Song Playback Delayed Momentarily on HD-100

[DOS64K]

I've only recently rebuilt my music library and have been thoroughly enjoying it again, but I have noticed that during playback of an album, the first 1-2 seconds of audio is cutoff on each track when using the HD-100. My other HD-100 does the same thing.
I checked it on the server and it plays back perfectly. I searched the forums to see if it had been identified before, but only found references to overall playback issues (network speed, etc.) unless I've missed something. Is this a known issue or am I experiencing something unique to my setup? I'm currently running 6.4.5 beta and the latest HD-100 firmware.
Thanks in advance.

[Rob]

I've noticed this also. It is very distracting especially on albums when two tracks do not have a break in between them. The music is supposed to smoothly transition from song to song without any silence, but instead there is a break in between them.

[DOS64K]

Originally Posted by Rob

I've noticed this also. It is very distracting especially on albums when two tracks do not have a break in between them. The music is supposed to smoothly transition from song to song without any silence, but instead there is a break in between them.

Does the "break" you experience actually lose the first second or two of the song, or is it merely an extra delay?

Does anyone know how the extender is processing the songs? Is there anything in sage.client.properties that might affect this?

[reggie14]

Originally Posted by DOS64K

Does the "break" you experience actually lose the first second or two of the song, or is it merely an extra delay?

I certainly lose the first second or two with an HD100. The same thing happened when I used an MVP. It's happened ever since I started using extenders. I've never bothered to file a bug report, so someone probably should. It's a pretty obvious issue, so I assume they know about it. I don't know why they haven't fixed it.

[DOS64K]

I'll file a report with them. It seems like such an obvious wart on an otherwise phenomenal piece of hardware.

[DOS64K]

George from Sage support offered this suggestion:
"One of the developers said one thing you should try is using analog audio to see if it also has the problem. This could be related to a tv/receiver audio restarting delay. "

Sure enough, that fixed it. I was grabbing my audio for a 2.1 speaker system off of the TV's headphone jack (HD-100 to TV via HDMI) and apparently, my Sony was restarting the audio when it sensed the break in between tracks, thus the 1-2 second ommission of audio. Once I grabbed straight from the stereo jacks on the HD100, the problem disappeared.

Thanks to George and the "devs" at Sage for solving a very annoying (albeit small) problem!

[reggie14]

Originally Posted by DOS64K

Thanks to George and the "devs" at Sage for solving a very annoying (albeit small) problem!

Actually, I'm really disappointed to hear that. George's "solution" doesn't really solve it as much as it shows it's not Sage's fault. I'm certainly not dropping down to the analog signal, especially since I watch various things that have dolby digital sound. I guess I'll just have to live with the pause in the audio.

I wonder if the same thing happens when I play back CDs through my receiver.

[gplasky]

Originally Posted by reggie14

Actually, I'm really disappointed to hear that. George's "solution" doesn't really solve it as much as it shows it's not Sage's fault. I'm certainly not dropping down to the analog signal, especially since I watch various things that have dolby digital sound. I guess I'll just have to live with the pause in the audio.

I wonder if the same thing happens when I play back CDs through my receiver.

All you have to do is bypass any audio going to the TV and connect the HD100 directly to your receiver. I use the SPDIF and have no issues.

Gerry

[reggie14]

Originally Posted by gplasky

All you have to do is bypass any audio going to the TV and connect the HD100 directly to your receiver. I use the SPDIF and have no issues.
Gerry

Really? I've always used SPDIF with both my old MVP and my new HD100, and I've always had this problem. I'll try the analog workaround just to see if it works for me. But, I'd rather just deal with the delay than move to analog.

[Rob]

Originally Posted by reggie14

Actually, I'm really disappointed to hear that. George's "solution" doesn't really solve it as much as it shows it's not Sage's fault. I'm certainly not dropping down to the analog signal, especially since I watch various things that have dolby digital sound. I guess I'll just have to live with the pause in the audio.

I wonder if the same thing happens when I play back CDs through my receiver.

I agree.

I no longer have a client machine, but I'm thinking this was not an issue when I did have a client and I'm sure I was using SPDIF with the client. I have no intention of adding extra cables and having to switch inputs on the reciever when I go from other sage functions to listening to music. Sage needs to fix this!

[DOS64K]

Originally Posted by Rob

I agree.

I no longer have a client machine, but I'm thinking this was not an issue when I did have a client and I'm sure I was using SPDIF with the client. I have no intention of adding extra cables and having to switch inputs on the reciever when I go from other sage functions to listening to music. Sage needs to fix this!

It remains to be seen whether this is a problem with the extender's handling of the HDMI audio stream or the individual TVs' handling of the stream being passed to it. It would likely help to know who else is having this issue, and what their particular audio configuration is. As I stated in my OP, I hadn't really seen this issue addressed specifically before, so assumed it was a rare occurrence.

In my particular case, it was worth the extra cabling to eliminate the problem regardless of what device caused it.

[Rob]

For reference then, my configuration is spdif out of the extender into a AV reciever. No HDMI and no TV in the equation.

Since the only two components are the extender and the receiver, it must be an issue with the extender (just assuming it cannot be an issue with the receiver).

[JREkiwi]

This is most likely an issue with how your receiver handles switching between digital streams.

I know on my receiver, if it's set to auto-detect (DD, DTS, Analog) then I always miss the first second while it is determining the stream type. If it's manually set to the stream that I'm sending it, it doesn't miss anything.

John

[Rob]

Originally Posted by JREkiwi

This is most likely an issue with how your receiver handles switching between digital streams.

I know on my receiver, if it's set to auto-detect (DD, DTS, Analog) then I always miss the first second while it is determining the stream type. If it's manually set to the stream that I'm sending it, it doesn't miss anything.

John

Your probably right. Mine is probably set to auto since I never switch it between DD sources and DTS sources. It would stink to have to switch it back and forth as sources change, but it also stinks that it has to re-determine the stream each time a song changes. Maybe it is something sage cannot fix in which case I'll have to either complicate my setup or find a better way to stream music.

I need to carry my server upstairs to the media room and test it straight to the receiver. I just don't remember this being a problem when I had a client in place of the extender.

[reggie14]

Originally Posted by JREkiwi

I know on my receiver, if it's set to auto-detect (DD, DTS, Analog) then I always miss the first second while it is determining the stream type. If it's manually set to the stream that I'm sending it, it doesn't miss anything.

I never thought about that, but it makes perfect sense. That would explain why I've had the same problem with both my MVP and HD100. I'll try setting it to manual, just to see if it works. I don't think I'll keep it on manual, but I'm curious if that fixes it.