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[Starchild1]

Hello All,

Let me first say that I'm not a techie so it could be that the solution is right in front of me and I'm just not getting it.  Having said that, I have been having more and more problems with hang ups, jitters and stutters as I have begun to update MC regularly.  I am on build 19.136, using windows 8.1, have an Oppo 103 connected to my computer via Ethernet.  I have gone through the Troubleshooting Guide to the best of my ability.  I've taken the following steps (not necessarily in the order listed):

1. Configured Windows Defender as recommend in the guide
2. Uninstalled any other anti-virus software on my computer
3. Uninstalled and reinstalled MC
4. Set IE as my default browser rather than Chrome
5. Uninstalled Google Chrome

My most recent system setup and log report are attached.  I'd appreciate any insights.  Meanwhile, I'm going to get on my riding mower and take out my frustrations on the grass.  I'll check back in later.  Thanks in advance for any help and suggestions.

Mike

[JimH]

Could you describe the problem a little more?

Audio or video?

What file types?

[Starchild1]

Thanks for taking the time to look at this.  The problem is audio.  I'm using JRiver as a server for flac files on my local hard drive.  The computer is connected to my Oppo 103 via Ethernet cable.  I'm using the coaxial digital out to send the signal to my outboard dac which is currently an Musical Fidelity X-Can.

[JimH]

Are they ordinary 2 channel FLAC files?  Did you rip them with MC?

Try to separate where the problem is.  Play from the Oppo to another device, for example.

Describe exactly what happens. 

[Starchild1]

They're ordinary two-channel flac files that were ripped with dbpoweramp.  When I put a cd in the Oppo 103 it plays with out a hitch.  JRiver also plays through my computer speakers without a hitch.  The problem would appear to be in the dlna configuration I'm using for the oppo but I can't figure out what.  There are not many options to choose from when using generic dlna configuration.

[JimH]

In MC settings for Media Network, try adding a new DLNA Server and edit it.

I moved this because it seems related to DLNA.  You could read other posts here.  This one, for instance:

http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=89310.msg614369#msg614369

Bob is our developer.

[Starchild1]

In MC settings for Media Network, try adding a new DLNA Server and edit it.

I moved this because it seems related to DLNA.  You could read other posts here.  This one, for instance:

http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=89310.msg614369#msg614369

Bob is our developer.

I just changed the configuration under dlna servers to audio mode original from one of the others.  That got the music playing again.  I'll read up in the other section as you've suggested.  Thanks for your help.

[Starchild1]

This problem is persisting.  When I select my oppo 103 in playing now, I get a little blue circle that I presume means the connection is being made.  After the connection is made, I select a file and hit play and I get a message that says its waiting.  Shortly thereafter, the music starts playing for about 30 seconds.  Then I get stuttering, followed by a hangup or a pop and the oppo 103 drops out of the playing now list.  This occurring whether I use the generic dlna or the audiophile dlna.  Any thoughts?

Thanks,

Mike

[Starchild1]

It seems I finally got things working again.  I'd be interested in knowing what configurations MC users with oppo 103 connected via ethernet cable are using.

[JimH]

What worked for you?

[Starchild1]

I'm still not getting perfect sound forever but at least I can listen to music with minor intermittent interruptions.  I'm convinced that something in the recent build made MC 19 less stable but I couldn't tell you why.  Including the stuff I posted at the beginning of this thread, I did the following:

1. Configured Windows Defender as recommend in the guide
2. Uninstalled any other anti-virus software on my computer
3. Uninstalled and reinstalled MC
4. Set IE as my default browser rather than Chrome
5. Uninstalled Google Chrome

I've used MC for a year before those 5 steps became necessary and they still didn't solve the problem.  Additionally I made the following changes:
6. Changed generic dlna audio mode to original and  format to pcm 16 bit
7. Under media servers advanced, checked all three options for dlna server, renderer, and controller (previously I had done fine with just server and controller checked)
8. Numerous reboots


As I type this, the music has stopped again and the oppo 103 has dropped from the playing list.  It will reappear shortly and perhaps I can continue.  Are you seeing dlna problems with recent builds from other oppo users?  I wonder if I'm missing some fundamental set up step that's making my install unstable but I didn't have these problems to this extent 2 weeks ago. Also, I've gotten advice from some 4 star posters telling me to do things such as change the buffer size that do not exist or at least I can't find them.  My experience is that when you're using MC  as a server in dlna, a lot of those options and adjustments don't apply.  BTW, music is playing again now.

Anyhow, I'm going to bed now. I will bang my head on this some more tomorrow.  I think you should change my thread  to unsolved.

[Starchild1]

Ok.  I have uninstalled and reinstalled 19.136.  No change.  I then uninstalled 19.136 and replaced it with 19.128.  It played for about 10 minutes and began stuttering again.  Then I uninstalled 19.128 and replaced it with 18.212.  Still stutters and hangs.  I'm at a loss.  The only thing I can think of is to do a complete uninstall and remove the registry entries as well.  Also, I recall that Oppo released a firmware update a few weeks ago that was downloaded in to my bdp 103.  It seems my problems started about that time.  I wonder if there is a connection since MC works fine playing through my tv speakers.  The problem is with the Oppo.

[JimH]

You could read the "Weird Problems" thread in my signature.  The problem could be related to bandwidth available, or an over-eager antivirus checker.

If the files are stored on a network or USB drive, that could also be a factor.  Testing local files might tell you something.

[Starchild1]

I e-mailed Oppo and asked them if they had any complaints since the last firmware update from JRiver users.  His response put me on the right track and so far, JRiver is running flawlessly (I hope I didn't jinx it by saying that).  

Anyhow, he suggested that I turn off the Gracenote lookup in the network settings of the Oppo 103.  The email trail is below.

Michael,

The player would try to scrub the files (possibly multiple files) for additional meta data information which may not be present in the file. This can result in the system slowing down or even preventing proper network traffic.



Best Regards,

 Customer Service
 OPPO Digital, Inc.
 2629B Terminal Blvd.
 Mountain View, CA 94043
Service at oppodigital
 Tel: 650-961-1118
 Fax: 650-961-1119


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: Michael Mcnair
Sent: Thursday, June 05, 2014 4:43 PM
To: OPPO Service
Subject: Re: Message From Michael E. McNair

Thanks for getting back to me so quickly.  I think turning off the Gracenote Lookup did the trick.  Why would it cause JRiver to stutter and hang?

Mike

 

 

-----Original Message-----
 From: OPPO Service
 To: mmcnair477
 Sent: Thu, Jun 5, 2014 12:16 pm
 Subject: RE: Message From Michael E. McNair


Michael,

If you use an alternative DLNA server, such as oShare (http://sourceforge.net/projects/oshare/)
do you experience the same things with the player?

If you disable Gracenote Lookup (Network Setup) do you have the same errors?

Best Regards,

Customer Service
OPPO Digital, Inc.
2629B Terminal Blvd.
Mountain View, CA 94043

Tel: 650-961-1118
Fax: 650-961-1119

________________________________________
From: OPPO Store
Sent: Wednesday, June 04, 2014 5:49 PM
To: OPPO Service
Subject: Message From Michael E. McNair

Message from Contact Us Web Page

Name: Michael E. McNair


Preferred Contact Method: E-Mail
Category: Technical Support
Order Number:
Note: Good evening,

I'm using my Oppo 103 as a digital renderer playing flac files from my computer
via JRiver Media Center {MC}.  Lately, I've been having problems with
stuttering and hang ups during playback.  It seems that my problems started
shortly after the last firmware update was loaded on my machine.  Have you
received any complaints/concerns/inquiries on playback problems from other bdp
103 owners that use MC?.

Thanks,
Mike

[JimH]

Thanks for reporting the solution.

It would be a good idea to remove e-mail addresses from posts.  They invite spammers.  I removed them above.

[AndrewFG]

^

Starchild, I am glad you solved the issue.

Jim, you should perhaps add this topic to your Weird Things thread.

Just a few side comments concerning the Oppo's behavior here..

This is certainly an area where the Oppo behaves in a (shall we say) quirky manner. Under UPnP push the server (MC) passes the track meta data to the renderer (Oppo) as a payload argument in the SetAvTransportUri push command. However the Oppo does not use this meta data!! Instead the Oppo a) tries to load meta data from any tags within the media stream itself, and/or b) tries to download meta data from Gracenote.

Option a) works only under very limited circumstances when the media stream is not transcoded and when the meta data tags are at the front of the media file. So it works for non transcoded Mp3, and non transcoded Flac files, but it does not work for transcoded streams like PCM (since PCM is not allowed to contain tags), and it does not work for non transcoded files like Wav or Aif because even though such files may contain ID3 tags, they are usually at the end of the file, so the renderer only gets to them after it has played through the whole track (??)

And in the case of UPnP push, option b) simply does not (indeed cannot) work at all! This is because the Oppo would need to have some meta data concerning the track in question in order for it to do a lookup in Gracenote. And clearly if option a) has already failed there is no meta data for it to use as the basis for a Gracenote lookup. And presumably in this case the Oppo is essentially doing a wildcard search in Gracenote (a search with no filters applied) which would in theory require Gracenote to return every single track in its database; and which therefore presumably causes that search request to block. This is completely crazy, and it beats me why anyone at Oppo would even dream of doing such a stupid thing. Aargh!!

[JimH]

Jim, you should perhaps add this topic to your Weird Things thread.

I added it.  Thanks.

[Starchild1]

Jim,

Thanks for the words of wisdom.  I guess I should remove my name and phone number from the exchange as well.

Andrew,

I understood some of what you said but I think I got the gist.  Also, erasing the Oppo's persistent storage and turning off the BD Live feature seems to improve JRiver's performance as well.

Anyone interested,

When I bought the Oppo bdp 103 in January 2013, computer audio was the farthest thing from my mind.  I bought it to use primarily as a transport and universal player.  I almost bought the bdp 105 but I since I was planning to use it with a dac, Oppo advised the upgrade wasn't necessary.  As a regular reader of Stereophile and TAS, I was aware of computer audio but everything was still in flux (at least to me).  I didn't pay much attention to it and I didn't know enough to make an informed decision.  I began to read up on computer audio after I realized that my Oppo could serve as the renderer and decided to explore it more in depth.  I asked Oppo what software they recommended and was advised that a lot of Oppo owners were using JRiver.  That's when I made the plunge.  I'm still building my knowledge base but at this point I'm fairly sure that I will ultimately pair JRiver with a good usb dac rather than pursue a one box solution (I want to be able to take advantage of more of JRiver's audio capabilities).  Anyhow, I'm actively trying to convert all my audiophile friends to computer audio and one has already adopted JRiver.  To make a long story short, I want to thank everyone on this forum for being so helpful. 

Happy Listening!

Mike

[JimH]

Thanks for the story.

[AndrewFG]

Also, erasing the Oppo's persistent storage and turning off the BD Live feature seems to improve JRiver's performance as well.

I don't think that the persistent storage would have anything to do with network performance, but BD Live is definitely a hog -- not really Oppo's fault though..

[Starchild1]

Same stuff different day all over again.  I'm going to see if the folks at the Computer Audiophile site who have a similar set up have run into this.  By the way, there is a useful post called "Video guides to setting up JRiver for DSD and hirez" for us neophytes at audiocircles.

http://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?PHPSESSID=0pr16nfgr361gllt9bmchtg0k4&topic=121419.0

[Starchild1]

Implementation of the recommendatio made by MrC below did the trick:

Minimally, you want to place a switch between your Oppo and your computer.  End stations are designed to be just that - end points; they are not designed to manage inter-connectivity the way switches and routers do.  While it often "works" to connect two devices in the manner you have connected them, it can cause exactly these types of problems.

Get your own high-quality WiFi router that you connect by Ethernet cable to your broadband router; this will allow you control/use your access point (you'll not use the broadband's WiFi), and you can then adjust the location for optimal performance for your home.  The WiFi supplied via your ISP's router may not be very good.