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[dphilip]

I have issues when playing ripped 5.1 channel, 24/96 WAV files, using Ethernet. For each song that I play, there are typically two significant dropouts. When I play the same file in stereo at 24/96, there are no dropouts.

Any ideas on how to eliminate these dropouts?

Here is some setup information:      

Acer, i3, 2.53 GHz, 4 GB RAM, Win7 Home Premium, 64 Bit

JRiver Media Center, Release 19.0.67

Atheros AR8151 PCI-E Gigabit Ethernet Controller
   FlowControl - Disabled
   Interrupt Moderation - Enabled
   IPv4 Checksum Offload - Disabled
   Jumbo Frame - Disabled
   Large Send Offload (IPv4) - Disabled
   Large Send Offload v2 (IPv4) - Disabled
   Large Send Offload v2 (IPv6) - Disabled
   Max IRQ per Second - 5000
   Network Address - No Present
   Receive Buffers - 512
   Receive Side Scaling - Disabled
   Shutdown Wake Up - Disabled   
   Speed & Duplex - Auto Negotiation
   TCP Checksum Offload (IPv4) - Disabled
   TCP Checksum Offload (IPv6) - Disabled
   Transmit Buffers - 1024
   UDP Checksum Offload (IPv4) - Disabled
   UDP Checksum Offload (IPv6) - Disabled
   VLAN ID - 0
   Wake Up Capabilities - None

Cables: Rosewill 10-ft. Cat7 Ethernet Cables (Acer to Zyxel, Zyxel to Oppo)

Switch: Zyxel PLA4225 - "500 Mbps" Powerline 4-Port Gigabit Switch

Oppo BDP-105, Firmware: BDP10X-67-1204

JRiver Settings (Tools, Options, Media Network, Add or configure DLNA servers...)
   Mode: Specified Output Format
   Format: PCM 24 bit (did not work at all with PCL L24 No header)
   Advanced
      No Stereo downmix
      No Volume leveling
      Sample rate: Same as source

Any ideas on how to fix this?

thanks

[maciekb]

Could You please provide sample file? I have almost identical setup and i can check if results will be the same.

[AndrewFG]

I have issues when playing ripped 5.1 channel, 24/96 WAV files, using Ethernet. For each song that I play, there are typically two significant dropouts. When I play the same file in stereo at 24/96, there are no dropouts.

Just keep in mind the following: to deliver 96kHz 24bit 5.1ch requires a clean sustainable network bandwidth of 14 Mbps, whereas to deliver 96kHz 24bit 2ch requires only 5 Mbps...

[connersw]

Also, what is your CPU usage?  Does it get to ~50%?  If so, and the files are natively 24/96, have you tried setting Audio Mode to Original?

[dphilip]

Thanks for the responses so far.

maciekb - I'd rather not send a sample file to you as the smallest one is 508 MB. When I replay a particular track the dropout occurs at a different point each time.

AndrewFG - Yes, I see that the bit rate is 13,824 kbps. Supposedly this computer has an Gigabit Ethernet controller, so unless something is out of whack, this should work.

connersw - The CPU usage bounces around between 0 and 7%. I tried Audio Mode: Original. The dropouts still happened.

Since the original post, I tried:

     Acer with a Netgear GS605AV switch and Belkin Cat6 cables. No improvement.
     Sony laptop with the same music file, JRiver, etc...with no dropouts!

This (obviously) points to the Acer. Does anyone know what I can do to improve Ethernet performance on this computer?

When I use Windows task manager to monitor CPU Usage, Memory and Networking, only Networking looks like it has an issue. Networking varies a bit while playing the song, and then out of the blue it drops to 0% when the dropout occurs.

Are there any other ideas?

[connersw]

Have you tried updating the driver directly from Qualcomm?

[AndrewFG]

... I see that the bit rate is 13,824 kbps. Supposedly this computer has an Gigabit Ethernet controller, so unless something is out of whack, this should work.

... Networking looks like it has an issue. Networking varies a bit while playing the song, and then out of the blue it drops to 0% when the dropout occurs.

Apparently something is out of whack...

PS by the way the Oppo certainly does not have Gigabit Ethernet on its side ...

[cschwartze]

I am facing a similar problem while playing any type of mp3 and switching on the following option in DSP-Studio:

- resample 44.1 to 48 kHz
- convert 2 to 6 channels
- Output as DolbyDigital (AC3)

The dropout can be reproduced each time at the same point in time during playback. Also by playing from the local hard drive. The Spectrum meters in the status window continue moving during dropout.

No problems when just playing 2 Channel stereo. Please find my system details in attached file.

I actually very much like 5.1 using JRSS - i.e. somebody from the JRiver MediaCenter team may look into this problem.

[mwg909]

I am having the exact same issues as the original poster. I'm getting audio dropouts on 5.1 24\96 wav files when using the OPPO as a DNLA renderer. When I use the OPPO as the DNLA sever and pull the file from my NAS the file plays fine. Does anyone have any suggestions?

Regards,
Mike

[AndrewFG]

^

Set up the MC UPnP server to convert on the fly to a lower bandwidth format. Try L16 or L24.
Otherwise if pulling from your NAS works, then carry on with that.

EDIT: another idea would be to forget about using Ethernet & UPnP and instead connect an HDMI output from MC on your PC to an HDMI input of the Oppo. It should be faster and give tighter control, but you would be limited by the need for a physical HDMI cable. You would also benefit from the on screen display such as TheaterView...

[mwg909]

Andrew thanks for the response. The reason I'm using JRiver and Oppo is the both support 24/96 5.1 wav files over DNLA so I don't want to convert to a lower bandwidth. I also want to use the Oppo as a DLA renderer to take advantage of the ESS Sabre Dacs as

[mwg909]

Oops! key board malfunction . . . I also want to use the Oppo as a DLA renderer to take advantage of the ESS Sabre Dacs as opposed to using HDMI.

Regards,
Mike

[AndrewFG]

The reason I'm using JRiver and Oppo is the both support 24/96 5.1 wav files over DNLA

If it doesn't work, perhaps it is a bit circular to claim that both "support" this format, and then complain that it doesn't work...

There are three questions that need to be addressed:

1) Is your PC running MC capable of reliably serving a 14Mbps stream via a TCP socket connection out of its Ethernet port? And break this into 3 questions as follows:
1a) Is your PC hardware so capable?
1b) Is your OS and software environment so capable (is it running so much other stuff that it no longer has 14Mbps available)?
1c) Is the MC application so capable?

2) Is your network capable of shifting an additional 14Mbps via a TCP socket on top of what it may already be doing?

3) Is the Oppo capable of pulling 14Mbps via a TCP socket?

Based on previous experience I would rank these three topics as follows:

- Very likely to be the cause of the problem: item 2), item 1b)
- Likely to be the cause of the problem: item 3), and perhaps 1a) if the machine is very old
- Unlikely to be the cause of the problem: item 1c)

[mwg909]

Hi Andrew, to answer your questions.

My Pc is has an I7 2.40Ghz cpu, 16gb RAM, OS - Win7 64bit premium edition
I'm using the latest version of JRiver
My router is an Asus RT -AC68U router. My connections are all wired.
The network during load play is around 5 percent.
The Oppo is capable of receiving 8 channels of 24\192 over Ethernet.
 
I'm actually at the point of testing cables. I'm also going to download Wireshark to take a look at what's happening to my network during play.

Regards,
Mike

[AndrewFG]

The Oppo is capable of receiving 8 channels of 24\192 over Ethernet.

How do you know this? Who says?

[mwg909]

When I use the Oppo as a DNLA server I can play the 24/96 files without audio dropouts.

[mwg909]

BTW, I also tried L16 and L24 without any success.

[ducatirider]

I would suspect the Powerline switch.  Is it possible to change that out with your cabling topology?
I had a similar issue where I simply scanned my NAS drives and it fixed the problem.

[AndrewFG]

When I use the Oppo as a DNLA server I can play the 24/96 files without audio dropouts.

What do you mean by this? Are you pulling from MC? Or are you playing files from a USB drive? Or are you playing files from a NAS share? Or are you playing files from a Windows share? Etc.

[mwg909]

Playing files from a NAS share.

[AndrewFG]

Playing files from a NAS share.

Ok.

Just so you know it, the feature that you are using has nothing to do with UPnP standard protocols nor with DLNA.
The feature that you are using is called SMB (Server Message Block -- sometimes also called Samba).

UPnP / DLNA are a whole integrated suite of command and control services for content browsing, device control, and media serving, and the transactions are implemented at a "higher level" on top of the TCP communication stack, and based on the generic HTTP client / server model.

On the other hand SMB is a very specific service for directory browsing and file fetching, and the transactions are implemented at a "deeper level" on top of the TCP communication stack, and based on a specifically functionally optimized set of transaction mechanisms.

The Oppo will certainly have a different input pipeline for UPnP and for SMB (i.e. it will have different buffers, different buffer sizes, and different buffer filling and emptying algorithms), and the SMB code is probably more optimized and tightly integrated into the Oppo's OS kernel, whereas the UPnP code is part of a library supplied by Mediatek which is bolted "on top" of the OS.

So I am sorry to say but the fact that the Oppo can pull and play a 24/96 5.1 WAV via SMB, is no guarantee that it could pull and play the exact same file via UPnP pull, nor indeed that in could play the same file via UPnP push.

Notwithstanding this bad news, if you are lucky, then it could be that the Oppo's UPnP input pipeline performance is sufficiently close to the border line of performance needed to play a 24/96 5.1 WAV that if you did make a few tweaks to your LAN performance, it might be sufficient to tip the balance to where you need it.

Personally I would suggest to try if it works with a hot wired Ethernet connection (single Ethernet cable) joining your PC and your Oppo. Since in this case you will not have a router providing DHCP, you will need to manually set up both the PC and the Oppo to have Static IP addresses on the same subnet (e.g. 192.168.1.1 and 192.168.1.2 ). If the hot wired connection does work, then you can start adding back the rest of your home LAN, whereas if the hot wired connection does not work then at least you know that the case is hopeless..

[mwg909]

Andrew, thanks for the detailed explanation. I'll give it a shot.

Regards,
Mike

[mwg909]

 I just wanted to give a quick update in case any one else has this issue. I ended up doing quite a bit of troubleshooting ruling out the router, cables etc. The issue ended up being the Realtek PCIe GBE family ethernet controller. I replaced it with an Intel Gigabit CT desktop adapter.

That solved all of the issues.

Regards,
Mike

[JimH]

Thank you for reporting the solution.