@nkef said:
I can confirm that the issue persists with 1.04 Windows version at least when playing over internet.
I tested also by modifying mpd.conf and set the:
audio_buffer_size “16384”
buffer_before_play “35%”
But it did not affect the shuttering/chopping issue, it appeared again.
The buffering is probably not the root-cause.
I get also an enormous number of
Mar 13 13:19:22.661: replay_gain: scale=0.362660
Mar 13 13:19:22.893: replay_gain: scale=0.362660
Mar 13 13:19:23.202: replay_gain: scale=0.362660
Mar 13 13:19:23.354: replay_gain: scale=0.362660
Mar 13 13:19:23.659: replay_gain: scale=0.362660
Mar 13 13:19:23.863: replay_gain: scale=0.362660
Mar 13 13:19:24.097: replay_gain: scale=0.362660
at log.log at C:\Users estuser\AppData\Local\Programs\plexamp\log.log.
Increasing the buffer to 35% has a negative effect when trying to play flac over internet , it takes awful lot of time start the playback.
After of a phew hours of local playback I have not been able to reproduce the issue locally.
I have to note that the issue occurs with both mp3 and flac formats when playing remotely with Plexamp, playing remotely on the same windows PC with Plex Web client on Firerox from the same server none of the reported issues occurs for any format.
Is there any way to enable debug logging for Plexamp to investigate further at client side?
I am running a new Macbook Pro with High Sierra as the MacOS and PlexAmp plays for about 40 mins to an hour and then starts to studder and skip. Stoppping and starting the track doenst fix the issue, only shutting down PLEXAmp and restarting it seems to fix it, for another 40 mins or so and then it starts studdering and skipping again.
I cant speak on previous versions of PLEXAmp, as i have only been using ity consistantly for the past week or so.
Also wondering if possibly picking the 2 makes the same improvement over 1 (which we use).
Best Sinc Interpolator (0)
Band limited sinc interpolation, best quality, 97dB SNR, 96% BW.
Medium Sinc Interpolator (1)
Band limited sinc interpolation, medium quality, 97dB SNR, 90% BW.
Fastest Sinc Interpolator (2)
Band limited sinc interpolation, fastest, 97dB SNR, 80% BW.
ZOH Interpolator (3)
Zero order hold interpolator, very fast, very poor quality with audible distortions.
Linear Interpolator (4)
Linear interpolator, very fast, poor quality.
internal
Poor quality, no floating point operations. This is the default (and only choice) if MPD was compiled without libsamplerate.
FWIW, I tried “internal” conversion on v1.0.5 but it made no difference in my case. Reading through the forum, it seems that different peoples’ “skipping/popping/stuttering” issues might be describing entirely different problems. It’s hard to describe well! In my case, it’s definitely more of a stutter – the playback halts and plays and halts and plays, at about a half-second frequency. And it seems to start out of the blue after a period of normal playback, with no discernible user action triggering it. I tried running Plexamp immediately after a reboot with no browsers or applications launched, and the stuttering eventually started like always. (This is strictly a remote playback issue at work – everything works fine locally at home.) Seems like it should be some sort of buffering issue, but different mpd buffer sizes and buffer times don’t seem to make a difference.
@elan I have picked option 2 and so far no stuttering (3hours). I’ll post back after a day of listening.
I didn’t notice high CPU usage, I looked for a solution due to the stuttering that would happen almost every hour. After making the change it has either gone away completely or if it does happen it’s once over a 8 hour day of listening.
My specs are :
Processor Information:
CPU Brand: Intel® Core™ i7-6700HQ CPU @ 2.60GHz
8 logical processors
4 physical processors
Operating System Version:
Windows 10 (64 bit)
Sound card:
Audio device: SPDIF Interface (2- FiiO USB DA
Memory:
RAM: 32724 Mb
Dale, that’s the exact same situation I’m experiencing. Remote connection with PMS running off of a linux tower at my home. I haven’t tried it locally since it’s a ubuntu box only, but I’m fairly certain its a buffering issue. If I throttle in my mpd.conf then it prolongs the start of the issue, but it still eventually happens.
There is no sequence of reboot, apps start / closed or restart of PlexAmp that fully prevents the issue. I also don’t have any issues running plex media player or plex web and streaming remotely.
Speedtest from the tower are as follows:
Hosted by Fastmetrics Inc. (San Francisco, CA) [0.49 km]: 12.13 ms
Testing download speed................................................................................
Download: 417.71 Mbit/s
Testing upload speed....................................................................................................
Upload: 105.68 Mbit/s
I’ll try the suggested samplerate_converter to 2 and see if I still have issues.
I tried several samplerate_converter values, and none seemed to affect my stuttering issue. The best correlating factor I’ve been able to find (as mentioned by both @kylekyle and myself earlier in the thread) is that when the stuttering begins, the MPD log.log file starts getting hit with multiple replay_gain messages per second in very frequent bursts until Plexamp is restarted.
@kylekyle said:
I also ran into this. I’ve been combing some of the other issues that people are reporting related to this and I can notice a handful of similarities:
I experience this in Plexamp only with a remote connection to the most up to date (1.12) plex media server, plex media player and plex.tv have no issues
The timing is anywhere from 20 minutes to one hour of direct play, skipping tracks exasperates the situation
None of the aforementioned methods of playing are transcoding, direct play only
The logs don’t report anything strange, playback is just stuttering / buffering / choppy
Restarting Plexamp corrects the issue
MPD.log is loaded with:
Feb 28 15:43:54.739: replay_gain: scale=0.315864
Feb 28 15:43:54.935: replay_gain: scale=0.315864
Feb 28 15:43:55.129: replay_gain: scale=0.315864
Feb 28 15:43:55.238: replay_gain: scale=0.315864
Feb 28 15:43:55.430: replay_gain: scale=0.315864
Feb 28 15:43:55.538: replay_gain: scale=0.315864
Feb 28 15:43:55.730: replay_gain: scale=0.315864
Feb 28 15:43:55.838: replay_gain: scale=0.315864
I can include some logs if it is more helpful, though I don’t see anything useful there. Looking at this thread, it looked like there was some improvement with editing buffer_before_play and audio_buffer_size in the MPD conf but with the following I still saw issues.
I disabled replay_gain but I’m guessing it was spamming the logs due to the rapid changes in volume, though I’m not sure.
I suspect it’s related to MDP and a configuration issue, but I’m not sure what conf file Plexamp is using on OSX. I don’t think it’s picking up ~/.mpdconf or /etc/.mpdconf.
Hope this helps identify a potential root cause or helps others looking for information.
That’s pasted from the other thread Dale mentioned.
Sadly, I also tried the different samplerate_converter settings with no positive results.
@elan said:
We found a bug in 1.0.5 where it can leak sockets (and memory), which might be related to this issue. Let’s see if the next release improves things.
Is there any ETA for the next release that includes the bug-fix?
We’ll hopefully have a bug-fix release out in the next week or so, and longer term we’re looking into doing better buffering for those remote scenarios.
I wanted to add my experience. I have been having consistent skipping issues after about an hour streaming from my plex server at home to work. The other day, I needed to do a clean install of Windows 10 for a separate reason. Ever since I reinstalled Plex Server on that machine, I haven’t had a single skipping issue. I reinstalled the same server version as I was running before.
The server is installed on my C: drive, but my Plex application folder is on my D: drive. I was able to use the “old” application data folder (I reinstalled Win10 on C:), and I haven’t had any skipping for over two days.
I have this problem too. My home bandwidth is pretty poor, but I think it should be adequate to stream audio from my work PC. I can only play about 10 seconds of audio before it starts stuttering. When I look on my server it says Plexamp is “Direct playing”. Could it transcode if bandwidth is a problem?
Edit: when I play music on my iPhone (from work, over 3G) using the Plex iOS app it plays fine with no stuttering. My server reports “Transcoding MP3 to AAC”
We found a bug in 1.0.5 where it can leak sockets (and memory), which might be related to this issue. Let’s see if the next release improves things.
Then on the 22 June 2018:
We’ll hopefully have a bug-fix release out in the next week or so, and longer term we’re looking into doing better buffering for those remote scenarios.
It is now 21 October 2018, and we still haven’t seen or heard anything about the new release 1.0.6 with these fixes. Is there any update on this @elan?
