Random TIDAL tracks skipping

[erich6]

I searched for this issue and I’ve seen others have similar problems but they don’t seem to have the same behavior as mine. I get what appear to be random skips. Sometimes the skipping happens and the track advances a couple of seconds but keeps playing. Other times, like below, the playback stops on the current track and Roon starts playing the next track. The second time was when I clicked back to play the track I was listening to. Please advise.

04/25 12:22:22 Trace: [Maestro Realtek] [Lossless, 16/44 TIDAL FLAC => 16/44] [100% buf] [PLAYING @ 5:13/8:40] Low Down and Dirty - George Benson
04/25 12:22:27 Trace: [Maestro Realtek] [Lossless, 16/44 TIDAL FLAC => 16/44] [100% buf] [PLAYING @ 5:18/8:40] Low Down and Dirty - George Benson
04/25 12:22:32 Trace: [Maestro Realtek] [Lossless, 16/44 TIDAL FLAC => 16/44] [100% buf] [PLAYING @ 5:23/8:40] Low Down and Dirty - George Benson
04/25 12:22:36 Info: [stats] 1658mb Virtual, 654mb Physical, 235mb Managed, 5660 Handles, 53 Threads
04/25 12:22:37 Trace: [Maestro Realtek] [zoneplayer/raat] sync Realtek ASIO: realtime=1462594774542 rtt=333us offset=-60281225us delta=238us drift=-1087us in 1462.457s (-0.744ppm, -2.677ms/hr)
04/25 12:22:37 Trace: [Maestro Realtek] [Lossless, 16/44 TIDAL FLAC => 16/44] [100% buf] [PLAYING @ 5:28/8:40] Low Down and Dirty - George Benson
04/25 12:22:40 Trace: [prebuffer] short read: 0 / 8820 fill=435432
04/25 12:22:42 Trace: [Maestro Realtek] [Lossless, 16/44 TIDAL FLAC => 16/44] [82% buf] [PLAYING @ 5:33/8:40] Low Down and Dirty - George Benson
04/25 12:22:48 Trace: [Maestro Realtek] [Lossless, 16/44 TIDAL FLAC => 16/44] [28% buf] [PLAYING @ 5:38/8:40] Low Down and Dirty - George Benson
04/25 12:22:51 Info: [stats] 1658mb Virtual, 654mb Physical, 244mb Managed, 6744 Handles, 53 Threads
04/25 12:22:53 Trace: [Maestro Realtek] [Lossless, 16/44 TIDAL FLAC => 16/44] [PLAYING @ 5:44/8:40] Low Down and Dirty - George Benson
04/25 12:22:56 Info: [zone Maestro Realtek] OnPlayFeedback OnToNext
04/25 12:22:56 Debug: [zone Maestro Realtek] _Advance
04/25 12:22:56 Info: [library] recorded play for profile 011778c8-8a96-4ccc-be5a-e58331a5ff25: mediaid=50:1:fd489a2d-4b12-4699-b872-5ce0159b7f83 metadataid= contentid=168:0:3963968 libraryid=50:1:fd489a2d-4b12-4699-b872-5ce0159b7f83
04/25 12:22:56 Trace: [library] finished with 20 dirty tracks 2 dirty albums 14 dirty performers 13 dirty works 15 dirty performances 0 clumping tracks, 0 clumping auxfiles 0 compute tracks, 0 deleted tracks, 0 tracks to (re)load, 0 tracks to retain, 0 auxfiles to (re)load, 0 auxfiles to retain, and 45 changed objects
04/25 12:22:56 Debug: [library/index] updating search indices: 8 ops 0 adds, 0 removes
04/25 12:22:56 Info: [zone Maestro Realtek] OnPlayFeedback Playing
04/25 12:22:56 Trace: [tidal/http] GET https://api.tidalhifi.com/v1/tracks/3963970/streamurl?countryCode=US&sessionId=77328000-97d2-480d-ac54-e9dee2d69557&soundQuality=LOSSLESS => Success
04/25 12:22:56 Trace: [tidal/http] GET https://api.tidalhifi.com/v1/tracks/3963970?countryCode=US&sessionId=77328000-97d2-480d-ac54-e9dee2d69557& => Success
04/25 12:22:56 Info: [Maestro Realtek] [zoneplayer] Queueing: http://ab-pr-ak.audio.tidal.com/d209f0d7e501c447f8b19bff78179406_26.flac
04/25 12:22:57 Info: [Maestro Realtek] [zoneplayer] Open result (Queueing): Result[Status=Success]
04/25 12:22:57 Trace: [prebuffer] ready 149940/441000 (34%) @ 0/341 sec
04/25 12:22:57 Trace: [streamingmediafile] immediate read of http://ab-pr-ak.audio.tidal.com/d209f0d7e501c447f8b19bff78179406_26.flac at 524288 length=33368933
04/25 12:22:58 Trace: [Maestro Realtek] [Lossless, 16/44 TIDAL FLAC => 16/44] [100% buf] [PLAYING @ 0:02/6:14] Billie's Bounce - George Benson / Charlie Parker
04/25 12:23:01 Trace: [streamingmediafile] finished caching http://ab-pr-ak.audio.tidal.com/d209f0d7e501c447f8b19bff78179406_26.flac
04/25 12:23:02 Trace: [zone Maestro Realtek] Playing 4 Items
04/25 12:23:02 Info: [zone Maestro Realtek] OnPlayFeedback Stopped
04/25 12:23:02 Trace: [zone Maestro Realtek] Playing TransportItem
04/25 12:23:02 Trace: [zone Maestro Realtek] queue got oversized. trimming 4 items from start
04/25 12:23:02 Debug: [zone Maestro Realtek] Remove(4 items, for_replace=False)
04/25 12:23:02 Info: [audio/env] [zoneplayer] All streams were disposed
04/25 12:23:02 Info: after removeall ordered count 5000 shuffle count 5000
04/25 12:23:02 Info: [audio/env] [zoneplayer -> stream] All streams were disposed
04/25 12:23:02 Trace: [Maestro Realtek] [zoneplayer/raat] Endpoint Realtek ASIO State Changed: Playing => Prepared
04/25 12:23:02 Trace: [Realtek ASIO] [raatclient] SENT [9]{"request":"end_stream"}
04/25 12:23:02 Debug: [raat/tcpaudiosource] disconnecting
04/25 12:23:02 Info: [audio/env] [zoneplayer -> stream -> endpoint] All streams were disposed
04/25 12:23:02 Trace: [Realtek ASIO] [raatclient] GOT [7] {"status":"Ended"}
04/25 12:23:02 Trace: [Realtek ASIO] [raatclient] GOT [9] {"status":"Success"}
04/25 12:23:02 Info: sleep 8ms after flush
04/25 12:23:02 Trace: [Maestro Realtek] [Lossless, 16/44 TIDAL FLAC => 16/44] [100% buf] [LOADING @ 0:00] Low Down and Dirty - George Benson

[eric (Eric Stewart)]

Hi @erich6 ----- Thank you for the report and sharing this observation you have made with us. The feedback is always appreciated!

Moving forward, to help aide in our understanding of this issue you are experiencing, may I very kindly ask you for the following:

1. A brief but accurate description of your current setup, using this link as a guide. This will give us a better sense as to what your setup looks like and the gear you are currently working with.

2. I understand from your report that you are experiencing skipping when playing TIDAL tracks, but just to confirm, how does locally stored content behave during playback?

3. Do you experience this skipping when streaming to all of your active audio zones?

4. Are you ever presented with any warnings or error messages when the issue occurs?

5. While it may seem a touch elementary, since noticing this behavior have you not only rebooted the device hosting your core but also your endpoints and any relevant network hardware as well?

-Eric

[erich6]

Thanks @eric Here are the answers to your questions:

A brief but accurate description of your current setup, using this link as a guide. This will give us a better sense as to what your setup looks like and the gear you are currently working with.

1. Version of Roon you are running: Roon version 1.4 build 310 64bit
2. Windows 10 Home 64 bit
3. Dell PC w/ 24 GB RAM, I7-7700 CPU @ 3.6 GHz
4. Roon core installed in PC’s 256 GB SSD. Music stored in the PC’s 1TB 7200 RPM hard disc. I use onboard Realtek DAC to external amp OR USB 3.0 interface to external DAC then amp. I also stream via wifi to Roon endpoints primarily a PC laptop (wifi network is around 70 Mbps steady on 5GHz with low latency). I only use these configurations one at a time (not simultaneously).
5. Collection size (approximate number of tracks): 28,177 tracks.

I understand from your report that you are experiencing skipping when playing TIDAL tracks, but just to confirm, how does locally stored content behave during playback?

Yes, this only happens with TIDAL tracks. Locally stored content plays fine in all my configurations. Another point of comparison: I do not get this behavior when streaming TIDAL using the TIDAL desktop application.

Do you experience this skipping when streaming to all of your active audio zones?

Yes

Are you ever presented with any warnings or error messages when the issue occurs?

I don’t think there are live error messages reported. I don’t usually have my eyes on the Roon client when this happens so I may have missed it. I will see if I can detect an error message today.

That said, the Roon log snippet I posted before is correlated to one of the skip events.

While it may seem a touch elementary, since noticing this behavior have you not only rebooted the device hosting your core but also your endpoints and any relevant network hardware as well?

Yes, I have rebooted the computer, disconnected DAC’s, etc. since the behavior started and the problem persists.

[eric (Eric Stewart)]

Hi @erich6 ----- Thank you for the follow up and taking the time to answer my questions, both are very appreciated!

Continuing forward, this feels network related to me and wanted to suggest, if you have not tried already, testing with your core machine on a hardwired connection as opposed to wireless connection. I would be very interested to hear what the experience is like with WifI temporarily taken out of the equation.

Additionally, may I ask you to describe your network configuration/topology being sure to provide insight into any networking hardware you are currently implementing. I want to have a clear understanding as to how your devices are communicating and all the tools involved with making those connection possible.

-Eric

[erich6]

Thanks for getting back to me.

OK, I will provide network topology in a few days…I’m travelling and not able to get to the network specifics right now. That said, I’m skeptical it is network related because: a) I don’t have the issue when using the Tidal app in the same hardware configuration; and b) I have low latency/high bandwidth performance even on wifi. Furthermore, the issue happens even when all my audio gear is hardwired to the core. If it’s wireless connection issue it would have to be between the wifi router streaming the internet feed to the core and then the way the Roon core software processes this stream. Is that what you suspect is the issue?