Gapless playback affected when on SD card

[bolski]

I'm thinking that there is definitely an issue reading off of SD cards. I'm experiencing issues with gapless music having a sub-second pause between tracks. I've increased thread priority, etc, and none of that has fixed the issue.

 

However, if I move the music to internal memory, it works fine. It used to work on the SD card just fine. Not sure if it's because I switched to an LG G3 and it's currently using LP although the skipping was occuring under KK as well. Google Music also skips, but it does so either on the internal memory or the external SD card.

 

I installed the GoneMAD music player and it doesn't skip when playing my music from the SD card, so I'm thinking it's not the SD card.

 

Wondering if there's some tweak that needs to be done with Poweramp? Poweramp has been my music player of choice since I got my first Android way back in 2010, and I don't want to switch, but I might have to. Not sure if there's something with the way it's switching from one track to another that's causing the "skip" when on an SD card? Again, I've messed with the settings for the thread priority, cut silence at the end of the tracks, the buffer, but none of that seems to work when it's on an SD card.

 

BTW, the SD card is fine (I've scanned it, checked blocks, etc) and it's checked out fine. Like I said, under GoneMAD the skipping doesn't occur on the SD card, so I really believe it's not the SD card.

 

Anyone else experiencing this as well?

 

Thanks!

 

[vidromero]

I have a Sony Xperia M2 and I experienced the same, but andrewilley helped me with the thread priority, buffer size and forcing Wakelock when screen is off.

Then it worked just fine. When I confirmed that this made the app worked, I purchased the complete version.

I hope Andre can help you. Gapless playback is essential to me as well.

 

My experience with the GoneMad was in general fine, I just didn't like that the app changes some artworks, nonsense.

[bolski]

I have a Sony Xperia M2 and I experienced the same, but andrewilley helped me with the thread priority, buffer size and forcing Wakelock when screen is off.

Then it worked just fine. When I confirmed that this made the app worked, I purchased the complete version.

I hope Andre can help you. Gapless playback is essential to me as well.

 

My experience with the GoneMad was in general fine, I just didn't like that the app changes some artworks, nonsense.

 

Unfortunately, I tried all of that and none of it helped. I'm hoping that it might get fixed, but at this time, GoneMad is working pretty well for me. If I can get Poweramp to work, all the better so I don't have to purchase GoneMad. There are some things I'm finding with GoneMad that make me go a little mad, but they are little things that I can live with if I can't get Poweramp to work like it used to.

 

One of the other things I've noticed since using GoneMad is the occasional skip/pause while in the middle of song has disappeared. Basically, while listening to a song, sometimes it will do a short pause/skip while in the middle of song. But, with GoneMad, that never happens. I thought possibly it was my phone (LG G3 and it's not rooted and it's on stock Lollipop but it did this under stock Kit Kat as well), but now I don't think it is since in GoneMad, all those issues have disappeared.

 

I never had to tweak Poweramp before. Not sure why all of a sudden it won't work well with SD Cards. And, it shouldn't matter whether it's an SD card or the internal memory, it should just work in my humble opinion. But, I still love Poweramp, but unless I can get a solution to my problem, it might be getting replaced which I really dread doing. But, gapless playback is something I enjoy when listening to either live music albums, or to trance music mixes.

 

Thanks for the reference. Hopefully, I can figure out how to get Poweramp to work like it used to.

[andrewilley]

In case you've not seen the FAQs, does anything in http://support.powerampapp.com/knowledgebase/articles/323527-skips-hiccups-stutters help?

Andre

[bolski]

In case you've not seen the FAQs, does anything in http://support.powerampapp.com/knowledgebase/articles/323527-skips-hiccups-stutters help?

Andre

Thanks for the link. I've tried all of that and it still seems to skip between the tracks (it's like sub-seconds but it's enough that you hear the pause between the tracks). Now, there are other tracks I have that I have ripped from CDs that it appears to be working fine, but for others that I have purchased online (either via Google Play or Amazon Music), those skip between the tracks.

 

Currently, I'm running on the stock LG G3 Lollipop ROM, not rooted. It could be that the files are bad, but if I move them to the internal memory, then they work in Poweramp.

 

I read up some more on GoneMAD and apparently, the author wrote his own audio engine because the default one that comes with java doesn't handle gapless very well (MediaPlayer). I'm not sure if Poweramp is using it's own engine or if it's using MediaPlayer? Considering there are tweaks for the buffer, etc, I'm thinking Poweramp uses it's own audio engine, like GoneMAD.

 

In any case, the same files that "skip" from the SD card with Poweramp, do not skip when played through GoneMAD from the SD card. So, when I thought it was my files or my SD card, I first replaced the SD card with a brand new one and the skipping persisted. I then re-downloaded many of the "albums" to get fresh files and they still skipped unless they were put onto the internal memory.

 

One thing I have noticed. If I start one of the songs in Poweramp and then immediately switch to near the end of the song, it will transition to the next song and the skip is almost completely gone (that is, I can still sense it, but it's like milliseconds). But, if I start the song from the beginning and let it play all the way through, when it transitions to the next song, the skip happens (it's more pronounced). Not sure if that helps or not?

 

But thanks for the link. I'll keep fiddling with it, but I've fiddled with this for about a month and have yet been able to get it to play my gapless music without pauses from the SD card.

 

Still love Poweramp though. It was one of my first purchases after getting an Android phone. 

[andrewilley]

Are the ones that have the problem especially high sampling rates or bit rates? You say your own rips work fine, perhaps you could send a few sample files, for example two files which play seamlessly and two which don't?

Andre

[bolski]

I don't believe so. It's showing as 165KBPS at 44.1KHZ. I'll dig into some more. 

 

Also, last night I did another rip of a live album. Put it on my SD card on my phone and after rescanning my library, played the album. Skipped between tracks again with the slight pause.

 

Launched GoneMad, played the exact same song and no skipping.

 

Played the song on my pc, no skipping.

 

Again, if I start a song in Poweramp, then move near to the end of the song, the pause is either completely gone, or barely noticeable. But, if I let the song play through it's entirety, then the pause/skip occurs. This sounds like a buffering issue possibly? I've tweaked the buffer size, the priority, etc, enabled/disabled the "remove silence" option, disabled equalizer, tone controls, etc, but nothing seems to fix the issue.

 

Also, I didn't mention, but my SD Card is class 10. It's a SanDisk Ultra PLUS 64gb microSD card. I'm running under Lollipop 5.0.1 on my Verizon LG G3 (VS985). The phone is not rooted nor has it been unrooted. This is stock G3. 

 

Thanks!