The Audio Renderer has an issue with some hardware / reference clock generation (1 Viewer)

[tourettes]

Here's a new MediaPortal Audio Renderer which contains rewritten time keeping code to fix following Mantis issue: http://mantis.team-mediaportal.com/view.php?id=4201

Issues that can be rooted down to this error are:

• Lost audio in DVD menus / movie (MS DVD navigator is not allowing big buffers on downstream)
• A/V sync getting lost when clocks aren't in sync
• A/V sync getting lost after resuming from paused state
• Switching between audio streams
• Dropped Frames on some systems

What to test?

Mainly A/V sync (pause, stream change, seeking etc.).

What MediaPortal version to use?

Following MediaPortal versions can be used for the testing:

1. https://forum.team-mediaportal.com/...-changes-for-next-mediaportal-release.116508/ - which requires regression test on non-MPAR related things
2. MediaPortal 1.3.0 RC
3. MediaPortal 1.3.0 final after it is out

 

[tourettes]

Version 1
Initial test build.

 

[Owlsroost]

Are there any specific MPAR settings that should be used when testing this e.g. HWBasedRefClock = 1 ?

 

[tourettes]

Are there any specific MPAR settings that should be used when testing this e.g. HWBasedRefClock = 1 ?

HWBasedRefClock = 1
EnableTimestretching = 1
EnableSyncAdjustment = 1

Which are all on by default, but indeed it is better to make sure they are on. For example if HWBasedRefClock is off then the system clock is used for the reference clock generation and in case it runs at a separate speed than the audio HW clock (in 99.999% cases it is different!) there will be issues with the A/V sync as reference clock gets generated from the system clock and audio is consumed at the audio HW clock rate.

 

[Owlsroost]

Actually, with my audio hardware and the current MPAR, setting HWBasedRefClock = 1 causes A/V sync drift so I have to run with HWBasedRefClock = 0 (that's why I asked the question )

 

[davidf]

Actually, with my audio hardware and the current MPAR, setting HWBasedRefClock = 1 causes A/V sync drift so I have to run with HWBasedRefClock = 0 (that's why I asked the question )

You shouldn't have to any more

 

[tourettes]

Anyone got some results? There will be some new features available after this one has been verified to work.

 

[FreakyJ]

just installed it and will use it today on a normal tv session
Hadn't any issues before, but I will report back how it goes

But one question: Is the registry the only place to change the options e.g HWBasedRefClock? Because I can't see such a option in the MPAR config inside the configuration.exe

Here HWBasedRefClock is set to 1
And one more question: What does the option "Enable v-sync adjustment" do? In the wiki I just found:

Toggles between v-sync adjustments on / off. By default this is on. Use only for debugging purposes (like sync drifting).

So i assume it should be disabled during normal use, but what advantages/disadvantages does it have if I enable it?

 

[tourettes]

Here HWBasedRefClock is set to 1

That is only a debug options - users shouldn't have to ever touch that as disabling it will cause drifting in A/V sync (amount depends how close audio HW clock and system ckock are running).

Toggles between v-sync adjustments on / off. By default this is on. Use only for debugging purposes (like sync drifting).

So i assume it should be disabled during normal use, but what advantages/disadvantages does it have if I enable it?

It should be always on - actually it is something that is not needed even for debugging (haven't been used for a year at least ). It would be probably wise to remove that completely (at least it should be removed from the config).

 

[Owlsroost]

Haven't had time to do a lot of testing, but it seems to have fixed my A/V sync drift problems when using HWBasedRefClock, so it's looking good