Delayed event playback

[Chris Deacon]

In RB 5.9.2.0 I am experiencing a delay of up to 20 seconds when attempting to play a scheduled 2 hour long 320kbps mp3 file on the hour. I am using WASAPI playback. Smaller (1 hour) files do not seem to be affected. The file is available on the same PC as RB. Remove gap between tracks is ON. There is plenty of PC memory available. Sound card is set for 48kHz playback.

Is there a cache setting in RB that could be responsible for this? Should I try and use ASIO?

 

[djsoft]

You can set the Start/End points for this track using the Track Tool to prevent RadioBOSS from scanning this track to detectr silence. If you use "Trigger mix at" option in crossfading, also set the Mix point in Track Tool.

 

[Chris Deacon]

I can follow these instructions but what if the file (a weekly program) is a different length each week?

 

[djsoft]

You can prepare this file. If a track is located on a network location, copying it to a local drive is a good idea.

 

[Chris Deacon]

Dmitri all large files are located on the local drive. I have named the file type PROGRAMS. All programs have variable lengths. The delayed start only seems to affect some of the files. Am I correct in assuming I cannot use the START/END settings in tracktool for these types of files? I do not need fadein/out so do I need to set fadein/out to zero (ticked) or leave it unticked?

 

[djsoft]

Am I correct in assuming I cannot use the START/END settings in tracktool for these types of files?

Why not? Track Tool allows setting the points for any tracks.

The delayed start only seems to affect some of the files

This can be also caused by the "Audio - Improve seeking, gap killer precision" option in Settings->General->Advanced configuration. Try setting that to "False".

How long are those tracks? I have checked on a 3 hour mix and it starts instantly here...

 

[Chris Deacon]

Thanks for the suggestions.
If the file varies in length each time it is overwritten, wouldn’t the END setting be incorrect?
I have discovered that the delay occurs only for files where their location is a mapped network drive. If I use the full directory path there is no problem. I wonder why this would be so?

 

[djsoft]

I have discovered that the delay occurs only for files where their location is a mapped network drive. If I use the full directory path there is no problem. I wonder why this would be so?

It could be due to how Windows processes the path, or maybe antivirus performs additional checks slowing things down.

If the file varies in length each time it is overwritten, wouldn’t the END setting be incorrect?

Yes, it would. In this case you can use the makelibrary command to automatically process the files, setting Start and End points: https://manual.djsoft.net/radioboss/en/scheduler_commands.htm

 

[Chris Deacon]

It could be due to how Windows processes the path, or maybe antivirus performs additional checks slowing things down.


Yes, it would. In this case you can use the makelibrary command to automatically process the files, setting Start and End points: https://manual.djsoft.net/radioboss/en/scheduler_commands.htm

Ahh thank you - of course!

 

[Chris Deacon]

When this delay in starting playback of a certain 2 hour MP3 file occurs a box appears on screen counting up to 100% which causes the delay up to 39 secs. What is being processed here? Is this showing the file being scanned for silence? Using latest version of RB. How can I get around this without adding start and end markers?

 

[djsoft]

When this delay in starting playback of a certain 2 hour MP3 file occurs a box appears on screen counting up to 100% which causes the delay up to 39 secs. What is being processed here?

RadioBOSS checks itself it it had frozen, if it detects a freeze, it will create a bug report - a small window with progress bar means it's creating a bug report.

The root cause here is that a file can be unreadable or the media it's loaded from is slow, or the file is held by other software (e.g. antivirus) in this case RadioBOSS will wait until the hold is lifted.

Scanning for silence and other processing features typically take less than 100 ms (1/10th of a second) and performed before a track is played in the background, no windows appear while it performs such operations.

 

[Chris Deacon]

It is strange because the file is a normal MP3 file, the same as many other 2 hour long programs we run. All the files are on the local hard drive with RB. It happens consistently at the same time; the file is overwritten each week well before playback time. How can I read the bug report?

 

[djsoft]

You can send the bug reports to us using the Help->Contact Support->Send bug reports menu.
If you want to read them yourself, the files are located in the settings folder, to open it in the menu click Settings->Open Settings Folder.

 

[Chris Deacon]

Problem solved! I discovered there was another recorder running in the 2 hours just prior to the problem occurring. The box on the screen was the previous 2 hour long file saving to the same hard drive. Fortunately this was not a RadioBoss fault. I should have suspected this earlier.