Bugzilla – Bug 10529
Gap between ALAC files sent to Squeezebox 1 from ReadyNAS NV+
Last modified: 2009-06-09 02:04:05 UTC
Description: Since moving to 7.3.1, playback of Apple Lossless files has a 1 second gap between tracks. Expected: Seamless playback from one track to next, without gap. Actual: Approximately 1 second of silence between tracks. This is not a case of the first/last second of the track being lost - it is a delay of 1sec. Gap is before track starts to play (not a regression to the older problem where track would start to play, then stall for 2-3 secs before continuing) Regression: • Not present in 7.0 or 6.x.x • Present in 7.3.0 Server Configuration: Model: ReadyNAS NV+ [X-RAID] Firmware: RAIDiator 4.01c1-p1 [1.00a041] Memory: 256 MB [ 2.5-3-3-7 ] Client Configuration: Squeezebox 1, bitmap display. Wired 10baseT connection, via 10/100/1000T switch to ReadyNAS
Steven can you have a look at this one
This audible gap between alac tracks is present in SC 7.3.1 when playing on a SB1. I was also able to reproduce the gap running SC on the ReadyNAS as well as on Mac OS X. I did notice that the audible gap was shorter when using Mac OS X as the server most likely due to it being more powerful machine then the ReadyNAS. I did not experience the gaps with the SB2/3 however.
For ALAC files played on an SB1 they will be being transcoded to WAV (actually PCM) or AIFF. This inter-track gap is indeed a regression in 7.3. Previously (specifically for SB1s) when one WAV stream followed another it was assumed that they would have the same characteristics (sample-rate, sample-size, channels) and that the new stream could simply be concatenated onto the old stream. This was not really safe although I guess it would work most of the time (44100/16/2). In 7.3 I erred on the side of safety by only allowing stream concatenation for consecutive MP3 streams. I am reluctant to reverse this change. Running on a ReadyNAS you do not have sufficient horsepower to transcode to MP3, which would be an option with a more powerful server. I suggest that it may be better in this case, if this feature is important to you, to revert to SC 7.2.1.
Thanks for the quick response! Okay, I'll downgrade to 7.2.1, because this is really irritating to listen to. (Even if I could do it, downconverting to mp3 is a poor workaround, as it negates the reason for having lossless files in the first place) Would it be possible to allow stream concatenation when you know that the current and upcoming tracks share the same format? Gapless playback is important to me, and to lots of other users, and the fact that this problem shows up on a MacOS X server (most likely to have ALAC files too) would indicate a higher number of affected users than my own config.
I do not plan to implement a change to resolve this regression. For users where this is sufficiently an issue they can remain on SC 7.2.1.