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#281566 - 16/05/2006 20:57 Any way to change hard drive seek "schedule"
mbcouple
new poster

Registered: 18/04/2006
Posts: 26
I have a riocar unit running the v3 alpha11 with exclusively flac files. The unit performs flawlessly, but only seems to be able to cache about 1 minute of audio before it glitches while refilling the cache. Is there a way to modify it to seek ahead of time, or to keep the hard drives spun all the time?
Thanks
Hans

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#281567 - 16/05/2006 21:04 Re: Any way to change hard drive seek "schedule" [Re: mbcouple]
matthew_k
pooh-bah

Registered: 12/02/2002
Posts: 2298
Loc: Berkeley, California
It's only got 16mb of memory total, so there's no real way to delay it. The practical thing to do is to transcode all your flac's to mp3's using a good encoder such as lame, and keep the flacs for home listening and use the mp3's on the empeg.

The only other way I know of to influence to cache behavior is the "reserve cache" config.ini directive. It's use is to reserve some of the memory for other applications, but it has the side effect of reducing the amount of cacheing being done in any one go around, so it may help.

You are running Hijack, right? It has some fixes for the players with extra memory which might help with the glitching.

Matthew

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#281568 - 16/05/2006 22:01 Re: Any way to change hard drive seek "schedule" [Re: matthew_k]
pgrzelak
carpal tunnel

Registered: 15/08/2000
Posts: 4859
Loc: New Jersey, USA
Extra memory might hurt the glitching. Due to the way the caching calls are performed, you can actually see worse performance if you have too much memory due to the disk reads starving other process threads.
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Paul Grzelak
200GB with 48MB RAM, Illuminated Buttons and Digital Outputs

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#281569 - 17/05/2006 05:06 Re: Any way to change hard drive seek "schedule" [Re: mbcouple]
Roger
carpal tunnel

Registered: 18/01/2000
Posts: 5683
Loc: London, UK
Quote:
keep the hard drives spun all the time?


If I recall correctly, there's a config.ini setting that allows you to keep the disks spun up all of the time. Don't ask me what it is, though.
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-- roger

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#281570 - 17/05/2006 13:52 Re: Any way to change hard drive seek "schedule" [Re: Roger]
mlord
carpal tunnel

Registered: 29/08/2000
Posts: 14496
Loc: Canada
Quote:
Quote:
keep the hard drives spun all the time?


If I recall correctly, there's a config.ini setting that allows you to keep the disks spun up all of the time. Don't ask me what it is, though.


Would that be: spindown=0 ??

(and most likely in the same "section" as "notify=1")

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#281571 - 17/05/2006 13:56 Re: Any way to change hard drive seek "schedule" [Re: mlord]
mlord
carpal tunnel

Registered: 29/08/2000
Posts: 14496
Loc: Canada
Quote:

Would that be: spindown=0 ??

(and most likely in the same "section" as "notify=1")

Speaking of which..

are all of those section headers in config.ini actually necessary, or does the player software just ignore them (eg. are they comments, or actual required lines??).

Things like: [Startup] and [output] ??

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#281572 - 17/05/2006 14:07 Re: Any way to change hard drive seek "schedule" [Re: mlord]
peter
carpal tunnel

Registered: 13/07/2000
Posts: 4180
Loc: Cambridge, England
Quote:
are all of those section headers in config.ini actually necessary, or does the player software just ignore them

They are necessary. All config items are looked up by section and name, not just by name.

Peter

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#281573 - 17/05/2006 14:14 Re: Any way to change hard drive seek "schedule" [Re: peter]
mlord
carpal tunnel

Registered: 29/08/2000
Posts: 14496
Loc: Canada
Quote:
Quote:
are all of those section headers in config.ini actually necessary, or does the player software just ignore them

They are necessary. All config items are looked up by section and name, not just by name.

Peter


Ahh.. in that case, we'll need to figure out the correct section for the spindown=0 line. It's not obvious to me from strings -a /empeg/bin/player

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#281574 - 17/05/2006 14:20 Re: Any way to change hard drive seek "schedule" [Re: mlord]
mlord
carpal tunnel

Registered: 29/08/2000
Posts: 14496
Loc: Canada
Ahh.. I found the config.ini documentation.

It looks like this is what might be needed:

[Options]
spindown=0

[hijack]
spindown_seconds=0


Edited by mlord (17/05/2006 16:06)

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#281575 - 17/05/2006 15:15 Re: Any way to change hard drive seek "schedule" [Re: mlord]
mbcouple
new poster

Registered: 18/04/2006
Posts: 26
Thank you all for your input. For a linux-ignorant individual, such as myself, what would be the best way to modify the setting to spindown 0 to see if this will solve the FLAC glitch issues.

Many Thanks,
Hans

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#281576 - 17/05/2006 15:19 Re: Any way to change hard drive seek "schedule" [Re: mbcouple]
pgrzelak
carpal tunnel

Registered: 15/08/2000
Posts: 4859
Loc: New Jersey, USA
If you are running emplode, you can do this...
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Paul Grzelak
200GB with 48MB RAM, Illuminated Buttons and Digital Outputs

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#281577 - 17/05/2006 16:29 Re: Any way to change hard drive seek "schedule" [Re: pgrzelak]
mbcouple
new poster

Registered: 18/04/2006
Posts: 26
OK, i edited the config file, and tried to load it to the empeg with emplode over ethernet, and it said it wrote the code, but then failed to restart. I took power from the player, and reapplied, works fine, talks to emplode, but the config file has returned to stock. I have hijack installed. Should i try again, or am i exceeding the max config size by adding two entries?
Thanks
Hans

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#281578 - 17/05/2006 17:26 Re: Any way to change hard drive seek "schedule" [Re: mbcouple]
mbcouple
new poster

Registered: 18/04/2006
Posts: 26
Tired it again, same result. It will not write the changes through emplode. Is there an easy way to edit the file directly on the empeg?
Thanks
Hans

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#281579 - 17/05/2006 18:06 Re: Any way to change hard drive seek "schedule" [Re: mbcouple]
mbcouple
new poster

Registered: 18/04/2006
Posts: 26
*UPDATE*
It accepted the altered config through jemplode, but balked evertime tried with the native emplode software. Discs stay spun up at all times. I am here at the office, and dont have the audio plugged in, but visual result are positive. With an intense visual turned on, like the tubular visual, there is a slow down on the screen when refilling the buffer, but the time counter stays on track. Whith no visuals, just static information, there is no noticible lag or glitched in the track time for an observed period of 3 minutes. So, it looks very positive. I will do a listening test tonight and post my results.
Thanks
Hans

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#281580 - 17/05/2006 20:34 Re: Any way to change hard drive seek "schedule" [Re: mbcouple]
tfabris
carpal tunnel

Registered: 20/12/1999
Posts: 31600
Loc: Seattle, WA
Please note that the player's thermal specifications assume MP3 playback with the disk drives getting spun down most of the time. You might need to install a cooling fan. click here for more information.
_________________________
Tony Fabris

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#281581 - 18/05/2006 02:34 Re: Any way to change hard drive seek "schedule" [Re: tfabris]
mbcouple
new poster

Registered: 18/04/2006
Posts: 26
OK, audio testing tonight were flawless. No glitches. I modified the config file with both of the above lines. The discs stay spun up all the time. There is a noticable delay in intense visuals when buffering, but no delays in the audio. I do plan on installing a fan. I was also thinking about replacing the lid with perferated sheet metal and seing if it would convection cool first.
Thanks for everyones help.
Hans

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#281582 - 18/05/2006 11:30 Re: Any way to change hard drive seek "schedule" [Re: mbcouple]
mlord
carpal tunnel

Registered: 29/08/2000
Posts: 14496
Loc: Canada
Quote:
I was also thinking about replacing the lid with perferated sheet metal and seing if it would convection cool first.


Cool! (literally!) That's a great idea -- a wonder it hasn't been posted before! Off to the metalwork shops now..

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#281583 - 18/05/2006 19:31 Re: Any way to change hard drive seek "schedule" [Re: mlord]
schofiel
carpal tunnel

Registered: 25/06/1999
Posts: 2993
Loc: Wareham, Dorset, UK
Make sure you shave off the swarf before you install it though, Mark.
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One of the few remaining Mk1 owners... #00015

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#281584 - 18/05/2006 19:57 Re: Any way to change hard drive seek "schedule" [Re: schofiel]
Robotic
pooh-bah

Registered: 06/04/2005
Posts: 2026
Loc: Seattle transplant
Quote:
Make sure you shave off the swarf before you install it though, Mark.

You mean I can't slap the empeg into the vise and start drilling?

(kidding, of course!)
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10101311 (20GB- backup empeg)
10101466 (2x60GB, Eutronix/GreenLights Blue) (Stolen!)

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#281585 - 19/05/2006 04:56 Re: Any way to change hard drive seek "schedule" [Re: Robotic]
AudunE
journeyman

Registered: 08/10/2004
Posts: 53
Loc: Trondheim, Norway
Vise guy...
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- Audun E -

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