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[reeve_mike]

Hi
 
I have two instances of MC19 running on two separate Mac Mini / 10.9.1 systems on a wireless network.
 
When playing the library of one on the other, the client crashes frequently.
 
On the client under Media Network, all the client options are unchecked and I am using Don't Convert Audio
(as I have many hi-res audio files).
 
A repeatable method of having the client crash is to simply start a song and then press the Stop button.
 
Attached is a crash report after doing the above.
 
Is it me, am I missing something in the set up Options ...?
 
Mike
 

[reeve_mike]

P.S.  I have Play From Memory set on the client.

[rafiki]

For me crushes even when trying to connect to remote library (Windows machine).

[JimH]

Make sure you have 19.0.103 (or higher) installed:
http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=86606.0

[reeve_mike]

 
Hi, Yes, I have 103 running on both machines.  [Sorry should have included that info in the first message.]  Mike
 

[mwillems]

 
Hi, Yes, I have 103 running on both machines.  [Sorry should have included that info in the first message.]  Mike
 

Does it still crash with memory playback disabled?

[JohnT]

The crash report you attached above is helpful.  It would also be good to send a Media Center log: Go to Help / Logging and enable logging, then following a crash just restart Media Center and go to Help / Logging / send report.

The repeatable method you provided is good, we can test that here.  Thanks.

[reeve_mike]

 
OK - Log File attached ...
 

[reeve_mike]

  

Does it still crash with memory playback disabled?

 
A quick test seems to indicate that the problem goes away with memory playback disabled ...
  
Your question and the result of my test suggests that you have some thoughts on a possible cause ...
  

[mwillems]

   
A quick test seems to indicate that the problem goes away with memory playback disabled ...
  
Your question and the result of my test suggests that you have some thoughts on a possible cause ...

Memory playback buffers very aggressively, it tries to pull the entire song into memory as quickly as possible (up to 1GB of decoded file).  For that reason it can tax network connections differently than normal playback (taking great big bites of network bandwidth instead of taking what it needs as it needs it with normal playback).  My system gets laggy/unstable when I push my network bandwidth beyond what my network can handle.  I haven't heard of out and out crashes resulting from memory playback, but some folks were having some difficulty with it a while back because of the aggressive spurts of network usage.

So it was a lucky guess basically  .  The high network utilization is a necessary part of the memory playback feature (it wouldn't be memory playback if it didn't pull the whole file across as quick as it could), so my advice would be to leave memory playback disabled, or to try a higher speed network connection (try ethernet if you're using WiFi, etc.)

[reeve_mike]

Memory playback buffers very aggressively, it tries to pull the entire song into memory as quickly as possible (up to 1GB of decoded file).  For that reason it can tax network connections differently than normal playback (taking great big bites of network bandwidth instead of taking what it needs as it needs it with normal playback).  My system gets laggy/unstable when I push my network bandwidth beyond what my network can handle.  I haven't heard of out and out crashes resulting from memory playback, but some folks were having some difficulty with it a while back because of the aggressive spurts of network usage.

 
I appreciate what you are saying but the crash happens when I hit Stop ...  :-O  If I leave it playing through the album it is fine ...
 
Also, as I can now (with memory playback disabled) try playing more albums I am now seeing another issue,
which may or may not be related ...
... I frequently see "Something went wrong with playback".
A log file of this is attached ...
 

[bplexico]

Interesting, I need to re test this as for the better part of the last two weeks I had two Mac Minis running as well with MC. A lower powered Mac Mini hooked up to my DAC and the higher powered one being the music server. I was able to both play music from the server to the client, and access the music library on the server and play from the client.I did get occasional crashes on the client, if memory serves when accessing the music library on the server from the client. However playing music back from the server to the client I don't believe caused a crash. Will have to try this again, also not sure if I had memory play enabled on the client. The lower powered Mac Mini only has 2 GBs of RAM whereas the other has 16GBs.

Out of curiosity, what is the type of wireless network do you have? 802.11n? And how much memory in each Mac Mini?

[reeve_mike]

 

Out of curiosity, what is the type of wireless network do you have? 802.11n? And how much memory in each Mac Mini?

 
Yes, 802.11n
 
Server Mac Mini is Late 2012 (i.e. 6,2) 2.6GHz Quad Core i7 with 16GB of memory
and client is Mid 2010 (i.e. 4,1) 2.66GHz Core 2 Duo with 8GB
 
I am loading the server's library on the client and playing from the client
[so the same case where you were getting crashes].
 
Nothing, aside from the default system processes, is running on either the server or the client.
 

[bplexico]

Ok just tried again at home. The high power Mac Mini in my signature acting as the server for the music library to the low power 2009 Mac Mini 1.83 Ghz Intel Core Duo with 2GBs memory.

With the 2009 Mac Mini accessing the music library on the high power Mini, with ethernet connections on both machine, with Memory play off on the 2009 Mac Mini (which is hooked up to DAC), the play/stop scenario did not cause a crash with DSD, High Res or Redbook files.

However, when I enabled memory play on the 2009 Mac Mini, playback of either a high resolution file or Redbook file using the play/stop scenario causes a crash.

Logfile attached.

.103 on both machines

[bplexico]

And for variation I tried it the other way around. Same setup with 2009 Mac Mini serving now as renderer for my high power Mac Mini.

I go to high power Mac Mini, select the 2009 Mac Mini (which outputs to DAC) and play music to it. It doesn't crash right away but after about 4 minutes of trying a few files it did.

Attached is the logfile.

Barr

p.s. .103 on both machines

[JimH]

Thanks for the reports.

[JohnT]

Please try this experimental build:
http://files.jriver.com/other/MediaCenter190104.dmg

It has a fix for a possible crash when stopping playback on a library server client while using memory playback mode.
Let me know if it helps.

Thanks,
John

[reeve_mike]

Please try this experimental build:
http://files.jriver.com/other/MediaCenter190104.dmg

 
Hi John
 
THANKS for the quick response!
 
A short test suggests that this seems to fix the problem.
 
However, I still get the "Something went wrong with playback" on certain albums.
 
I have attached a log from the client where I did the following:
(1) Start a track playing
(2) Hit Stop
(3) Start a track from another album playing
(4) Start another track playing from a different album without hitting Stop
(5) Hit Stop
All fine!
(6) Select a track from one of the 'problem' albums and this gives me "Something went wrong with playback"
 
I can send a corresponding log from the server if that would be useful, but in a couple of hours time.

Mike
 

[JohnT]

However, I still get the "Something went wrong with playback" on certain albums.
 
I have attached a log from the client where I did the following:
(1) Start a track playing
(2) Hit Stop
(3) Start a track from another album playing
(4) Start another track playing from a different album without hitting Stop
(5) Hit Stop
All fine!
(6) Select a track from one of the 'problem' albums and this gives me "Something went wrong with playback"
 
I can send a corresponding log from the server if that would be useful, but in a couple of hours time.

Sounds like it might be something in the particular file format that we're tripping over.  Is it repeatable for a certain "problem" album?  If you start Media Center and just select a track from a problem album to play, does it fail?  If so, could you send me one of those files (Dropbox?)?

[reeve_mike]

Sounds like it might be something in the particular file format that we're tripping over.  Is it repeatable for a certain "problem" album?  If you start Media Center and just select a track from a problem album to play, does it fail?  If so, could you send me one of those files (Dropbox?)?

 
Yes, it's repeatable.  Yes, even if its the first track I select to play after fresh starts of both the server & the client it still fails.
 
However, a local-to-the-client copy of the track plays fine.  And it plays fine directly on the server.
 
Here is a 'problem' track:
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/zc9la6339trmn8h/iDdC0WIfZH
 

[reeve_mike]

A short test suggests that this seems to fix the problem.

 
SORRY!  I screwed up!
 
In the previous short test that I ran I had not re-enabled Play From Memory.
 
Now that I have, I am still getting the crashes on Stop.
 
APOLOGIES!
 

[reeve_mike]

 

 
I have two instances of MC19 running on two separate Mac Mini / 10.9.1 systems on a wireless network.
 
When playing the library of one on the other, the client crashes frequently.
 
On the client under Media Network, all the client options are unchecked and I am using Don't Convert Audio
(as I have many hi-res audio files).
 
A repeatable method of having the client crash is to simply start a song and then press the Stop button.
 

 
Hi
 
I am now on MC 122 and 10.9.2.
Both the client & server Mac Mini are now the current model, 2.6GHz i7 with 16MB.
And they are on a dedicated 5GHz network.
 
I'm still getting the crashes on the client when playing high-rez files, with the play from memory option set.
[As before, a repeatable method of having the client crash is to simply start a song and then press the Stop button.]
 
Typically the high-rez files [from 44.1/24 to 192/24] are AIFF from HDTracks.com.
[The problem does not occur with 44.1/16 files ripped from CD with either iTunes or XLD.]
 
I have attached the MC log file and the Apple Problem Reporter dump.
 
Any other info I can provide or debugging I can do to help?
 
Mike