Stutter/skips in Android client

[jensonc]

@jensonc

Remember that upload speed from the server is only half the equation. I test my 3g speeds once in a while and often notice that ping times and the speeds have a wide variation. Also noticeable is that the test often shows that the data seems to run in spurts, rather than a nice even data flow.

I use the speedtest.net app. Compare results with running from a destop at:

http://speedtest.net/

You'll see how differently they react.

Right, and I should've known that, I'm an IT Admin for cryin' out loud. In my defense I was up on these forums for way too long last night driving my brain into the ground with this issue

After running the Xtremelabs Speedtest app from my phone, it's quite apparent how 3g could easily be affecting SS playback and causing the skips. I wish the app dispalyed a graph at the end of the test showing throughput over time. It took probably a good 5-10 second before my download even reached 100Kbps. And it took a solid minute to reach 160Kbps. Download pipe finally topped out at 280Kbps (damn Des Moines 3g is teh suck!). So it's pretty clear that the slowly-climbing download pipe while on 3g could explain the need for more buffering.

This testing goes to show that if you force 3g players down to 64 or 96 Kbps, it will buffer a lot less because it will be able to download more of the song faster. Now if there was just a way to stream the first 25% of the song at like 64Kbps and the rest at a higher bitrate jk

[GJ51]

Many users with bandwidth cap issues use 64kbps ogg with good quality results. This might also help where 3g speeds are less than ideal. You should also be able to set up options for better quality when you have a better signal. Hard drive spac is pretty cheap. I set up multiple copies for video that I use in different circumstances. HD, Wifi, 3g libraries let me select the quality I want for the connection quality i currently have. It should be pretty easy to do the same for a music library.

I've been in the digital playground since 1983. I still amaze myself at my own blunders daily.

[jensonc]

Many users with bandwidth cap issues use 64kbps ogg with good quality results. This might also help where 3g speeds are less than ideal. You should also be able to set up options for better quality when you have a better signal. Hard drive spac is pretty cheap. I set up multiple copies for video that I use in different circumstances. HD, Wifi, 3g libraries let me select the quality I want for the connection quality i currently have. It should be pretty easy to do the same for a music library.

I've been in the digital playground since 1983. I still amaze mysel at my own blunders daily.

Well another thing I really like about the SS app is that you can differentiate between 3g bitrate and wifi. Works great too, even checked the downsampling in the logs. But when I'm on 3g here, especially when I'm traveling around the metro, my 3g will be full strength one minute and 1 bar the next. So not sure how I would manage that, other than to just shut up and deal with it and remind myself that we don't live in Somolia or Lybia. And that we got it pretty good

[GJ51]

I use a 5GB Cache and set Songs to preload to Unlimited. This way I always have a good library to listen to when my 3g dies on the vine. Then there's always XM for back up.

[cyberyaga]

OK... I'm having this same issue.

I know it is not bandwidth, because, by the time the song skips (usually 5-10 second into play). They are already downloaded 1-2 megs.

Has there been any conclusive reason that is causing this. This posting is rather lengthy, and was just wondering if someone could spare me the reading .

BTW I have a Droid 2 running Liberty Rom v 2.0

[GJ51]

Read page 6.

[cyberyaga]

Thanks for the reply...

Liberty v2.0 Rom has an option to turn on/off all these features from stagefright.

Turn Media HTTP - on/off
Turn Media Scan - on/off
Turn Media Meta - on/off
Turn Media Player - on/off

I've rebooted my phone like 20 times (after each change). And despite all the changes, the behaviour still remains the same.

Song starts downloading, after 10-/+ seconds, it skips (even if it has already downloaded almost 1 meg of data).

I have rhapsody/pandora/XiiaLive/BeyondPod and none of these programs have audio skips while streaming (unless I hit a deadzone, which is rare in NYC).

My home connection is a 30/15 Mbits cable connection.

I think subsonic is the greatest thing since sliced bread, but this issue is annoying as hell.

Thanks for the help

[jameskeagie]

So I just wanted to let everyone know my experiences with these issues:

I had these problems on my Motorola Droid 2, and they continued on my Droid X. These problems persisted across stock phones, rooted phones, blur & blurless roms, etc. My Droid X saw some mild improvements (i.e. only 1 out of 6 songs would skip) when I backed up my SD card and reformatted it. As many of you saw, stagefright & SD card cache sizes have had some effect for some users. I tried stagefright settings on different roms with no change, as well as SD cache sizes (which ended up causing me to have corrupted videos from the camera app).

I tried changing the transcoding settings, but this had no effect other than irritating my iPhone/iPad devices (I work as a sys-admin so I was able to test this issue across multiple devices). I was having this issue on every file, not just .m4a so I didn't think transcoding was relevant here. I also did not have this issue on an HTC android phone. It seems most of the users here are Motorola users as well.

So - my solution!!!

The Motorola Gingerbread leak! Not only did this speed up my phone in about every way imaginable (can't wait for the ROMS to come out based on this) but my SD read/write speeds boosted as well. Now, if I am on Wifi or solid 3G connection - not a single song skips. Previously, every single song would skip at 5-10 seconds in, regardless of how much had buffered in that time. If it was writing to the SD card, it wouldn't read fast enough to buffer the playing of the same song.

Sounds to me like Motorola had some intrinsic hardware controller problems on the Froyo builds...

Hope this helps some people.

[zapt0]

I raised this issue in a separate thread.

Upgrading to Gingerbread solved it for me too, but it's not an option for all phones.

[cyberyaga]

Just wanted to post here that my problem with the skip is no more.

What did I do?

1) Did a clean install of Liberty v2.0.1 rom on my phone.
2) Went to the Liberty Toolbox --> Build Properties --> Stagefright --> And turned "ON" ALL of the options.
3) Rebooted the phone, and sweet music from subsonic without a single skip.

The clean install might not be necessary, but my phone needed it anyways.

Hope I helped someone.

[k00zk0]

Using 4.0.1 for android, and tried both the current stable and beta of the server.

When I start playing an album, the first song stops and goes to the next track after 5 to 30 seconds have played, all the way until the end of the album/playlist. This has nothing to do with streaming speed as it downloads many times faster than it plays. I have a hunch about what is happening. When the track starts with say 300KB downloaded, it plays the equivalent of 300KB of audio, before thinking the track is over and going to the next track. If I click stop before the first track of an album starts playing and let it get to 1MB before starting, at the time it finishes playing 1MB (about 35 seconds at 230kbps ) it will stop and skip to the next track. By the time it skips to the next track, there is say 3MB downloaded of the current one so the track is definitely able to keep playing. One weird thing is that if a FLAC is getting realtime transcoded, it won't go to the next track but it will pause for up to 10 seconds before resuming.

I am not sure what is happening on the android, but the player seems to be recognizing the track as being only as long as the existing data when it starts playing, and doesn't update this fact as more is downloaded/appended.

Nobody else is reporting this, so is it something with my configuration? It seems like a legit bug based on the behavior.

This can be avoided by hitting stop before the track starts playing while it initially buffers the first 100-200KB, and waiting until the first track is completely downloaded. Before it finishes playing, track 2 is done already, and so on. Because the entire track is present at the start of playback, it does not stop short with the length set to what happens to be present mid buffer.

Where is the problem? This is happening on the LG G2x running Android 2.3.5

Any help appreciated, thanks!

[nossid]

I think I figured out whats causing the issue on android devices (although credit for the fix itself goes to frankoid on XDA-Developers). Keep in mind this REQUIRES ROOT ACCESS.

The read ahead buffer on my evo (and from what I have read many other android devices) is set to a very low number, giving it very very slow read speed, for mine is was WELL below the the specified speeds for the class of my SD card.

[...]

Just want to chime in that this was the problem on my HTC Desire (stock 2.2). It only had the 4kb read ahead buffer. Rooting the phone and upping it completely removed the stutter that kept happening when a track (even one not currently playing) was downloading and getting written to the SD card.

[k00zk0]

Hey. Updating.

So this is on the Android client side. Subsonic only on the demo server, still has this glitch. Now running Android 2.3.7 on the G2x.

When streaming the 128kbps CBR from the demo server, the player will go silent or pause for half a second at the point the download was at, when the track started playing. So, if you start hearing the song and it says 500kb beside it in the playlist, at approximately 30 seconds into the song there is a little hitch and then the music resumes, but the download is already completed for that track and it is actually downloading ahead three tracks already. Sometimes the pause is long enough to change the pause button in the player to a play or stop button for that one second it stops for, and move the seek slider to somewhere random for a second before returning to its proper position and changing the button back to pause, and resuming playback.

When playing VBR from my own server, whether it be even streaming locally over wifi (So the download speed is like 20mbps), instead of having a pause, the player instead skips to the next track. Over the data network that means after 10-20 seconds it will skip forward, as that is how much of the song it could download within the 3-5 second delay before it started playing, or over LAN wifi, it will skip after a minute (But it started playing instantly and downloads the whole album in like 30 seconds.)

When playing FLAC > MP3 tracks, again there is a pause instead of skipping, at the same point (the end of the downloaded data at the time the track started playing)

Also, before the player hits this position midway through the track, but the track is finished downloading, and you try to seek ahead of this point, it stops and says "error playing 'trackname'. MediaPlayer error: 1 (0) (Exception)" as a notification message. You can immediately click on the song again and seek to where you want, though.

This is the local player not programmed correctly or some kind of incompatibility with this phone. There is enough bandwidth as explained (local server on wifi network, and the download of that track and two ahead is complete). Phone is fresh flashed with new firmware. Please iron out this issue! I really want proper streaming and not transcoded files as our other alternative forces! Every part of subsonic is amazing and highly technical wherever the user wants it - but I can't believe the simple client has this glitch.

Thank you!

[Wurlitzer]

I have the same issue. I've mailed the dev some months ago before I discovered this forum, but didn't get a reply.
Tracks only skips when they're in VBR.

[BKKKPewsey]

I do not have a droid, so cannot help, but if anyone has the same issue, if they could post here and include some basic details
such as server hardware/os, SS version, client hardware (phone) and app version.
Also any other relevant info you can think of eg file types (mp3, flac), bitrate cbr/vbr etc.
The more info we can give the devs (Sindre) the quicker it should get resolved (we hope!) and if everyone posts in the same thread some common elements may surface.

Using 4.0.1 for android

k00zk0 could you check your app version as the I believe the latest version is 3.2