Well, though no one has responded thus far, I would like someone to provide some insight on using the Open Live feature, which I plan to use quite a bit to listen to di.fm and Spotify.
I keep having mixed results with this. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't with no apparent reason why. Sometimes I have to keep changing the default Windows audio output back n forth several times to get it to finally start working. Sometimes I have to completely close Spotify or the browser running di.fm and restart that to get it to work. Sometimes I have to completely close JRiver and restart. Sometimes I just give it up, listen to my own stuff through JRiver, and try again in a few hours, and then it just magically works again.
It is a great yet frustrating feature, but I assume I am lacking some knowledge of how this is supposed to work.
I don't usually have any problems with Wasapi Loopback (I assume that's what you mean by Open Live, and not ASIO line in), but I can offer a few suggestions assuming you mean WASAPI loopback:
1) When it says "opening" but nothing comes that usually means that either it's waiting for input and there isn't any where it expects it, or that something else is playing to the same output that JRiver is trying to output to. This could happen if you, for example, have the same device set as the system default as you have set as JRiver's output. If that's the case, that's not optimal and won't work correctly; you need to set the windows default audio output device to a different device than JRiver is using for output.
2) If you have a different device set as the default, the problems you describe could easily result from something (web browser, flash player, etc.) taking exclusive control of that device. That can sometimes interfere with JRiver's loopback grabbing the audio. If you open your default device's properties in windows, is "allow applications to take exclusive control of this device" checked? Try unchecking it, that can produce much better results.
3) Does it matter what browser you use? The flash plugin in firefox can be a little "grabby" and can sometimes interfere with loopback. It usually works fine for me, but if you're a firefox user, try using a different browser and see if it helps (just as a troubleshooting step).
4) Try setting up a separate zone for loopback playback using zoneswitch rules to route the audio. That way if you need to do special configuration for loopback, you can, and I've found it works more smoothly when switching what's playing in JRiver.
I have no real insight other than to say I feel your pain. If it is not working, I typically just have to close Media Server and restart it to get it working. The bigger issue is that I've played with buffering and live playback latency hundreds of times to get rid of clicks and pops. I'll finally have it working perfectly, only to come back an hour later to have it stuttering again. I have yet to find a "set it and forget it" option/setting.
I agree, it is a great yet frustrating feature. For now, I have just given up on it.
Have you tried testing your overall system latency with a tool like DPClatency checker? If your system has serious periodic latency spikes it can really nerf loopback in an intermittent way that's hard to troubleshoot and often is a driver or process issue that has nothing to do with JRiver.
For example, I used to have very rare issues with pops and clicks with normal playback, but they became frequent and enormous when I started using loopback. In that case the problem wasn't JRiver or any combo of buffer settings, it was the stock Asus drivers for my soundcard (an Asus DX). Once I replaced the drivers, all problems went away.
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Topic: MC suddenly stopped working with DAC (Read 3070 times)