unwanted pauses in middle of tracks

[mattn]

What I'm finding is that Decibel still pauses in the middle of a track sometimes, as if it needed to gather up more info from disk. I can work around this by playing only a few small tracks and setting "Load files in memory", but I feel I shouldn't have to do this (and if my files are many and large I don't see how I can do it, as there isn't enough memory). After all, iTunes and Cog don't have this issue.

It feels as if Decibel isn't thinking far enough ahead ("I'm going to need more of the file, I'd better read it now, in advance of when I'm going to have to play it"). Decibel is like one of those bad page-turners at a concert who waits until you finish the last measure of the page and *then* turns the page for you, forcing you to pause until you can see what's on the next page; a good page-turner turns the page when you're a couple of measures from the end of the page, and meanwhile you've memorized those last measures and can play them and move on smoothly to the next page which is now visible to you.

[Wiley]

I experience this same problem when I stream my audio files from a NAS attached to my home wi-fi network. I recently purchased a Drobo-FS NAS, an Apple Airport Extreme router, and an iMac (running Snow Leopard). (All of these are the most recent hardware versions.) The iMac accesses the audio files on the Drobo-FS via 802.11n Wi-Fi. With Cog, I am able to play the files directly from the Drobo-FS with no problems at all. In order to play files with Decibel, I have to first copy the files from the Drobo-FS to the iMac local hard drive. If I try to play the files with Decibel directly from the Drobo-FS, I get the unwanted pauses as you describe. I have no problems playing files from the local hard drive with Decibel.
On another thread, someone appeared to have this problem when playing wav files (CD quality) from the local hard drive. He solved the problem by tripling the buffer sizes.

[Waffles]

On another thread, someone appeared to have this problem when playing wav files (CD quality) from the local hard drive. He solved the problem by tripling the buffer sizes.

I haven't experienced the issue in question, but increasing the buffer size was the first thing that occurred to me, too, as a potential solution. The developer explains how to do so in this post.

[mattn]

Well, this is with the buffers already doubled as described in that post. Sure, I could try doubling them again. But really, if the source of the problem is that the buffers do not ship large enough for practical use, then Decibel's own internal defaults should be changed.

[sbooth]

Well, this is with the buffers already doubled as described in that post. Sure, I could try doubling them again. But really, if the source of the problem is that the buffers do not ship large enough for practical use, then Decibel's own internal defaults should be changed.

Well said, I agree with you and will increase the defaults sizes for the next release.

[citro]

I'm playing 250 Gb of music via an USB external drive connected to my Mac mini and I was having the unwanted pauses, but tripling the default RingBufferCapacity's value worked for me. I wasn't able to change the RingBufferWriteChunkSize though, as it doesn't seem to recognize the given command via terminal.

[spiritualtourist]

Hi - just downloaded the trial (only three hours in)...I am experiencing freezes (hope that fits this thread).

I have 31 tracks in the player and getting random freezing on tracks - some play entirely. Doesn't appear connected to file size as occurs on (Flac 96htz) files that are just 3:00mins.

Any advice/suggestions?

Thanks in advance

st

[mattn]

Well, this is with the buffers already doubled as described in that post. Sure, I could try doubling them again. But really, if the source of the problem is that the buffers do not ship large enough for practical use, then Decibel's own internal defaults should be changed.

Well said, I agree with you and will increase the defaults sizes for the next release.

So did this change ever take place? I'm up to Decibel 1.2.8 which seems to be the latest version, and I still get skips/pauses in the middle of tracks all the time, with log messages like this:

Code: Select all

12/18/12 8:05:43 PM	Decibel[305]	Insufficient audio in ring buffer: 316 frames available, 512 requested

Surely playing audio successfully is supposed to be Decibel's core mission, yes?

[RonaldPR]

You can increase buffer sizes yourself:
http://forums.sbooth.org/viewtopic.php? ... 43&p=12646
(Not sure what the default values are in the current Decibel versions.)

[mattn]

You can increase buffer sizes yourself

Of course.

Not sure what the default values are in the current Decibel versions.

But that is exactly what I'm asking.

I'm also implicitly suggesting that there's a problem here. This application is supposed to be a better music player. And it costs money. Paying customers have a right to expect an application that is a better music player out of the box, not because they apply some hidden tweak to it. That sort of thing is just fine for freeware, but we're in a very different ballpark now.

[sbooth]

So did this change ever take place? I'm up to Decibel 1.2.8 which seems to be the latest version, and I still get skips/pauses in the middle of tracks all the time, with log messages like this:

Code: Select all

12/18/12 8:05:43 PM	Decibel[305]	Insufficient audio in ring buffer: 316 frames available, 512 requested

Surely playing audio successfully is supposed to be Decibel's core mission, yes?

The answers to your questions are yes and yes. The change for this is in Decibel 1.2.9, however I've been having issues with the Mac App Store approval process. Decibel isn't a sandboxed app so only "bug fix" updates are allowed, but there is no precise definition of what is allowed in such an update.

[mattn]

The answers to your questions are yes and yes. The change for this is in Decibel 1.2.9, however I've been having issues with the Mac App Store approval process. Decibel isn't a sandboxed app so only "bug fix" updates are allowed, but there is no precise definition of what is allowed in such an update.

Thanks, good info. You have my sympathy about the Mac App Store; it's like being in bed with a gorilla.

[sbooth]

As of today I've given up trying to make simultaneous releases for the direct download and Mac App Store versions. Decibel 1.2.9 is now available via direct download and should show up as an available update.

[RonaldPR]

Decibel 1.2.9 is now available via direct download

Where is that? Apparently not (yet?) on http://sbooth.org/Decibel/

[sbooth]

Where is that? Apparently not (yet?) on http://sbooth.org/Decibel/

Thanks for letting me know. I use Amazon S3 to host downloads and I have to manually make the file accessible to everyone. It is fixed now.