Stutter/skips in Android client

[alphawave7]

Actually, it sounds like the long-standing issue with Android versions dating way back...there have been various fixes and restarts on this problem:
viewtopic.php?f=2&t=4109

[k00zk0]

Threads merged, same problem.

Page 7, dan1son has it right.

The player is not checking the total track length or file size periodically. Thus, it thinks the track is done when 500kb have played, if 500kb is what was downloaded at the time it started playing. Some ROMS that people have on their phone probably are making the player check periodically, or stagefright does that, avoiding the problem. I have tried using Blade Buddy to enable all four stagefright options with no change. Probably this ROM.

Proposed EASY/temporary workaround: Add an option to only start playing track 1 of an album or playlist when the track has been fully downloaded. This will ensure track two is fully downloaded before it starts playing, and so on. Sure there is a delay before hearing music, but if the skips bother you, you probably listen to whole albums at once anyway and wouldn't mind waiting.

Better: Instead of creating the file at whatever size it starts at, and appending data to it as it is downloaded, create the file with the full size or length of the final track, but null data. Then the player is tricked into thinking there is a 5 minute track there, and it will play it with no problem. As data is downloaded it will replace the null data and the actual data is always there by the time the player gets to it. If the user seeks ahead of what is available, they hear silence instead of the track skipping or doing Something unexpected. The selling point of Subsonic is that it does not transcode your audio. I am sure it is ethical to forge a file's metadata, as long as the audio data is exact.

Proper: Keep data management as it is but force the player to update the file length a few seconds before the current end of file. This can't be too hard unless the player is flawed in design; it seems this same flaw prevents implementation of gapless playback. If this is the case, it's time for a rewrite with a proper audio player. A parametric equalizer for the best music player in existence wouldn't hurt either There actually isn't one that works globally for Android, just some in local media players. Charge $5 for it as an addon and you'll get a band of loyal followers.

I have a feeling that 90% of the work went into the server. It is so technically perfect, with on the fly multi step transcoding and user rights and everything else amazing, but the players have not been focused on and done properly from the start to allow ESSENTIAL features to match this top-performing streaming service, such as gapless playback and a real EQ.

This issue has nothing to do with the server, since the demo server does it, it has nothing to do with bandwidth, as LAN at 80mbps does it, and nothing to do with SD card speed as internal memory or a C10 card does it (Although that may be a problem for users not experiencing this specific issue, but their own phone slowness.)

Thank you greatly for this massive undertaking. World class software right here!

[BKKKPewsey]

I have merged the 2 threads together (Thank you alphawave7 for pointing this out)
I think the thread title appears to describe the problem correctly but if anyone wants to change it please pm me.

[alphawave7]

I have merged the 2 threads together (Thank you alphawave7 for pointing this out)
I think the thread title appears to describe the problem correctly but if anyone wants to change it please pm me.

This is/was (for some phones and Android versions) a complex problem, and had possibly more than one cause, and most certainly had more than one specific behaviour. I experienced it myself on the G1 first, then on the Nexus One...Gingerbread fixed it once, but it returned for me after an update to the SS Android App, but was gone after another update. Oddly, what fixed it for me didn't fix it for others (same phone/OS/version), which leads me to believe there's still an inherent bug, and hard to reproduce across the disparate phones/OS,etc.

[BKKKPewsey]

BKKK crosses of Android device from Xmas list

(Not that was any chance of anyone buying me one )

[wraithdu]

I've got a Verizon Samsung Galaxy Nexus, rooted but running stock software. However I've also tested this on a stock HTC Incredible and I'm having the same issue...

I don't have a problem with skipping playback. Instead my problem is that any type of VBR stream, be it OGG or a VBR MP3, will not properly finish caching to the phone. The file finishes streaming (I see my transcoders quit on my PC) but on the phone just sits with the green downloading arrow for over a minute. During this time the transcoders start back up and exit once or twice on my PC. Finally it will recognize the end of the stream and move on to the next file.

I had to give up on OGG since it is always somewhat a VBR stream, but I was able to get pure CBR MP3 streams to stream and cache correctly. I used lame with the -b and --cbr options. Now, if I just stream an MP3 file without any transcoding or downsampling, then everything works fine even if the file is VBR.

So this is definitely something new in the last few Subsonic versions specific to transcoding VBR streams. Unfortunately I can't say when or which upgrade started the problem (I've been using Spotify mostly, and use Subsonic for albums not on there). I don't know if this might help track the issue, but I hope so, I really enjoyed being able to transcode and stream OGG.

[olofmogren]

I have been using the Subsonic on both a Sony Ericsson Xperia Neo (Android 2.3.5) and a Samsung Galaxy Nexus (Android 4.0.2). Stuttering appears on both phones. The other day I was listening to music at the same time as I was using Runkeeper, and each time Runkeeper was outputting audio, the stuttering was unbearable. I am not familiar with the sourcecode, but maybe the fault is not in Subsonic itself but in Audioflinger or other parts of Android. The stuttering is kind of a showstopper for me. Otherwise I'm very happy with Subsonic.

[jakebriggs]

I am getting really bad stuttering, on wifi and 3g, while the track is being downloaded. I am running ICS on a samsung vibrant. Its a real problem, since I mostly listen to tracks that are an hour long. It definitely not a bandwidth problem, I am downloading the track much faster than they are being played!

[GJ51]

Same issues on the demo site?

Version 4.6 has some known issues regarding track length estimation that are being fixed for version 4.7, but you can always test the demo site to see if mp3's play OK. Most of the problems seem to appear when some transcoding is involved.

i moved my music site back to ver 4.4 as that version handles mp3 > ogg and flac > ogg very well.

[jakebriggs]

I am having issues connecting to the demo site - guest1 for usename, password for password. The "test Connection" works fine, but when I try to browse i get "error length=39; regionStart=0; regionLength=-1"

I am connecting to http://subsonic.org

EDIT: username password are guest1 and guest. I can connect now

[jakebriggs]

yeah its still doing it on the demo server :/ The demo server and my server are the same version

mine : 4.6 (build 2585) – December 6, 2011 - jetty-6.1.x, java 1.6.0_26, Linux (75.9 MB / 96.7 MB)
demo: 4.6 (build 2585) – December 6, 2011 - Apache Tomcat/5.5.33, java 1.6.0_22, Linux (501.4 MB / 687.6 MB)

I am doing no transcoding.

[GJ51]

Hopefully this will be fixed in 4.7. You can test on my site if you like.

Sent you a PM with the login. I have this site running ver 4.5 using the ffmpeg from ver 4.4 to do transcoding. If you still have issues at my site, then you most likely have an issue on the phone that may need to wait for 4.7 or another revision in the phone's OS. I've seen many reports of problems with ICS, but I have one friend on my site that is running OK with it.

[djzeratul]

Here is a youtube video of whats happening on my Galaxy Nexus with Android 4.0.4 (ICS).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SrhxSo_DghE

I am running a custom ROM now but this happened with both stock and custom firmware.

I don't think it has anything to do with the server. I am running iSub for iOS on another device, connected to the same server, and there are no issues whatsoever. Web client is fine too. I think what is at fault is the way the file is being written to the android filesystem. I don't think there's enough bandwidth to read and write at the same time, or possibly just an issue with the android sound engine. Once the file stops being written, the playback becomes smooth again.

This makes the Android Subsonic client relatively worthless. If I have to fully download all of the files before I can play them back, I may as well just copy them to the phone.

I hope there is a fix for this issue soon.

[jakebriggs]

Here is a youtube video of whats happening on my Galaxy Nexus with Android 4.0.4 (ICS).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SrhxSo_DghE

This is /exactly/ what I am getting.

Interestingly, on my POS old LG gt540 running cyanogenmod 7 (gingerbread) I didn't get any stuttering.

I am using a class 2 16 GB micro sd card in my samsung vibrant. 2MB a second - is this fast enough I wonder?

EDIT: I lied, its a 32 gig class 2 micro sd card.

[jakebriggs]

Hopefully this will be fixed in 4.7. You can test on my site if you like.

Sent you a PM with the login. I have this site running ver 4.5 using the ffmpeg from ver 4.4 to do transcoding. If you still have issues at my site, then you most likely have an issue on the phone that may need to wait for 4.7 or another revision in the phone's OS. I've seen many reports of problems with ICS, but I have one friend on my site that is running OK with it.

I have the same issues with your site unfortunately :/