Asset UPnP on Raspberry Pi buffering in middle of every track

[Graham Russell]

I'm running the registered version of Asset on a Pi, connected to the same switch as a Linn KDS. Music is stored on a 2TB USB ext4 disk.

In the exact middle of every track playback is paused for a second or two while the KDS buffers. I'm transcoding Flac to Wav in Asset. When the buffering happens the CPU loading for the AssetUPnP process increases from around 7% to over 40% (using 'top' to watch the processes).

Has anyone else hit this issue? Are there any obvious settings I can check?

Apart from this issue playback sounds superb.

Thanks
Graham

[Graham Russell]

Re: Asset UPnP on Raspberry Pi buffering in middle of every track

I'm running the registered version of Asset on a Pi, connected to the same switch as a Linn KDS. Music is stored on a 2TB USB ext4 disk.

In the exact middle of every track playback is paused for a second or two while the KDS buffers. I'm transcoding Flac to Wav in Asset. When the buffering happens the CPU loading for the AssetUPnP process increases from around 7% to over 40% (using 'top' to watch the processes).

Has anyone else hit this issue? Are there any obvious settings I can check?

Apart from this issue playback sounds superb.

Thanks
Graham

Some additional information:
Playing Flacs without transcoding still buffer in the middle of every track
Minimserver on the Raspberry Pi plays the same tracks with no buffering. But the CPU loading for Java process running Minimserver is significantly higher than AssusUPnP process when playing.

[Spoon]

Re: Asset UPnP on Raspberry Pi buffering in middle of every track

Describe your network please.

[Graham Russell]

Re: Asset UPnP on Raspberry Pi buffering in middle of every track

Pi and KDS are connected to the same dedicated Netgear 100Mbit switch. A patch cable connects this switch to another switch for access to the rest of the house network and internet access.

As a test I've just disconnected the patch cable between the two switches so the Pi and KDS are the only 2 devices on their private network. Again in the exact middle of a track the KDS stopped for a second. I was watching the traffic lights on the switch and when the buffering occurred the traffic lights stopped flashing.

This problem is consistent with every track I play. The buffering happens at the exact middle of the track regardless of track length. Very weird.

[dbfan]

Re: Asset UPnP on Raspberry Pi buffering in middle of every track

You are playing CD quality material?

[Graham Russell]

Re: Asset UPnP on Raspberry Pi buffering in middle of every track

Yes CDs ripped with dbpoweramp. I have some high res downloads I can easily try too.

I did wonder whether there are network config settings I can change on the Pi but because the buffering happens in the exact middle of each track it seems to point to an application issue rather than a system issue. But if there is a system config I can change then it's an easy fix :-)

[Graham Russell]

Re: Asset UPnP on Raspberry Pi buffering in middle of every track

I think I may have fixed the problem. I killed AssetUPnP processes, deleted ~pi/.dBpoweramp and restarted AssetUPnP. The library is still rescanning but the first couple of tracks have played without buffering. I should have tried this sooner.

It looks like I'm up and running properly now.

Thanks

[Spoon]

Re: Asset UPnP on Raspberry Pi buffering in middle of every track

How many tracks do you have?

[Graham Russell]

Re: Asset UPnP on Raspberry Pi buffering in middle of every track

Currently on the USB disk attached to the Pi are around 19000 tracks. But I'm copying over all the music from my main PC music server onto the local disk. AssetUPnP on the PC reports 27000 tracks so that's what I'll end up with on the Pi's disk.

Is this quantity of tracks OK?

[Spoon]

Re: Asset UPnP on Raspberry Pi buffering in middle of every track

Yes should be ok.

[Graham Russell]

Re: Asset UPnP on Raspberry Pi buffering in middle of every track

Unfortunately the buffering problem has returned in the middle of tracks.

I've deleted ~pi/.dBpoweramp again and will try and work out if it's any of the settings in there that are causing the problem.

[Graham Russell]

Re: Asset UPnP on Raspberry Pi buffering in middle of every track

I'm close to giving up as I can't stop the buffering problem. I've tried music on the local USB disk and after deleting ~pi/.dBpoweramp again I configured AssetuPnP to read from a NAS containing another copy of all the music files. I get exactly the same problem with local disk and NAS.

The frustration is that minimserver works perfectly with music on the local USB disk.

[Spoon]

Re: Asset UPnP on Raspberry Pi buffering in middle of every track

Try having only 1000 tracks indexed as a test.

[Graham Russell]

Re: Asset UPnP on Raspberry Pi buffering in middle of every track

650 tracks seem to work OK and 7500 tracks cause buffering in the middle of each track. So it does look like it's related to the volume of music.

[Spoon]

Re: Asset UPnP on Raspberry Pi buffering in middle of every track

Your Pi it is a fresh or has many applications installed?