Asset 4 issues and Asset registration question

[Chris P]

Hi, all. I'm fairly new to Asset, and the forums.

I seem to be having issues with Asset 4 that I did not have with Asset 3. Reverting back to Asset 3 made my issues disappear. I have not yet paid to register Asset, but I'd like to. However, if I'm understand the site correctly, once I pay and register, I'll have access to a link so I can download the registered installer of Asset? But this would ONLY be the latest version (4), correct? I was hoping to register, but have access to a registered version 3. Is that possible?

The reason I bring all this up is that Asset 4 and my tuner (Denon AVR-3311CI) don't seem to get along. I have Asset installed on a Win7 Ultimate x64 computer. My music files reside on the same computer. Since upgrading to v4, the receiver would often list Asset as "not authorized". Also, asset would not show up in windows media player on my laptop. When the two work together, the receiver would often become sluggish in response to commands browsing Asset, or would seemingly lock up. If I got it to play a song, it often would play part of a song, then skip ahead to another song. At first, I'd reboot the computer and unplug the receiver, and the two would play nice for a while. Eventually, I just started rebooting the computer, and that seemed to fix the issue for a while. Then, I started using the "restart asset" button in the config program, and that would clear the issue for a while. But as time went on, the system became more unresponsive. My last experience with 4, I was able to navigate to an album folder, start the first song, the entire contents of the folder would play, and at the end, the receiver no longer saw Asset. I restarted Asset, the receiver detected it again, I played another album folder, and Asset disappeared at the end.

I reverted back to 3 at this point, and haven't had any issues yet. It seemed like the network communications with Asset 4 got really bogged down and buggy, but I really don't know how to troubleshoot that.

If there is any way I can provide more information I the problem, let me know. In the mean time, is it possible to register and get the registered version 3 of Asset?

Thank you.

[Spoon]

Re: Asset 4 issues and Asset registration question

How quickly does it become unresponsive?

We are keen to get the bottom of Asset v4 giving you issues, enable the debug option (in the advanced options page), then get asset into the unresponsive state and email the debug log:

http://www.dbpoweramp.com/email.htm

[Chris P]

Re: Asset 4 issues and Asset registration question

Spoon,

Thank you for a quick response. Sorry for the delay on mine. To try to answer your question, it depends. When I do a full reboot on the computer and power cycle the receiver, it seems I can access it without issue for a 'session', or no issues while usage is continued (usually 2 or 3 'albums'). It's usually when I come back a day or 2 later, and try to access Asset again that it displays as 'not authorized'. If I don't do a full reboot, and just reset Asset, sometimes I run into issues more quickly, often during a listening session.

When I get home later tonight, I'll uninstall v3, install v4, enable debug, reboot everything, and start from scratch. As I run in to any problems, I'll send you a log file. I'll do my best to recreate different scenarios, and document my actions/results with a corresponding log file.

I did notice another post with an interesting response. Not sure how I missed it before. The last post, *12, here:

http://forum.dbpoweramp.com/showthread.php?24566-Asset-uPnP-quot-not-authorized-quot-on-new-Pioneer-AV-receiver&p=119187&viewfull=1*post119187

In my case, Asset is installed on a home-brew server of sorts (Win7 Ultimate x64 SP1), being used as file and media storage, and a few other odds and ends. The machine is always on, and I have statically set the IP address at the machine. In the case of my receiver, I have it set to DHCP, but I have my router programmed to always assign the receiver the same IP address, so it never really changes. The receiver is currently set in a mode that enables network connectivity with the unit in stand-by (network connectivity on). In this mode, with the receiver 'off', I can still connect to it via a web browser, turn it on, and start playing music from the server using Asset (when I'm not experiencing issues). I'll try experimenting with different settings for DHCP and stand-by mode to see if that has any effect, too.

Thank you.

[Spoon]

Re: Asset 4 issues and Asset registration question

Do you have any security software? if so, as a test disable it.

[Chris P]

Re: Asset 4 issues and Asset registration question

Good idea. One of the absolute basics of trouble shooting, and I haven't tried it yet. I'll add that to the to-do list. I have Kaspersky Antivirus, and whatever the default Windows firewall thinks it wants to do. Haven't heard a peep from either, and they usually warn before they do anything.

No major issues yet, but one quirk off the bat. Went home Monday, uninstalled v3, tried a manually searched the C: drive for any files or folders related to asset and deleted them. Did the same with the registry. Rebooted. Installed v4. Waited for it to build a library. Brought the receiver out of stand-by, and went to media servers. Now, NORMALLY it will see both Asset and the windows media server default to win7. I do NOT have a library in WMP or WMC, but the tuner still sees it as a source. Always has. It usually list both "servers" and also shows "1/2" (one of two) or "2/2" depending on which one you select. But this time, it showed "1/1", but did not list EITHER server on the menu. It was already buggered. I rebooted the computer and power cycled the receiver, tried again, and both servers were listed. I did NOT have debug enabled yet (kicking myself over that one). But after the reboots, I was able to browse my music, and play a couple of folders worth of tunes. Accessed on Tuesday evening, no problem yet.

The only other issue I'm noticing is that v3 displayed album art, and v4 is not doing that so far for any file or folder I've played.

[Chris P]

Re: Asset 4 issues and Asset registration question

Well, album art started to display after that last post. I didn't change anything.

2 nights ago, I tried using the receiver and Access again. Playback had lots of drop-outs. I finally turned on the TV so I could look at the receiver's display output (usually control the receiver through a web browser), and the video was blatzing with the audio dropouts. Getting out of Media Server mode at the receiver seemed to calm things down. Every other source played fine with no droupouts or video issues (watched a movie that night). I disabled the NIC on the server, and things stayed calm at the receiver. I eventually put everything back to normal, and the reciver video out in media server mode and audio from asset were both going a bit haywire. I shut down for the night without rebooting or power cycling anything.

Last night, the receiver reported Access as Not Authorized again, and any navigation in the receiver menu was sluggish. Went to the server, and opened up Asset config. Status first reported as none, then displayed the file and folder count. Checked the receiver, and Asset was still Not Authorized. Navigated to the uMediaLibrary folder and manually copied the debug log to another folder, then reset Asset. Everything started working. Receiver saw asset, and menu navigation was not sluggish. Copied the debug log again after the reset. The funny thing is, with the first debug log (before reset of asset), the file was last modified about 24 hours before the reset. It kind of looks like the asset service stopped doing anything. I can email the debug logs if you still want them.

Looking forward to 4.1 beta.

[Spoon]

Re: Asset 4 issues and Asset registration question

R4.1 is out in the beta section of this forum, disable any debugging output for optimum performance.

When Asset is 'sluggish' run Asset Control on the PC on which Asset is running, to test how responsive it is (asset control is a control point in beta).