Gapless MP3's + Streams (1.19)

@cha05e90

Hi,

Please can you remove all plugins except the standard ones, MP3Cast 1.19, AIFF and Protracker. Then reboot and try again.

Let me know how that goes! I need to be sure that it isn't an issue with another plugin first. If there are still problems we'll take it from there.

Cheers,
Bean

@bean

Yep, I moved all plug-ins except the three you mentioned in the "Disabled Plugins" drawer. No difference - I still have gaps and "stuttering" while playback with the newer MP3Cast plugins. Switching back to the 1.14 cures the problem - playback is smooth with no hearable problems.

The sound from the newer 1.19 plugin is clearer and more "crispier" - which is really nice - but sadly somewhat unusable for me at the moment.

BTW: My CPUDocky shows an avarage of 6% for the 1.14 plugin while playback - the 1.19 shows ~25% CPU usage. Is my machine too weak?

@cha05e90

It shouldn't be too weak, I have a Sam also! I get about 8% CPU usage. It might be something to do with disk read speeds though. I'll compile a new test version for you.

Do you have DMA enabled on the HD, and where are the tunes being read from (HD, pen drive etc...) ?

Cheers,
Bean

@bean

The MP3 files are located on a HD (SATA, SFS2, UDMA 6 enabled) - this should not be a problem. But after thinking about this it seems that the gaps and stutters with 1.19 occur (often - not always) shortly after disk access?!? In a first thought I suspected a too small TuneNet internal buffer to be the problem or some change in the disk access code - but I assume that you haven't changed much there from 1.14 to 1.19...

@cha05e90

Quote:

The way the sound is read and buffered changed drastically with the first release of the Gapless plugin.

The good news is I can (sort of) recreate the problem by using a pen stick (I don't get any crashes though, just the odd sound break). I'm going to do some more tests. Can you tell me what your player priority setting is set to?

Thanks,
Bean.

Edit -> Also I don't get the high CPU usage that you seem to get.

@bean

If you mean the Player Task Priority that can be set in the General Prefs Tab then it's set to "20" (GUI prio is "0").

Two other things I might mention:

- Since version 0.92 (OS4.1.1) I had to increase the streaming buffer to 64k to avoid warnings "buffer low" while streaming audio from internet - this didn't happen with the last semi-public 0.86 version (old setting was default 32k).
- Good thing I didn't get crashes here with the new gapless plugins, only the mentioned "stutters/gaps".

EDIT:
------
- Forget about the CPU usage - that seems to be some kind of artifact, I did some tests including clean reboots in the meantime and average CPU usage is at 6% while playing MP3s - perfect!

- I'm playing the same MP3 files from "RAM Disk:" in this very moment and guess what? No gaps, no stutter (so far...).

@cha05e90

OK, the radio buffer low situations were (should have) been fixed in 1.19 of the MP3Cast plugin. The 1.19 plugin should be better for that at least (make sure you reboot after copying in the plugin and re-trying) .

Can you PM me your email, I'll send you some test plugins to try if you fancy helping me resolve this issue.

Many Thanks,
Bean.

@bean

While you typed, I edited my last post ... Maybe the infos might help a littlebit.

Yep, PM is send. I hope to have more time tomorrow - thanks for your efforts.

Good night.