Pause and interruptions in playback

Hello,

I’m testing Roon, the configuration is Tablet Android, Synology NAS and direct DAC HRT MicroStreamer (well recognized by Roon). Now with Synology DS applications it never happens that I have some pauses 1 second in the playback while Roon I occasionally (in 1 track, about 2 times pause, in 1 CD 8-10 times pause). What can it be?

I apologize, I posted by mistake in the other section software.

Which Synology NAS are you using?

Have you read over this article about dropouts?

@Eric will be in touch to gather some more information, and I’ll clean up the other thread, but let us know which NAS you’re using and we’ll figure this out. Thanks!

I’m using a 916+, 8GB RAM, 500GB SSD, with 200,000 tracks, the Roon was working with background processes, but in the meantime I have disabled them.

I did a first test: off background processes (background Audio Analysis Speed and On-Demand Audio Analysis), with the direct sound off the Tablet (OS mixer, with wifi) and made two stops in 40 min. It does not seem to be causing ill microstreamer DAC.

Waiting now do a test with direct playback from Windows …

File test: flac, 44.100, 16bit

I looked this up and it appears to have a Pentium N3710 – let me know if that’s not correct.

This CPU is significantly slower than what we recommend for Roon. While you might have decent performance with a small library (say 8-12k tracks), for me personally I like everything to be nice and snappy as I’m searching and browsing, and if I owned that NAS with a small collection, I might end up purchasing an i3 NUC anyway.

For a 200,000 track collection, you’re really going to want a more powerful processor running your Core. As described in the dropouts article I linked above, running a large library on a device that’s well below our recommendations can lead to performance issues with browsing, or to audio dropouts.

It’s important to understand why Roon requires a much more powerful Core than most media players. You can find information about this here, but let me know if you have any questions @guimx.

I absolutely understand the appeal of running the Core on your NAS, but with a 200k track collection, you’re going to want a NAS with a much faster CPU, an Intel NUC or similar, or a Windows or OSX device with a more powerful CPU.

It is that the processor, quad up to 2.4 GHz.

I did several tests, even with a library of 100 songs, but usually there is always a pause for a second in 20 minutes and this seems strange to me, I’d do a final test on hold Roon concludes the background process, which only 200,000 traces it takes a long time, beyond that granted for the Roon test.
But if there is confidence that with a CPU more smoothly we might think. An i5 sonictransport is enough? Or do you need an i7?

I was looking at synology nas’s and also the QNAP and it seems QNAP has better spec options with the likes of i5-6500 etc that might be better suited but as I already built a Windows 10 PC to use for jriver and now Roon then I think I will just use the nas’s I have for media storage and stick with a PC for the server and database…all on ssd.

Maybe an ssd cache on my ds1813+ which has about 8.5TB of music might improve some performance but so far all is ok, and backed up on my ds713+, which I tried Roon core running on and it was hopeless.

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May I ask what’s wrong with Synology 713+?

An Intel Atom with 1GB of RAM falls way below the minimum recommended specs for a start…

I have not seen the specifics of 713+, this is clear.

It was slow….and while waiting for it to index stuff it was impossible to play anything

with 2 x 6TB drives in there there is no room to put an SSD to cache stuff.

as I said a new NAS is probably going to set me back more than a PC that I have already built in a fan less case and I need that for j-River with video support etc.

Thanks, but when he finish the index, you experience dropouts in playback of music?

it never even got that far after 2 days…I gave up

Ok, then test again. Interesting! Update run, the background process start from the beginning.

200k songs, background processes running, a drop-out occurs ALWAYS BETWEEN 15 and 20 minutes of music playback. Up to 15 minutes no drop out.
To find out if further there is a new drop out I have to continue with playback after 20 min.
Also you need to repeat the test.

Iirc it managed to import only about 14,000 tracks and was stuck analyzing at 14 only for at least a day. I might try it again as the database is there and when I have time to test it again I will do so

Hi, I still played several very interesting test:

First phase: with Background Analysis in “Fast”, drop out 1/2 - 1 second, Drop Out is “DO”

Listening 1: flac 16/44, 1st drop out 25 minutes of playback, 2nd DO approximately 46 min, test off

Listening 2: flac 24/96, 1st DO 4:30 min, 2nd DO 28.50 min, test off

Listening 3: flac 24/96, 1st DO 1:50 min, 2nd DO 6:10 min, test off

Listening 4: flac 16/44, 1st DO 4 min, test off

Listening 5: mp3, 1st DO 5:40 min, 2nd DO 16 min, test off

Listening 6: flac 24/192, 1st DO 5:30 min, 2nd DO 7:40 min, test off

The second phase, a folder loaded with 110 songs, background analysis completely

Listening 1: flac 16/44, 1st DO 50 sec, 2nd DO 16 min DP, off tests

Listening 2: flac 16/44, 1st DO 2:05 min, test off

Conclusions: should know how the Roon engineers

  1. It seems to me that the second phase says that perhaps is not the CPU
  2. The DP are completely random, but usually never more than one in the same track and approximately 2-4 per disc.

The nature of Roon is that the Core is ALWAYS carrying out various processes to do with Metadata, Library Management and other Core related activities…and the timing of these processes are essentially random and may well correspond with the Drop Outs you are seeing above

And in summary, the mix of a Pentium processor and a 200,000 Track Library is simply not going to work when using it as your Roon core…I’m a little surprised it’s working to the extent that it currently is

The best advise here would be to leave your Library stored on your Synology NAS…but to buy a Core i5 / i7 NUC / Mac Mini / Linux box with an SSD for the Roon database and 8 to 16Gb Ram…and then use that ‘box’ as your Roon Core / Server, with your Library staying on your Synology

You can also purchase a Core i5 / i7 based Synology NAS and use that in place of your current Synology…but that is not necessary IMHO

Okay, but how do you explain that with 110 songs, with no background analysis, there are the same Drop Out?

As stated above very CLEARLY, Roon is always carrying out OTHER Processes involved in Library and Metadata Management…i.e. there are many other Library Management processes other than Background Analysis

These Processes are ALWAYS ongoing and essentially Random in their timing…and because your Pentium processor is so underpowered, it simply cannot perform this Process AND maintain music replay at the same time…hence Dropouts

Since Day 1, the Roon team have made the strongest possible case for using appropriate hardware {Processor, SSD and RAM] for the Roon Core / Server…and the Processor / RAM combo in your Synology doesn’t come near to meeting those strongly stated baseline requirements