Re: [slim] synchronized SB3s and gaps

[awy]

zoomin;219962 Wrote: 
 
 One change in our networking is that I am now using the Network Bridge
 option. Could that be the cause?
 

Quite possibly, or other WLAN-related issues. Each player has a 3MB
buffer which it tries to fill as fast as it can. But (by default) with
only 128 bytes in the buffer the server will think that it is ready to
start playing. When all players are at the 128-byte stage then they get
sent the 'start' command, as close together as possible.

The trouble is that WLAN technology prioritizes throughput over
short-term latency (simplifying somewhat), so that one or more of the
players may have only a few milliseconds of data in their buffers when
they start playing and they almost immediatley underrun as the network
contention prevents them all filling their buffers in time. result -
stutter and loss of synchronization.

There is a player preference that controls the pre-start buffer size,
but the only UI I know of to set it is the command-line interface. So
if you are happy poking around with that (sorry, I'm not in a position
to give you a tutorial) then the preference you want to set, for each
player, or at-least the more-difficult WLAN-connected ones, is
'syncBufferThreshold'. You want to set this to about half a second's
worth of data (in bytes), which will depend upon what type of stream
you generally use. You will get a slightly bigger gap at the start of
the track (while it fills the buffer) but things should start up better
in sync.

SlimServer 7 will include significant enhancements to the
synchronization mechanism but the above issue will still be a concern.

Alan


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[slim] synchronized SB3s and gaps

[zoomin]

I have read many threads on this subject but none really address my own
problem.

I am running Slimserver v 6.5.1 on ReadyNAS. I hav e four SB3s in the
house.

We moved recently, and prior to moving I could play all four SB3s
synchronized and not have gaps between songs. 

Now, about three seconds after the start of each song, there is a one
to two second drop-otuw hen synchronized. This does not happen when
only one SB3 is used unsynched.

Now I am not referring to albums that run without gaps between tracks,
as I am pretty sure that never worked synchronized before.
I am referring to the majority of albums that play a song, have a break
of silence for a few seconds and then start the next song. It is these
albums that drop out after the first few seconds of each song now.

One change in our networking is that I am now using the Network Bridge
option. Could that be the cause?

Ideas?


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zoomin

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