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Author Topic: Volume limiter: critical bug  (Read 2617 times)

moophone

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Volume limiter: critical bug
« on: November 25, 2014, 10:14:31 am »

Guys,

I installed MC20 over the weekend (from MC18), and was extremely happy to see there is now volume linking via a plugin between my DAC (exasound) and JRiver. I set it to "System", enabled volume while bitstreaming, and this looks great! I can finlly use JRemote without the hardware remote.

Or so I thought...

Last night I was using JRemote (swiping menus, navigating, etc) when my system volume suddenly went to 100% (!!!!!) I have an active speaker system with DAC->Amp, so I don't think I need to state the obvious at how critical this bug is as it almost cost me thousands of dollars in damage!

Greg

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mwillems

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Re: Volume limiter: critical bug
« Reply #1 on: November 25, 2014, 10:20:46 am »

Do you have volume protection and/or a maximum volume enabled?  I don't use system volume so I don't know if those functions work differently in that context, but those seem like good first steps for investigation.
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moophone

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Re: Volume limiter: critical bug
« Reply #2 on: November 25, 2014, 10:29:53 am »

I had volume protection on when it was in "Application" not "System". I switched because Application stops working after a short time (another bug, but I don't care about that one right now).

I'll double check my settings tonight and make sure they didn't change.

Greg

Do you have volume protection and/or a maximum volume enabled?  I don't use system volume so I don't know if those functions work differently in that context, but those seem like good first steps for investigation.
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JimH

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Re: Volume limiter: critical bug
« Reply #3 on: November 25, 2014, 10:53:56 am »

There is an audio option called "Volume Protection" that might be useful.
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Arindelle

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Re: Volume limiter: critical bug
« Reply #4 on: November 25, 2014, 11:11:44 am »

Do you have volume protection and/or a maximum volume enabled?  I don't use system volume so I don't know if those functions work differently in that context, but those seem like good first steps for investigation.

Yes at least one of those should be set on startup. Unless your preamp does this automatically.

On a setup like yours especially you don't want system volume (windows "system" volume which should always be at 100% generally) or application (special uses) IMHO; internal volume (JRiver control) or disable volume (control only through your preamp(s)). I have a 100 watt amp just driving my tweeters; they would have blown long ago.

It is not a bug; but the set up is critical especially if you are using JRiver as a preamp going directly to power amps
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moophone

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Re: Volume limiter: critical bug
« Reply #5 on: November 25, 2014, 03:23:19 pm »

The following are checked:

System Volume
Volume Protection
Enable Volume when Bitstreaming

In Audio > Volume maximum volume is set to 80

And yet it still hit 0 dB and just about blew up my system.

Is this related to JRemote as there are others complaining of the same thing. I am playing with the volume slider trying to make it go over 80, but I am unable to do so right now. Nevertheless it did last night and now I'm scared to use this feature.

Greg
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Arindelle

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Re: Volume limiter: critical bug
« Reply #6 on: November 25, 2014, 05:03:45 pm »

@Greg

I think there is some confusion here (0 db is not an spl level) please read this  http://wiki.jriver.com/index.php/Volume

Now maybe I don't get your system, but either you have a system with active crossovers; bi-amped or better; using JRIver as a preamp; or you simply have active (powered) speakers or monitors, and you are using JRiver as your preamp -- regardless both are going to an external DAC. If there is no analogue volume control in your chain it all depends on the power of your amps and the efficiency of your speakers.

eg. lets say you have  a couple of Classé monoblocs outputting 600 watts going into highly efficient speakers like small Klipschs  -- your 80 setting might blow them apart. Or you have a  NAD receiver putting out 50 watts a channel feeding top end B&Ws -- 80 might not even be enough to move the speaker membranes. It depends, there has to be a reference level ... like what does 80 represent? You have a lot of variables to play around with. Start up volume can be important too See the bottom of the page linked above on calibration



Now if you have an preamp in the chain somewhere or can control the volume of powered speakers, that could change how things are set up.

Also using windows system volume again, not sure this is the best choice, pretty dirty in my book; internal volume is generally what you want ot use (or disabled volume if you can control the volume after your DAC??). I normally set bitstreaming to none, personally
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mojave

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Re: Volume limiter: critical bug
« Reply #7 on: November 25, 2014, 06:27:08 pm »

@Greg

I think there is some confusion here (0 db is not an spl level) please read this  http://wiki.jriver.com/index.php/Volume
The volume in JRiver is reference both in percent and dB. 0 dB is when the volume level is at 100% or at the Percentage you have set in Tools > Options > Audio > Volume > Internal Volume Reference Level. It has been this way for several years. It shows up in the Display in standard view, in the OSD in Display View, and in the volume slider at the bottom of Playing Now in Theater View.
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mojave

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Re: Volume limiter: critical bug
« Reply #8 on: November 25, 2014, 06:33:28 pm »

Gizmo, eos, and JRemote ignore the following settings in JRiver:

Volume Protection
Internal Volume Reference Level
Maximum Volume

JRemote has its own maximum volume setting that can be used to limit the maximum volume. At least it was going to be added per this thread.
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Hendrik

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Re: Volume limiter: critical bug
« Reply #9 on: November 26, 2014, 01:58:06 am »

Maybe the MCWS volume calls should respect a volume limit and reference volume for consistency across systems?
I wonder how much that would break if we start doing that.
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mwillems

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Re: Volume limiter: critical bug
« Reply #10 on: November 26, 2014, 06:44:27 am »

Maybe the MCWS volume calls should respect a volume limit and reference volume for consistency across systems?
I wonder how much that would break if we start doing that.

Gizmo respects "maximum volume" for me; I just tested several systems and it seems to dutifully stop when it hits the limit when using the volume up button on my device.  Maybe there's another method of volume setting in Gizmo that doesn't respect the limit?
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moophone

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Re: Volume limiter: critical bug
« Reply #11 on: November 26, 2014, 03:23:43 pm »

So no further ahead.


@Greg

I think there is some confusion here (0 db is not an spl level) please read this  http://wiki.jriver.com/index.php/Volume

Now maybe I don't get your system, but either you have a system with active crossovers; bi-amped or better; using JRIver as a preamp; or you simply have active (powered) speakers or monitors, and you are using JRiver as your preamp -- regardless both are going to an external DAC. If there is no analogue volume control in your chain it all depends on the power of your amps and the efficiency of your speakers.

eg. lets say you have  a couple of Classé monoblocs outputting 600 watts going into highly efficient speakers like small Klipschs  -- your 80 setting might blow them apart. Or you have a  NAD receiver putting out 50 watts a channel feeding top end B&Ws -- 80 might not even be enough to move the speaker membranes. It depends, there has to be a reference level ... like what does 80 represent? You have a lot of variables to play around with. Start up volume can be important too See the bottom of the page linked above on calibration



Now if you have an pre-amp in the chain somewhere or can control the volume of powered speakers, that could change how things are set up.

Also using windows system volume again, not sure this is the best choice, pretty dirty in my book; internal volume is generally what you want ot use (or disabled volume if you can control the volume after your DAC??). I normally set bitstreaming to none, personally

There is no confusion, at least not on my part. 0dB = full volume. This is tyically how relative loudness is expressed. 0dB = max, and then it goes negative from there. Enabling volume while bitstreaming is the correct option, and recommended by Exasound.


Gizmo, eos, and JRemote ignore the following settings in JRiver:

Volume Protection
Internal Volume Reference Level
Maximum Volume

JRemote has its own maximum volume setting that can be used to limit the maximum volume. At least it was going to be added per this thread.

Not true, JRemote *does* respect the volume protection. If you read my post you would see it respects it most of the time, but this was a freak incident where it went to 0dB suddenly.
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Arindelle

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Re: Volume limiter: critical bug
« Reply #12 on: November 26, 2014, 04:37:34 pm »

So no further ahead.
Well, I'm not going any further with this. You obviously don't need my help
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moophone

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Re: Volume limiter: critical bug
« Reply #13 on: November 27, 2014, 11:40:25 am »

Update: I used JRemote all last night, and despite no change to anything it seems to be respecting the 80% volume limit I originally set. I'm still concerned this will happen again randomly at some point.

Is there anyone on the Dev team that could comment on whether this is being investigated? Its probably an edge case where "something" causes the volume limit to be skipped and spikes the volume to 100%.
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moophone

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Re: Volume limiter: critical bug
« Reply #14 on: November 27, 2014, 11:41:45 am »

Jim - Thanks for the suggestion, but I do have this enabled. There is something I did with JRemote that caused this volume limit to be bypassed and went to full volume.

There is an audio option called "Volume Protection" that might be useful.
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