When I want to play a local file, it can take 30 secs to a few minutes to play. It is not always the case - it gets worse at times when lots of people are likely to be using it. My take is it is Roon that is registering on their servers everything I play at the moment I play it. I don’t like that. It affects my privacy and it affects performance. I have read the privacy agreement and I don’t see anything that goes into detail as to what is being done, so in my opinion it is not disclosed.
As for troubleshooting, I have tested many times my external ping times and throughput when this happens. I always get ping times < 15ms, down speed > 320mbps, up speed > 22 mbps. This is not the problem. And if I am playing a local file, why would that matter anyway?
Are you using an HDD that goes to sleep when not in use? It could be the spin up time. It happens to me often.
If Roon sent data home on every click, it would be a very poor implementation. Normally, this is done by logging locally and uploading the logs periodically in the background.
As has been mentioned, there’s something wrong if it’s taking this long to start playing a local file - playback should start in no more than a few seconds. It might be helpful if you could post some more details regarding your setup.
Think i’d try accessing the disc first and navigate some files to get it spinning or ensure the NAS or whatever system you are using a awake and then test response times. I don’t notice any difference in speed between streaming or local files and mine are on a NAS.
My only slow point is when I first access Roon but that’s just my mac mini waking up but the disc is set not to sleep.
I have an SSD connected over USB3 to my mac mini running Roon core (and nothing else). There is absolutely NO latency in file playback, as exemplified when I use Audirvana on the very same hardware. I am also very versed in these matters - this is NOT the issue.
OK, so you suspect that the problem is something to do with your core trying to connect to Roon’s servers. You could test this by disconnecting your router from the outside world. Don’t turn it off - Roon probably won’t work if you do - but unplug it’s connection to the WAN. I strongly suspect it won’t make any difference.
Simply because it works with Audirvana doesn’t mean that you can rule out a network issue.
It would be a good idea to do it “too many times to count” plus one if you’d like people to offer anything more than guesses as to what could be wrong.
Local file playback should not require a network connection.
I have tried all manners of DNS configuratoins, btw, but like I said, local file playback should not require a network. Also, playing TIDAL, Qobuz, Spotify, Soundcloud, and Apple Music (all of which I subscribe to) through their native apps NEVER has a lag.
Also, I have my Catalina install in an internal SSD, where there’s very little else installed, and the Roon db sits in this same SSD. This is a pretty fast SSD, only using about 10% of the capacity.
SukieInTheGraveyard
(This one time, at Bandcamp... I spent too much money!)
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It’s been suggested that you try using Roon whilst not connected to the internet (thus removing the “connecting to servers” issue. Have you tried this?
Local file playback does not require access to Roon servers as, for most users, local playback is available when the internet is down.
It doesn’t require access to the external network, but may require LAN access if you’re trying to play to a networked endpoint.
No.
Whatever’s causing your problem is most likely nothing to do with what’s logged (comprehensive or otherwise), nor when it’s logged. That said, I have no further suggestions other than to repeat that it would be helpful if you could post more comprehensive details about your entire system (networking gear/topology, endpoints and so on). In the absence of this information you’re not giving us (or support) much to go on.
Whatever. Clearly your experience is anomalous. If songs are in fact taking up to 30 seconds to begin play, as you assert, the problem is particular to your setup. In any event, it has nothing to do with Roon core contacting Roon servers IRT to track your every selection, or whatever. Nor does your anomalous experience suggest anything at all about “overwhelmed servers” or “bad design.”
You started with a privacy complaint then demurred ("not with privacy per se, you said) and shifted to an emphasis to concerns about “performance” that seem to be specific to your setup (if not largely fanciful). Sounds like you have an agenda rather than a concern.
It can take a long while to load and play a local track. And it seems to take longer when Roon servers are likely hit harder (times when it is likely a lot of people are using it).
My OS and Roon DB are in an internal SSD, local music in an SSD drive connected directly over USB. There’s no hardware reason why this would take so long, and indeed it doesn’t in Audirvana.
Setup is mini i7, 16GB RAM, 250gb internal SSD with Catalina + Roon + Roon DB, 4TB external SSD over USB. Regular CPU load at 5%.
What time would that be? Our traffic has 2 modes… high traffic starts start around 1pm EST, when Europe starts to get home from work, and ends around 3am EST, when the US west coast goes to bed. During these times, its pretty stable, as the userbase is spread out nicely across timezones.
What is “a long while”? Could you take a video of your Roon remote demonstrating a few consecutive issues so we can get a better feel for what you are feeling? I can ask you to report a number of milliseconds, but I’d rather just see it to feel exactly what you feel. Also, note the time the video is taken so I can correlate it with your Roon Core’s logs.
The times I expected to be slower is when I use it after work or over the weekend when it seems many people would be on.
As for what I consider slow, I would click Play on a local album and it would take between 20 secs and sometimes one minute for the playback to actually start. This happens on more than one node - eg my dCS Rossini, my microrendu (headphone setup).
I can understand establishing a stream from a service might hit latencies that Roon cannot control - but this is a local album.
My music library is either AIFF or DSF, very few FLAC albums (the MQA encoded albums are kept in FLAC because I don’t think the metadata in AIFF consistently indicates it is MQA).
When I use Audirvana, playback is almost instantaneous - the small lag is due to Audirvana’s insistence in caching in memory.
My working hypothesis bases on some non-scientific perception is that Roon is logging what I play at the time I play it and thus getting slow when servers are loaded.
I will try and get you a video of my ipad as I start playback.
This is false. Even if it was true, it would be insane for us to hold up the playback until the logging was done. Also, 30s! 30 seconds is beyond an eternity for saving some analytics data.
try navigating around and doing other stuff, and try playing on more than 1 zone when you make this video. try different content from different sources and/or formats.