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[stefansmith]

I just had a revelation last night -- I decided to bypass my nice alps black volume pot and control the volume using MC.
My set-up is PC (APE/FLAC, Asio4all) > USB-12S DDDac Mk2 > DIY Tripath Class-T amp > horns.
A HUGE improvement -- soundstage immediately widened, sound much sharper.

Only problem is that I like playback buffering. With buffering of 5 seconds, when I change the volume it takes 5 seconds to take effect.

Or am I doing something wrong?

[StFeder]

Only problem is that I like playback buffering. With buffering of 5 seconds, when I change the volume it takes 5 seconds to take effect.

I had the same question longer time ago (with MC 10 or 11.0). They told me, this is by design. This effect only appears, if you are using buffer and the internal volume feature (as I do). I changed buffer to 0,5 sec, because it made me crazy to wait a few seconds (buffer lenght) before MC reacts to any skip forward / backward action or file seeking...

I thougt they would change it anytime... Up to now they didn't BUT: with my small 0,5 sec buffer MC never skips within normal use. So I learned to live with this  

[stefansmith]

many thanks for the reply.
This a shame, as it would be nice to have the best of both worlds -- i've suddenly discovered the internal volume control seems to be better than my passive line stage, whereas buffering also helps sound quality too, among other things.

can't this be fixed somehow?

[Matt]

There's no need to make that buffering length longer than about 1/2 second with a modern computer. (only adjust it if you get hiccups in the sound)

It does not affect pre-buffering / how much MC reads ahead, and certainly doesn't affect sound quality.

[StFeder]

There's no need to make that buffering length longer than about 1/2 second with a modern computer.

I think you’re right for normal use. But if there is something that stops your PC completely, even a modern one would stop playback after 0,5 sec. I got this sometimes when I accidentally inserted a badly scratched CD.

In my eyes a high buffer size gives much more safety. With winamp2 (sorry for always referring to this program) I could do whatever I wanted to, because the high buffer even didn’t stop playback within a bluescreen (just to the end of the buffered part). And I had the time to switch to my "Stand-Alone-CD-Playback-System", reboot and nobody noticed It doesn’t matter at a family meeting, but for DJing it can be essential! But it’s no use if smooth-skipping / seeking needs this more time.

It [buffer length] […] certainly doesn't affect sound quality.

Are you going to wake up some guys? Did you forget or suppress THIS 

[glynor]

I think those two types of buffering were different things...

But, in general, I suspect it falls in line with the same lines of thought that make this seem like a good idea and these cables seem like they're worth the money.

[StFeder]

I don’t believe buffering takes any effect on soundquality. And even when: I’m sure my cheap soundcard, my cheap cables and my cheap receiver will make it inaudible.

But apart from this: I think there should be a better buffer option. Just for more safety.

[stefansmith]

Thanks everyone.

So is the buffer slider in playback options different from fiddling with the registry here:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\JRiver\Media Center 12\Player Core\Secondary Buffer Minimum MS

But, in general, I suspect it falls in line with the same lines of thought that make this seem like a good idea and these cables seem like they're worth the money.

Not the same, because buffering is free. 

[JONCAT]

C'mon Glynor...everyone knows Transparent sound is where it's at...so transparent you can't hear the difference.

Strange, I thought most people would argue against adding another stage for the audio to pass through. MCs internal volume isn't kmixer but using system and ASIO seemed like one less link in the chain to get the sound out to me.

And not being able to control Video volume means the preamp volume knob has to be the main control for me lest I blast myself with some clip from the web or a re-run of What's Happenin'

I do use Wavelab to set the latency for the ASIO driver (can't seem to do this in the EMU control panel). If I use 1 buffer at 2ms I get 13ms latency which skips and pops all over the place. ASIO in MC is set to .10. I currently have the max latency set in Wavelab at 13 seconds and the Giant TBO XL Playing Now skin I modded (from another user here) 1368x768 does cause glitches like it does at lower settings. Some of these glitches, being digital pops, are subtle, especially when the buffer is really low so I could see how they could creep into your ASIO playback become noticable.

DC

[Matt]

So is the buffer slider in playback options different from fiddling with the registry here:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\JRiver\Media Center 12\Player Core\Secondary Buffer Minimum MS

The MC audio core uses two main buffers.

The secondary buffer (set with that registry key) determines pre-buffering and normally holds 8 - 12 seconds of audio data.

The buffering slider in options is the playback buffer, and represents how much data is given to the soundcard at once.

DSPs and other effects live in-between these two buffers.  This allows MC to keep a healthy pre-buffer, but still apply DSP changes quickly.  In our opinion, this is an ideal solution.

Moving the playback buffer slider is only needed if you're getting hiccups in the sound.  And normally, if you're getting hiccups, it'll be from a hardware issue (IRQ, etc.) and not from MC buffering.  With a modern computer, a few tenths of a second is fine for this buffer, even if you're gaming, etc. during playback.

Adjusting that registry key will allow more data to be pre-buffered, but this comes at the cost of memory usage.  We believe the default system is ideal for most users, which is why there isn't a setting for this in options.

[stefansmith]

Matt,
Thank you very much for that explanation, as well as for giving the registry key in the other thread -- very, very interesting, and very useful!