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[designmule]

I have an Onkyo TX-NR809. When I pull audio from the Onkyo my display functions correctly and the audio is flawless. When I push audio (typically I use JRemote) the display does not show the artist information and the audio has frequent skips. When I push audio from my media PC (JRemote out of the chain) playback and display are the same.

I saw a thread on the forum which describes a similar situation but there isn't a solution nor, really, and acknowledgement of the trouble so I thought I'd try again.

http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=74851.0

I thought this might be related to my network setup as my media pc is on the opposite end of a powerline network from the receiver. When I moved the PC to the switch on the other end of the powerline I still have the skips and display issues.

I tried killing the JRemote app on my iPhone but found that it does not make a difference. I'm happy to test further. Honestly, the display thing doesn't really bother me. The skipping makes me crazy.

[JimH]

Try playing some low bitrate files.

[designmule]

If I push a mp3 the receiver indicates that the file played is an mp3 @ 44.1k and there is no skipping.

If I push a lossy m4a the receiver indicates that the file played is PCM @ 96k and there is skipping.

If I push a lossless m4a the receiver indicates that the file played is PCM @ 96k and there is skipping.

I realize that the receiver indicates PCM & 96k with the m4a files because I have my DLNA server options set to convert to PCM L24 only when necessary and I have the sample rate set to 96k but they play just fine when pulled.

[JimH]

Try an APE or FLAC file.  The problem could be with the codec or it could be band width.

[designmule]

I only have one album in FLAC, it's 24bit 96k and it is the album that really drew my attention to the skipping. If I pull the album it plays fine. If I push the album it skips. Prior to posting, I turned off the convert option and pushed the FLAC file to the receiver (it supports FLAC at that bit depth and sample rate) there was still skipping.

Bandwidth was my thought as well but the skipping persists if my media PC is connected to the same gigabit switch as the receiver. To verify the files were not still traversing the powerline back to my router, I disconnected the powerline. The receiver played music but the skipping continued.

I use a very low powered PC based on an Intel Atom processor and I have considered that it might not be fast enough to do the job. If I watch task manager on that PC while pushing audio the CPU maxes out for a few seconds and then runs at 1-3 percent. The skipping persists even though the CPU usage is low.

So I suppose that either of these two factors could be the issue however everything works fine when audio is pulled from the receiver. Additionally, in the thread that I linked to there is a user with an Onkyo receiver (a year newer than mine) who describes exactly the same problem.

I just want to add a "thank you" for trying to help me out. It is appreciated. - Matt

[designmule]

I had the chance to configure a JRiver DLNA server on a faster computer (2.66Ghz Core 2 Quad vs. Atom Dual Core 1.6Ghz) and tried pushing audio to my receiver. Maybe there was less skipping but it was still there and of course there is no skipping when audio is pulled.

So, I've tried a faster network arrangement and a faster computer and I am not able to eliminate the skipping. Maybe it is something specific to Onkyo (I linked to a thread which described the same problem with an Onkyo receiver) or maybe it's an issue with JRiver or maybe it's an issue with DLNA. I suppose that in the next day or two I can configure another audio player to push to my Onkyo and see what happens.

If anyone has any additional advice, I'd surely appreciate it. The convenience of this DLNA setup is great but my listening sessions are rather disappointing due to the skipping.
 
Matt

[designmule]

I think I mostly have this sorted out after quite a bit of experimentation and research. The "skips" do seem to be network related (mostly).

I changed my server setting to L16 @ 44.1k which helped quite a bit. My receiver can handle L24 96k but maybe my network could not. This setting change removed quite a bit of the skips. However, it was not perfect.

Next I began looking into my network settings. In the NIC properties of my media server I disabled all of the offloading options. After some research, it sounds like in most cases the CPU can handle those tasks faster than the NIC and for streaming media (again, it sounds like) speed in processing network tasks is critical. I guess in situations where the NIC is being utilized during heavy CPU tasks the offloading might be beneficial but based on my observations, playing music from JRiver over DLNA does not seem to be CPU intensive.

Next, I disabled flow control both on my NIC and on my router (a Cisco RVS4000). My research suggested that flow control causes the packets to be delayed at the network interface which is bad for streaming media. One article I read suggested that QoS can't even function on a network using flow control.

So the skips are eliminated on all but that one FLAC album I have. It's weird, if I listen to it over headphones at the computer it sounds just fine but over DLNA it has the little skip sounds. I tried converting it to ALAC (which is the format most of my library is in) but the skips remain. I can live with it. Frankly, I'm sick of that album from all my "testing".

I hope some of this stuff helps someone else. I'm not an expert and some of the decisions I've made could be wrong but it's honestly really difficult to figure out how your NIC properties should be set in any environment, let alone one that needs to stream media. I suspect if I were not using the powerline network I wouldn't have had to be so finicky in my settings.