Bugzilla – Bug 2502
Display Slow To Change Using Random Mix
Last modified: 2008-09-15 14:39:24 UTC
Running the following version 6.2.1 - 5072 - Linux - EN - iso-8859-1 on a Linkstaion. The problem is the following. When I use the Random Mix (songs) at the end of one song, the next starts fine with no gaps, but the display on the squeezebox takes about 20 seconds to change to the next song. It will stay on the song title/artist of the previous song. The playlist in the web interface shows the next song in the list fine. This only happens when I use the Random Mix. If I am playing an album the display changes as one song ends. This happened on version 6-2-0, but I think it was OK in version 6-1-1. I have tried using Softsqueeze and the same thing happens. I hope this is enough information. Tony
max, any thoughts here?
Could you provide details of your RandomMix settings please? Also, can you explain precisely what you mean by "When I use the Random Mix (songs) at the end of one song"? Is there an exact series of steps that you can follow to produce this situation? If so, please detail them here. I'm afraid that I've never seen anything like this happen on my setup, so it's hard to try and fix just now.
The setting that I have for the RandomMix are the defaults ones, as I have not changed any of the setting for the RandomMix plugin. I can get it to do it all the time. I select RandomMix then Songs and press play. Nothing happens for about 10-15 seconds, then the song will play and the Now Playing display will show the Title and Artist (I think this wait is due to the fact I'm using a slow Linkstation?). After the first song has finished the next one from the created playlist will start playing stright away, but the Now Playing Display will freeze with the details of the first song for about 20 seconds, it will then change to show the details for the second song that has aready started playing. If I play an album (not using RandomMix)the display will change as the song changes.
SlimServer Version: 6.5b1 - 4996 - Linux - EN - utf8 I'm not sure if this is the same bug or not. I've got two SB2's sync'd, playing a random song mix from selected genres. Often their displays (and SlimServer) are one song *ahead* of what's actually being heard. A couple songs later, the displays are correct again. I'll post a screenshot. I have not noticed an issue where the display is out of sync; in other words, the display does always seem to update when the song changes. Please let me know if I can offer more information. I'll update to today's nightly and let you know if I see anything different.
Created attachment 995 [details] Screenshot illustrating bug in this screenshot, "Words of Wisdom" was playing for the entire duration of the time "Antistar" was displayed. In fact, I think it skipped directly to "Tropicville" (and the display was correct) without playing "Antistar."
Tony: I think that the wait at startup of Random Mix and the delay between songs is due to the same thing, namely random mix queries being fairly compute intensive and the linkstation being underpowered. On my 900MHz linux server the display freezes for a couple of seconds on track transitions when random play is on. I imagine that on a linkstation it would be far worse. We should take a look at optimizing this for 6.5. Will: Your report is a separate bug. Can you file a new bug with details? Thanks.
I thought that was possibly the case. Is there any way of setting up a RandomMix at the start to create the playlist and not have more songs added as one song finishes, as I think that was how it worked in Version 6-1-1. That way I have the wait at the start, but all should work OK after that?
Requested behaviour in comment 7 was fixed in bug 2516. If this bug is to remain open, the summary should probably be changed to "Random mix queries need optimising" or something.
RandomMix has been optimized in the split-scanner branch, which will be merged back to 6.5 soon.