Somehow I can't make this consistent. Anyway, it goes into RAM per track, unless with Cue files, then per Album.
A whole CD would take 4-5 seconds (my system), so one track, say, a half of a second max.

Do note that with older versions of XX and diacritical marks in the path/trackname indeed the whole CD would be preloaded. Not anymore since 0.9t-2.

Peter

Hehe ... well, don't worry. XX plays from normal RAM more than any "device" I know of. So, no dependence on cache from Vista (nor XP), just playing from plain RAM here.

Just to give you some insight ... the major challenge starts when you do not want to load the whole CD into RAM in advance but per track (it would otherwise take time, memory, peak cpu cycles) *and* (!) all needs to play gapless at the same time. Performing some FLAC/MP3 conversion on the fly, dealing with Cue files ... it's all just another dimension.

If you then also understand what happens with UnAttended Playback (what that does to SQ and), combined with the control still available ... then indeed you get the grasp of what 5 times the money means. But it's a hobby, right ?

Thanks,
Peter 

Hi Leon,

How long does it need to be minimized in order for it not to work anymore ?

Are you sure you waited long enough for the disks to spinup again (if spun down) ? This can take 10 seconds or longer easily ...
Note that the way it works may make you think the disks are spinning, which especially is so when you make use of a Galery which is on the boot disk (say, C:) while the data is somewhere else (like F:). In the mean time however, the data disks spun down long ago, no matter you needed them to play (). If you now want to do anything real with the library (better : the data) all stalls until the disks spin. With my example of the Galery on C: this does not count for the Library Tab and just browsing through there, so all seems to be alive.

True. But what's the use of that ? (minimizing XX)

Remember, this all is not about wallpapers but about better SQ (which happens when XX is just not there, haha).

Or IOW it was overlooked that this needed special attention.
Furthermore :

• It appeared that Cue File Tracks could not be moved within the Playlist Area (they could (note : by dragging), but then wrong data showed). Solved.
  
  
• The Active Search in the Library Area worked not much conveniently when a search text was entered, left there, and XXHighEnd was Quit (Off);
  At the next startup the preloaded items (Albums or Tracks) was limited to what the search text implied.
  Currently the full list is reloaded at a next startup, and ctrl-v (paste) in the Library Area will reload the last selection (as was implied before by means of Active Search, before Quitting).
  It is obvious that there is no reason to apply this "ctrl-v" automatically, but this can't work reliably (so, a technical problem).
  
  
• Restarting XXHighEnd after UnAttended Playback finished worked, but actually there was no reason why XX should not be brought up after Playback finished in all occasions. This is now officially arranged for.
  
  
• When Tracks are loaded from the Library Area they could appear right across the "XXHighEnd" version data in the Playlist Area;
  This has been solved now, although variations can still exist where this is happening wrongly.
  
  
• It could happen that a situation "ChangeWP stopped working" occurred. If all is right this is solved.
  
  

Ok, this implies that anyone receiving these errors and can't live with them (the reasons can be various), should not mangle with the priorities, or should find a setting which does not harm.
Please note that the Processor Schemes will be related, and generally spoken "No Appointment" is the best setting for mangling the priorities.

All 'n all it comes down to
a. what sounds best, but
b. what your system can cope with.

Note that IMO a normally "lean" setup PC should be able to cope with all combinations offered. However, the drivers used (disk, soundcard) may influence a lot, and if e.g. a soundcard driver needs many resources (or needs them in critical situations) there's not much to do about it.
Whether indeed drivers take a lot of resources can be determined ... maybe, but I never bothered to research it.

I think it is fair to say/state, that those having these problems since "a" version of XXHighEnd, will be having these problems since the Processor Appointment was introduced, together with the system-wide priority settings. It might be (too) confusing in finding out since exactly which version this happened, because either (Appointment / Priorities) took a few versions before all worked as intended (like system wide priorities should work with a certain version, but they didn't).

Lastly, for SQ for *your* system it shouldn't matter compared to the earlier versions, were or the priorities weren't working system wide, and/or the Core Appointment wasn't there.
If there ever has been a version which allowed a lower Q1 than right now, you *must* be able to find a setting which allows for that again. You would need (to find) this when you recognize that Q1 on itself is more important for SQ than Prio settings or Corte Appointment.


Peter

Thank you Gerard.

Johan ?

No Gerard, that is not possible. The Wallpaper is not sensitive to anything.
You could put the Taskbar at the side though (if I grasp what you want to achieve), and put the XX icon in there.

Dave,

I still don't know whether I or you understand correctly;
It is perfectly allowed to have a wallpaper defined instead of a background color. Did you get that one ?
So in the case you have a wallpaper defined, it will be replaced temporarily with the CoverArt ...

Peter

Ahh ... solid color wallpaper. After sobering up a bit now I read what you said.
No, we must accept this as impossible. Ok, it would be doable, but it really would take so much time that IMO my time must be spent elsewhere. Sorry Dave !

I wish you a happy new year to start with. Then :

About the Cue files ... this is unintentional.
About the solid wallpaper ... could you explain ? 

For those looking for a devious XX logo ...

(I don't think this is definitive, and at least I want to create something with transparent background)

Thanks very much Gerard. I sure hope the upcoming 2008 will bring even more of it. I'll try my stinkin' best anyway !

To everybody : have a good years' end, and a prosperous 2008 !!

Maybe this is not exactly true ...
What I was doing before, was looking at all by means of RDC (RDP), so looking at the screen of a remote PC (the one where the music is actually played). When such a device is directly under control of a "tablet sensitive OS" (like XP/Tablet, or just Vista) stuff like scrollbars, close boxes and some more, are relatively large. In fact large enough to be controlled by fingers.

What remains is that such a device should (IMO) be used only to control a remote screen, and *then* this does not work ...

As it appears now, when Engine#3 is used on an output "Loudspeakers", and the player is shut down in a way not anticipated upon, the sound device is kept busy, and only a reboot will solve it.
This is the (for me) rare situation that the PC allows Exclusive Mode playback, and the internal sound device addresses the (internal) speakers directly ((digital)volume controlled btw).

This can be considered as a bug which generally won't bother you with external soundcards/DACs, but it can be annoying for those just trying out XXHighEnd on the internal speakers (with Engine#3).

That you meet this problem is rare anyway, because it is the first time I heard of the internal speakers willing to play with Exclusive Mode.
The sound device is SoundMax in this case.

Peter