Playback Quality Degrades Over Time

physio · 27th February 2006, 04:26

I haven't been able to find any trace of others reporting this problem but, if I've somehow missed it being covered somewhere, appy-polly-logies.

I have a file server running in a separate room in my house that has all of my digital audio files and the latest Winamp installed. I am loving Winamp, especially with the Wawi and AjaxAmp since I want to control Winamp from any computer in the house.

My problem occurs when Winamp has been running for about 2 days. For some reason, at that point, the sound quality degrades terribly. I can resolve the problem by shutting down and restarting Winamp but it is annoying to have to do this every 2 days. Normally I just have the audio playing at all times and turn up the volume when I want to hear it in a room.

I experienced this same behaviour when I briefly tried out iTunes for Windows (/me ducks). However, I have used other players and have not experienced this problem; most notably is QCD, which works like a charm but is not nearly as fully featured as Winamp, and also lacks the web capabilities.

I am running Winamp on a pretty minimal box, but I figured this should be the issue since it is basically the only thing running on it other than Homeseer to control some of my lighting. Perhaps I am wrong. My system specs are below.

Any and all suggestions are appreciated.

OS: win2k pro, service pack 4, build 2195
Processor: P II 400 (is this the problem?)
Board: http:\\www.abit.com.tw i440BX-W83977 (BH6)
RAM: 128 MB
Sound: WDM TVAudio (ATITVSnd), YAMAHA OPL3-SAx WDM Driver - or so Belarc tells me
Video: I'm not doing any video so this shouldn't matter
DirectX: 8.1
Winamp 5.2 bundle

I can do the Hijackthis thing if the above info isn't enough. Perhaps my music server box just sucks too bad and nothing else matters.

Anyway, any insight would be great.

p

billyvnilly · 27th February 2006, 04:55

Check this post, I'd suggest posting plugins (using one for nunz) as well as RAM usage when you feel like the quality is being degraded (open task manager > view > select columns >select Virtual Memory Size. system specs

Like the Wind <-- prob could be updated to 5.2, but still relative. Basically uninstall unnecessary plugins. even if they are packaged with winamp. dont use modern skin(like just delete gen_ff.dll). The Media Library is your biggest RAM hog, if you dont need that, then you are better off.

Describe how the music gets "worse"

physio · 3rd March 2006, 02:48

Thanks for the response.

Ok, apparently I exagerated a touch. It took about 4 days of continuous play before the degraded sound occured. The sound is more tinny, crackly, and quieter. Generally is sounds bad but not so bad that you don't know what song is playing.

For plugins I have only the built in ones plus AjaxAMP. If I have to uninstall the web interface or the Library plugin I will just uninstall Winamp and use something else. Those are two critical features in my mind.

Am I safe to install all of the others that came with Winamp?

Other information mentioned in the post you linked to:
- connection: high speed/cable
- file types: any file type (most of mine are mp3 or ogg)
- browser: latest Firefox
- none of the other items apply

I always have my task manager open and always add the VM size column. Winamp is the biggest VM user by over 3 times anything else. The second biggest user of VM is svchost. There are 39 processes running; I could probably kill some of them. I'll give that a shot and try for another 4 days.

Numbers from taskmanager may be a bit thrown off when I look at them as I do so via realVNC; my server is headless. VNC and Winamp are the biggest users of CPU when I am connected.

I think I've included everything else other than a HijackThis report. Is there any other info that would be helpful in diagnosing this?

27th February 2006, 04:26	#1
physio Junior Member Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: Canada Posts: 2	Playback Quality Degrades Over Time I haven't been able to find any trace of others reporting this problem but, if I've somehow missed it being covered somewhere, appy-polly-logies. I have a file server running in a separate room in my house that has all of my digital audio files and the latest Winamp installed. I am loving Winamp, especially with the Wawi and AjaxAmp since I want to control Winamp from any computer in the house. My problem occurs when Winamp has been running for about 2 days. For some reason, at that point, the sound quality degrades terribly. I can resolve the problem by shutting down and restarting Winamp but it is annoying to have to do this every 2 days. Normally I just have the audio playing at all times and turn up the volume when I want to hear it in a room. I experienced this same behaviour when I briefly tried out iTunes for Windows (/me ducks). However, I have used other players and have not experienced this problem; most notably is QCD, which works like a charm but is not nearly as fully featured as Winamp, and also lacks the web capabilities. I am running Winamp on a pretty minimal box, but I figured this should be the issue since it is basically the only thing running on it other than Homeseer to control some of my lighting. Perhaps I am wrong. My system specs are below. Any and all suggestions are appreciated. OS: win2k pro, service pack 4, build 2195 Processor: P II 400 (is this the problem?) Board: http:\\www.abit.com.tw i440BX-W83977 (BH6) RAM: 128 MB Sound: WDM TVAudio (ATITVSnd), YAMAHA OPL3-SAx WDM Driver - or so Belarc tells me Video: I'm not doing any video so this shouldn't matter DirectX: 8.1 Winamp 5.2 bundle I can do the Hijackthis thing if the above info isn't enough. Perhaps my music server box just sucks too bad and nothing else matters. Anyway, any insight would be great. p

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27th February 2006, 04:55	#2
billyvnilly Forum King, M.D. Join Date: Mar 2004 Location: Detroit burbs Posts: 3,379	Check this post, I'd suggest posting plugins (using one for nunz) as well as RAM usage when you feel like the quality is being degraded (open task manager > view > select columns >select Virtual Memory Size. system specs Like the Wind <-- prob could be updated to 5.2, but still relative. Basically uninstall unnecessary plugins. even if they are packaged with winamp. dont use modern skin(like just delete gen_ff.dll). The Media Library is your biggest RAM hog, if you dont need that, then you are better off. Describe how the music gets "worse"

3rd March 2006, 02:48	#3
physio Junior Member Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: Canada Posts: 2	Thanks for the response. Ok, apparently I exagerated a touch. It took about 4 days of continuous play before the degraded sound occured. The sound is more tinny, crackly, and quieter. Generally is sounds bad but not so bad that you don't know what song is playing. For plugins I have only the built in ones plus AjaxAMP. If I have to uninstall the web interface or the Library plugin I will just uninstall Winamp and use something else. Those are two critical features in my mind. Am I safe to install all of the others that came with Winamp? Other information mentioned in the post you linked to: - connection: high speed/cable - file types: any file type (most of mine are mp3 or ogg) - browser: latest Firefox - none of the other items apply I always have my task manager open and always add the VM size column. Winamp is the biggest VM user by over 3 times anything else. The second biggest user of VM is svchost. There are 39 processes running; I could probably kill some of them. I'll give that a shot and try for another 4 days. Numbers from taskmanager may be a bit thrown off when I look at them as I do so via realVNC; my server is headless. VNC and Winamp are the biggest users of CPU when I am connected. I think I've included everything else other than a HijackThis report. Is there any other info that would be helpful in diagnosing this?