Hi, Peter,

First I applied the 2.06 upgrade patch over 2.04. I tested it to make sure the license still worked and played some music. Then I applied the 2.07 upgrade patch to 2.06, all in the same folder.


Yes, that worked OK.

I spent more time experimenting today and was able to get the background to disappear as usual with the OS minimized in unattended mode. However, I am not sure if I cured the problem or if the program corrected itself.

First I only checked "Stop Desktop Services" and allowed all of the remaining services to function as usual. Now, in unattended play, the background disappeared along with the wallpaper and icons.

When the GUI came back, I stopped all of the other services and voilà, with the OS minimized, everything worked as before under 2.04 -- the desktop, icons, and background all disappeared during play. My only conclusion is that the PC had forgotten how to perform a complete shutdown of desktop services and had to be shown how to do it separately from the other services. This does not really make sense to me, but at least the problem is solved.

One unrelated issue with 2.07 remains, but I will post that separately in a few days.

Thanks for your support!
Joseph

Peter,

In unattended mode, with "Don't do anything with Coverart" checked, 2.04 always left me with a completely black screen during playback. However, after applying the 2.07 patch, in unattended mode the desktop icons and wallpaper all disappear as before, but the blue background color still remains.

Since I am using W10 Build 10074, there is no provision for turning the background black by itself and I find the background color to be distracting. No settings were changed from 2.04. Is there something that I'm missing? I only play .wav files ripped from CD's.

Thanks in advance!
Joseph

In my case, I began using XXHE with a Windows 7 PC that had an Athlon 64 CPU with a low thermal factor and "forever" was much longer than that. It soon became clear that to hear the benefits of the XXHE program that Forum members were talking about, I would need something more modern, so I did a complete upgrade and rebuild.

Before being introduced to XXHE, the Athlon 64 worked perfectly well as a dedicated server for music playback with a LynxONE soundcard (under XP) and the Windows Media Player. The music always started immediately. So, when XXHE playlists took "forever" to load, I thought something was wrong with the program settings.

With an i7 CPU and Win10, the SQ is so good that I got rid of my CD player. I have a very high-end system for playing LPs and finally have a digital playback system that can match it.

Peter, thanks for your time in solving the one setting issue that eluded me.

All the best,
Joseph

Hi, Peter,

Yes, turning off  [Start Playback During Conversion]  cured the repeating playlist problem. I played at least 12 or 15 lists and none of them repeated.

The reason it was engaged is that when I first started using XXHE in Demo mode, the OS could not be minimized and it was taking forever for the music to start. After I bought a license, it never occurred to me that I no longer needed that setting, so I left it on.

Thanks for all of your help!

Cheers,
Joseph

Peter,

Today I tried every possible Appointment Scheme, but they all repeated the playlists. Core 3-4 had the fewest repeats (25%),as opposed to 3-5 which had 50% repeats. All of the other schemes repeated the playlists even more (up to 100% of the time).

I will just have to live with it and keep trying different combinations whenever I feel like experimenting. Perhaps version 2.06 will have the cure.

Best,
Joseph

Peter,

First, I set the CPU to a constant (native) speed of 2.8 GHz. Out of three playlists, one stopped when XXHE reappeared, but two immediately played again.

Then I changed Q3, 4, and 5 to = 1, as you suggested. On two long playlists, one stopped as it should, but one repeated itself immediately.

In all cases, the OS was minimized, play was unattended, and I waited until XXHE reappeared on its own.

That's as much as I have time for today, but next I'll try different Appointment Schemes and report back in a few days.

Thanks!
Joseph

This happens when the playlist runs to the end on its own, without interruption, and XXHE comes back as one would normally expect it to. I should mention, again, that it is a random issue that occurs perhaps 50% of the time. It seems to occur more often with long playlists (10 songs, 30-60 minutes) and less often with short playlists (3 songs, 10 minutes or so total length).


That is exactly what's happening.


I am using an i7-2600S that runs between 1.6 GHz and 2.8 GHz. There is a separate video card, so the graphics section is not being used.

The actual CPU speed is set in the BIOS to vary automatically with the processing load. However, it can also be set to run at fixed speeds of either 1.6 GHz or 2.8 GHz. I will try setting it to a fixed 2.8 GHz and see if anything changes.

Currently, Q3=0, Q4=1, Q5=2

This still happens with the default settings of Q3=0, Q4=0, Q5=0, but the SQ improved quite a bit with the current settings.

Core Scheme = 3-5

Back to you, Peter!
Joseph

Hi, Peter,

No, they are not engaged.


No, I always listen to a single playlist from beginning to end and wait for XXHE to come back by itself. Then I clear the playlist and create a new one.


That is similar what I am experiencing. At the end of a playlist, sometimes the [ Play ] button is still active and sometimes the [ Stop ] button is active and [ Play ] is off. When the [ Play ] button is active, then the list starts to play again from the beginning.

This is not a major problem, but I am curious to know if I missed something in the instructions that may have caused it.

Cheers,
Joseph

In unattended mode, with the OS minimized, whenever a playlist ends there is a 50% chance that it will repeat automatically. Before it does, the music plays through the list, stops at the end, and the desktop and XXHE interface reappear, as one would expect.

When the interface reappears, sometimes the Stop button is engaged and at other times it is not and the playlist repeats from the beginning. This happens on a completely random basis. Has anyone else had this issue and is there a way to ensure that the playlist will not repeat?

Thanks!
Joseph