INTERACT FORUM

More => Old Versions => JRiver Media Center 25 for Windows => Topic started by: pluto on April 26, 2019, 06:49:49 am

Title: Streaming buffer [solved]
Post by: pluto on April 26, 2019, 06:49:49 am

Something is amiss with this internet buffering thing on AAC feeds (Matt has a suitable URL, I don't believe other feeds are affected but cannot be certain). Here's a quick and dirty way to reproduce:

Play a URL and after, say, 15 seconds deprive the program of its internet feed with a firewall. Audio will cease after the current buffer has expired. Keep the Internet turned off and attempt to play the same URL again. This should fail (no internet!) but it plays whatever is in the buffer.

Superficially, it appears that the buffer is not being flushed when a URL is requested and different URLs appear to retain their contents unnecessarily – I can return to URL A after several minutes of playing URL B and hear the same URL A audio over and over. Actually, I think it's rather more complex than that but I don't really have the time at the moment to unravel this....

Title: Re: Streaming buffer
Post by: JimH on April 26, 2019, 07:47:43 am

There are buffers in MC and in your sound card that could both affect this.

Title: Re: Streaming buffer
Post by: pluto on April 26, 2019, 07:51:46 am

And it's not the sound card because the same issue is demonstrable on two machines with different hardware.

This is a new issue, quite probably related to the internet buffering recently introduced.

Title: Re: Streaming buffer
Post by: Matt on April 26, 2019, 07:56:30 am

The buffering will keep the same URL and open it again.

If this is a problem for you, you can disable buffering:
Options > Media Network > Disable audio buffer to disk

Title: Re: Streaming buffer
Post by: pluto on April 26, 2019, 09:01:53 am

OK – assuming "Disable audio buffer to disk" is UNchecked (the default condition), just how long will it continue to buffer this feed silently in the background? On paid-for streams (or services that only permit ONE stream at a time), this might be an issue.

If a feed is being silently downloaded in the background, ought this not be indicated somehow?

Suppose I am not interested in lots of buffered content (possibly from hours ago) but want to listen to a station's output as it is now, how may I tell the program "discard your buffer, let me hear what's being transmitted right now?"

EDIT a few minutes later: I have started something else playing (off local disk) and the buffered feed keeps downloading. OK. I have now checked "Disable audio buffer to disk" and it's still downloading! This appears out of control  :)

ALSO BBC HLS feeds don't seem to exhibit this behaviour. While listening to a BBC HLS feed, download of the AAC continues in the background. Is the buffering behaviour of HLS feeds supposed to be different to that of AAC feeds?

But the good news is that with "Disable audio buffer to disk" checked and a program restart, the behaviour does appear to revert to the status quo of a couple of weeks ago with nothing unexpected happening in the background.

Title: Re: Streaming buffer
Post by: pluto on April 26, 2019, 09:44:34 am

This definitely isn't right: going through a playlist of AAC URLs and playing each one for a few seconds (looking for something I'd like to listen to), I end up buffering 10 streams. For a service in which only one stream at a time is permitted, that could be a problem  :-\

Title: Re: Streaming buffer
Post by: pluto on April 30, 2019, 03:55:22 am

I can report that build 33 appears to have resolved the above

Title: Re: Streaming buffer
Post by: Matt on April 30, 2019, 10:08:36 am

Quote from: pluto on April 30, 2019, 03:55:22 am

I can report that build 33 appears to have resolved the above

Thanks for letting us know.