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Author Topic: Playback Issue  (Read 2108 times)

JimCo06

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Playback Issue
« on: February 05, 2015, 03:35:51 pm »

This may not be an MC issue but something has changed that is effecting how MC works so I thought I would see what you think.  In addition to MC, I also stream music from Pandora and Rhapsody directly through their web sites through Firefox.  In the past I have been able to pause the streaming music and begin playback in MC without any difficulty (note: the web pages don't have a STOP button, only pause).  I noticed yesterday that this has changed.  Now when I pause streaming music and try to play something in MC I get the "Something went wrong with playback" error.  If I close Firefox or even just switch to another web site, MC will play perfectly but I have never had to do that before.

I believe that Firefox released a new version recently and that may be the cause but I an not experience this with other music players.  For example Audacious still plays perfectly immediately after I pause streaming music.

I am experiencing this in both Ubuntu 14.10, 64bit and Mint 17 (dual boot same computer).  Slightly peculiar is that I have the problem in both Ubuntu and Mint when switching from Rhapsody but Pandora continues to work properly in Mint.

Thanks for any input,
Jim
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bob

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Re: Playback Issue
« Reply #1 on: February 06, 2015, 02:46:52 pm »

This may not be an MC issue but something has changed that is effecting how MC works so I thought I would see what you think.  In addition to MC, I also stream music from Pandora and Rhapsody directly through their web sites through Firefox.  In the past I have been able to pause the streaming music and begin playback in MC without any difficulty (note: the web pages don't have a STOP button, only pause).  I noticed yesterday that this has changed.  Now when I pause streaming music and try to play something in MC I get the "Something went wrong with playback" error.  If I close Firefox or even just switch to another web site, MC will play perfectly but I have never had to do that before.

I believe that Firefox released a new version recently and that may be the cause but I an not experience this with other music players.  For example Audacious still plays perfectly immediately after I pause streaming music.

I am experiencing this in both Ubuntu 14.10, 64bit and Mint 17 (dual boot same computer).  Slightly peculiar is that I have the problem in both Ubuntu and Mint when switching from Rhapsody but Pandora continues to work properly in Mint.

Thanks for any input,
Jim

You are most likely running into the common issue of your choice of audio device in MC.
Your only choices for sharing the audio device are pulse and the default devices. This REQUIRES that you use dsp studio to resample all of your material to the system default sample rate (usually 48k). This is because the sample rate on the open device has to be the same across all of the streams.

If you are using any of the hardware devices (ie front: blah blah) in MC,  as you would expect, you can't share the audio device.

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JimCo06

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Re: Playback Issue
« Reply #2 on: February 11, 2015, 12:37:50 pm »

Update: I am still getting unusual behavior in Ubuntu 14.10

I boot into Ubuntu and start MC first nothing else.
I check the Audio Device setting and it is hw:CARD=MID,DEV=0 [ALSA], which is correct
I select a song and click play, it appears to be playing, the time line is moving and the graphics are working but there is no sound
I check the Ubuntu Sound settings and they are correct
I recheck the MC Audio Device settings and it has now been changed to hdmi:CARD=MID,DEV=0 [ALSA], hence no sound
I stop playback and close MC
I restart MC and check the Audio Device settings and it has now been changed to pulse [ALSA]
Just for fun I attempt to play another song and get the same result, everything looks like it is playing but no sound.
I go back and check the Audio Device again and once again it has been changed to hdmi:CARD=MID,DEV=0 [ALSA]
I change the Audio Device back to hw:(etc) and it plays without problems
I close MC and reopen it, attempt to play a song and the device has been changed back to hdmi:(etc)

Any Ideas why MC is changing the Audio Device, seemingly on it's own?
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bob

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Re: Playback Issue
« Reply #3 on: February 11, 2015, 09:56:13 pm »

Update: I am still getting unusual behavior in Ubuntu 14.10

I boot into Ubuntu and start MC first nothing else.
I check the Audio Device setting and it is hw:CARD=MID,DEV=0 [ALSA], which is correct
I select a song and click play, it appears to be playing, the time line is moving and the graphics are working but there is no sound
I check the Ubuntu Sound settings and they are correct
I recheck the MC Audio Device settings and it has now been changed to hdmi:CARD=MID,DEV=0 [ALSA], hence no sound
I stop playback and close MC
I restart MC and check the Audio Device settings and it has now been changed to pulse [ALSA]
Just for fun I attempt to play another song and get the same result, everything looks like it is playing but no sound.
I go back and check the Audio Device again and once again it has been changed to hdmi:CARD=MID,DEV=0 [ALSA]
I change the Audio Device back to hw:(etc) and it plays without problems
I close MC and reopen it, attempt to play a song and the device has been changed back to hdmi:(etc)

Any Ideas why MC is changing the Audio Device, seemingly on it's own?
It sounds to me like MC's unable to write it's settings file.
You aren't running as root are you?
The settings files are in
~/.jriver/Media Center 20/Settings
Check the permissions on that directory.
Delete the settings files inside of it to reset everything if the directory permissions are ok.
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JimCo06

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Re: Playback Issue
« Reply #4 on: February 12, 2015, 12:31:15 pm »

It sounds to me like MC's unable to write it's settings file.
You aren't running as root are you?
The settings files are in
~/.jriver/Media Center 20/Settings
Check the permissions on that directory.
Delete the settings files inside of it to reset everything if the directory permissions are ok.


Thanks for the suggestions.  I'm not running as root, I checked the permissions and they are all correctly giving me permission to save and change files.  I deleted the settings files, as suggested, and started over.  Unfortunately , the problem persists.  The first time I start playback, after starting MC, the Audio Device is reset to HDMI.  It seems to be correctly saving the settings on exit because if I check the settings before I start playback, they are correct and as they were when I exited MC.  However, the instant I start playback the Audio Device is immediately changed to HDMI.  I have gone through all of the settings and don't see anything that could be causing this.  I am now thinking that MC might be conflicting with some other program.
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bob

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Re: Playback Issue
« Reply #5 on: February 12, 2015, 12:47:31 pm »

Thanks for the suggestions.  I'm not running as root, I checked the permissions and they are all correctly giving me permission to save and change files.  I deleted the settings files, as suggested, and started over.  Unfortunately , the problem persists.  The first time I start playback, after starting MC, the Audio Device is reset to HDMI.  It seems to be correctly saving the settings on exit because if I check the settings before I start playback, they are correct and as they were when I exited MC.  However, the instant I start playback the Audio Device is immediately changed to HDMI.  I have gone through all of the settings and don't see anything that could be causing this.  I am now thinking that MC might be conflicting with some other program.
The only other thing I can think of is that the device you are trying to configure is coming up after MC is started or some other app is locking the device.
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