Here’s my symptom:
With my Android Pixel 2XL I am controlling the system you’ll see below. After an unknown period of time, I think about an hour, but I am not certain, songs are being skipped at approx 1/sec without any music playing. This has happened while playing music that is in a Queue and with Radio. I can only regain control by rebooting the host. This issue only started after moving from a proof-of-concept setup, listed below. The POC was perfect, no issues whatsoever.
Here’s more detail from my tale of woe:
I just recently upgraded my Roon host from a temp setup that I was using to determine if I liked the service. I started out with a completely new build on:
Dell 5510 - Xeon E3-1505M v5 @ 2.8GHz, 32GB RAM
Windows 10 Pro, 64-bit, Touch Support, Version 1803, OS Build 17134.472
Output via a AudioQuest Cinnamon USB to a Chord Mojo
Chord Mojo feeding an Anthem MRX-1120 via an AudioQuest Golden Gate Mini to RCA cable.
My Tidal account was associated with this build.
This setup worked very well, so much so that I purchased a Sonore microRendu with a 7V Linear Power Supply. The microRendu is feeding a Sony TA-ZH1ES headphone amplifier via an AudioQuest Cinnamon USB cable. This also worked flawlessly. So much so I ordered and installed the following ROCK:
Intel NUC mini PC kit NUC7i7BNH (Intel Core i7)
Crucial 8GB Single DDR4 2400 MT/s (PC4-19200) DR x8 SODIMM 260-Pin Memory - CT8G4SFD824A
My Library on the Samsung T5 Portable SSD is just 22 albums. 20 are CD’s that I ripped and 2 are downloaded HiRes files.
I followed the ROCK build including moving/restoring my database and moving/scanning my music. I had no issues whatsoever. The docs are well written and very easy to follow. I had the new host up and running in approx 90 minutes. I was thrilled!
On the second day after the new build the issue occurred for the first time. The only way I can regain control is rebooting the host. Restarting the Roon Server Software temporarily fixes the issue.
Thanks for contacting us regarding this issue and happy New Year to you as well!
Hmm, since you have switched over to ROCK I am wondering if you are by any chance missing the codecs needed for proper operation on that machine. Can you please give these instructions a try and let me know if that helps?
I would make sure that you have exactly one ffmpeg file (after extracting it with 7zip) saved in the ROCK/Codecs directory as so:
Can you please confirm that the same behavior is occurring across all of your endpoints or just one of your endpoints? Does the same issue happen with both local content and TIDAL content or just one and not the other? What is your network setup like?
Please provide the model/manufacturer of your Router, any switches, range extenders, powerline adapters, ect. Does the same issue occur if you temporarily bypass the microRendu and have the endpoint connected to the Core via USB?
We have also seen users have a better TIDAL experience in the past if they change their DNS servers from the ISP provided ones to Google DNS or Cloudflare DNS. Can you please give this a try and let me know if it helps along with your replies to the above questions?
I somehow knew that you would ask about local content. I just started a shuffle using my small local content. I will let you know the results. I will also perform a shuffle from one of the choices in the Discover section once the local content shuffle is complete.
As far as my network is concerned I have a Ubiquiti UniFi setup, everything is at the latest firmware levels.
UniFi Security Gateway 3P
UniFi Switch 8 POE 150W
UniFi AP-AC Pro
UniFi AP-AC-Mesh-Pro
UniFi AP-AC-HD (Qty 2)
UniFi AP-AC-In Wall
UniFi Cloudkey
DNS: I am currently using 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4
I will let you know how it goes with local vs Tidal. This problem never occurred once while I was pre-ROCK. This only started after I moved to the NUC. Nothing else changed other than the swap to the NUC and the Mytek Liberty. Because of this, I am more suspicious of the ROCK than I am about Tidal.
Is there any logging you or I can enable? Or are there logs somewhere I can submit? While I appreciate testing at my end, it’s been my experience that logs are a great resource.
I have enabled diagnostics mode for your account and can confirm that the logs have reached our servers . Thanks for confirming that you’re using Google DNS, I would have taken a look in that direction if the issue is just for TIDAL content.
Hmm, you mention that you have a UniFi switch and security gateway here, how is the Multicast setup like? I would make sure that your multicast settings are configured to properly pass through this kind of traffic and to disable AP Isolation if you have that turned on.
You do have a fairly complex system network setup here, so I would verify how the behavior is like with the ROCK temporarily connected to the Router instead of the mesh APs. You may also want to try placing that ffmpeg file again on the ROCK and make sure that you open it with 7zip and not other archiving utilities.
Other than the above suggestions, please also let me know the exact local time in your country of the playback failure (ex. 4:47PM) so that I can take a closer look around that timestamp. Please let me know if that helps!
Thanks for letting me know that timestamp. In the diagnostics I am only seeing that the Liberty DAC is skipping, and not any of the other endpoints, can you confirm this?
I have requested the team to take a look at the behavior for the Liberty DAC we have in the Lab combined with ROCK to see if we are able to reproduce this issue. I will be sure to let you know our findings after the request reaches the queue, but please do let me know if this behavior occurs across all of your endpoints and if it affects local content as well.
Hi - I haven’t tested the other endpoints but will start now. I will set up a stream to the Sony Headphone amp via the microRendu.
I have been streaming just local content from the ROCK to the Mytek Liberty for the past hour or so and haven’t had any skips. So far so good. I’ll try a Tidal only stream to the microRendu.
I am not 100% certain I know what you mean by “multicast settings are configured to properly pass through this kind of traffic”. I am blocking LAN to WAN multicast. But do have exceptions shown in the screenshot below.
Hi - I’ve turned off blocking lan to wan multicast. I can’t expain it, but it was breaking control of our Leviton WiFi lighting control. I tried adding all of the lights to the exception list, but it had no effect. I turned off the blocking and control of the lights came back immediately. One thing leads to another…sigh.
I turned on the third endpoint, a Dell XPS13 feeding a Chord Mojo, outputting to a circa 1979 Marantz 1150. You gotta love feeding restored vintage gear with 21st Century audio! This is another stream comprised of a Tidal shuffle. So far all three streams are working fine.
I just realized I’m not sure how I am going to know when the skipping starts. I looked at my queue history and I don’t see timestamps for what’s played nor do I see all of the tracks that were skipped this morning or yesterday.
It’s been between 24 hours of non-stop streaming from the ROCK to the Mytek Liberty and 22 hours streaming to the microRendu and the Sony TA-ZH1ES with no issues. I am not sure I’d call this conclusive. I have had a day or two where the issue wasn’t observed. I’ll just keep letting them stream. It’s not like I am digging a ditch in an attempt to cause the issue
Thanks for letting me know and glad to hear the issue is mostly resolved. By timestamps I meant the local time in your country (ex. 7:04PM). If this issue pops up again please let me know that info but hopefully everything is smooth sailing after making those router changes
To be clear, I’ve made no changes that are left enabled. I reversed the one and only change I made blocking LAN to WAN Multicast because it broke control of our lighting controls.
I have gone one or two days where the issue was not observed. Since this is just one day without issues, I really can’t declare resolved or mostly resolved. Intermittent issues are always painful to troubleshoot. Do you still have logging enabled?
How do I know the timestamp? There’s no evidence in the history of songs being skipped? Since I am running a constant stream, it could fail any time of day.
By timestamps I mean the exact date & local time in your country (ex. 7:04PM) that you next experience the issue. For example you would say: “Today Jan 4th at 10:53AM EST Roon skipped from track X to track Y”
. Thanks for confirming that you’re using Google DNS, I would have taken a look in that direction if the issue is just for TIDAL content.
