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[MarSies]

The last couple of months with different versions of MC the music breaks up while playing.
It does not always happen and I can't find a clue when it will or won't. But it is irritating, can't listen to music anymore. The latest MC12 version does not have this 'bug'. For now that is my only solution.

What can be wrong here ?

Marsies .....


Media Center 13.0.161 Registered -- C:\Program Files (x86)\J River\Media Center 13\

Microsoft Windows Vista 6.0 Service Pack 1 (Build 6001)
Intel Core 2 2446 MHz MMX / Memory: Total - 4191 MB, Free - 1215 MB

Internet Explorer: 8.0.6001.18762 / ComCtl32.dll: 5.82.6001 / Shlwapi.dll: 6.0.6001 / Shell32.dll: 6.0.6001 / wnaspi32.dll: N/A
Ripping /   Drive X: PLEXTOR DVDR   PX-716A    Mode:Normal  Type:Auto  Speed:Max
  Drive Y: PLEXTOR CD-R   PREMIUM    Mode:Normal  Type:Auto  Speed:Max
  Digital playback: Yes /  Get cover art: Yes /  Calc replay gain: Yes /  Copy volume: 32767
  Eject after ripping: Yes /  Play sound after ripping: No 

Burning /  Drive X: PLEXTOR  DVDR   PX-716A     Addr: 1:0:0  Speed:48  MaxSpeed:48  BurnProof:Yes
  Drive Y: PLEXTOR  CD-R   PREMIUM     Addr: 1:1:0  Speed:52  MaxSpeed:52  BurnProof:Yes
  Test mode: No /  Eject after writing: Yes /  Direct decoding: No /  Write CD-Text: No
  Use playback settings: No /

Portable Device Info
  Removed devices: EVERIO_HDD (E:)

Device info dump for 'MarsiesPod (H:)':

WMDMName: MARSIESPOD (H:)
DeviceUID: $$?$wpdbusenumroot#umb#2&37c186b&0&storage#volume#1&19f7e59c&0&_??_usbstor#disk&ven_apple&prod_ipod&rev_1.62#000a27001462d398&0##{f33fdc04-d1ac-4e8e-9a30-19bbd4b108ae}$0
CanonicalName: \\?\wpdbusenumroot#umb#2&37c186b&0&storage#volume#1&19f7e59c&0&_??_usbstor#disk&ven_apple&prod_ipod&rev_1.62#000a27001462d398&0##{f33fdc04-d1ac-4e8e-9a30-19bbd4b108ae}$0
VendorName: ; VendorID: 1452
ProductID: 4612; FirmwareVersion: 1.62
WMDMSerialNumber: 325a35353030554853415a
WMDMWriteOurOwnPlaylists:
DeviceType: 3; DeviceID: 000A27001462D398; DeviceName: Apple iPod; UnsupportedDevice: 0
IsDrive: 1; DriveLetter: H:; DrivePath: ; MainDriveLetter: H:
IsJanusCapable: ; IsIpod: 1;iTunesDBVersion: 36
SupportsAlbumArt: 1; AlbumArtEnabled: 1; CoverArtTagRule: 1; SaveCoverArtToFolderJPG:
GetPlayStatsFromDevice: 0; SupportsFolders: -1; PlaylistFormat: 0; EjectMode: 0; AlwaysPumpCOMMessages: 0
SupportedFileTypes: mp3;wav;mp4;aa;m4a;m4b;m4p;aiff;aif;bmp;jpg;jpeg;gif;tif;tiff;png;sgi;psd
MemoryTypes: Internal Memory

InstallURL:
ApplicationName: Media Center
ImageName: Apple iPod Photo
RootBasePath:
AudioBasePath: H:\iPod_Control\Music
ImageBasePath: Photos
VideoBasePath: H:\iPod_Control\Music
DataBasePath: Data\
PlaylistBasePath: ROOT\
DatabaseBasePath:
AudibleBasePath: Audible\
MatchKeyExpression: If(IsEqual([Media Type], Image), Clean([Name], 3)
[File Size, 0]
, [Name]
Clean([Artist], 2)
[Album]
[Genre]
TrackNumber()
[Media Type]
)
ChangeKeyExpression: If(IsEqual([Media Type], Image), , [Rating]
[Composer]
)
ResyncIfDateModified: 1


Interface Plugins:
  last.fm (Active)
  Library Server (Active)
  TiVo Server (Active)
  UPnP Server (Active)

[JimH]

Try switching playback between Direct Sound and Wave Out.  Try other playback settings.

More details might help.  What are you playing, for example?   Any plug-ins, etc.

[MarSies]

JimH,

I'm playing most of the time a smartlist of unrated music so I can rate them. Also happens to any other sort of playlist I'm listening to. Restarting MC helps (for a while). If you look at the seconds of the song playing it also skips there.

I have switched now from 'Direct Sound' to 'Wave Out'. It can take a while before I know it that helps. On the other hand the problem is there almost every day.

I don't have any plugins loaded. Only running a slide show with the 3 D Visualizations playlist. That visualization does not run consistently and it also happens when there is no picture on the screen.

I almost exclusively use ape on my system. Only here and there a single mp3, wav or flac.


Marsies .....

[JimH]

Remove the visualizations.

3D can put an extra load on the system.

[MarSies]

Did some tests and also removed the 3D visualizations.

The time counter keeps acting funny. The breaking up is not always there. When putting an extra load on the system by copying a lot of data it breaks up more. Enlarging the playback buffer helps a bit. After putting it on 20sec and restarting MC it helps better. But it still breaks up now and then.

After the copy and stopping all programs but MC the audible breaking up is gone. But the timer still jumps and hangs. For me that's in indication of still breaking up. Apparently the 20 sec buffer can cover this without an audible distortion.

I did not have this problem a few months ago. For me it looks like this was introduced avout 2 months ago. Only it is now worse then it used to be.

What now .....

[Matt]

Try adjusting the primary sound buffer (i.e. the one you adjust inside DirectSound, WaveOut, etc. settings).

We recommend 0.5 seconds, but in your case, try 2.0 seconds.

The secondary buffer size (that you set to 20 seconds) is only helpful if you're getting long pauses or reading from really slow sources like a spotty wireless connection, etc.

Also, make sure your drives aren't in PIO mode (or stutter-prone SSD drives) because hardware freezes during file copies sounds suspicious.

[Frobozz]

Various latency problems can cause breakups in audio playback.

DPC Latency Checker is a popular tool for checking the latency caused by drivers.  Run the latency checker utility and see if you get big red spikes in the reported latency values.  Spikes like that can cause dropouts during audio playback.  The info on the DPC Latency Checker page explains how to go about attempting to find out what driver is causing latency problems.  It requires some trial and error guessing and some luck (eg if you have a USB keyboard you can't disable USB to see if USB is causing the latency).

Focusrite also has a good FAQ on optimizing Vista for audio.  Some good tips there.  Almost every manufacturer of similar pro audio interfaces for the PC will also have a similar FAQ.  Some of the tips and recommendations can be more geared for a computer used in a recording studio rather than a general use personal computer.  For studio use they need very low latency numbers, much lower than is necessary for a general personal computer that is only used for audio playback.  So take some of the tips and suggestions with that understanding.

The DPC Latency Checker was helpful for me to identify that the default windows network driver for my mainboard was hogging the latency.  Updating to the latest drivers at the manufacturers web page fixed that problem and fixed the audio dropouts (for the most part).