INTERACT FORUM

Please login or register.

Login with username, password and session length
Advanced search  
Pages: [1]   Go Down

Author Topic: JRiver Media Center 31.0.65 BETA for Mac Silicon/Intel Universal build  (Read 1594 times)

bob

  • Administrator
  • Citizen of the Universe
  • *****
  • Posts: 13875

This is a new BETA build of JRiver Media Center 31 for Mac.  Please post bugs here.  Please start a new thread for anything requiring discussion.  Non-bug posts will be deleted.

Download Universal Silicon/Intel 64 bit build
https://files.jriver-cdn.com/mediacenter/test/MediaCenter310065-Universal.dmg
(minimum requirement MacOS 10.11)

31.0.65 (10/3/2023)

1. Changed: Switched to sunrisesunset.io to get sunrise and sunset times.
2. Changed: Spectrum analyzer's no longer run when paused.
3. Changed: Removed album from Search DJ.
4. Changed: Removed the instructions from Search DJ boxes.
5. Changed: Added instructions to Search DJ.
6. Changed: Work on drawing optimizations.
7. Changed: Internal change in EXIF reading and writing.  Testing is appreciated.
8. Changed: Revised how extra channels are handled so they are less likely to cause unexpected mixing (for example, picking 5.1 with 10 extra caused the SL/SR to go away).
9. NEW: Added an advanced option to use a new extra channels routing system which revises how extra channels are handled so they are less likely to cause unexpected mixing (for example, picking 5.1 with 10 extra caused the SL/SR to go away) (Options > General > Advanced).
10. Fixed: Tag window selection could lag in some cases (was trying to animate, now it just renders immediately).

31.0.60 (9/28/2023)

1. Changed: Internal changes in JRVR how the settings are handled.
2. NEW: Advanced option for JRVR to enable changing any libplacebo settings for testing purposes.
3. Fixed: Buttons could lag when switching states on mouse over.  Now they respond to mouse movement, so should change right away.
4. Fixed: Some VST3 effects would not work because they failed on a call to setBusArrangements.  Now the current arrangement is checked first and that is only called if it changes.
5. NEW: Updated libplacebo in JRVR to v6.338.0. Improves dynamic tone mapping, scaling quality, and many other things.
6. NEW: Added the JincSharp upscaler to JRVR, a sharper version of Jinc with 3 or 4 taps.
7. NEW: Added the Hermite downscaler to JRVR, a light-weight scaler with a decent quality.
8. Changed: JRVR will now show the measured peak and average brightness of HDR video on the OSD.

31.0.59 (9/26/2023)

1. Fixed: Corrected a French translation issue (thanks Charles Pastor).
2. Fixed: Memory leak on heic/heif image decoding and thumbnailing.

31.0.58 (9/25/2023)

1. Fixed: Crashing on import caused by some corrupt files exposed by updates to the exif code.
2. Fixed: Some thread sanitizer issues and locking of the PlayerCore for zone counts.

31.0.57 (9/21/2023)

1. Fixed: Frame Stepping over multiple frames at once with JRVR did only step one frame.
2. NEW: (Panel) Added "Play album" option to file playback menu.
3. Fixed: MCWS function Television/GetGuidePrograms output invalid xml doc because Field names were used for xml element name.  Now the xml element for each field will be <Tag Name="Field Name">field value</Tag>, instead of <Field Name>field value</Field Name>.
4. Changed: Updated the Kodi NFO support to differentiate between <ratings> and <userratings> properly.
5. Fixed: When recording TV shows in TS format, the initial bookmarks might be wrong, especially when recording was started later than the actual program start time.
6. Fixed (possibly): Playing a currently recording TV show in transport stream time-shifting, the playback skipped forward to live time instead of starting from the beginning.
7. Fixed: When Playing with Play Doctor Search DJ was not saving the settings used.
8. Changed: Updated Czech translation (thanks Jan Boháč).
9. Changed: Search DJ settings are saved between runs so the last used settings are shown.
10. Changed: Added a parameter FormatDateTime to MCWS function GetRecordingScheduleXML to specify whether to format the StartTime returned value.
11. Fixed: Lip Sync MCC commands and per-file Lip Sync overrides did not work in video playback.
12. Changed: Don't allow fullscreen on detached display view window.
13. Fixed: Detached display view, don't allow multiple detach events for the same window.
14. Fixed: Fullscreen zoom mode, check current setting before toggling.

31.0.54 (9/12/2023)

1. Fixed: Submenus (like in trackinfos and audio options) broken by a fix in 31.0.50.
2. Changed: Search DJ settings are saved between runs so the last used settings are shown.
3. Changed: Added a parameter FormatDateTime to MCWS function GetRecordingScheduleXML to specify whether to format the StartTime returned value.
4. NEW: Added an option to close the program on stop to the "More Stop" player menu (MCC 10078 to script).

31.0.53 (9/11/2023)

1. Changed: Made the saved cover art folder saved on a per-library basis as well so it can vary from library to library.
2. Changed: VST3 effects that create the plugin on a class number higher than zero will work.
3. Changed: Search DJ only searches for music files (it could grab images and videos if they matched the artist, etc.).
4. NEW: Added a Search DJ button to Playing Now.
5. Changed: Shuffle defaults to off for Search DJ.
6. Changed: Artist lists with semi-colons are also accepted by Search DJ.
7. Changed: Search DJ clears any other searches that were entered manually in the search box.
8. NEW: Added a "No Variety" menu choice for Play Doctor searches.
9. NEW: Added Tools > Search DJ to play searches and optionally include Cloudplay files.
10. Fixed: Possible JPEG crashes parsing corrupt images.
11. NEW: Added a couple stock smartlists to find low resolution cover art.
12. Fixed: Custom Contrast values where not being displayed properly in the JRVR settings after re-opening the dialog.
13. Changed: Include the Q when listing parametric equalizer equalization filters.
14. Fixed: Improved behavior when pressing Escape while watching a video in Theater View Netflix.
15. NEW: Anti-ringing filter when scaling with JRVR, available for all conventional scalers, as well as RAVU.
16. Fixed: Updated JRVR Geometry Correction to avoid cutting off part of the image when using curvature correction.
17. NEW: Support for loading custom shaders in JRVR (in mpv hook/glsl syntax)
18. Fixed: The "Move Up" and "Move Down" buttons on the customize tag window would not work nicely if you clicked fast.  Now all buttons everywhere should no longer check for clicks that are too fast.
19. Fixed: Allow "live" streams to play through JRVR. Fixes shn and some video playback on Mac and linux.

31.0.48 (8/22/2023)

1. Changed: Slovak translation updated (thanks Peter Lukáč).
2. Changed: The JRVR HDR to HDR tone mapping options are only shown if HDR pass-through is enabled.
3. Fixed: Solved a rare crash during import due to thread safety.
4. Changed: Non-editable fields no longer allow the checkbox to allow custom data in the Manage Library Fields dialog.
5. Changed: Added the option "Show only calculated fields" to Manage Library fields.
6. Changed: Playback of live TV in Transport Stream time-shifting mode will start a little delayed to reduce the chance of getting a black screen with audio only.

31.0.46 (8/18/2023)

1. NEW: Manual profile selection/overriding for JRVR, on a per-file basis. Available in the context menu, the playback OSD, and MCC.
2. Changed: Non-editable fields no longer allow the checkbox to allow custom data in the Manage Library Fields dialog.
3. Changed: Added the option "Show only calculated fields" to Manage Library fields.
4. Changed: Playback of live TV in Transport Stream time-shifting mode will start a little delayed to reduce the chance of getting a black screen with audio only.
5. Fixed: Radio Paradise didn't play when reliably when connected to a library server.
6. NEW: (Panel) Added options to the Advanced settings page to show/hide the fixed buttons on the main page, such as Streaming, Cloudplay, etc.
7. Changed: The bookmark is only cleared when pressing stop again if it's done within five seconds of the previous stop.
8. Changed: When tagging EXIF in images, empty field values will cause the corresponding EXIF tags to be removed, instead of setting the tag value offset to NULL.
9. Fixed: When renaming a value in a pane, if something with a semi-colon was entered the selection would reset (instead of selecting the first item in the new list).
10. Changed: Tagging of EXIF datetime tags will use format "yyyy:MM:dd 00:00:00" for dates without time, instead of "yyyy:MM:dd   :  :  " so that Google Photos will recognize it.

31.0.43 (8/7/2023)

1. Changed: When a smartlist finds no matches, a message is shown in the list.
2. Changed: Expressions that output an average use three decimal places instead of one.
3. Changed: Added "Favorites" category for Cloudplay in Theater View.
4. Fixed: MCWS Playback/Info when called early was creating the playback engine because of a recent change (31.0.29). Could cause crashes in MacOS (for example when JRemote was starting playback on a remote zone).

31.0.42 (8/3/2023)

1. Fixed: Backup and library connection issues caused by the [] fix in build 41.
2. NEW: Added a 44.1k auto configuration test for odd bluetooth devices that only work on 44.1k.
3. Changed: Clicking an empty checkbox field with multiple selections now changes based on the selected item (was using the first item instead).

31.0.41 (8/1/2023)

1. NEW: Added memory usage and open file handles to Reporter.
2. Fixed: Paired square brackets [] in a folder path prevented import of items in that path.
3. Changed: Removed the drive performance tests from Reporter.

31.0.38 (7/24/2023)

1. Fixed: Local CUSTOMIZATION RESOURCES (like modified FileAssociations.xml) were not being read from the Appdata tree (~/Library/Application Support/J River/Media Center 31/Data/Custom Resources/).
2. Fixed: Some crashes on particular versions of MacOS caused by differences in the Apple API for the browser that weren't being handled.
3. Fixed: Seeking with JRVR could result in some playback glitches since 31.0.35.
4. Changed: Updated Czech translation (thanks Jan Boháč).
5. Changed: Put the playing album at the top during a shuffle albums.
1. NEW: Added New, Popular, and Users categories for Cloudplay Playlists in Theater View.

31.0.36 (7/20/2023)

1. Fixed: Logging the playback information could lead to crashes in some cases.
2. NEW: Added "Shuffle Albums" to the shuffle menu to keep albums in track order but shuffle the collection of albums.
3. Changed: DSP Studio will be closed when shutting the program down to server mode.
4. Changed: More tuning of the Swap and Unswap expressions.
5. Changed: When clearing playing now, the menu option would enter the MRU list, but then keep working on the cleared zone.  So if you switched zones and picked the MRU, it was a little confusing.  Now it switches.
6. Changed: Made the default for logging to reset after 10 MB instead of to keep everything.
7. Changed: Reworked JPEG rotation so it uses the new EXIF code (testing appreciated).
8. NEW: Support reading and saving EXIF Artist and Copyright fields for images.  These fields will be saved in corresponding image EXIF tags if they only contain ASCII characters (since the corresponding EXIF tags only support ASCII).
9. Fixed: Thumbnail image embedded in an image might not be loaded because the EXIF tagging had a wrong thumbnail data size.
10. NEW: EXIF tags DateTimeDigitized and DateTime can be read into the library if custom fields "DateTimeDigitized" and "DateTime" have been created.
11. Changed: Slovak translation updated (thanks Peter Lukáč).
12. Fixed: Video playback could offset the playback position slightly after seeking.

31.0.34 (7/11/2023)

1. Fixed: Crash on MacOS 10.11 when initializing the web engine on startup.
2. Fixed: Parameterless file: URL's weren't being handled after the change to create background colors for web pages. Mostly affected trackinfos.

31.0.33 (7/11/2023)

1 NEW: Support reading and saving EXIF Artist and Copyright fields for images.  These fields will be saved in corresponding image EXIF tags if they only contain ASCII characters (since the corresponding EXIF tags only support ASCII).
2. Fixed: Thumbnail image embedded in an image might not be loaded because the EXIF tagging had a wrong thumbnail data size.
3. Changed: Improved reporting of DSD to PCM conversion in Audio Path.
4. Changed: More work on the Unswap expression.
5. Fixed: Parsing EXIF blocks could enter an endless loop with some images.
6. NEW: The Comment field (if not empty) will be saved in image EXIF tag UserComment.  The Name field will be saved to image EXIF tag ImageDescription if the text is ASCII, otherwise we try to save it into UserComment if UserComment is not already filled.
7. Fixed: Erroneous GPS data was loaded for some images taken with cameras not equipped with GPS.
8. Changed: Better support for commas without spaces in the Unswap expression.
9. Fixed: Improved state tracking during JRVR startup for a potential hang fix.
10. NEW: Added an MCC to seek to a percent (MCC_SEEK_PERCENT / 10072).
11. Changed: Unswap(...) handles double (and more) spaces just like Swap(...).
12. Changed: Updated libplacebo in JRVR, with many HDR gamut mapping improvements.
13. NEW: Added an option to JRVR Advanced settings to allow disabling the histogram in peak detection for improved performance on slow systems.
14. Changed: Drives&Devices, Playlists, Podcasts, Services&Plugins, and Streaming pages use skin background and text colors.
15. Changed: Reworked how the default webpages like Playlists, Drives & Devices, etc. are included (please report any issues).
16. Changed: A little work on the Unswap(...) expression to better support the new Swap(...) expression.
17. Fixed: Video playback could crash in some cases.
18. NEW: Added a setting to control the target contrast when tone mapping HDR to SDR in JRVR.

31.0.29 (6/30/2023)

1. Changed: Triple spaces (or more) were still causing Swap problems.
2. Fixed: Media Center could leak memory when parsing an invalid MP4 file.
3. Fixed: Spotlight was not loading properly.
4. Fixed: Double spaces are removed by the Swap(...) function to avoid problems they cause.
5. Fixed: Improved detection heuristics in black bar analysis for more confident results.
6. Changed: Re-position New and Popular playlist links under Cloudplay title text.
7. Changed: Updated Greek translation (thanks Panagiotis).
8. Changed: Updated Simplified Chinese translation (thanks YanJun Sun).
9. Fixed: The new formatted flag on Playback/Info was not working properly.
10. Changed: Slightly better handling of commas in the Swap(...) expression.
11. Changed: Tuned the Swap(...) expression based on feedback on Interact.
12. Changed: Updated libplacebo with a lot of tone mapping and gamut mapping changes for processing HDR videos in JRVR.
13. NEW: Added new options to JRVR for controlling tone mapping. Output -> Contrast Recovery Strength, Output -> Spline Contrast (advanced HDR settings), Advanced -> Use Tricubic interpolation for gamut mapping.
14. Changed: Black Bar Analysis uses a simple heuristic to improve the quality of the detection, and write a report into the [Video Black Bar Analysis Report] field.
15. Fixed: UI skin issues with Clouplay start page when not signed in.
16. NEW: New EXIF library with full read and write support for much improved JPEG tagging.
17. NEW: Added an option to Tree & View > Advanced to hide tab close buttons.
18. NEW: Added a Dehexify expression function.
19. NEW: Use skin colors for Cloudplay.
20. Changed: Added a "Formatted" parameter to MCWS Playback/Info to allow specifying if the return value should be formatted or not.
21. NEW: Added "Chapter" Mode to MCWS Playback/Position to allow skipping to a specified chapter.
22. Changed: Tuned the Swap(...) expression function to work better with big strings.
23. Changed: Cleaned up the escapement in the Base URL of the links dialog so it should not be necessary (but the search expression still needs escapement).
24. NEW: Added mode to the MCWS Playback/Position and allow passing a percentage (works with relative or absolute seeks).
25. Changed: The "Unlock All Tabs" menu option disables when all the tabs are unlocked.
26. Changed: The "Lock All Tabs" menu option disables when all the tabs are already locked.
27. Fixed: Black Bar detection would not reliably select different points in the video file in some cases.

31.0.24 (6/20/2023)

1. NEW: Added the chapter list to Playback/Info.
2. Fixed: TIFF files with JPEG encoding did not work properly.
3. NEW: Contrast Recovery for tone mapping HDR video in JRVR, which enhances the details of tone mapped video.
4. Changed: Various improvements to JRVR tone mapping, improving perceived saturation and other color issues.
5. Changed: Dynamic Tone Mapping (Peak Detection) in JRVR is now on by default, as well as in the Balanced and Quality presets.
6. Changed: When matching, Spotlight will ignore any extra user data in movie or tv show titles enclosed in brackets.  For example, "Avatar [3D]" will match just Avatar.
7. Changed: Loading and saving views also restores the tab locked state.
8. NEW: If more than one tab is open, the option to lock and unlock all the tabs is in the header menu.
9. Fixed: The "Prefer DVD Order" option for TV Show lookup did not work properly with TheMovieDB lookups.
10. Changed: Black bar analysis skips more frames after a seek for decoding to stabilize before checking for black bars.
11. Fixed: Cloudplay would go to home page when there was an edit in another tab.
12. Fixed: Seeking a video close to the end would cause playback to stop.

Logged

EnglishTiger

  • Regular Member
  • Citizen of the Universe
  • *****
  • Posts: 1092
Re: JRiver Media Center 31.0.65 BETA for Mac Silicon/Intel Universal build
« Reply #1 on: October 04, 2023, 07:51:14 am »

31.0.65 (10/3/2023)

6. Changed: Work on drawing optimizations.


Bob -  I concentrated only on this item by playing 2 Channel 9600/24 flac files Playing Now whilst keeping an eye on CPU and GPU usage in the Mac Activity Monitor.

With No Spectrum Analysers in the PlayerBar I got values between 8.8% and 9.4% for the CPU and 0% and 1% for the GPU

With the DSP Analyser Window/Page open I got  values between 30.5% and 31.5% for the CPU and 8% and 15% for the GPU

With 1 and 2 Spectrum Analysers  in the PlayerBar I got  values between 29.5% and 30.5% for the CPU and 2.5% and 3.5% for the GPU

With 2 Spectrum Analysers in the PlayerBar + the DSP Analyser Window open I got  values between 31% and 37% for the CPU and 8.5% and 12% for the GPU

For each "Test" I monitored the CPU and GPU usage for at least 3 Tracks.

And Yes I did have a Trackinfo Plugin Loaded, which of course results in the "Display/Upper Panel" being refreshed at the start of every track.

So it looks like getting MC to draw "Multi-Line Pictures", the Spectrum Analysers and the DSP Analyser Window, has a significant effect on both CPU and GPU usage; with the DSP Analyser Window causing the larger "overhead".

Whilst updating the Player Progress Bar, plus the Player Display Window, has very little effect, if any on the CPU and GPU Usage.

One thing that surprised me somewhat was the amount if Disc Activity; MC did a lot of reading but only a small amount of writing, it was measured in Megabytes,  however I reckon Apple need to do a lot of work on their OS because it's reads and writes were measured in Gigabytes.

Another thing I noticed is that Sonoma appears to run hotter than it's predecessor. I can't help but wonder if it is suffering from the bug that makes IOS-17 occasionally run hot?
Logged
Apple Mac Mini Desktop Computer with M4 Pro chip with 12 core CPU and 16 core GPU: 24GB Unified Memory, 512GB SSD Storage, Gigabit Ethernet, 3 Thunderbolt5 + 2USBC ports.

EnglishTiger

  • Regular Member
  • Citizen of the Universe
  • *****
  • Posts: 1092
Re: JRiver Media Center 31.0.65 BETA for Mac Silicon/Intel Universal build
« Reply #2 on: October 05, 2023, 01:20:57 am »

Bob - This Morning I ran some more "Tests" to see if I could find out anything else that has an impact on the amount of CPU and GPU.

Any View that was showing Images in the right hand panel, i.e. "Albums View" increased the CPU Impact by about 7%
Any View that was showing a List that included thumbnails in the right hand panel increased the CPU Impact by about 5%

I then tried to see what would happen in Playing Now if the right hand panel only contained CoverArt + Lyrics or a TrackInfo Plugin and got a pleasant surprise.

In Playing Now with the lower line in the player bar window and the Progress Bar being updated plus a full height TrackInfo Plugin on the right;
I got values between 6.8% and 7.5% for the CPU and between 0% and 1% for the GPU with a peak CPU value of 9.0% on track change
Images 1 & 2 in the attached Pix01 Gallery https://pix01.jriver.com/gM1%40HAxJ
N.B. CoverArt and CoverArt + Lyrics in the right hand panel both gave slightly higher results.

In Playing Now with only the Progress Bar being updated;
I got values between 6.0% and 7.0% for the CPU and between 0% and 0.1% for the GPU with a peak CPU value of 8.4% on track change
Images 3 & 4 in the attached Pix01 Gallery

I then tied to see what would happen if the Tree was not visible and only the Progress Bar was being updated
Images 5 & 6 in the attached Pix01 Gallery

I then tried to see what would happen if I Switched to Cover View
I got values between 3.6% and 4.2% for the CPU and between 0% and 0.1% for the GPU with a peak CPU value of 6.5% on track change

I also tried to see what, if any, impact letting Auto-Import, Analysing any New Tracks/Videos, BLack Bar Detection and CoverArt Lookups in the Background would have even though it would find nothing to import.
The CPU overhead only went up by somewhere between 1 % 2% whenever it was obvious that Auto-Import had cut-in.

When MC was in "Miserly CPU Usage Mode" the panel at the bottom of the Mac Activity Monitor occasionally revealed that "System" was using a higher percentage of the CPU than "User"

Using different Skins appears to have a minimal impact on the CPU usage, most of the ones I tried gave identical/similar values for both the CPU and GPU.

Other odd things I spotted in the Mac Activity Monitor:-
Every now and then Spotlight would appear at the bottom of tasks using the CPU list visible on the screen revealing that it was using the CPU even though I'd never told MC to runt it.
Another oddity was every time the Activity Monitor refreshed itself the number of Idle Wake-Ups for MC31 was showing values between 190 and 210, making it the task with the second highest value displayed.

Just out of curiosity I repeated the Playing Now with only the Progress Bar being updated test using 31.0.60
and got values between 16% and 19% for the CPU and between 0% and 0.1% for the GPU; so whatever you did to the progress bar handling routines has had a very noticeable impact.

When I switched to Cover View in 31.0.65 the Dock and MenuBar vanished from sight to be replaced by Black Bands above and below the MC Window. Which is one of the problems I encountered when trying 31.0.60.
Logged
Apple Mac Mini Desktop Computer with M4 Pro chip with 12 core CPU and 16 core GPU: 24GB Unified Memory, 512GB SSD Storage, Gigabit Ethernet, 3 Thunderbolt5 + 2USBC ports.

bob

  • Administrator
  • Citizen of the Universe
  • *****
  • Posts: 13875
Re: JRiver Media Center 31.0.65 BETA for Mac Silicon/Intel Universal build
« Reply #3 on: October 05, 2023, 09:59:31 am »

ET I wonder what's different with the CPU usage of your M1 with Sonoma vs mine?
If you check the Sonoma thread, I'm seeing way higher CPU usage:
https://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php/topic,137084.msg950642.html#msg950642

I am seeing what you saw with regards to the CPU usage using being much lower with a trackinfo showing vs with the album view.

Just as an aside, the spotlight you see showing up in the activity isn't MC, it's the system indexer. They have the same name :(
Logged

EnglishTiger

  • Regular Member
  • Citizen of the Universe
  • *****
  • Posts: 1092
Re: JRiver Media Center 31.0.65 BETA for Mac Silicon/Intel Universal build
« Reply #4 on: October 05, 2023, 10:28:44 am »

This things gets weirder and weirder

I had the Mac Activity Monitor open for the whole testing period and switched to it after every change in MC31 and ignored anything the Monitor was telling me until MC changed tracks, and then recorded the lowest and highest values for the CPU and GPU for at least 3 consecutive tracks.

Incidentally the peak values I recorded appeared to happen around 6 seconds before the end of each track, i.e. at the point MC was loading the next track to be played with a lower peak happening when the new track started playing which of course triggered a redrawing of some parts of the screen but both "peaks" were only present for 1 refresh of the Monitor Window.
Logged
Apple Mac Mini Desktop Computer with M4 Pro chip with 12 core CPU and 16 core GPU: 24GB Unified Memory, 512GB SSD Storage, Gigabit Ethernet, 3 Thunderbolt5 + 2USBC ports.

bob

  • Administrator
  • Citizen of the Universe
  • *****
  • Posts: 13875
Re: JRiver Media Center 31.0.65 BETA for Mac Silicon/Intel Universal build
« Reply #5 on: October 05, 2023, 11:10:44 am »

The 6 seconds before the end of track makes sense as you noted since it's when the buffering of the next track starts using MC's default settings.
Are you ever seeing the high CPU use that I'm seeing? That puzzles me the most.
Logged

EnglishTiger

  • Regular Member
  • Citizen of the Universe
  • *****
  • Posts: 1092
Re: JRiver Media Center 31.0.65 BETA for Mac Silicon/Intel Universal build
« Reply #6 on: October 05, 2023, 11:24:22 am »

It's got me puzzled too as the only time I saw those higher values was when I had the things that I knew would increase the CPU usage on the screen, like the Spectrum Analysers, the DSP Analyzer Window open, or multiple images and thumbnails visible.


Hopefully it's not something we once encountered at the bank when 3 identical brand new "Dec Vax" computers kept giving different results while they were being commissioned, all 3 ended being replaced by DEC. DEC eventually discovered that they all had CPU's that were operating at different levels of efficiency.
Logged
Apple Mac Mini Desktop Computer with M4 Pro chip with 12 core CPU and 16 core GPU: 24GB Unified Memory, 512GB SSD Storage, Gigabit Ethernet, 3 Thunderbolt5 + 2USBC ports.

EnglishTiger

  • Regular Member
  • Citizen of the Universe
  • *****
  • Posts: 1092
Re: JRiver Media Center 31.0.65 BETA for Mac Silicon/Intel Universal build
« Reply #7 on: October 06, 2023, 06:53:03 am »

Bob - This morning I had MC31.0.36 running for over 4 hours and I kept getting the same values/results for the CPU and GPU as I was getting yesterday when only the Progress Bar was being updated with only a TrackInfo Plugin on the screen.

I also got the M1 MacBook Air out to see what values it would give me they were:-
between 7.1% and 8.9% for the CPU and between 3.4% and 5.3% for the GPU with a peak CPU value of 11.9% on track change.
N.B. The Macbook Air was on Mains Power during the testing.

It is possible that the increases could be down to the MacBook being less powerful and/or the fact that the tracks it was playing are held on the Internal SSD whilst the ones the Mini was playing are on a couple of M2 cards in a dual M2 shell attached via a ThunderBolt port.

I'm not sure if this is down to me or Apple coming up with an OS that is not MacBook Air friendly.

Since the MacBook hasn't been used since MC28 and was on Ventura 12.4 I updated it to Sonoma and then installed MC31.0.65

Problem #1 - No matter how many times I clicked on the MC31 menu bar they would not drop down. Thankfully I was able to do everything I needed to do to the PlayerBar Display, and TrackInfo Plugin to make it the same as the Mini.
Problem #2 - The Mac Activity Monitor was telling me that I was the "User" for every app/task/process it listed, unlike the Mini which listed several users.

This is going to make you laugh because I've come up with a Hilarious, but probable, reason why everybody is getting higher values than me.
The one obvious difference between your set-up and mine is on this side of the pond we use 200-240 Volts AC, whilst on your side of the pond it's 110 Volts.
I can't help wondering if the Transformers that accompany the US PC's are producing a lower output than those that accompany the UK PC's.

Logged
Apple Mac Mini Desktop Computer with M4 Pro chip with 12 core CPU and 16 core GPU: 24GB Unified Memory, 512GB SSD Storage, Gigabit Ethernet, 3 Thunderbolt5 + 2USBC ports.

bob

  • Administrator
  • Citizen of the Universe
  • *****
  • Posts: 13875
Re: JRiver Media Center 31.0.65 BETA for Mac Silicon/Intel Universal build
« Reply #8 on: October 06, 2023, 08:25:00 am »

ET I feel like it's something in OS setup somehow. I'm getting wildly higher CPU usage than you simply playing a track without DSP on a M1 mini on Sonoma, 50-80% depending on whether or not I have the spectrum analyzer on.
I could upgrade the machine to the 14.1 beta to see if Apple has a problem that they fixed but it's a lot of time going backwards so I'm a bit reluctant.

I'm am NOT having the menu bar issues at all though. Do you still see that when MC is the only app running?

I am assuming that activity monitor has always produced CPU usage figures based on 100% meaning 100% of one core. If pre-Sonoma that wasn't the case it would explain the difference (but not the menu bar issue of course).
Logged

blgentry

  • Regular Member
  • Citizen of the Universe
  • *****
  • Posts: 8014
Re: JRiver Media Center 31.0.65 BETA for Mac Silicon/Intel Universal build
« Reply #9 on: October 06, 2023, 08:42:01 am »

I think these differences in CPU usage are immaterial.  They do not affect anything that I can tell.  My 10 to 12% CPU has no effect on my system.  Even the 35 to 40% I see with Theater View open doesn't really phase me.  The system can't tell it's happening.  Everything works as it should.

The menus, which do not work properly on my system, are a much bigger functional issue.
My system:
M1 MacBook Pro 13"
Sonoma 14.0
MC 31.0.65

Menus stop working entirely after a while.  Upon restart they work, but they are very inconsistent.  Sometimes I have to click a few times to get one to come up.  Other times they pop from one menu to another as I move my mouse.  Then they stop working at all, and just highlight the menu title with no menu displayed.

Thanks for working on this.  :)

Brian.
Logged

EnglishTiger

  • Regular Member
  • Citizen of the Universe
  • *****
  • Posts: 1092
Re: JRiver Media Center 31.0.65 BETA for Mac Silicon/Intel Universal build
« Reply #10 on: October 06, 2023, 09:50:25 am »

Bob - The menu bar problem on the MacBook is happening regardless of the number of apps running.

Plus although no where near as badly as blgentry is experiencing the Menu's on the Mini are being "cranky". To get them to dropdown I'm having to click somewhere in the middle of the menu bar before clicking on any Menu Heading.

I'm beginning to believe that Sonama is a load of rubbish that they let escape to avoid having to dump it in the circular filing cabinet. Between us we've encountered more than enough problems/differences to make it the prime suspect.

Totally random daft thought, did Apple write Sonoma or did they use that AI (as in Absolutely Ignorant) ChatGT thing?
Logged
Apple Mac Mini Desktop Computer with M4 Pro chip with 12 core CPU and 16 core GPU: 24GB Unified Memory, 512GB SSD Storage, Gigabit Ethernet, 3 Thunderbolt5 + 2USBC ports.

bob

  • Administrator
  • Citizen of the Universe
  • *****
  • Posts: 13875
Re: JRiver Media Center 31.0.65 BETA for Mac Silicon/Intel Universal build
« Reply #11 on: October 06, 2023, 09:57:58 am »

Bob - The menu bar problem on the MacBook is happening regardless of the number of apps running.

Plus although no where near as badly as blgentry is experiencing the Menu's on the Mini are being "cranky". To get them to dropdown I'm having to click somewhere in the middle of the menu bar before clicking on any Menu Heading.

I'm beginning to believe that Sonama is a load of rubbish that they let escape to avoid having to dump it in the circular filing cabinet. Between us we've encountered more than enough problems/differences to make it the prime suspect.

Totally random daft thought, did Apple write Sonoma or did they use that AI (as in Absolutely Ignorant) ChatGT thing?

It does seem like there are a lot of issues with it when I do an online search.
I may have to bite the bullet and install the 14.1 beta 2 to see if they go away or not.
Logged

blgentry

  • Regular Member
  • Citizen of the Universe
  • *****
  • Posts: 8014
Re: JRiver Media Center 31.0.65 BETA for Mac Silicon/Intel Universal build
« Reply #12 on: October 06, 2023, 02:01:26 pm »

I may have to bite the bullet and install the 14.1 beta 2 to see if they go away or not.

I just installed 14.1 Beta 2.  There is no change in the way that MC31 menus work as compared to 14.1 .  They are still inconsistent.

Thanks,
Brian.
Logged

bob

  • Administrator
  • Citizen of the Universe
  • *****
  • Posts: 13875
Re: JRiver Media Center 31.0.65 BETA for Mac Silicon/Intel Universal build
« Reply #13 on: October 06, 2023, 04:08:50 pm »

I just installed 14.1 Beta 2.  There is no change in the way that MC31 menus work as compared to 14.1 .  They are still inconsistent.

Thanks,
Brian.
Bummer.
I'm dealing with a dead MOBO so I won't be able to get back to this until next week but thanks for the report.
Logged
Pages: [1]   Go Up