53 replies to this topic

[Todd H]

Hello, I just installed JPLAY Femto with Bubble UPnP. I am running single dell laptop with Windows 10 and an Android tablet for the control point. When I play a music file (music files are stored on the hard drive on the laptop) the laptop screen goes to full bright, bypassing the manual settings I use to dim the screen, and then music starts to play. It plays as long as the screen stays bright (10 -25 seconds) and then stops when the screen reverts back to normal setting. When the music stops the timer on the song is reset to zero, and the player skips to the next song. Then the screen flashed bright again for a brief second but no music plays. Nothing happens after that. I can hit play again, and the same sequence is repeated. The tablet and the laptop are connected via wifi/internet.

 

I searched the net and read through troubleshooting. I tried turning off sleep and power saving modes, this did not fix it. Appreciate any help.

 

Todd

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•  JPLAY Setting Screenshot.jpg   748.23KB   2 downloads

[Ben Webster]

Have you tried lower level for the DAC Link? Same behavior with Classic instead of Ultra?

[Todd H]

Interesting... lowering DAC link caused computer screen brightness to remain at maximum for as long as I cared to stare at it but now the music does not play, even after changing DAC link back to previous setting (1000), which I was using to get rid of pops and cracks. It seems odd the computer screen would light up because it's not waking from a sleep state. It's more like it's abandoning the adjustments I've made to the brightness, much like it does momentarily when first starting after being shut down.

 

Have never tried Classic. Everything works fine with Hysolid but looking forward to improved sound quality with JPLAY.

 

EDIT: Tried JPLAY Classic in the Engine Option section and music started to play again, for the same brief period. I then changed to XStream to try that and after some screen flashing I got the blue screen of death with the message "your computer has encountered some problems and needs to restart", which it did. I then restarted JPLAY and Bubble, again tried XStream, and again received blue screen and restart. It has restarted but the screen is black. Now I'm REALLY stumped. Did the screen brightness battle kill the video card?

 

EDIT 2: Was able to restart computer and functions fine as long as JPLAY and Bubble not activated. I must have something setup in a way that is causing fairly catastrophic conflict.

[Ben Webster]

Sounds very strange.

Does any other app on this computer has also a not normal behaviour?

[Todd H]

I agree, odd. Nothing else is behaving differently, everything seems to be working fine. I'm playing music via youtube and firefox right now just to put a little stress on the system and test for blue screen. CPU running at about 14% and RAM at 21'sh. System is:

Dell Latitude 7280 Intel Core i7-7600 2.80GHz

16GB RAM

500GB Crucial P1 M.2 PCI Express 3.0 Internal Solid State Drive

[Ben Webster]

Can you deinstall JPlay, reboot and install again?

[Todd H]

Good idea. I uninstalled/reinstalled. The system no longer crashes but it also will not play music. When I touch the play button on the hand held android device I get a message that says "current status of service prevents evoking that action. Connection error or no response received (code: 501)"

 

The wifi is up and functioning properly. The Bubble server is connected to the internet, and I can move from music file to music file. They just won't play.

 

 

Something I noticed different; The Bubble renderer options on the tablet now has three options instead of two. Bubble local renderer was added.

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•  Renderer Option on Bubble.jpg   526.46KB   0 downloads

[Thuan]

Have you checked and optimized the DAC driver? It has to be at lowest latency and as low as possible buffer.

[Todd H]

Hmm, no I haven't.. I have to run now but I'll check later tonight after family goes to bed.

 

Thanks Ben and Thuan for the suggestions so far. Much appreciated.

[BernieK]

Hi Todd H,

 

Here are a few possibilities.

 

You mentioned that you tried a lower DAC link. Did you try them all?

 

This may be a needless question, but did you follow all the steps in the manual for setting up Bubble UPnP?

 

The error message you received for Bubble UPnP can be due to a momentary interruption in the WiFi / network service (which otherwise would seem to operating properly) or for some other reason an inability to access the music library. With respect to the latter possibility, that sort of network / access interruption might also occur along with the screen brightness change and that would negatively impact Bubble UPnP.

 

In the past another Forum member reported that If the Bubble screen on his remote device was not turned on, he could only get one auto advance to the next track and then music playback would stop after playing this second track. His solution was to click on the cover of the track that was playing to maximize it and this would keep the screen on. The tracks would auto advance and music playback would continue. So does your screen remain continuously on when using Bubble UPnP?

 

Cheers,

 

Bernie

[Todd H]

Thuan, I could not find an option to change latency or buffer settings for DAC driver. DAC is Naim V1. Are you sure those parameters are adjustable? I'll keep looking.

 

Hello Bernie, I did not try all the DAC links because the computer kept crashing after I made the first couple changes. However, I was able to play around with it more tonight without crashing. Here is what I found, so far:

 

EDIT: I forgot to mention, Xstream 500 crashed the computer/blue screen and forced restart.

 

Ultrastream and Classic at 45, 100 & 200 have a lot of static and popping.

 

Ultrastream and Classic at 500 play clean for 24 seconds then get very staticy.

 

Ultrastream 700 is barely discernable through the static.

Classic 700 will not play.

 

Ultrastream 1000 plays clean for 10 seconds, then stops and forwards to next song on play list, but doesnt play it.

 

Ultrastream 1 indicated it was playing on hand held Bubble device by switching from play arrow to pause bars on GUI. Also, accessing JPLAY settings was blocked in the same way as if music was being played. Yet, music time bar was not moving, and no music could be heard.

 

The block reulting from Ultrastream 1 is still in place. I tried alot of things, including rebooting computer  and restarting Bubble on Android, but I'm still trying to figue that out.

 

To answer the question about following directions for Bubble installation correctly: I think so but might have to start over. But I will say, when I installed the free version of Femto, I had the same problem.

 

Thanks All

[Thuan]

Try to navigate to the DAC driver folder. There should be a control panel application (file extension .cpl). If such application doesn’t exist in DAC driver folder, you’re out of luck. If that’s the case and you really need to adjust those settings, get a DDC such as a Singxer SU-2. Its XMOS driver sure lets you optimize the settings.

[Todd H]

OK, got it. I'll give that a try.

 

In the post above I forgot to mention, Xstream 500 crashed the computer/blue screen and forced restart.

[BernieK]

The DAC driver panel may also show up as an item in the Windows Control Panel. If so, you should be able to access the latency setting there.

[Todd H]

Yes, the control panel is where I found it earlier but their were no options to make those changes. I will look for a folder as Thuan suggested. Fingers crossed.

[Todd H]

OK, update. Bernie, I uninstalled and reinstalled both JPLAY and Bubble to make sure all directions were followed correctly. I have the screen on all the time unless I change the sleep setting on JPLAY settings, then it turns of when music plays, but this doesnt seem to affect playback. It seems as long as I don't use the Xstreme selection, the computer doesnt crash. Not sure why but didnt want to play with it any further.

 

Thuan, their is no way I could find to change the buffer or latency that I can identify. But it does seem like buffering could be the issue.

 

Here are a few more notes from playing with the DAC link.

 

I can set up as either WASAPI or Kernel Streaming but WASAPI will not work with ULTRAstream. Both WASAPI using Classic, and KS using both Classic and ULTRAstream at 1000 will play clean for 10 - 20 seconds then stop.

 

Same thing at 500 except it doesnt stop playing, rather it gets very staticy with pops and cracks.

 

As I work down the number list it cleans up the static until I get to 1. One will not play at all. In fact, it does something to disable JPLAY when I attempt listening at 1. I have to restart the services in Task Manager in order to regain access to JPLAY Settings and change the DAC Link.

 

Using lower settings like 5 cleans up some of the static but stops JPLAY from running, hence the earlier msg I posted about not connecting. I figured our I could just restart service in Task Manager.

 

So, everything is working fine outside of really staticy sound, or clean sound that only lasts 15'sh seconds and then stops.

 

Help!

[Thuan]

Sorry to hear. Looks like the DAC driver doesn’t cooperate. In addition, the Dell laptop may not be powerful enough. I’d get a DDC and be happy.

[BernieK]

 

 

Here are a few more notes from playing with the DAC link.

 

I can set up as either WASAPI or Kernel Streaming but WASAPI will not work with ULTRAstream. Both WASAPI using Classic, and KS using both Classic and ULTRAstream at 1000 will play clean for 10 - 20 seconds then stop.

 

Same thing at 500 except it doesnt stop playing, rather it gets very staticy with pops and cracks.

 

As I work down the number list it cleans up the static until I get to 1. One will not play at all. In fact, it does something to disable JPLAY when I attempt listening at 1. I have to restart the services in Task Manager in order to regain access to JPLAY Settings and change the DAC Link.

 

Using lower settings like 5 cleans up some of the static but stops JPLAY from running, hence the earlier msg I posted about not connecting. I figured our I could just restart service in Task Manager.

 

So, everything is working fine outside of really staticy sound, or clean sound that only lasts 15'sh seconds and then stops.

 

Help!

 

Hi Todd H,

 

ULTRAStream does not work with WASAPI, only with Kernel Streaming or ASIO (see the 'JPLAY settings panel explained' section of the manual). So that's not a problem.

 

One more possibility: have you tried running JPLAY with the Throttle set to 'Off' in the Settings panel? From the Manual: 'When Throttle mode is activated, JPLAY will reduce to absolute minimum both CPU and I/O priorities of all running processes and individual threads in the system it can get to, without risking the stability of Windows. Note that if use only a single PC this will reduce system’s responsiveness!'' Depending on the capabilities of your PC, this may be contributing to your playback issues.

 

Aside from that, I have to agree with Thuan that the DAC driver, or possibly the PC, may lie at the root of your problem. Is it possible for you to try another DAC or PC  (perhaps borrowed?) to see if you can eliminate either of these possibilities?

 

Cheers,

 

Bernie

[Todd H]

OK, I'll try the throttle thing. I considered that but removing some of JPLAY's priority on system resources seemed counterintuitive. But you're absolutely right, it's worth a shot.

 

I'm a little hesitant on the DDC, adding another component in the stream is the opposite of ideal, then I assume the expense of another cable as well. If I have to I certainly will but hoping for a simpler solution. Eh, we'll see.

 

I do have other laptop and DAC options, although not the same quality. But I'll give those a go and report back.

 

By the way, for reference, my system is:

 

Dedicated Dell Latitude 7280 Intel Core i7-7600 2.80GHz, 16GB RAM.

Naim DAC V1 connected via Chord or Curious USB (testing both)

Modified Naim 102 pre-amp

Modified Naim HiCap Power Supply

Modified Naim 250 Power Amp

Chapman T-7 Speakers

 

 

EDIT: I should add that everything worked fine when I was using Hysolid, Lemonade (26) and Majorityclean. That was a nice combination but I'm looking forward to the sonic improvements of JPLAY, and AO once I get this issue sorted. Anyway, all of that is to say, the computer and the DAC don't seem to have any inherent problems. It's clearly some sort of software issue. That's why I'm hopeful there is a tweak to be found.

 

Oh, and more thing; thank you guys so much for all your help. It's really great to have access to so much experience and expertise. Much appreciated.

[Thuan]

Your laptop seems powerful enough, and DDC is out of question, I got it. I’m running out of ideas. By the way, coming from a Hysolid user, I think the JPLAY/AO/MCLE path is worth your while. Wishing you best of luck.