To all people currently listening to music via Controller

[Teus de Jong]

I have had a look at the buffers. With mp3s both the decode and output buffers are full. With radio, the output buffer fills up to about 90% over the first few minutes of listening, but the decode buffer accumulates much more slowly (to about 30% over approx half and hour, or quicker if playback is paused to allow it to fill).

However, as I understand it, as long as there is something in the output buffer there shouldn't be any stuttering in playback; if stuttering is due to networking issues then wouldn't the buffer show as empty at the point the stuttering occurs?

Everything works without an issue through the receiver...

1. The glitches in the playback on the controller in 7.4.1 are mostly not due to network issues (as it was in 7.3.3). You can test this by going to Settings > Advanced > Network testing. Here I get a continuous 1500 kbps at 100%, which is more than enough for flac files (and probably wav also), so certainly for any form of mp3.

2. I don't know how radio works. Maybe the buffering is different from local playing?

3. I can play flac files from my own library almost without stuttering by doing this:
a. set the Screen saver for Now Playing to screen off
b. set the delay to 10 secs.
As soon as the screen goes off, I have almost no glitches. So, at the moment for me good playback means no Now Playing display

Teus

[mbrxjepp]

I performed the network test and also get a continuous 1500kbps at 100%. I have made the changes to the screensaver as suggested. Sounds good so far, but haven't listened for long as need to go out now. I'll report back when I have more experience.

I'm just curious to know why the functionality of 7.3.3 can't be recreated in the current release. I never had any trouble with 7.3.3 at all - was it just less resource intensive (graphics etc...)?

Anyway, I'll see how i go with this Thanks to everyone for all the useful suggestions!

[bluegaspode]

I have made the changes to the screensaver as suggested. Sounds good so far, but haven't listened for long as need to go out now.

Just to recap:
- you switched to 4.7.1 Beta, MP3 Playing turned out to be (mostly) fine, BBC iplayer still stuttered a lot
- now you changed your screensafers as Teus wrote and now also BBC iplayer doesn't stutter anymore

Is this summary correct ?

I never had any trouble with 7.3.3 at all - was it just less resource intensive (graphics etc...)?

I think there is more stuff changed behind the scenes, than just graphics. If you look at the bug-report (and the beginning of the threads) there were 7.4 times, when playback was OK (can only speak for mp3) which degraded heavily.

But you are right - the 'Now Playing' screen is more CPU-intensive now:
In 7.3 you had smaller font for the album+song-title (meaning less scrolling), you also had just one 'time elapsed'-clock.
In 7.4. you have two clocks (time elapsed, time left) and a slider showing the current position.

[bluegaspode]

So I guess if the decode buffer is not able to fill up to 100% the material played/received is too heavy.

I have to correct myself.

I played around with some radio-streams and get very different result for the decode buffer:
BBC-App->BBC Radio1: decode buffer only 2%, output buffer at 95%
Local Radio Station -> Berlin -> Radio1: decode buffer 0-0.1%, output buffer at 30%

In both scenarios surprisingly I only get very very rare stutters !
Currently I'm using 7.4.0 firmware with my 'optimize audio playback'-option from the headphone-switcher plugin.
I'm on the debugging screen all the time, so as well far away from the 'Now Playing'-Screen.

One user wrote he had problems with 'Rhapsody'. Where do I find this ?

[Rob van der Does]

Surprise, surprise: since my controller is on firmware 7.4.1 r7832 the "Automated Headphone Detection" (what a name for what used to be a very small switch in the jack!) actually works (most of the time)!
It never did before.

[mbrxjepp]

Just to recap:
- you switched to 4.7.1 Beta, MP3 Playing turned out to be (mostly) fine, BBC iplayer still stuttered a lot
- now you changed your screensafers as Teus wrote and now also BBC iplayer doesn't stutter anymore

Is this summary correct ?

Yes, this is correct. On further listening the screensaver trick seems to sort out mp3 and radio listening. In fact, activating the screen by moving the controller leads quite reliably to stutters as (presumably) the CPU gets busier; these stutters disappear when the screen switches of again.

I have also found some very low decode buffer percentages when listening to radio streams, and these don't seem to be related to stuttering playback.

As an aside, Rob and I have been discussing a problem with accessing mysqueezebox.com from the controller. I was able to do this when I first upgraded to 7.4, then it stopped working, then I upgraded to 7.4.1 and it still didn't work, and now this evening I've switched the controller on and suddenly it's working again. Hmmmm....

[NikolajC]

I have to correct myself.

One user wrote he had problems with 'Rhapsody'. Where do I find this ?

It's a subscription service (music-on-demand). Available in the US.

[jhonsberger@msn.com]

Still plenty of stuttering in 7.41.Is it better then
7.4?Yes But its still not very listenable to me.

[Teus de Jong]

Still plenty of stuttering in 7.41.Is it better then
7.4?Yes But its still not very listenable to me.

Did you try my trick in post 41?

Teus

[dunq]

I received a Duet today and have been setting it up. Experienced severe stutter for my first and favourite radio station and have been reading the forum this evening. I hope the following info is useful:

* Teus's solution didn't work for me. Stutter didn't change over time, with or without screensaver, etc.

* It was pure chance that my favourite station was a stuttery one. A number of others are crystal clear. For diagnostic purposes, those of you trying to troubleshoot this from a developer perspective might like to test the following streams through SBS. Note also that the bad stream is mono, while the good ones are stereo.

I think it's also worth mentioning that the stuttery stream causes jerkiness and delays in the Controller interface (I don't recall others mentioning this in these threads, sorry if I missed it).

BAD for me:
http://opml.radiotime.com/Tune.ashx?...9&partnerId=16

GOOD for me:
http://opml.radiotime.com/Tune.ashx?...g&partnerId=16

http://opml.radiotime.com/Tune.ashx?...g&partnerId=16

http://scfire-ntc-aa07.stream.aol.com/stream/1048

Controller Firmware: 7.4.1-r7915
Squeezebox Server Version: 7.4.1 - r28947