Audio stuttering when app is moved to background[Ticket in]

This has gone silent for a long time. Still no fix in the latest Android App I upgraded to. Thought I’d add to this …

Unlistenable stuttering only happens if I have headphones plugged into my Note 8, use the Roon Remote to play music, and switch away from the app to any other app.

But if I use a Bluetooth headphone and stream from the Roon Remote to the Bluetooth headphone, I -CAN- put the Roon Remote app in the background and there is no stuttering.

Hi There! :slight_smile: Were your developers able to recreate the reported issue? Thanx.

Hello Mike. What is the status now 1.6 is out in the field? Is this issue that was already reported in 2016 (!) now looked at by a developer and ‘in progress’? I love much about Roon, but find it hard to believe that this is still a problem, including on devices like the LG V30 capable of very good sound.
I fully appreciate that not everything is under Roon’s control, but no other music app I use suffers from this issue. Please prioritise this - for the sufferers who reported this with different wording under various unlinked threads, as well as the silent ones! Thanks.

(On my LG V30 on 8.0.0 as well as a Lenovo YT3-X90F tablet on 6.0.1 the issue persists with Roon 1.6 as of this morning)

My new phone with a snapdragon 845 processor stutters in the background, so I am not sure this is ever going to get fixed; sadly.

@support I just checked after the 1.6 upgrade and my LG V40 is still experiencing stutter when the app is in the background.

Hello @mannp. In my darkest moments :wink: I agree; but in that case I believe there should be clarity on what Roon believes the position is with regard to using (affected) android devices as endpoints in themselves, rather than just as a remotes for other endpoints. And under which conditions / on which devices trouble can be expected.
My impression is that this issue affects a non-neglible proportion of the android market, but that’s only based on my own experience (2 of my 3 devices) and that I found several references on this forum (in this thread and others, without looking too hard) to the same issues affecting different makes and models. Hardly scientific, and I could be wrong - maybe I simply have a talent for buying the wrong kit :thinking:
Still, I have not given up as only last month @mike hinted that this was, or was going to be, under investigation. Just confused that Roon appears not to have rated this as a higher priority so far. Perhaps I am simply underestimating what they have been doing behind the scenes (like that thought!) or how complicated this issue is to get on top of. (like that less!). Or both. Time and Roon response will tell, I guess.

I have already given up on this issue and are seriously considering moving away from roon altogether.

Family including myself use Spotify outside the house. Have put raspotify on all dietpi endpoints for Spotify connect functionality. Only use roon+tidal for main rig now. However I find I am using Spotify in the main rig more and more…

Sad because I really wanted roon to work for me but right now it is not looking to be a long lasting relationship.

I have to admire your optimism @ToneDeaf but I am guessing its the software stack they use to build the android app is causing the issues and so they have little choice to accept or get the changes done upstream.

Of course I have no idea and that’s really the point for me … communication. Likely I have missed other announcements because I still use my squeezeboxes with deezer hifi.

That said chromecast took a while and was delivered, so after 2 years, 7 months, 26 days ish I still hope its sorted for the times I use roon and flip between apps to just get that annoying stutter…

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All good points @mannp, especially the one quoted, being left in the dark is galling.
Like @Joachim_Fishman, I have options for streaming via spotify connect to pretty much everything that acts like a Roon endpoint, and start to find myself the only one using Roon - partner and guests perceive it as relatively complex and confusing (I understand that but am prepared to take the bad with the good), and they just don’t get it why I put up with things like the issue discussed on this thread.
They got me thinking and experimenting with other options for high res streaming and my owned collection but with two years of a life subscription behind me I try to be optimistic for another two or three years at least. Even for someone with a warped psychology like mine :rofl: that doesn’t make sense, but still… meanwhile I am enjoying the integration with Qobuz and what it does to Radio on my non-android endpoints and am trying to get my head around the sync issues between Roon an streaming services. That will keep me busy for a while. I am seriously digressing.

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It isn’t all Android phones my OnePlus 5T plays flawlessly.

Yep. That’s my third android device, hence the ‘2 out of 3’ in one of my posts above. But still, 2 out of 3…

EDIT: in my dreams, it’s a 3T :frowning_face:

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I’m having the same problem with my iPad to Chromecast audio hookup.

Is there a way to set or change the buffer. I believe that increasing the buffer size, at least in my situation, could help.

Hi @mike, all,

Prompted by another thread where someone suggested behaviour of Roon on an LG V35 would recently have changed, I started experimenting a bit. I didn’t notice anything new / different on my LG V30 (running Android 8.0.0) , but then, out of curiosity, turned the Private Zone setting to ‘No’, and played around with Sample Rate Conversion settings (under DSP).

Perhaps of interest when this ticket is actively looked at by the Roon team, the issue of immediate severely distorted sound when Roon is not in focus on my LG V30 seems to disappear when setting sample rate conversion to 48kHZ - this seems to hold for each sample rate (44.1, 48, 88.2, 96 and 192kHz) and bit depth (16 or 24) for which I have tracks to test with, as well as a poor, lonely DSD128 track.

Previously everything was set to ‘DEFAULT’. Now, with conversion to 48kHz I cannot identify any difference between playback with Roon in or out of focus. Opening, closing, using other apps or activating battery saver settings also seems to have no further detrimental effect.

Conversion to other rates (including 96kHZ) does not give the same ‘improvement’; also setting allowed Max Sample Rate to 96kHZ or bit depth to 24bits (under device settings) has no discernible effect. on my device.

I wonder if others notice same? I will tomorrow also try this out on a Lenovo tablet which has shown similar behaviour.

For what it is worth … and apologies if I am not saying anything new - I failed to pick up anything alike from a quick search on the forum.

Note: sound remains far from satisfactory: whether Roon is in our out of focus, there are frequent audible artefacts (crackling, like playing damaged vinyl), but the further deterioration when backgrounding Roon seems to disappear. (And of course only the android mixer is available :unamused:, not the separate and better path via the ESS Sabre DAC, but that is a different matter)

Screenshots of settings below.

Private Zone off:

Sample rate conversion to 48kHZ for all rates available in my library:

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6 posts were split to a new topic: Dropouts when using playing back to remotes

A post was split to a new topic: Dropouts when Android device is used as a remote

Confirmed.

I am having the same issue on s9.

A post was merged into an existing topic: Dropouts when Android device is used as a remote

So it seems that using the native sample rate of the device provides the best results.
I found this simple test app for determining the native sample rate. There’s also an accompanying web site that shows some results, so if your phone is already listed, you don’t have to test yourself.

It’s definitely disheartening to see that years in this issue is still not resolved. I’m getting the issue on my s9+ and was hoping to find a quick solution here. It would be nice to be able to switch to another app or turn off my screen while listening.

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