Chromecast audio stutter (not network speed related) + minor ideas for improvements

[Insevh 0]

Hi all!

 

Sorry for the long post, I highlighted some essentials to save you the read 

First of all I'd like to thank the creators immensely for this amazing platform. It's MILES ahead of plex when it comes to music, and as a poor student I'm glad I can enjoy it free while I don't have a salary yet. 

I'm running a server on Ubuntu, connected through LAN. When playing music through my Chromecast Audio, it buffers nicely (usually 30-60sec ahead)

Unfortunately I can hear some very noticeable stutter at least 2-3 times per track, its not long, but it kind of ruins the experience when I'm really listening to the music. 

My library was in 24bit-96Khz initially, but then the stutter was painfully bad, so I just transcoded everything to 24-48. This made it better, but didn't solve it. Now its all in 16-48, and the stutter is still there.

The fact that smaller files make it better made me initially think it was network related, but analysing the network usage of the ubuntu system, I quickly noticed it was only sending packets every few seconds, a sign that it could more than keep up (?). Also, like said before, the stutter is also there when the song is properly buffered. 

 

Idea:  I set up a macro on my android that sends a WOL every time the Emby app is opened, this makes the experience so much better (the process of long pressing the server to wake it, then wait, then press ok, and then connect to the server is quite tedious).  When sending a Magic Packet on launch, the app automatically connects to the server, without having to select it out of the list.

Would perhaps be cool to implement this for other users.

 

Minor complaint: Emby server on Ubuntu doesn't keep the system awake while it is streaming (I have the system set to a 1h sleep timer, I have to watch my consumption due to being off grid). So my msuic stops every hour haha. I'm not really familiar with ubuntu so I'm not sure if its even possible to disable suspend as a program without sudo privileges.

But this is perhaps such an edge case scenario that its not worth implementing. 

I'd be glad to hear from you  

Edited May 31, 2021 by Insevh

[Abobader 3470]

Hello Insevh,

** This is an auto reply **

Please wait for someone from staff support or our members to reply to you.

It's recommended to provide more info, as it explain in this thread:

Thank you.

Emby Team

[Carlo 4561]

Hi, How is your Linux machine connected to your network?

[Insevh 0]

4 hours ago, cayars said:

Hi, How is your Linux machine connected to your network?

LAN! 

But like I said, I'm very confident its not network related. Data packets are only being sent every few seconds. And I consistently download media from the machine at over 30MB/s.

[Carlo 4561]

Any malware or virus protection programs running on the host machine?
Any VMs?

[Insevh 0]

13 minutes ago, cayars said:

Any malware or virus protection programs running on the host machine?
Any VMs?

Nothing of the like. The stutter only happens while playing on the Chomecast audio. All other devices play everything fine, even huge 192kHz/24bit/3500kbps FLAC files.

 

Its not the CCA either, because it plays Hi-res Tidal and Qobuz music with ease. 

[Carlo 4561]

OK, let's see if any of the devs have any ideas or questions.

[Luke 42083]

@Insevh can we please look at an example? Please attach the information requested in how to report a media playback issue. thanks !