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More => Old Versions => JRiver Media Center 27 for Windows => Topic started by: tdot on March 28, 2021, 09:44:04 pm

Title: Crackling and popping in a very specific situation [Solved]
Post by: tdot on March 28, 2021, 09:44:04 pm

I have an MC running on machine "A" Windows 10 as the server.  I have another instance of MC running on Windows 10 PC "B" as an endpoint.

I use Panel on an Android tablet to access "A", and play to "B".

95% of the time everything is fine, regardless of the music's encoding, compression, bit depth, or upsampled.

But when a DSD song ends with more than 5 seconds of silence, there will be popping when the following track begins to play. I can replicate this problem over and over.

If I play the same 2 tracks sequentially directly on A or B, everything is fine.

Is it a known bug?

Title: Re: Crackling and popping in a very specific situation and repeatable
Post by: Matt on March 29, 2021, 07:37:48 am

I can't explain this.

Is this converting the DSD to PCM?

Could you provide a copy of a DSD file that causes the next file (does it have to be DSD as well?) to matt at jriver dot com?

Thanks!

Title: Re: Crackling and popping in a very specific situation and repeatable
Post by: dtc on March 29, 2021, 08:04:56 am

This type of pop is sometimes heard when transitioning between DSD and PCM. DSD bits move the level up and down, but cannot just set a level like PCM can. So, the playback level sometimes gets confused during a transition.  The 5 second silence may cause such a transition problem.

A couple of things to try while Matt is looking into the specifics.  First, experiment with Play Silence at Startup and Do Not Play Silence (leading and trailing). They are in Audio setup. You can also try setting the  Playback Range field to cut off some of the silence at the end of the DSD track. I am not sure if Panel recognizes these settings or not.

These suggestions are mostly for diagnostics. Matt can probably get to the bottom of the issue.

Title: Re: Crackling and popping in a very specific situation and repeatable
Post by: tdot on March 29, 2021, 09:19:40 am

Quote from: dtc on March 29, 2021, 08:04:56 am

This type of pop is sometimes heard when transitioning between DSD and PCM. DSD bits move the level up and down, but cannot just set a level like PCM can. So, the playback level sometimes gets confused during a transition.  The 5 second silence may cause such a transition problem.

A couple of things to try while Matt is looking into the specifics.  First, experiment with Play Silence at Startup and Do Not Play Silence (leading and trailing). They are in Audio setup. You can also try setting the  Playback Range field to cut off some of the silence at the end of the DSD track. I am not sure if Panel recognizes these settings or not.

These suggestions are mostly for diagnostics. Matt can probably get to the bottom of the issue.

I have tried both Play Silence at Startup and Do Not Play Silence.  Same result.

I will PM Matt the details.

Thanks guys.

Title: Re: Crackling and popping in a very specific situation and repeatable
Post by: Matt on March 29, 2021, 09:26:43 am

Are you bitstreaming DSD or playing it as PCM?  The DAC switching between DSD and PCM could also crackle.  You might try all PCM if you're not.

Title: Re: Crackling and popping in a very specific situation and repeatable
Post by: tdot on March 29, 2021, 10:09:20 am

Quote from: Matt on March 29, 2021, 09:26:43 am

Are you bitstreaming DSD or playing it as PCM?  The DAC switching between DSD and PCM could also crackle.  You might try all PCM if you're not.

While I was writing you a PM, I went through the configuration on server A and I noticed something.

I upsample all my non-DSD music to DSD to send to the renderer B.  In "Audio Formats to convert", I noticed that DSF and SACD were checked by default.  I unchecked them, tried it out.  And everything is fine now.  Problem solved.

I guess it went through double conversion DSD -> PCM -> DSD?

In any case, thanks for your support.  I appreciate it.

Title: Re: Crackling and popping in a very specific situation [Solved]
Post by: Awesome Donkey on March 29, 2021, 11:45:16 am

Quote from: tdot on March 29, 2021, 10:09:20 am

I guess it went through double conversion DSD -> PCM -> DSD?

Correct, all conversions (including DSD > DSD) go through a PCM step in the middle, so like you said it's DSD > PCM > DSD.