Glitches problem

Support questions for Neutron Player only.
linutux
Posts: 2
Joined: Sat Nov 09, 2013 11:25 pm

Re: Glitches problem

Post by linutux » Thu Nov 14, 2013 4:15 am

Just discovered that this problem is not reproducible on the Nexus 5 when it's being charged. Maybe a power mode/cpu speed issue?
Also, I hear a huge difference between the drivers on the Nexus 5 using Shure SE430 IEMs. Almost as good as my old iPhone 3G.

dmitrykos
Site Admin
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Re: Glitches problem

Post by dmitrykos » Wed Nov 20, 2013 3:00 pm

> linutux
> Maybe a power mode/cpu speed issue?

If problem goes away then most probably yes. Some firmwares are not providing enough CPU time for background process, or may be when device is running on battery. What if you try option: Settings -> Audio Hardware -> CPU Wake Lock for battery mode.

dmitrykos
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Re: Glitches problem

Post by dmitrykos » Wed Nov 20, 2013 3:01 pm

> HokieMatt
> sound like they are being played at max volume

What about [Reset Gain] value in Settings -> Automatic Gain Control? Is it on 0.0 dB or higher? If higher, reset to 0 with slider and check if distortions went away.

HokieMatt
Posts: 26
Joined: Tue Jan 15, 2013 5:52 pm

Re: Glitches problem

Post by HokieMatt » Wed Nov 20, 2013 3:47 pm

Dmitri,

Not sure on that one. I re-ripped a bunch of tracks to m4a format to get around this problem. I ended up reinstalling Neutron after doing a firmware update on the Cowon, now remaining 160kbps WMA tracks seem to play fine. I am still having the problem with Neutron crashing.

dmitrykos
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Re: Glitches problem

Post by dmitrykos » Wed Nov 20, 2013 8:25 pm

Is possible to reproduce (some steps) those crashes or they happen sporadically?

HokieMatt
Posts: 26
Joined: Tue Jan 15, 2013 5:52 pm

Re: Glitches problem

Post by HokieMatt » Thu Nov 21, 2013 1:50 pm

dmitrykos wrote:Is possible to reproduce (some steps) those crashes or they happen sporadically?
I have no idea how to reproduce the crash. No specific actions seem to trigger it; I will just be listening to a track and it will suddenly crash. I've had it happen from a few different views - the standard album art Now Playing screen, the EQ screen, the standalone spectrum analyzer screen. Again, it doesn't happen upon a command or screen press, and the time between crashes seems to be completely random. Sometimes it will play for close to an hour, sometimes it will crash 3 times in 20 minutes.

Is there any way to get an earlier version of the player to see if it is stable? Maybe I should start keeping an archive so I can easily go back if a new release gives me trouble. 8-)

dmitrykos
Site Admin
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Re: Glitches problem

Post by dmitrykos » Thu Nov 21, 2013 2:44 pm

Neutron is playing constantly on one of test devices and during tests on other never crashes (otherwise would catch the issue with debugger). Such sporadic crashes could be caused inside the OS audio layer too. What if you try to disable Generic Driver in Settings -> Audio Hardware and check if Neutron is more stable or not? Also some other 3-rd party plugins or buggy apps which are listening to audio stream could be causing crashes. What about NEON and standard versions, all are crashing in the same manner?

HokieMatt
Posts: 26
Joined: Tue Jan 15, 2013 5:52 pm

Re: Glitches problem

Post by HokieMatt » Thu Nov 21, 2013 9:03 pm

Sorry, I don't see how to do that in Settings --> Audio Hardware. I get some info at the top of the screen - CPU, VEC, DRV. I assume DRV is the driver; it indicates "AudioTrack (JNI)". Clicking in this area does nothing. Then there are sliders for Hardware & Software Latency and Balance,then several radio buttons. Hardware Gain and Audio Focus are enabled (by default, I did not change these).

I have no other 3rd party apps installed on this device; it is used strictly as a music player. I also installed the latest firmware hoping it might solve the problem; as part of that process I reformatted the device's storage and reinstalled Neutron from scratch. I tried the non-NEON version and it won't start at all, just runs through the loading screen then crashes to the device home screen.

Note, as I was typing this the app crashed while scrolling through the root Settings screen with nothing playing. I had not seen that happen before.

dmitrykos
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Re: Glitches problem

Post by dmitrykos » Fri Nov 22, 2013 2:45 pm

Do you have ability (or will) to re-flash firmware of your device? There is something in the OS happening, like massive memory corruption.

> I get some info at the top of the screen - CPU, VEC, DRV

If you scroll the Audio Hardware list, Audio Driver must be before Speaker Configuration option. It will be present though only on 3.0+ Android.

HokieMatt
Posts: 26
Joined: Tue Jan 15, 2013 5:52 pm

Re: Glitches problem

Post by HokieMatt » Fri Nov 22, 2013 4:40 pm

I did reflash the firmware and reformat the internal memory, because of this issue. It didn't fix the problem, but I have no issue doing it again. Would it be OK to try to salvage neutron's database or should I recreate that too? If I can reuse it, what files do I need to save?

The device runs Android 2.3.5, so I guess that explains the lack of an Audio Driver setting.

Is it possible to get an earlier release? I have seen this happen before and the instability has always gone away with the next release, so I'm not 100% convinced the device is failing.

Are there any settings in Neutron that I should consider changing for better stability?

EDIT: I found a repeatable sequence - toggling 64-bit processing on or off, whether a track is playing or not, will crash Neutron.

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