You mean you don't run out of music? How many albums did Black Sabbath produce? 

Chris

OK,

And now back to the hesitation issue. Just for a lark I decided to set the spin down time to 2 minutes. No problems. Played a couple of albums, watched the HD light, no hesitation blues. So it doesn't seem to be a spin up issue. Maybe when it hesitates it just catches the HD when it's in the process of spinning down. One usually doesn't want to spin up a disk until its come to a complete halt, maybe the disks or the OS provides for that? That would also explain the different length hesitations. And a 10 minute time is just perfect for my scenario.

So I started thinking . Why do I want the drive to spin down and spin up after every track (unless I'm playing 60 minute + tracks exclusively)? I keep thinking. Peter wouldn't want that either he knows that's more wear and tear and bruhaha  on the HD. So what's the deal? Maybe he assumes my OS and music are on separate disks. Nay sir. Or maybe he assumes all my files are in wav format. Again nay sir. Why?

Because my OS and most music files (flac & mp3) all reside on the same 1Gb disk. 

Chris

Hey Peter,

I'll experiment with different spin down times to see if that really is the culprit, or it's some combination of stuff, but not any time soon.

By the way (it really is not "by the way,") that file that I sent you that played perfectly on your system but not on mine. Well it still doesn't play on mine--still get the same error. And I tried to play the very one that I sent you--sort of. In other words the file (A) I sent you I manually copied to a flash drive, then moved to laptop (which is online) and then sent a copy to you. Well I took (A) and put it back on the XX computer in a different folder and still I get the same error. What could be going on??

I ask this just because I'm curious, not because I'm particularly concerned about the absolute chaos  it is creating
on my music pc.    .

I'm having a few tonight.

Chris

Peter, I'm not sure what you mean by your explanation (a language issue I think).

As to renaming folders, I've done it several times and watched XX closely to see if it would cause problems, because I thought it might. Surprisingly it didn't. It immediately showed the new folder, or eliminated the folder I had deleted.

Boleary you said you often have had to reboot your computer after playing certain tracks from certain folders. I wonder if you checked your cover art. I've had XX lock up unexpectedly, no message just a complete lock up, to eventually discover the culprit was a corrupt cover art file (in my case a zero size file). It can be just one file in a whole directory of folders. It just happened again recently. It took about ten reboots before I remembered the cover art thing.

Chris

By the way Peter, re the hesitation problem. After about a week of XX with a 20 minute hd spin down instead of 10, I've only had one minor hesitation (while I was awake that is, music puts me to a lot especially when I'm in bed going to ) and that within for about .5 seconds, a few seconds before the end of a 5 minute track. 

Can't a guy have a beer by himself around here?

Chris

Hi Boleary,

That's happened to me (lost library) several times. XX just suddenly doesn't find it or shows the whole drive as if it were Explorer, although nothing has changed. I've just fooled around a bit with the file stuff (I think I cleared the basic root file, rebooted and then entered it again and stuff like that) and eventually it would find it again.

Basically a minor annoyance but I never thought much about it. I've seen other programs do similar things so I'm sort of used to it happening.

Chris

No, I didn't change it. That's really odd, because no matter what I tried I couldn't get it to play, always got the same error.  Oh well. I'll try it again some time see if it's cured itself.

Chris

Peter, If this is not the right place for this message please move it to...

I have an idea that should make it much easier to track down XX related problems; it should be fairly easy to implement, and it will have some added benefits.

Create a 3 way button/switch that sets all XX's myriad values (like upsampling, sfs, Qs, cover art, and several hundred others ) to their least computer intensive and simple settings. A three way switch for normal, a minimal Engine 4, and minimal Engine 3 setting. Further more, if you choose either of the minimal settings you are forced to reboot, because you, Peter, make sure that XX is not operable until the system is rebooted. Why? So that if the problem still appears after all this, you (the customer) will know exactly what the state of affairs is, as will Peter, assuming you tell him a bit about your computer. (This should bypass the endless back and forth just to get to a common ground).

How to use. You shouldn't necessarily use minimal at the first sign of a problem, but rather when you're frustrated because you can't figure it out yourself, because you haven't a clue about computers and this sort of thing, or because you just feel like it.

The benefits to all:
1. If you're an enterprising type it gives you an easy and basic way to do your own trouble shooting.
2. You'll know what the least computer intensive settings are.
3. It very likely will give you a way to play music on XX (a setting to revert to) while you're trouble shooting the more elaborate settings--sometimes you just want to listen to music even if it's not perfect   
4. Similar to one above, If your troubled XX works at "minimal," you can just add a setting at a time and see how far you can push it until it crashes; who knows, you might end up being satisfied until the newest and bestest XX comes sauntering into your neighborhood.
5. Similar to four above, It's a good way to experiment with listening to the various settings since it's the most basic starting point. Where better to start when doing an true and meaningful evaluation. (Who can remember when attempting this now, what exactly their ealier settings were. (A few truly anal types maybe, but that's about it.)

I can just hear you thinking Peter, "Chris, there is no one simple starting point for all." Well I beg to differ, first that's why 2 engine settings. And it is not your concern what kind of audio hardware the computer is driving. If the output is simple unadulterated and bit perfect digital, that's what it is and that's the best you can do re a person's equipment. If for instance it's a question of dac buffer size, then the option that needs buffer size specified should not be part of minimal. I assume there is a setting that will allow XX to send data to even the simplest dac.

If you're not thinking the above, I apologize. I really didn't think that you were, just covering all bases, cuz I'm done with this subject.

Chris

Peter, Ok, finally, my sneaker net mail arrived. I'll send the file via pm.

As to my hard drive settings. Turned out it was set to 10 minutes 'til spin down. Changed it to 20 minutes. So, later that day I played some music, about 6 or 7 Fleetwood Mac tracks, all pretty short. I played them, all good, then I played them again having changed nothing. In the middle of the 3rd to last track the music stopped. I thought "oh well here we go," except there was no go. It just stopped. After waiting about 20 seconds I went to look at the screen. There was the engine stopped, must close program message.

However, it was not stopped, at least not completely, as the time bar was still moving. So I decided not to close XX, but rather I hit stop button and then start the music again; lo and behold, the music played (from the beginning, not from the stopped place). So, that's that. I don't know if it's related to the hesitation but...

I'll report more about the 20 minute hd setting when I've played music for a few days.

FYI (should it matter), much of the time I've been playing XX in attended mode, as my computer has almost no unnecessary services (3 maybe?) running; it's used pretty much for nothing but audio. It takes about 2 seconds for XX to shut them down when I do run it unattended.

Chris

Do you mean set the automatic disk spin down (ie disk sleep) to 20 minutes or so? I think that's what I have it set for if that's what you mean. I'll check it later when I get on that computer.

As to the problem file, I'll send it later too, as I have to utilize the sneaker net    to get it to an on-line system. 

Chris

Peter, The file is one in a series of 30 ripped from one cd in one sequence, no errors reported, blah blah blah. I post these things not because I'm terribly concerned, but because I'm curious, why the header would be corrupt (sort of) in such a situation. It's one in a series in which all the others are fine, and all including that one are accessible by other programs. Just odd. I've worked with computers since before the pc existed, so I have an electronically instilled curiosity. And my computers (the ones that matter) are kept running smoothly and with a minimum of "stuff," installed.

As to wifi and wireless, I don't have that sort installed on the "audio" pc.

Peter, don't feel obligated to answer my "curious issues," at least not in a hurry; Ones I term "minor." Just let me know that you don't have time for a particular one, when you don't. I just feel you should know for your own and XX's sake, it might help in the long run.

As to the hesitations and "over driving the system." The odd thing is that when I reduce the load (no upsampling, lower the sfs) nothing seems to change, the occasional hesitations continue. Sometimes there are three in an album, sometimes none in several, often they're very short (split second) very occasionally once every five? days, there's one 3-7 seconds long. Happy listening, don't fall in the crevices.

Chris

Hi Gerard,

Is it possible that some kind of electrical contamination on your audio or pc system power line might be the cause? For instance I've read that dimmer switches can play havoc with sound--I haven't tested this myself, and they're not the only devices. It could even be something outside you're domain, or house. 

Chris

Peter, It is exactly because of that post that I posted more on this topic. It's hard for me to believe that no one else is having a similar problem. Since it's not much of a problem people might skip mentioning it. So I thought if I post again someone else with the problem might chime in. Well I was wrong, either no problem or no chiming.

Anyway as to Win7 Sp1. I hadn't updated to Sp1 because my Win7 had most of Sp1 in it already. I had just re-installed it very recently and then updated it to the beginning/middle of Feb. I then took the pc off line.

I pretty much don't and haven't run anything on it but the very basics and XX so it's pretty much pristine. Being a good camper I decided to put the pc on-line temporarily and install sp1 (of the approximately 80mg-700mg size range of sp1 my Win7 only needed the minimum).

So, after all that, The same or very similar problem persists, go figure. And I'm the only one?

I've come across another very minor and file specific problem. It won't play a particular flac file, (some kind of problem in header)  and if I convert said file to a .wav it won't play it either and lists the time incorrectly (correct time 1.29, lists it as 9 minutes something). Needless to say since I am able to convert it, (it plays in other software too) the file is not corrupt. Any ideas?

Chris

I'm just bringing this up again in case others are having similar problems. Check out the first post for more details.

Peter, I continue to have the same problem sporadically, no clearly apparent pattern (hesitation, sometimes a split second, sometimes a couple of seconds and then the music continues faultlessly). Some sessions it doesn't happen at all. Length of file doesn't seem to be the issue, nor if it's the first in the session. Yesterday I listened to a Brahms symphony (longish files) plus several 30 minute files, no problems. I listened to short files, no problem. And you guessed it, at other times had problems with both, sometimes several during a session. Then with no reboots after said problems, no problems.

Over the course of these sessions I've reduced the SFS in Mixed Continuous from 350 to 300 to 240. Changed to no upsampling just to experiment, no change. Seemingly random hesitations continue.

All this is no big deal to me, as they don't happen often and once done the music continues, but still... If it matters to you to know what's going on, give me a simple plan of attack, if not, or if you think I have an isolated problem, that's fine too.

Chris

Hi Marcin, if you're still around here somewhere,

I'm just curious why you no longer use XX. Particularly as you've always been so interested in bettering it (tweaks etc) and it now seems to be at it's very best, and much more stable contrary to Peter's trepidations.

In the past I'd been fed up with the tweaks (not anyone's in particular and only because it meant too much time to invest to implement them) and endless versions and also endless "WOW the sound is Sooooo much better," every version and tweak--how much better can very good initial sound really get, over and over again? Same kind of stuff as "crazed" audiophiles of The Absolute Sound and such--they've been improving audio starting at the best ever and gone up from there in leaps and bounds since before the beginning of Quad, never mind Quantz and Mozart--but don't get me started--sorry not my fault I'm in the hands of--just ignore the earlier parts of this sentence, I really curious to know why XX is out of your life (for the most part) at this point in its development.

So anyway re pre rant, I'd stop using XX or go to an old version for a while. But now, it really does seem better and stable, XX-Geeky that is. So just curious, if you have the time and inkling to reply, after the rant in a frenzied Db minor.

Chris