We’ve switched over to v4.2 and noticed that when launching PFL by clicking on the icon in the playlist that the playing audio in a player loops for one or two seconds before resuming when the PFL window has opened and waveform is displayed.
The players use an M-Audio Delta 1010 sound card, and PFL is sent to the onboard sound card.
We had a similar issue with v3 when adding a new item to the playlist whilst something was playing.
The PC has 2GB RAM, an Intel Core 2 Duo processor and Windows XP running mAirList only.
There is nothing shown in the system log, and the devices are all set as DirectSound.
What driver version are you using? Is it the older one that still has the “Independent” option in the control panel? Newer ones are reported be problematic.
Using ASIO might be another option, if it’s really a soundcard-related issue.
Also, can you please try the following:
Don’t click the icon to start PFL instantly, but just double-click an item to bring up the Properties dialog with a different tab active than Cue Edior. (The dialog will remember the last active tab when you close it, so you may need to switch to e.g. General, then close and reopen it in order to perform the following test.)
When the Properties dialog is opened, switch to the Cue Editor tab, and then click Play to start PFL playback.
At which point does the stuttering occur?
(1) When the dialog is opened.
(2) When you switch to Cue Editor.
(3) When you start PFL playbacl
Thank you for the reply. It is the older version which does have the “Independent” option.
I’ve tried many times to reproduce the issue and can’t get the stuttering audio to occur again. If it happens again I’ll ask the presenter to note at which point the stuttering occurs as above.
I’ve found that double-clicking an item and displaying the other tabs is fine.
When launching Mix Editor or Voice Tracking I’m able to reproduce the stuttering - so I think it’s when displaying the cue editor whilst something is already playing. During the stuttering the screen freezes - e.g. the countdown on the player and progress bar don’t update.
Once the stuttering stops the countdown and progress bar catch up, and the audio is ready to PFL.
I haven’t tried ASIO yet to see if this is different.
Just an update. When dragging an item from the browser into the playlist the audio will also stutter/loop - but normally only when the item has never been played before or isn’t already in the database.
That suggests that the problem is related to the waveform images, or more precisely, the background thread that scans the file and creates the waveform image. The waveforms used within the last 14 days are cached in the peakdata.db and not regenerated unless you click the Reload button in the Cue Editor.
That’s a good test by the way: Open a file in the Cue Editor and then click the Reload button to force the generation of the waveform image - can you reproduce the stutter this way?
A German user with a similar problem, and also with a Delta card, just reported that the stutter went away after he checked “disable ASIO direct monitoring” in the Delta control panel. Worth a try.
Generally, I found that some drivers tend to produce stuttering in DirectSound mode, while they work fine in ASIO (only if the cards support it) or WASAPI mode (only Windows Vista or newer, not XP).
OK - I have have tried clicking the Reload button in the Cue Editor and couldn’t reproduce the stutter/loop. After that I tried to reproduce the issue in several ways without luck… it seems to be intermittent.
I’ve just recorded some voicetracks and left music running in a playlist as a test - I did manage to record it (attached). It appears to be 500ms long.
We don’t seem to have “disable ASIO direct monitoring” as an option in the Delta driver control panel. The playout PC is on-air nearly 24/7, so I’m still waiting for an opportunity to try other audio device options.
I’ve switched the four outputs on the Delta 1010 to use ASIO, and left the other outputs (on board) on DirectSound for PFL, etc and now the stuttering has gone when launching PFL, VT, etc.
There is still a lag between clicking the VT or PFL buttons - the progress bar and clocks freeze - but the audio continues without interruption.
