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Author Topic: Hammering FLAC over HTTP causes problems  (Read 3207 times)

morgan

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Hammering FLAC over HTTP causes problems
« on: April 08, 2008, 03:05:50 pm »

Hi,

Strange behaviour:  Put a HTTP reference to a FLAC file into the playlist, (eg http://192.168.0.4/music/test/08%20-%20Amy%20Winehouse%20-%20In%20My%20Bed.flac) and then rapidly (repeatedly) press the play button.

After a second or two MC goes deaf, and wedges my PC to the point where I can't alt-tab between apps.  It eventually recovers, (10-30 seconds later.)

It doesn't seem to effect MP3 files, and the effect is far less pronounced if accessing FLAC files over an SMB share.

I first noticed this skipping tracks by repeatedly double clicking around a playlist of FLAC HTTP URLs.  FLAC over HTTP is important use-case for me - I'm looking to serve up files via a UPnP server, which uses HTTP as the audio transport.

I'm using lighttpd/1.4.15 if that makes a difference, and the http server is running on a NAS over a wired network.

Anyone else noticed this?  Is the HTTP network behaviour of FLAC different to MP3?

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JimH

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Re: Hammering FLAC over HTTP causes MC to go deaf
« Reply #1 on: April 08, 2008, 03:08:58 pm »

Hi,

Strange behaviour:  Put a HTTP reference to a FLAC file into the playlist, (eg http://192.168.0.4/music/test/08%20-%20Amy%20Winehouse%20-%20In%20My%20Bed.flac) and then rapidly (repeatedly) press the play button.

This is the classic case of "Don't do that".

You're loading the file multiple times and a virus checker could get really busy.
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morgan

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Re: Hammering FLAC over HTTP causes problems
« Reply #2 on: April 08, 2008, 05:56:53 pm »

> This is the classic case of "Don't do that".

Yup.  As you may have guessed, the hammering of the play button isn't my major use-case. :)  It's just an easy way to reproduce the problem.

The wedging happens occasionally during "normal" usage.  i.e a playlist full of HTTP URLs to FLAC files.  Double click on one track... change your mind and double click on another (within ~1 sec)... ooops; MC goes deaf.

I disabled my virus checker, and no noticeable change.



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JimH

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Re: Hammering FLAC over HTTP causes problems
« Reply #3 on: April 08, 2008, 06:01:12 pm »

What do you mean by "wedging"?  And by going "deaf"?
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morgan

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Re: Hammering FLAC over HTTP causes problems
« Reply #4 on: April 08, 2008, 08:25:41 pm »

"Wedging" - I'm not able to task away from MC, or activate any other app. i.e it has temporarily stopped the entire OS from responding.  MC is "deaf" to any input.  The OS is pretty much unresponsive and doesn't update the screen.


I'm guessing that the OS is blocking; waiting for something in the networking stack to time-out.  (just speculating...)


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JimH

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Re: Hammering FLAC over HTTP causes problems
« Reply #5 on: April 08, 2008, 09:36:07 pm »

We saw a similar problem a while back that was solved by updating drivers.  Try the link called "Weird Problems" in my signature.  I think it's there.
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morgan

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Re: Hammering FLAC over HTTP causes problems
« Reply #6 on: April 09, 2008, 01:31:04 pm »

That's good to know.  Will try it on some other Windows installations too.
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