Streaming - Delayed When NOT Transcoding

[Orvanis]

I have been using Subsonic for several weeks now, and since I have limited upload bandwidth I have setup all of the players for use outside my house to limit the bitrate to 128 kbps.

One thing I have noticed is that if the original file is at or under the 128 kbps limit I set, the web player waits until the entire file has been Transmitted before it will start playing. However, if the original file is over the 128 kbps limit, it will begin transcoding and almost immediately start playing - even if the entire transcoded file has not been transferred yet (This is the functionality I would expect).

So, my question is how do I get non-transcoded audio to start playing even while buffering is still occurring?

[Kirk]

It should do that by default... I've never heard of anyone having this problem... are you sure it's not bandwidth related?

[Orvanis]

Yeah, it's definitely not bandwidth related. I have watched the Status page to see how much data has been transmitted and then compare to the full file size. If subsonic has to downsample the bitrate the audio starts playing after only 100 KB of data has been transmitted. If no downsampling occurs the audio won't play until the full file has been transmitted (2+ MB).

It's a problem that I can easily replicate. Doesn't matter which songs I am trying to stream, just whether or not they need to be downsampled. And if I remove the maximum bitrate limit so that no songs are downsampled it will force every song in my library to transmit fully before playing.

[GJ51]

Does it do the same thing on the Demo site?

[Orvanis]

Doesn't appear to happen on the Demo site. At least not consistently, I noticed it once - but wasn't able to repeat it.

[GJ51]

You can also test it on my site listed below. It sounds like it must be something you've got set on your site that's causing the issue.

What are you hosting on? Hardware? OS? Which version of SS?

Do you have up-to-date Java and Flash installed?

[Orvanis]

It seems to be working perfectly on your site. Starts playing almost immediately even though the full file hasn't transferred.

I am hosting on a custom built PC - previously a gaming rig that I converted to have a ton of storage, so there should be more than enough RAM (8GB) and processing power (Quad-Core running at 2.9 Ghz).

-Windows 7
-Version 4.4 (build 2172) – February 6, 2011

And I am running the latest version of Java and Flash Player on both the Server and the Client.

[GJ51]

I'd suggest just doing a Subsonic re-install.

[Orvanis]

This was my first time installing Subsonic so I would hope it would have done well with a clean install. But I will give it a try tonight and report back results tomorrow.

Thanks for the help so far guys!

[Orvanis]

I have done a complete reinstallation (Even ran CCleaner after the uninstall to make sure there were no orphaned registry files), and this problem is still presenting itself. Any other ideas I can try? Is there a way to "force" every song to be transcoded...?

[GJ51]

Did you do a thourough uninstall? Uninstall SS from Programs and Features in Control Panel - do the same for all Java enties, delete C:\Subsonic directory. Reboot computer, go to http://www.java.com/en/download/manual.jsp and install 32 and 64 bit Java, then install SS.

If that doesn't work then you need to start looking at the files you're playing. We've seen instances of files that need to be run through a utility cleaner in order to behave well. I'll try to find some of the popular ones and post back here.

[Orvanis]

I didn't do a Java reinstall - but I did delete any references to Subsonic from the C drive and Registry. I will give the full reinstall a shot tonight and see how it goes - Java/Subsonic will be wiped out.

[Orvanis]

I have done a full re-install and the problem was still there. As a hacky solution for the couple of songs that I listen to frequently I artificially resampled the songs to a bitrate above 128 and they play perfectly now.