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Media Networking problem with PSA PWD DAC
johnjen:
Ok so here goes.
I am on OSX 10.6.8 from a MacPro w/4 cpu, 16GB ram and an SSD as my boot drive. Feeding a netgear WNR3500 gigabit router.
I use the Media Network almost exclusively with my PSA PWD DAC, and I have noted several functional and behavioral 'oddities'.
The one that I would like to now address is the ongoing tendency to have the 'player' start a new track only to have the player get stuck at the very beginning of the track with it reading ≈ 5 seconds into the track, then the progress bar and the timer both reset back to the start of the track. The 'player' then reads up to that 5 second mark again and 'resets' back to the start, ad infinitum.
This process repeats until I manually stop it (ie. the player thinks this is normal) so it isn't a 'fault' nor a crash, nor a 'problem', except for me.
In the past (and this behavior has been happening for months and months and months) my 'remedy' to this ranged from just replaying that track or album, to shutting down MC and restarting it, to having to restart the router, to restarting/shutting down then booting my Mac back up, sometimes it takes combinations of the above actions to 'clear' this behavior.
And it seems the longer I wait until I manually step in and halt 'the 5 second happy dance' the more 'drastic' the remedy needs to be to correct this.
Also it should be noted that just because I shut down MC, then restart the app (or use the other remedies as listed above) does not mean the problem will not keep happening upon playing the track again. In some cases (in the past, not so much any more) a complete shutdown and restart of ALL active participating components (Mac, router, DAC) was 'required'.
These days usually a shutdown of MC is usually as 'drastic' as I need to go. But even so, sometimes I need to shutdown the router as well to 'restore' normal playing functionality.
If more info is needed, or if tests or other supporting info would be helpful I'll gladly do whatever it takes.
JJ
ps Yes, this is just the 1st of several idiosyncratic behavioral quirks I see on a regular basis.
JohnT:
Thanks for the detailed report about the 5 second repeat playback problem. I'll visit this in more detail when I'm back in the office tomorrow, but a couple quick remarks:
1. Can we rule out a firmware bug on the PSA PWD DAC?
a. What do they say at the PS Audio forum?
b. If you know the firmware version on your DAC, please post it here for a data point.
c. When you have the problem, if you only power down and power up the DAC (not restarting Media Center), is the problem still there?
2. As a side-note, is that computer upgradable to a newer version of OSX? If so, that would be a good idea since current software will always tend to run best on the current OS version (except maybe a bleeding edge recent OS release).
If other PSA PWD DAC users see this post, could you report on your experiences?
Thanks.
johnjen:
I'm work'n on a full response.
I just need the '5 sec happy dance' to commence so I can test to see if power cycling the DAC is a cure…
Of course Murphy's law sez I'll be waiting for a while. ;)
JJ
johnjen:
--- Quote from: JohnT on December 08, 2013, 10:18:50 am ---Thanks for the detailed report about the 5 second repeat playback problem. I'll visit this in more detail when I'm back in the office tomorrow, but a couple quick remarks:
1. Can we rule out a firmware bug on the PSA PWD DAC?
a. What do they say at the PS Audio forum?
I check into that forum daily and I’ve not seen it mentioned.
b. If you know the firmware version on your DAC, please post it here for a data point.
I have used 3 different f/w versions (2.2.0 & 4.3.1 & 4.3.3 - latest) and all have these behaviors. And the Bridge (Ethernet board) has 2 f/w versions (2.0.8 & 2.1.4b) I use, both of which have these behaviors.
c. When you have the problem, if you only power down and power up the DAC (not restarting Media Center), is the problem still there?
I’ll try this again with this latest f/w version to verify…
2. As a side-note, is that computer upgradable to a newer version of OSX? If so, that would be a good idea since current software will always tend to run best on the current OS version (except maybe a bleeding edge recent OS release).
If other PSA PWD DAC users see this post, could you report on your experiences?
Thanks.
--- End quote ---
Which version of OSX do you find the least troublesome?
Or is there a ‘preferred’ version?
As for always keeping up with the current (as best) OS, it's been my experience that those days are long past. And it doesn't matter what the OS is (Mac Win etc.) I always wait until the OS 'matures' a bit.
So given that, I can run 7.x or 8.x, but will stay clear of 9.x for some time yet.
JJ
ps Mr Murphy is doing his thing… No 5-sec-Happy-dance yet.
johnjen:
So here is another 'quirk'.
And I don't know if you'd like me to list them sequentially (as in one at a time) or just keep tossing examples of behavior that has been around for quite a while to make up a list, so to speak.
Anyway here is an old one
The DLNA server error.
It loses its connection to the remote device (I assume that is what the cryptic message means) and so you have a choice of 'accepting' this announcement or ignoring it. Both have consequences, meaning MC will either be restarted sooner or later and additional action will also be required at some point.
As of this latest version (88) the behavior is as benign as its ever been, meaning sometimes all I have to do is restart the track that was playing (which quit when the 'OK' button is clicked), and the player continues as if nothing happened. That is until sometimes (much) later when the app won't quit properly and thus a force quit is required (with a subsequent automatic report sent to apple).
I also use the 'normal' player via usb under certain conditions as well, so I have experience with both operating setups as it is quite easy to switch from one input to the other on the PWD.
Now also let me add, I spend a LOT of time using MC, like on the average of 12+hrs/day, just about every day. So I see lots of its behavior, and I see trends, and I see patterns. MC has been acting this way for a long time now.
I mention all of this to put my comments into perspective. I have been posting about all of these behavioral 'quirks' all along, so these aren't just an occasional nor a behavior that just happened this once, type of situation… These are ongoing anomalous deleterious reactions by the s/w interacting with the hardware.
And we all realize that the PWD has its issues as well.
But then so does MC.
I will do whatever I can to help resolve these 'quirks'.
EDIT: Just now this error occurred… again.
A dialog box popped up, which said;
"There was a problem controlling the selected DLNA device. Double check your device, server, and network settings." And there are the usual accept (OK), ignore (cancel) buttons.
I select OK. And immediately the player stops playing and ALL of the tracks as listed in the player window disappear, except for the track that was playing, which remains.
And then another dialog box immediately pops up which says;
"Something went wrong with playback."
I then reload the album I was playing back into the player, and continue playing as if nothing had happened.
But the pattern that I have noticed after even one of these events is, later (after several more albums have played without incident) the player will hang when I deliberately try to shut it down. The OS then generates an error report which is sent to apple.
And this specific example of this error and the subsequent behaviors which follow can (and have) gotten much more involved (restarting the app, restarting the router etc.) in terms of 'clearing' the anomalous behavior and restoring normal operations.
JJ
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