Unreasonable delay when skipping tracks

[Roseweave]

It can take anywhere from a full second to not at all(which causes it to freeze if I pause/restart the track when I'm skipping in shuffle mode. I never have this problem with the OF, and it was significantly less of an issue with my Clip+.

I've tried removing unnecessary tags etc. but it hasn't really helped much. I don't understand why the OF has no issue with this, but Rockbox struggles.

[saratoga]

Which player?

[Roseweave]

Sorry, Sansa Fuze v1

[jhMikeS]

Album art can cause significant delays in loading a track not already in the buffer.

[Roseweave]

I don't think it's due to that. Is there a way to disable Album Art just in case?

This is really very b ad as it causes the unit to lock up regularly.

[saratoga]

If you grab a couple test files from here:

http://download.rockbox.org/test_files/

Does the problem still occur?

[jhMikeS]

I don't think it's due to that. Is there a way to disable Album Art just in case?

This is really very b ad as it causes the unit to lock up regularly.

Make sure HAVE_ALBUMART is not defined in firmware/export/config/sansafuze.h and build.

[Roseweave]

I don't think it's due to that. Is there a way to disable Album Art just in case?

This is really very b ad as it causes the unit to lock up regularly.

Make sure HAVE_ALBUMART is not defined in firmware/export/config/sansafuze.h and build.

Please don't make the assumption everyone has an environment set up for compiling... it's been years since I've done so...
Post Merge: September 28, 2011, 10:59:16 AM

If you grab a couple test files from here:

http://download.rockbox.org/test_files/

Does the problem still occur?

I don't understand the purpose of these test files and how to use them? They're just regular audio files, why would they be any different?

[Llorean]

You asked for a way to disable album art. He told you the only way that currently exists. He wasn't assuming you can compile so much as indicating it can only be done if you can compile. Album Art isn't really considered something you can enable or disable - tags in your files are assumed to be there intentionally.

As for the sample files, they're regular audio files that we specifically know how were created. If the problem can be reproduced with them that might help provide some information, or make it easier for other people to try to reproduce the problem. Given that most other people aren't reporting this problem, the first guess is always "maybe there's something different about the files being played, how can we narrow this down?"

[Roseweave]

Okay, what the hell.

I checked Directory Cache to be on the safe side. When I enable it -

*PANIC*

audio_reset_buffer_noalloc():E0M(3700 > 36720)

Sigh. I'll try older firmware.

[saratoga]

They're just regular audio files, why would they be any different?

Thats what I'm hoping you can tell us

[saratoga]

In another thread on this problem, Roseweave said:

What also bothers me is when I load on tracks when it's connected to USB in Rockbox mode, it'll power itself off.

If your player crashes or disconnects during USB mode, you can corrupt the files on it or even the entire filesystem.  It might be a good idea to reformat it, load the test tracks I linked above, and see if the problem still occurs. 

[Roseweave]

I loaded older firmware and turned Directory Caching on, but there's still a notable delay.

I'll try the test files later but I'm sceptical if it would make any different, all tracks seems to have at least a 1 sec delay when skipping regardless.

[jimbilly]

wouldn't using a theme with no album art 'disable' album art?   have you tried such a theme to see if skipping is faster?

[jhMikeS]

wouldn't using a theme with no album art 'disable' album art?   have you tried such a theme to see if skipping is faster?

You know, I'm not sure it would. Playback requests album art, not WPS and playback calls the functions to look for it no matter what. Whether somewhere down deep the AA search functions check the UI for appropriate tags, I've no idea.

The alternate way that doesn't require compiling is to use files stripped of AA and make sure no AA images exist in the music directory. At least that way it fails to locate any which would at least be faster than decoding the images.