HD Tracks High Resolution Files End Early

[Jeff_N]

Hello,

I'm having a strange problem playing high resolution (24/96) FLAC files I downloaded from HD Tracks.

I play music on two computers. I generally use my desktop to download files from the internet, then I transfer them to my old HP Pavilion dv4000 laptop, which runs Windows XP SP3. It transmits to an Airport Express, which feeds a Cambridge DACMagic.

The files play perfectly on my desktop. They play on the laptop too, but the problem is, they don't play all the way through. They play beautifully for about 95% of the track, then they stop abruptly and proceed to the next track. Every song ends a few seconds before it should.

I emailed HD Tracks and they responded quickly. They let me re-download the tracks, both to my desktop and directly to my laptop, both as one big album download and one track at a time. Still having the same problem.

I've downloaded all Windows and HP updates, including the SoundMax sound card.

I went to this site:
http://www.2l.no/hires/index.html
and downloaded a couple files, and they play properly on MM, all the way through.

Then I tried playing the HD Tracks files on Windows Media Player. WMP won't play FLAC files, but I downloaded Media Player Codec Pack from download.com and now it does. And it plays the hi rez files on my laptop all the way through!

I was using MM version 3, so I thought maybe the latest version would solve the problem. I downloaded 4. Nope. Still the same thing.

If the files didn't play at all, or played at the same quality as my CD rips of the same albums, I would conclude my sound card or some other component can't handle high resolution audio. But the sound is much better than my CD rips. The songs just don't play all the way to the end.

Anyone have any ideas? Thanks.

[Lowlander]

Disable Crossfade and Silence Removal under Tools > Options > Output Plugins and look at replicating the settings of the desktop.

[Jeff_N]

Thank you for the suggestion Lowlander, but the only output plugins I see listed are:

Remote Speakers Output v2.2 (radio button is on)
MediaMonkey Direct Sound output (radio button is off)
MediaMonkey WASAPI output (grayed out and radio button is off)
wavOut output v2.0.2a (radio button is off)

Incidentally, when I click Play on the upper menu, "Crossfade" appears but it is not checked on my version 4.0.2.1462. "Silence between songs" does not appear at all. Both options appear on my MM 3.2.1.1297 on the upper menu, but are not checked, and they do not appear in Options -> Output Plugins, same as my version 4.

Here's another weird wrinkle I've noticed with my 4.0.2.1462 version: When I highlight a track and click Play, or when I double click a track, it starts playing normally, from the beginning. However, the track clock on the lower right side of the progress bar moves faster than it should. In other words it counts off about ten seconds in what is actually about five seconds. Then when it gets to the end of the song, it ends about five seconds early. It's as though MM is using up a few seconds of track time that it shouldn't at the beginning of the track, so that when it gets to the end of the track's scheduled time it runs out of space and ends early.

[Lowlander]

The options are in the Output Plugin (depending on plugin used) itself so select the Output Plugin enabled and use the Configure button.

Does the timing issue happen on all tracks?

[Jeff_N]

When I click Configure for Remote Speakers Output (the only enabled plugin) there are no settings for crossfade or silence, just a field recognizing my wireless network and a couple settings with checked boxes, "allow player to control volume of remote speakers" and "send flush to remote speakers on pause".

The problem only happens with HD Tracks high resolution files. I have thousands of 16/44.1 files ripped from CDs or downloaded from the internet, most of them encoded in FLAC (as are the HD Tracks), and they all play fine.

I've downloaded a couple hi rez FLAC files from http://www.2l.no/hires/index.html, and they play properly too.

Thanks again for your help.

[Lowlander]

What if you use a different Output plugin? If that doesn't have the same issue it seems you would need to contact the developer of the plugin: http://emilles.dyndns.org/software/out_apx.html

[Jeff_N]

Just circling back with the resolution.

You were exactly correct, Lowlander, it was an issue with the output plugin.

I use Eric Milles' Remote Speakers output plugin to stream wirelessly from my laptop to my Airport Express. I was using an old version, 2.2 or something like that. He's up to version 4 now.

I emailed Eric and he was kind enough to reply with links to download three different versions of his plugin: 2.5, 3, and 4, for me to try. Using version 4 I got no sound at all with high resolution files. Version 3 worked well with some, like the Talking Heads' 77 and Remain in Light, but not on others, like Getz/Gilberto. Lots of little pops and clicks when I played Getz/Gilberto. Oddly enough the oldest version, 2.5, worked well on everything. I'd bought a 2.X license years ago, though of course I couldn't remember the activation code. Eric generated a new one for me. Problem solved.

Thanks Lowlander and everyone who read my posts.