INTERACT FORUM

More => Old Versions => JRiver Media Center 19 for Mac => Topic started by: zuio on December 06, 2013, 02:41:50 am

Title: Please add flash drive buffering option
Post by: zuio on December 06, 2013, 02:41:50 am
On a Mac with PCI flash drive there is better sound from the flash drive than from a connected thunderbolt/USB drive/nas.

Reason: SATA interface degrades sound!

http://www.computeraudiophile.com/f8-general-forum/attention-current-mac-mini-users-boot-mavericks-sd-card-load-ramdisk-dismount-your-internal-sata-drives-and-pour-drink-musicians-walking-out-your-speakers-18159/

As PCI flash is expensive and only up to 1tb, please add the option "pre buffering" in a jriver folder on the main drive and load the file from that buffer source into ram.
Title: Re: Request: Better sound from flash drive! Please add pre buffering option!
Post by: 6233638 on December 06, 2013, 03:56:55 am
Media Center already has the option to pre-buffer 20 seconds of audio before playback starts, and there is a Memory Playback option which means that audio is decoded into RAM before it is played. Up to 1GB of uncompressed audio is stored in memory with this option enabled, which is enough to cache most PCM tracks. (but not DSD)
 
There are some changes I would like to see made to the Memory Playback feature to make it even less reliant on disk access, but the JRiver team seem to consider the feature a way to cache uncompressed audio rather than a way to prevent disk access affecting playback. (I can easily set up a scenario where playback is severely impacted by disk access even with Memory Playback enabled)
Title: Re: Request: Better sound from flash drive! Please add pre buffering option!
Post by: zuio on December 06, 2013, 07:21:27 am
The difference is the file source. I still hear a notable difference between a USB drive and PCI flash ssd. The whole song must be buffered on the flash drive, not 20 seconds.

If you have a new macbook you can test it, as well with SD flash cards on macbook pros.
Title: Re: Request: Better sound from flash drive! Please add pre buffering option!
Post by: 6233638 on December 06, 2013, 07:25:17 am
Quote from: zuio on December 06, 2013, 07:21:27 am
The difference is the file source. I still hear a notable difference between a USB drive and PCI flash ssd. The whole song must be buffered on the flash drive, not 20 seconds.

If you have a new macbook you can test it, as well with SD flash cards on macbook pros.
With Memory Playback enabled, it is playing from RAM, your source drive is irrelevant.
Title: Re: Better sound from flash drive! REQUEST: Please add flash drive buffering option!
Post by: Matt on December 06, 2013, 03:57:29 pm
6233638 is correct.

Double-check your blind testing procedure if you still hear differences with memory playback enabled.

Closing this now.