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[TomB]

I am a relatively new user of Media Center, since April, and am trying to figure out if this is typical behavior for gapless audio playback.

My HTPC is connected to an Anthem MRX500 via HDMI.

When playing an album such as The Beatles Abbey Road, gapless playback works as expected for tracks 10, 11, 12 & 13 where there is audio at the very end and beginning of the adjacent tracks.  However when there is dead silence between the tracks, as in tracks 1 & 2, it appears that the data stream to the A/V receiver stops between the tracks and the A/V receiver briefly reports 'No Signal'. Unfortunately this produces an audible click as the A/V receiver reacquires the data stream at the start of track 2.

Is there any way to configure Media Center so that it does not stop the data stream between tracks when there is silence?

The audio is encoded as MP3 files and here are the particulars of my Media Center configuration:

Media Center 19.0.38

Audio Device
  AMD HDMI Output (AMD High Definition Audio Device [WASPI]
  Checked - Open device for exclusive access
  UnChecked - Disable event style
  Checked - Maximize device volume during playback
  Checked - Play a litte silence on DoP stop
  Bitdepth - Automatic
  Buffering - 100ms

Settings
  DSP & output format
    Output Encoding - None
    Channels - 5.1
    Mixing - JRSS mixing
    JRSS Subwoofer (120 Hz lowpass)
    Checked - Subclarity
    Volume Leveling - Enabled
    Adaptive Volume - Enabled - Peak Level Normalize
  Bitstreaming: None
  Prebuffering: 6 seconds
  Play sielence at startup for hardware synchronization: 3 seconds
  Play files from memory instead of disk: Disabled
  Disable display from turing off - Enabled

Track Change
  Switch track Cross-fade (smooth) - 0.2s
  Do not play silence (leading and trailing) - Disabled
  Use gapless for sequential album tracks - Enabled

Stop, Seek & Skip
  Seek: Smooth (normal)
  Stop: Fadeout (normal)
  Jump behavior: Forward 30 seconds, backward 10 seconds

Volume
  Volume Mode: Internal Volume
  Volume Protection - Disabled
  Maximum volume: 100
  Internal volume reference level: 100
  Loudness - Disabled

Any help would be appreciated.

Thank You

[adamt]

I'm afraid it's only a guess, but you could try going to [Tools > Options > Audio > Track Change] and unchecking "Do not play silence (leading and trailing)". Let me know if it helps. 

[TomB]

I thought of that and tried enabling 'Do Not Play Silence' and while that solves the problem, a long silence as in track 16 (The End) of Abbey Road virtually disappears.  I don't think The Beatles had that in mind when they programmed that into the track.   

Any other thoughts or is this a potential problem with the way Media Center works?

Thanks,
Tom