC up as a library server and connect to it remotely from my laptop.  From there I could link "player" and "there" (within MC) on the laptop install and adjust link timing to play the same exact music on my laptop as on the PC.  I can also "remotely control" the PC MC install to play whatever music I want at both locations simultaneously.  Looks to be a great setup for parties in my multi-level home - just hook a couple of amplified speakers up to my laptop.

I ran into a problem wherein, after the music was sync'd perfectly between the two machines, a music track would end and MC would start playing the next track on the PC before the laptop so the two would be out of sync.  After about 10 or so seconds both MC installs would pause the music for maybe 3-4 seconds and sync back up then continue like normal - until the track ended and the next one started.

After a few hours of trying different ideas I finally discovered that if I uncheck the "Do not play silence (leading and trailing)" option in both MC installs the "losing sync problem" goes away and everything works perfectly.

Why would this be?  And is this by design within MC for some reason?

I'm on v18.0.242 if that makes any difference for this specific issue.

[Arindelle]

Why would this be?  And is this by design within MC for some reason?

How could this not be? How do you sync silence (read "nothing" not quiet) between files being constantly encoded/decoded files? I think the three to 4 seconds is a real achievement when you think about it

Take a bonus track with 2 minutes or more added silence before the hidden track .. or some opera remasters -- even if there was a way to keep things in sync you'd just have silence on both machines -- I have some bonus tracks with 15 minutes of silence

Also the sync config is manually configured -- why would you not want to remove the "silences" (again, not talking about extremely quiet passages)

[mwillems]

How could this not be? How do you sync silence (read "nothing" not quiet) between files being constantly encoded/decoded files? I think the three to 4 seconds is a real achievement when you think about it

Take a bonus track with 2 minutes or more added silence before the hidden track .. or some opera remasters -- even if there was a way to keep things in sync you'd just have silence on both machines -- I have some bonus tracks with 15 minutes of silence

Also the sync config is manually configured -- why would you not want to remove the "silences" (again, not talking about extremely quiet passages)

I read his post as saying the opposite of that, i.e. that the sync only works for him when the option to "not play silences" is disabled, which has been my experience in MC 19 as well.  Enabling the option to not play silence on one or both machines leads to sync problems.  Which makes sense to me: with the option disabled each MC instance is playing the file as is without trying to snip anything off the front or back of the track.  That's got to be easier to sync than a dynamic calculation of how much "silence" is leading or trailing on each track.

[Arindelle]

yes I'm afraid I did read the post as sort of a double negative ... no disrespect intended at all, btw, Gork. I was actually looking for confirmation and a discussion. I don't know how jriver is actually programmed to do this syncing, but I'm interested 

@Mwilliams -- hmmm the way I was looking at it is that silences, as there is no audio imprint, the only way to sync would be between each computer's "clock" -- so I thought that adding network latency and lag, wouldn't it be easier to sync audio portions than non-audio, like how audio editing programs can search and mark sound and silences at the push of a button ... the start of the sound always seems more precise than the end of a silence?

Anyways, I have learned a bunch from your posts already, mwilliams, and now that you mention it, of course jriver can't be set up to compare wave files on playback of flacs like some DAW ! So I guess I must be way out in left field here   

So, how does jriver do this really and getting back to the OP, " is this by design within MC for some reason?". I haven't experienced this problem and I always have this box checked (just lucky I guess).

Should everyone have to turn this option off when syncing?

[mwillems]

yes I'm afraid I did read the post as sort of a double negative ... no disrespect intended at all, btw, Gork. I was actually looking for confirmation and a discussion. I don't know how jriver is actually programmed to do this syncing, but I'm interested 

@Mwilliams -- hmmm the way I was looking at it is that silences, as there is no audio imprint, the only way to sync would be between each computer's "clock" -- so I thought that adding network latency and lag, wouldn't it be easier to sync audio portions than non-audio, like how audio editing programs can search and mark sound and silences at the push of a button ... the start of the sound always seems more precise than the end of a silence?

Anyways, I have learned a bunch from your posts already, mwilliams, and now that you mention it, of course jriver can't be set up to compare wave files on playback of flacs like some DAW ! So I guess I must be way out in left field here   

So, how does jriver do this really and getting back to the OP, " is this by design within MC for some reason?". I haven't experienced this problem and I always have this box checked (just lucky I guess).

Should everyone have to turn this option off when syncing?

I'd be interested in hearing other folks results with this too. 

As noted above, the sync never worked right for me when the "do not place silence" option was enabled on both machines, but it worked worst of all when it was enabled on one machine and not the other (for obvious reasons).  My general preference is to leave it disabled (I like intentional silences), so once I figured out that turning it off helped the sync in my case I promptly turned it off and stopped investigating. 

It sounds like it works fine for you though.  So let's try and figure out what might be different in your setup and OP's and my setup.  In my case, I have all the music on one PC that's also connected to the main living room Hi-Fi.  My two client PCs are in the kitchen and the study.   All three are connected to the same LAN via wi-fi, and have no cable connection. 

I wanted to be able to control the output on all three boxes from the living room, but the living room is also the server.  So I have all three of them set up as DLNA devices with some options enabled and some disabled (i.e. the living room PC is server and controller, the other two are renderers only). 

The setup works perfectly for sharing music and syncs pretty well with "do not play silence" disabled.  Is your setup similar?  If different, how so?

[Arindelle]

Hi

Yes my setup is different. Other than direct playback through my main PC (running media server), as for network control, I have 1 client setup for this.  No WIFI.

Sync is set up only between 2 computers (audio only). It does work pretty well, (except when my son is gaming and stealing a lot of bandwidth, but this has nothing to do IMO with JRiver)

My old NAS died a while back, so I’m using a PC (PC1) as the file server in my living room connected to my stereo and TV, one PC (2) in my study on the 2nd floor, and my son’s PC (3) on the third floor

PC 1 – reasonably fast i5 PC – no GPU, just Intel chipset for graphics set to wake on lan and  run MC19.exe on startup so it is setup as  media server, renderer, and control (only for  the living room) via the TV. Most of the time, I run headless for audio using jremote as controller.

PC2 – older 2 core over-clocked with older Gaming GPU set as client – renderer and control point

PC3 – My 19 year old son’s ridiculously overpowered gaming rig – renderer only

Other than ipad with JRemote, no network connections are via WIFI. I am using Netgear Powerline adapteurs (Homeplugs?) 500Mps max. All PC have 1 gigabyte cards and connected using CAT5 Ethernet to adapteurs.

I am using a very crappy Modem/Router that my internet provider gives out (1gig though). As there is no real NAS, I am not using any switches

[Gork]

... no disrespect intended at all ... I haven't experienced this problem and I always have this box checked

This disrespect thing?  Not an issue - but thank you.

I'm glad I'm not the only one who notices a difference when the box is checked, "Do not play silence (leading and trailing)", or I'd really be confused.  Perhaps there is another option which "interferes" with this option somehow.  I spent a handful of hours trying out different combinations though and didn't find anything like that.

I have a NAS device with all my WAVs.  My main computer runs MC and Media Server and houses the library on a local hard drive.  Both these devices are connected to my Gbps network via LAN cables.  I've been running like this for years.  My main computer is in the basement connected to my big a/v receiver.

When I introduced my laptop into the mix to try out an idea to simultaneously play music on the main floor in the house I connected it via my WIFI connection.  I connect MC from the laptop to the Media Server on my main computer so my WAVs on the NAS are served to my laptop through Media Server on the main computer.  I link the two zones together (laptop and main computer.)

Anyway, as far as the option in question causing this problem...  I would have thought, in between "tracks," that MC should sense when one install starts playing the next track then wait for the other install to play, sync them up before playing the sound audibly then play the two tracks simultaneously.  Though perhaps a bit "bumpily," this is how it seems to work when I click play to start listening to a track in both places after all...