Stutter/skips in Android client

[technics2000]

Which phone is that? Im on Droid X and still have problems with 2.2

I just brought over my server to a friends place since he has fios internet service with synchromous 25 Mbit up and down. This is definitely not a speed issue, I'm sure Sindre is aware that its some other problem, just wanted to rule it out since I thought my 512kb upload speed at homemight be a problem.

[seanpkeown]

Which phone is that? Im on Droid X and still have problems with 2.2

I just brought over my server to a friends place since he has fios internet service with synchromous 25 Mbit up and down. This is definitely not a speed issue, I'm sure Sindre is aware that its some other problem, just wanted to rule it out since I thought my 512kb upload speed at homemight be a problem.

Well it's the Tilt 2. It really runs windows mobile by default but we got android 2.2 installed on it. It used to skip like my android backflip but now it works but my backflip still doesn't. I hope that helps.

Sean K

[sn0skier]

so as I wrote in this forum http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=812843 I think the problem might be related to sd card speed. What class is everyone's SD card in this thread? You can also use "sd card speed test" app in the market to test it. Mine is
Write: 2 MBPS
Read: 10 MBPS
Class 2

I think that between reading a 320kbps mp3, writing a new one at 4g speeds, and deleting an old one in the cache the SD card is just being overloaded.

[seanpkeown]

so as I wrote in this forum http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=812843 I think the problem might be related to sd card speed. What class is everyone's SD card in this thread? You can also use "sd card speed test" app in the market to test it. Mine is
Write: 2 MBPS
Read: 10 MBPS
Class 2

I think that between reading a 320kbps mp3, writing a new one at 4g speeds, and deleting an old one in the cache the SD card is just being overloaded.

I have a class 2 and so does my brother. My brothers phone works great and mine doesn't do so hot. I would switch sd cards but i'm to lazy to move the data so I plan to order a class 6 tonight to test this theory out.

Thanks,
Sean K

[sn0skier]

I have a class 2 and so does my brother. My brothers phone works great and mine doesn't do so hot. I would switch sd cards but i'm to lazy to move the data so I plan to order a class 6 tonight to test this theory out.

Thanks,
Sean K

Awesome what kind of phone do you have?

[sn0skier]

So stuttering seems to have stopped for me (again, hopefully permanent this time). Well actually I did get one brief stutter, but nothing like the show stopping 20-awful-skips-in-a-row-can't-even-listen-to-the-song problem that I had before. I did a couple things (stupidly at the same time).

First, I used the SD card from an old Evo (screen cracked, thank god for phone insurance) and reloaded everything on there. I think this is what actually fixed my problem. Read and write speeds should be the same as it is the exact same model of SD card, but I think it had the effect of defragmenting the card, enabling better reading and writing.

At the same time I tried someone from another forum's idea and increased the cache size to unlimited. I streamed an album over WiFi and everything was fine (which it usually isn't). But then I noticed that I only had 2.6 GB of music on there and my cache limit had been 5 GB before, so I didn't think this was the problem and I changed it back. It still worked just as well afterward.

People should try these ideas (especially defragmenting SD card) and let me know what happens. I have only had one tiny little skip while streaming on 4g and no problems with the built in media player while downloading on 4g.

TL;DR
DEFRAGMENT YOUR SD CARD

[seanpkeown]

Well... I went out and bought my self a class 6 sd card with a Write of 9 MB/s and a Read of 12 MB/s and it didn't fix the issue. I guess it was worth the try. That doesn't mean that android 1.5 isn't the problem or that the skipping isn't caused from multiple issues depending on the phone.

[sn0skier]

Yeah, my skipping woes came back today, and there wasn't even anything downloading. I really don't know what to think anymore. Have you tried changing the cache to unlimited?

[GJ51]

It's too bad some are having this stuttering issue. It may be related to specific phones or it may be other issues. From the server that holds the music, to the phone somewhere out there on a 3g connection, there can be a whole lot that can go wrong in between.

I am using a Sprint EVO 4g, and have been consistently connecting over a 3g connection to 4 seperate Subsonic servers with no hint of any kind of glitch. Given the complexity of everything that can be causing a problem, it may be really difficult to pinpoint. I would be most suspicios of firewall and router setups. I would then be looking at the server itself for errors in the logs. Can you connect to the same server on the local network and stream ok? Have you tried the phone app connected to the demo server? Can you find someone that has a phone that is working well with the app, test your server?

Testing these different connections would help isolate the problem.

[sn0skier]

the problem is that I will get skips even when I am not downloading anything, and the stutters are not permanently in the song. Sometimes they will play just fine all the way through and then play poorly later. Sometimes they will skip on the stock android player, though to a much lesser extent. This leads me to believe that there is just something which is straining the SD card, Memory, or processor, and given that a lot of people with subsonic are having this problem (and no one else that I have found has this problem on their evo), I bet the culprit is subsonic.

About how many apps and widgets do you have on your phone? How many programs are always on in settings-->applications-->running services?

[GJ51]

I frequently stream music to my evo while driving. When I do this I have all radios on except wifi and 4g. I have navigation or google maps on screen. I will use google voice for search when needed, check weather, make phone calls, all while streaming music at 256k bitrate over bluetooth to the sound system in the car. If Subsonic were the problem, I think I would be getting the same symptoms.

In that you appear to not be interested in answering any of the questions I posed, I can only assume that the problem is on your phone.

[sn0skier]

I will try using my friend's phone on my server and get back to you. But why would a faulty server cause everything on my phone (homescreens, other apps, etc..) to lag?

[GJ51]

It probably wouldn't, but I've found that whenever you start a troubleshooting process, it's best to isolate each component and test it, no matter how unlikely it may seem. Oftentimes it's the one thing you assume that is working that is actually causing the problem.

From what I can see so far, the most likely cause is something on your phone. So, what kind of Phone do you have? Which ver. of Android? Didf you unlock your phone? Are you using a custom rom? Are you using the SD card that came with the phone. Have you done anything to the card? How full is it?

How are you streqaming to the phone? Through the SS app for Android? Have you tried testing through a browser?

In forums, users looking for help almost always leave out the one key piece of information that leads to the answer.

[kermit22]

I too have an EVO that is running subsonic with no issues. I don't use a task killer and I have my phone rooted with unrEVOked. I always have WiFi and GPS running. In my area there is only 3g. I'm running standard SenseUI and when I go to Settings>applications>running services there are 17 listed.

I have a max bitrate of 96kbps a 100MB cache and 2 songs for preload in my subsonic settings in the android app.

On the server I have all the normal transcodings set up and under Advanced I have this for the Downsample command:
lame -S -h --resample 44.1 -b %b %s -

If you want me to test my phone on your server pm me with a server address and a username and pasword and I'll test it out. You can also PM me if you want to try your phone out on my server.

[Pishtim]

FANTASTIC NEWS. I have officially been able to get rid of the skipping issue altogether. For the record I have an HTC Evo.

Now some of you are going to hate me because like Snoksier, I also had done several things at once so I can't tell you guys for sure what fixed it. I will at least list the things I did from the least likeliest to the most likeliest to have fixed the issue.

First, I recently moved into a new apartment with a new connection, but I don't think this helped since it's still Qwest DSL and my connection speed is actually slower and I still have the same computer and modem. Plus I know this problem probably has nothing to do with any part of the network since only songs that have already downloaded skip.

Second and third thing I did was install the latest Subsonic Android AND server software with the new fixes. Of course I'm sure this is the first thing all of you who are still having problems did. In addition, I haven't changed any settings in either piece of software since I had skipping problems.

Fourth, and this is by far the most likely candidate, I flashed my rooted Evo with custom ROM "Warm TwoPointTwo" which came with myriad performance tweeks and also removed Sprint and HTC's bloatware. I know that somewhere in the mix of that custom operating system lies the tweek that solved the skipping problem (whether it be process priority, ect..). Of course you could probably use a different custom ROM to fix the problem, but I can't speak on that.

BTW if you're worried about flashing your phone with a custom ROM, don't be. As long as you make a NANdroid backup (a COMPLETE backup) you can always simply revert to that state. I know people who routinely bounce between several ROMs on a whim and I'm thinking about doing so myself once I upgrade my SD to a larger capacity.