XX Stopping

[Scroobius]

Hi Peter - I am finding that with longer tracks say 10mins and longer XX suddenly stops part way through the track after say 5mins. The XX interface comes up as though it had finished playing the whole selection.

Sometimes (but not always) after this has happened PA will not then engage and I have to switch engine4 off switch off XX and then start again to get it to work properly.

P

[PeterSt]

Paul,

Now *that* looks new to me. Although, I recognize a part of it.
Can it be that you hear the PA shutting off and on again with in the middle some seconds of silence ?
If that happens to you - recognizable by itself. I never noticed the PA being Off after that, but I reckon this can happen.

So notice that something tells me that the OS can't cope with the more "severe" processing the lower SFS requires for a longer time. So, actually always - at a certain amount of time into the track - that stall happens here the same.

Let me know your responses ...
Peter

[boleary]

Just came in from a long drive across Pennsylvania, fired up XXHighend, qued up Cat Stevens,and started reading this thread. Non of the Stevens tracks are more than 4 or 5 minutes long. While reading Peter's reply what Paul described happened here. Felt a little creepy! Anyway,  there was no issue with PA not engaging after restarting the track. With 9Z-7-5, I had the same thing happen maybe three or four times. It was so random and infrequent that I never posted about it.

[arvind]

Hi Peter,

Playing Anna Maria Jopek/ Barefoot album, XX suddenly stopped playing in the midst of the 3rd track. I clicked play again & it starts. After 30 secs or so there is a tick where presumably PA engages.

Best regards,

Arvind

[Scroobius]

I had another problem develop later - when I started playing a track it would go into a loop and keep repeating at about 1.2 second duration.

Anyway no problem no I rebooted and all is OK.

P

[Scroobius]

I spoke too soon - no sooner had I finished writing the above than XX stopped. Odd because because it had played 7 tracks one of which was 15 minutes long no problem. On the second from last track bosh it stopped. No problems with PA after that it seems to be working OK now.

I shall investigate if it happens with a bigger SFS setting.......

[PeterSt]

I only now realize what's happening here. A dead-normal thing.

Paul, you brought my attention to it per that looping situation. This is all about the actually too small SFS. ever back in the Release Notes when the small(er than 12) SFS as introduced, I talked about it. It can work, but maybe it does not. And the "not" also implies albums-long to be okay, while another day it goes wrong 5 times on one album.

This is about super coincidence of matters which I can't capture (detect).
Ok, I just scratched an explanation with examples which became too difficult to grasp anyway, but let's summarize it by saying that the smaller the SFS *and* buffer size result (Q1 x Q1F x DevBufSize), the earlier it will happen that both internal buffers and SFS chunks end at the same sample. When this happens, sound stops (it is different, but now you have some focus).

This can happen with certain settings of either (buffers vs SFS) but it may also never happen because the both imply that they won't end at the same sample ever.
And do notice that the "construction" of the lot already implies that the lower SFS needs the lower buffer result (like an SFS of 1.2 needs a Q1x Q1F of 7 IIRC when the DevBufSize is 4096. So you are challenging things).

The whole lot is of vast complexity, because this is still a memory player (no matter you are on the limits of violating it at these small SFS and buffers), and you must think something like : when the buffer is larger than an SFS chunk allows to load, it won't work. For example, when the buffers imply a length of 1 second while the SFS chunk is 0.5 second, the buffer plays longer (and all is actually in idle mode) than the load-trigger for the SFS requires. It would imply half a second of silence.
Not that this helps you with this problem, but I try to indicate that it is all so complex by now that I don't even dream of attacking that problem with those "boundaries".

For the longer term users : I think we all now that once in a while a small silence could be heard. This at the same "frequency" as you encounter the stops from now. Back then : big deal. Today however, we *have* to stop in controlled fashion because otherwise the out-of-control disengagement of Phase Alignment will be our part. So all what happens now is the detection of when silence will be there, and when detected a controlled stop is applied.

Btw, this detection itself already is difficult, and I know that especially at the low SFS size this will happen when the PC has become too much out of order. Not fast enough anymore; two days on and such. This is especially noticed when longer tracks are in order which let spin down the disk (never mind you think it is read from there (memory cache) and when the spinup time of the disk will not fit withing the small time permitted with the small buffers and such. Can't explain this to you, but while you'd say that the huge SFS and buffer sizes would imply the problems (because much more has to be done to read and load it) it is the other way around and the current buffer playing, just does not allow *any* time lag in the other processes (like loading a chunk) because it plays only for a few ms.

Anyway ...
When this happens regularly, try to change Q1 one step (direction doesn't matter). Just so those boundaries won't fall together (or will only after 3 hours etc.). You can change the SFS as well, but as we know this is more a SQ changer, so you'd like to stay that as it is.

Hope this helps somewhat ...
Peter

[Scroobius]

Ah now that is interesting I have changed SFS from 2 to 2.1 and the problem is reduced. XX has only stopped once since changing to 2.1. Why SFS 2.1? well low SFS really does sound better to my ears and so why not?.

It is strange that this has only happened to me with classical music often that contain long tracks but the problem does not necessarily happen with the long tracks it can be on a short track (as you explain above).

Cheers

P

[PeterSt]

Paul,

Is your logging off ?
I only ask because I couldn't understand myself why yesterday the one album just played along while the other (longer tracks) really wouldn't go.

Then I dreamt about a few things and saw the light ...
Logging On with low SFS won't go;
Played the same album today without any probs ...

Peter

[Scroobius]

I rebooted (for other reasons) - I have SFS max at 30 and SFS at 2.1 so I assume that SFS max sets the contiguous memory allocation.

[PeterSt]

Correct.

[Scroobius]

I have changed everything - a new hard disc - installed W8 (from W7) - 09-z-1a (from the previous version). And I still have the same problem - XX stops playing randomly maybe once per album maybe sometimes less frequently than every album. That is with low latency settings of SFS=2 Q1=14 Q1f=1.

I would have to think that with the above Peter that your theory of a timing problem makes sense. But the problem is what can I do about it? to my ears the big latency settings just do not sound right the magic happens at low latency. Is there anything else I can do (more in hope than expectation)?

Surely someone else out there must have the same problem with the above in mind?

Paul

[PeterSt]

Paul,

If you are sure this doesn't happen with the (somewhat) higher SFS (hence you are Activated all right), try Q1 = 15 or 13.

Peter

[PeterSt]

And switch OFF Logging. This is crucial for W8 and the lower SFS.

Edit : I once had Logging On and couldn't play a thing with SFS=2. Not so at all with W7 ...

[Scroobius]

Hi Peter - I have tried different Q readings from around 10 to 20 but I still get the random stopping. I will try higher SFS say 20 to 30 but that is no good for me long term as it really does negatively impact SQ - SFS2 is where the magic SQ happens. But of course it will be useful to know if bigger SFS settings does indeed prevent the "stopping" problem.

Paul

[christoffe]

Hi Peter - I have tried different Q readings from around 10 to 20 but I still get the random stopping. I will try higher SFS say 20 to 30 but that is no good for me long term as it really does negatively impact SQ - SFS2 is where the magic SQ happens. But of course it will be useful to know if bigger SFS settings does indeed prevent the "stopping" problem.

Paul

I had the similar problem with W7. Sound is gone, the slider of the time scale is still moving. Pressed the "Stop" and "Play" button again and it works until ........... .

I do believe that this behavoir is related to the tweaks.

Joachim

[Scroobius]

Hi Joachim - for me XX stops playing part way through a track just as though I had pressed the stop button. And in Unattended XX stops and the UI comes back up.

Paul

[PeterSt]

Joachim's idea is a good one. I didn't think about it, while I'm even constantly "dealing" with that and find a good balance for it myself (hey, with that stopping). So Paul, press Reset in XTweaks and see whether that changes things. If so, you'll know where to be (the Balanced Load parameter being the most important one).

Peter

[AlainGr]

Hi Peter,

Since I came back in Normal OS mode, with reduced SFS (60), playing between 5 and 15ms, with 4096 Device buffer size, I have been experiencing intermittent stops. The sound goes away, then comes back (no hiccups, but it simply mutes for a few seconds). At some point, it muted but did not come back.

All this is in Attended mode.

I have been reducing the Q1 slider but it was hopping. Then I reduced the Buffer to 1024 and increased the Q1 to 20... It seems to behave more regularly... The 2-3 stops that I had for the 3 inline songs (averaging between 3-5 minutes) did not occur.

But this has to be taken with some precautions, since I still have my 24/192 dac, plus a USB > SPDIF converter...

I have yet to experiment more...

"Your mileage may vary"...

Alain

[boleary]

reading through this thread I'm convinced the x-tweaks are the cause of this stopping problem and not SFS. When I first installed W8 every track stopped half way through, even with a SFS of 430. And the stopping was as Paul described: music would stop, the gui would reappear and the "Stop" button would be highlighted. After I tried Mani's suggested W8 settings, which caused me to change X-tweak settings and hit the reset button, the problem appears to have gone away. However I expect that music will stop once in a while, which is what happens with W7 ever since x-tweaks were applied. With W7 I experience music stopping maybe once or twice a week--not very often for sure.

[AlainGr]

It is quite possible that the Xtweaks are to be pointed for some stops, but as of now, I haven't used them yet... Yet I did experience these stops.

On my side, after experimenting a little, it seems that the Device Buffer Size has to be reduced to put an end to those stops...

As for the Q1 adjustments, while I was able to play music at reduces Q1 adjustments (= 3 for instance), now it has trouble working at = 6, but I guess that the reduced Device Buffer Size interaction with this can explain it.

I also tried Q1 = 30, Device Buffer Size = 1024 and it works fine. But at 4096 there will be stops... (for me).

Alain
EDIT: I should have written "MUTE" instead of "STOP", since it was coming back after a few seconds...

[PeterSt]

Alain,

In Normal OS Mode the whole OS will be relatively slow and sluggish. This really makes a difference. Notice that it will be Phase Alignment which implies the stopping. Without that it will play, but with small silences (if you leave all settings the same). But it really is that your PC somewhere can't cope now ...

Peter

[AlainGr]

Alain,

In Normal OS Mode the whole OS will be relatively slow and sluggish. This really makes a difference. Notice that it will be Phase Alignment which implies the stopping. Without that it will play, but with small silences (if you leave all settings the same). But it really is that your PC somewhere can't cope now ...

Peter

Peter,

I don't use PA...

While I understand what you mean (more processes active in NORMAL OS), these stops were also occuring in MINIMIZE OS, but less frequently. I was using an SFS of 430 then. And the behavior was different, since then it was stopping instead of simply muting...

What I like to do when something like this happens is to use the minimal adjustements as possible just to see how it behaves (I am not talking about the SQ of course). So for the moment, no PA, nor Xtweaks (we can't use Xtweaks anyway in NORMAL OS mode).

Alain

[boleary]

Alain
EDIT: I should have written "MUTE" instead of "STOP", since it was coming back after a few seconds...

Seems like the stops Alain describes are different from what Paul and I experience.

[AlainGr]

Alain
EDIT: I should have written "MUTE" instead of "STOP", since it was coming back after a few seconds...

Seems like the stops Alain describes are different from what Paul and I experience.

Yes, that's what I think too. In my case, it seems more related to a bad Device Size Buffer adjustment...

I tried Q1 = 48 with a Q1x of 3, plus a Device Size Buffer of 256... It's the first time I do this... The first time it works too, without any message...

Now I will test with MINIMIZE OS just to see the difference in behavior...

Alain

[AlainGr]

I am actually in MINIMIZE OS...

I can have the music play at Q1 = 30, Q1x at 5 and Device Buffer Size at 64... But to be on the safe side, a Device Buffer Size of 128 or 256 would be a minimum (for me)...

I never did that kind of testing in W7, I always adjusted my Device Buffer Size at 4096, played with Q1 between 6 and 30, and leaving Q1x at 1...

Maybe it was time for me to try different adjustements... ? But no STOP yet with the Device Buffer Size much lower than I would have expected...

Is it possible that Windows 8 Audio has such a different architecture that it explains how I can have these results ?

But I repeat: no STOP yet. My SFS is at 60 and I have tried unattended. This of course, with my dac. It could be different for the NOS1 and the latency adjustements that it allows ?

The more I reduce the SFS, the more I have to increase the Device Buffer Size.

I have yet to understand where the Q1 goes in... I can understand that Q1 (and Q1x) helps reduce the Device Buffer Size, but the SFS also has its importance with the Device Buffer Size...

But definitely, in MINIMIZE OS, unattended, all works fine - at least with 3 average songs that were muting while in NORMAL OS mode, attended, with my "usual" adjustments (Q1 = 14, Device Buffer Size = 4096 - sometimes at 3072, SFS = 430).

For me finally, increasing the Q1 and Q1x, reducing the Device Buffer Size has put an end to these MUTES and/or STOPS...

Alain
PS: Now I am trying the same with an SFS = 2 with a 23 minutes song...

[AlainGr]

Well, up to now, no more MUTE nor STOP, even at SFS 2, Q1 = 30, Q1x = 3 (could be at 2, even at 1), Device Buffer Size = 512, unattended and MINIMIZE OS.

While requiring to increase the Q1 (at least), the Device Buffer Size seems to be sensitive about these STOPs...

I obviously can't say that there will not be STOPs anymore, but to say the least, they have reduced a lot.

Hope this helps

Alain

[juanpmar]

Same problem here. The music stops somewhere between 3 and 15 or 16 minutes.

The message is:

Obtain Audio Device

Audio Device could not be determined

And


XXEngine3.exe has stopped working...

Juan

[juanpmar]

Disengaging iPhase - (minus) but with Allow Phase Alignment On made the Mahler´s 8 Symphony that before had stops now sound from the beginning to the end with no stops. I´ll repeat it tomorrow with other albums to see what happens.

Juan

[BertD]

Not sure if this has anything to do with your problem of stopping but here I have that when I change settings. I was experimenting with my playback drive (different ports, different drives) and one change made XX stop here too.

Sometimes after just a few seconds, sometimes after 3 minutes but never ending the first track. Cleared "C" and cleared XX from memory did not change anything, the only remedy was to reboot and only then things continu to play.

Bert

[PeterSt]

Bert, can't this be solved just the same by killing XXEngine3 ?

I do recognize something of this; this wasn't so before. But for example, changing the SFS makes XXEngine3 die (not XX(HigheEnd) as you suggest).

So, just thinking along with you all; something is not working as before (can it be W8 related ?).

Peter

[juanpmar]

Today I played several albums with lPhase deactivated and I haven´t had the stops problem. If I activate lPhase the stops return. So at least in my system it looks related with the lPhase.

These are the messages I receive when the sound stops:

Set sample rate
Failed to set sample rate


Fail!
Engine #4 did not start within the expected time !


XXEngine3.exe
XXEngine3.exe has stopped working
A problem caused the program to stop working correctly. Please close the program.


The Output device #4 Engine doesn´t respond and I have to  reboot XX, after this reboot when I try to activate #4 Engine this is the message that appears:

Check Engine Settings
Phase Aligment will be deactivated. OK

Once I click Ok lPhase is deactivated and #4 Engine works again. This way, playing with the lPhase unclicked there are no more stops.

Juan

[BertD]

Bert, can't this be solved just the same by killing XXEngine3 ?

I meant to say Killing XXEngine3.. that little blue clickable icon at the right side of the XX window.

But even restarting XX does not help, only a reboot is doing the trick for me.

My problems so far basically only related to changing the playback drive though.

Bert

[PeterSt]

Juan,

(the below may come across as harsh, but this is not intended at all and I only try to point out the importance of things. Ok ?)

Please remember once and for all and ever : With Phase Alignment On, stops are incurred for when the buffers can not be filled with samples because no samples are provided.
This by itself is caused by a too slow PC / Disk Subsystem BUT can easly be implied by dialing in settings which can't be dealt with by your PC. It is all as logic as can be, which btw doesn't tell that you know what to do to prevent it. However, while any newbie won't know where to go, you as an experienced user should. But you HAVE to understand what the underlaying culprit is first. And I just told about that ...

We also have to understand the behaviour of W8 which is different from W7. I can't help that. So for example try this :
Set SFS to 2 and Logging On - and Phase Alignment On.
You can't play a thing now while W7 just allows it.

What shall I do to prevent newbies from running into this ? and to prevent experienced users like you from running into this ?
Right. Don't allow SFS under 20 or whatever.

Happy ?

No.
And this is how we HAVE to understand what's happening.

And hey, I didn't tell you that you or anyone *can* understand. Heck, I don't even understand myself a couple of things in this area. What is and remains though is that we have to. We need to when we like to dial in our best settings for SQ. If that can't work for W8, then make some choices.

... Which all, of course, doesn't mean that I don't like to help out or try to solve things in the base.

Without Phase Alignment and things never stopping in this context, you WILL perceive silences. Whether they are large enough to actually hear it is something else. But say it is as bad as stopping. You just went over the top with your PC and everything contributing to it (like Playback Drive) and what we actually talk about now : the OS.

Never think it is stupid to mention these things. IOW, with the above it is not my intention to stop anyone from mentioning these things. The contrary, I *need* this feedback in order to ever get that something now (suddenly) easily is the matter while before (W7) it was not at all. This, while for me and also others it is as easy to not run into the problem anyway; different PC, different settings, different hdd speeds ... what not.

Like my SFS=2 and Logging example. I don't know why. I can only TELL that W8 is way more slow somewhere.

Regards,
Peter

[juanpmar]

Hi Peter, no problem, you´re right I should know certain technical things, the problem is that my educational background in Art and Literature don't help very much on this regard. When I discovered XXHE I had to learn how to build a computer, I did it and I´m glad that what I learnt helped others to build their systems. Unfortunately it doesn´t mean that I know further than clicking here or there to get the best possible sound. That´s not a justification but I claim also for the right of the less technical savvy to enjoy XX which is today, in my already long experience as audiophile, the best way to get first class sound. The problem for all of us, but even more for the people like me, is that XX is always evolving and has to be adapted also to a new version of Windows every so often. Please be patient with me, I´ll do my best to keep learning.

Returning to the settings, to avoid stops now I´ve changed with good results to SFS: 32 and up. Experimenting.

Best regards,
Juan

[charliemb]

I'm thinking that this may relate to this problem, still unsolved:

http://www.phasure.com/index.php?topic=2367.msg24576#msg24576

I bares some resemblance.  One difference is that the stopping is not exactly = hitting the stop button.  Instead, it stops and continues to the next song.

[PeterSt]

Ehm, please confirm :

You press Stop and what comes from it is that the next track plays ??

[charliemb]

Ehm, please confirm :

You press Stop and what comes from it is that the next track plays ??

Oops!   Sorry for the delay in response. 

No, in my case I never actually hit the stop button.   But the song / track stops playing and xxHE almost instantly starts playing the next song / track.   Sometimes it's hard tell that it made the jump to the next track, when the music is similar depending on the passage.

The stopping of this thread is similar to that of the other thread if the stops occur mid-track.

[Scroobius]

I was just looking back at my original post which was 8 Jan and at that time I was on W7 and I had the "stopping" problem (but none of the other error messages). I was using remote control bluetooth then which worked fine.

And then W8 came along and with it all kinds of problems that Bluetooth remote seemed to cause (I never did get that working with W8). That is when the random stopping and error messages started even after restore to "ground zero".

Eventually I made a complete reinstallation of W8 keeping it very simple. End of stopping and error message problems.

And along the way I also made fresh install (on a separate disc) of W7 again keeping it simple. End of stopping and error messages.

So for me at least I will not be installing Bluetooth again - of course in W7 who knows what caused the stopping but I will always now keep my installs very simple.

Cheers

Paul

[PeterSt]

Ok, one thing that I only found recently :

I too have stops as long as the SFS is low (like the 1 I am playing with currently). Mind you, these are stops which are not captured by the program which right away is the reason why playback continues after this stop. For Phase Alignment this means plop ... plop (one for the stop and one for the continued playback). That it isn't detected by the program can only be because all stands still; something is holding up everything. Btw, I talk W7 here.
The period the stop lasts to me looks like a disk needs spinning up, and it can vary somewhat (I use many disks in there). But say it can easily be 7-8 seconds. Now :

With the above in mind, and knowing that my disk spindown time is set to 4 minutes *AND* that this always starts to happen after maybe 15-20 minutes (and which sure is about the time I see reported more often), I thought about disk burst processes which reset that 4 minute time versus very small disk I/O which does not reset this time (this is something in the OS); When we additionally see that once the first stops happen they keep on happening throughout the playback session at each track boundary, this burst thing seems related (to me that is).
I still can't reason it out, but I did think of highering that 4 minutes to 7 minutes, and it helped. I have seen no stop since. The tracks I play are usually around that length; often longer.

*What* disk actually needs to spin up (assumed I am right on this part ot begin with) is beyond me. But regarding the all over stall of the system as I can reason out that little part, it has to be the OS disk.

Maybe this helps someone, and when so, the how and what could be important to find this culprit.

Charlie, I know that this doesn't seem to be related to your strange thing, but possibly for you all works out even more strange, thinking of your Vista. So you might try a few things on your disk spindown time.

Peter

[charliemb]

Thanks,  I will check out the spindown time.  I thought that I had no spindown time on any disk.   I'm almost sure they stay on 24/7 if I leave the machine on.

[BvdW]

Peter,

I have been following this thread for a while now, while I have this same stopping problem. I have tried some suggestions from users but nothing works (for me). Whatever settings I try (dev buff. 128 to 4096), SFS from 2 via 2.1, 3.3 up to 60, somewhere halfway a track XX just stops as if I pressed Alt-X and then the GUI comes back (so regard my settings below as 'ideal' as I don't have fixed settings yet).

All depends on the combi of SFS, Q1, xQ1 and device buffer and apparently ones particular PC, as I understand. Is there no possibility to determine the figures for your own PC? As this trial-and-error method of waiting till, for example, track nbr. nine to find out that this new setting also doesn't work, is getting very frustrating (ask my wife )? I even considered to go back to a previous version.

Bert

[PeterSt]

Ok. There has been changed one thing in 0.9z-8-2 in this area, and this is that 22 seconds which is now available for trackload (Unattended) and which always has been 14 seconds (see Release Notes). Since this is for crazy high buffer settings anyway, I will put that back to 14 seconds and then let's see.

Thank you for sharing this Bert. We never should annoy our wives or otherwise we'll lose play time.

Peter

[BvdW]

Thanks, Peter,

You are proposing to use 8.2 as the solution, it seems. Before I download and install it, has the download been modified to 14s in the mean time?
Then, it is a bit of an experimental version, as you say, 'made' for W7 Ultimate. Does this mean I'm a kind of guinea-pig for W7 professional (don't worry, I won't tell my wife...) or did you already receive some experience or feedback from other W7-professional users?

Bert

[PeterSt]

Bert, there is nothing much "experimental" in any version. Or all versions are, also good.

And no, 0.9z-8-2 just *contains* that change which will be undone in the upcoming 0.9z-8-3.

It's all a bit vague and I now realize that while this topic started at January 8 (2013) it can't be about 0.9z-8-2 and not even 8-1. The base 8 version yes.
Conclusion from this ? 0.9z-8-3 won't help you.

I even considered to go back to a previous version.

So, which one would that be ?
Please, try it and let me know whether that definitely doesn't bring you that problem.

Peter

[BvdW]

Peter,

The version I meant to go back to is 0.9z-7-3.
It runs flawless with the settings as below. Hence, the Alt-N function works (be it with a short repeat of the last fragment, but my wife doesn't care about that ;-).

There definitely must have been changed something for the bad, in my case, with the 8-versions en I can't believe I'm the only one experiencing this. So, all you listeners....

Ok, for me there seems to be no alternative then to go back to 7.3 and I will do that, but it looks like that from now on I won't be able to keep up to date with the latest versions of XX. And with that the improvements in sound quality (unless you find some way to solve my 'problem'....).
A pitty, but despite of that I'm actually quite satisfied with the sound quality gained till now with version 7.3 and with that I'm saying that XX is still a great product.

Bert

[PeterSt]

Hey Bert,

Ok, for me there seems to be no alternative then to go back to 7.3 and I will do that, but it looks like that from now on I won't be able to keep up to date with the latest versions of XX.

Of course not !
... Because nothing tells that we are not working on this. So, obviously there has to be something, and you are not the only one. The sheer fact that I don't know at this moment what it ever can be about tells nothing much, otherwise than that I need to dig deeper, look closer, up to listen better to you all. But it is not that simple, because 4 out of 5 times in such occasions people used other settings, already because new are provided. 4 out of 5 times ? actually always. But I try to be careful.

Peter

[PeterSt]

And Bert,

Maybe I am more addressing this to you than anyone else ...

What happens when EACH TIME you start Playback, you first remove the sound engine from memory (click the blue led in the right border of XXHighEnd) ? So ... this could be about DACs and how they initialize, while in this area things have changed many times, also when 0.9z-8 was introduced ...

Let me know please.
Thank you,
Peter

[BvdW]

Hi, Peter,

This weekend and today I tried playing many CD's with different settings and resetting XX each time with the blue button (didn't do that before) but result is the same. No CD completed playing all the tracks.
I'm glad you keep on searching for the cause of this problem because I really would like to use the 8 version as it sounds better.

I was wondering. Wouldn't it be possible to let a script of Vb program or whatever (performance logs?) run in parallel with XX to determine some vital parameters that one can use for the right settings?

Bert

[PeterSt]

Bert,

If you can mimic the problem with SFS=6 or higher, then you can switch on logging and send me the log files of that session. And please notice that with SFS=2 you won't be able to use logging because then all stops because of *that*.

Do not post them here because they will be large and you won't even be able to normal email them. So use FileMail(.com).

But I can also put it differently : set your SFS to 370 and then the log files will be small lenough to just post here. But somehow I have the feeling that then you can't mimic it (despite you said you tried everything, so that should have included the high SFS).

Peter

[Jud]

I had never bothered to look at this thread before because I'd never experienced XXHE stopping.  I have now, though, twice in the middle of songs about 6 minutes in length, and just as Bert says, XXHE acted as if the songs had ended.  I tried again with the same songs and they played through.

Settings as in my sig - notice no phase alignment.  Interesting because the thread had somewhat emphasized phase alignment, but I personally never experienced these stops until a couple of days ago when I ran XXHE without phase alignment.  I do have an external USB drive as the music source, though I'm using a RAMdisk as the playback drive.

[PeterSt]

[...] but result is the same. No CD completed playing all the tracks.

I think that by now I can say that this was caused by not being Activated (demo version plays 30 minutes on average before a restart of XXHighEnd is needed).

If this is not the case, Bert will announce himself undoubtedly.

Peter

[BvdW]

Hi, Peter,

Yes, indeed, here I am.
Well, it is strange. If XX is still in Demo mode it doesn't show in settings at the ´Processor Core App´ field. (Couldn´t be because I activated XX).

Nevertheless, while the XX banner in the titlebar is blue indeed, I reactived XX with the original code I had. The 'Done' popup appeared after which I gave a Clear. Then I played a track twice while stopping XX after a few seconds and restarting it. But the titlebar stayed blue (if I start 7.3 version, which I have on my other partition, it is red).

So I ordered a new code expecting that that should solve my problem. Ran through the same cycles but the titlebar stays blue...

A bug, or a version issue?

Bert

[PeterSt]

Hey Bert,

Looking at the title bar it sure looks like you mixed versions. And now I can't tell what's really going on.
When you "upgrade" to a new version, you should create a new folder for it and put all in there (and leave the old version be).

I will send you a small email as well.
Peter

[Jud]

[...] but result is the same. No CD completed playing all the tracks.

I think that by now I can say that this was caused by not being Activated (demo version plays 30 minutes on average before a restart of XXHighEnd is needed).

If this is not the case, Bert will announce himself undoubtedly.

Peter

My title bar and the border of my cover art are both red, so that is not the cause of whatever occurred in my case.

I will see if it ever happens again, and if so, will try to log.

[BvdW]

Thanks, Peter, (from my wife too ;-).

After providing log files, you provided me a new activation code and now titlebar is red and I can play a CD completely without a stop.

Apparently my original code and a new one, which I requested upon your suggestion at phasure.com, didn't work and I had to had a special activation code derived from logfiles I provided.
Probably this is the meaning of the word 'Activation' in activation code.

Next week or so, I think I will upgrade to version 8.3a.

Bert

[PeterSt]

I can play a CD completely without a stop.

Thanks, Peter, (from my wife too ;-).

Oh ? I thought that wives merely wanted our music to stop ?