Thread: Centrafuse RC2 Bugs

Dare I ask when RC2.1 might show its face

Originally Posted by veetid

The buffering is because you can pause/rewind/fastforward while listening to XM...

When you change channel I have to destory the buffer, create a new one, send the channel change command, buffer a few seconds, then start playback...

This allows you to pause, etc...

Yeup, I understand, but the preload of a channel only buys the user two seconds of rewind previous to what they first hear. I don't know that's such a feature as would be the "nicer" effect of hearing the new channel sooner.

A similar example comes from the TiVo world. When I change channels, I get the new channel immediately. The data is always streamed to disk of course so when I pause, the buffer starts to build in front of me. When I PLAY, then I'm playing from the buffer tail. If I FF to get closer to the present, then that's when I get to rewind into the past.


Hmmm.. another side thought... Instead of running the buffer in a create/fill/destroy cycle, why not just make it circular and move a head/tail pointer? That'll save the memory management overhead and you should be able to pick up some speed on systems with less RAM.

Originally Posted by midiwall

Yeup, I understand, but the preload of a channel only buys the user two seconds of rewind previous to what they first hear. I don't know that's such a feature as would be the "nicer" effect of hearing the new channel sooner.

A similar example comes from the TiVo world. When I change channels, I get the new channel immediately. The data is always streamed to disk of course so when I pause, the buffer starts to build in front of me. When I PLAY, then I'm playing from the buffer tail. If I FF to get closer to the present, then that's when I get to rewind into the past.


Hmmm.. another side thought... Instead of running the buffer in a create/fill/destroy cycle, why not just make it circular and move a head/tail pointer? That'll save the memory management overhead and you should be able to pick up some speed on systems with less RAM.

You get 2 seconds when you first change, but if you listen for 20 minutes, you can rewind for 20 minutes, etc...

I already have it on my list to speed this up...

david

Originally Posted by ShawJohn

Dare I ask when RC2.1 might show its face

soon

david

Originally Posted by veetid

You get 2 seconds when you first change, but if you listen for 20 minutes, you can rewind for 20 minutes, etc...

I already have it on my list to speed this up...

I really hate to push this David, but I gotta think that we're having a bit of a communications breakdown here.

I know you have it on the list to speed up, but if that means anything short of "absolutely no buffer preload" then you've killed the ability to channel surf for no real reason.

Lemme try it this way... Is this true?

• I'm listening to channel 41
• I switch to channel 48
• I wait for 2 seconds while the buffer preloads
• I hear channel 48 (side note: can you please tie the crossfade into the other crossfade Y/N option?)
• _at this point_ I can only rewind 2 seconds
• I listen for some amount of time...
  
  
• I now switch to channel 82
• I wait for 2 seconds while the buffer preloads
• I hear channel 82
• _at this point_ I can only rewind 2 seconds

So, given that my waiting for two seconds at the channel switch only bought me two seconds of initial rewind time, then... why make me wait at all?

Originally Posted by midiwall

I really hate to push this David, but I gotta think that we're having a bit of a communications breakdown here.

I know you have it on the list to speed up, but if that means anything short of "absolutely no buffer preload" then you've killed the ability to channel surf for no real reason.

Lemme try it this way... Is this true?

• I'm listening to channel 41
• I switch to channel 48
• I wait for 2 seconds while the buffer preloads
• I hear channel 48 (side note: can you please tie the crossfade into the other crossfade Y/N option?)
• _at this point_ I can only rewind 2 seconds
• I listen for some amount of time...
  
  
• I now switch to channel 82
• I wait for 2 seconds while the buffer preloads
• I hear channel 82
• _at this point_ I can only rewind 2 seconds

So, given that my waiting for two seconds at the channel switch only bought me two seconds of initial rewind time, then... why make me wait at all?

I understand you completly... My point is I plan to speed up the channel switching by changing the code. I have it listed as a bug. My first thoughts are I will switch the channel first so it will start playing immediately, then behind the scenes recreate the buffer and start buffering... So at first rewind would do nothing, until you listen to the channel for awhile or pause...

I plan to fix this, as I said it's not listed as a feature, but a bug... which means I believe it is wrong as well and plan to fix it...

david

Originally Posted by veetid

I understand you completly... My point is I plan to speed up the channel switching by changing the code. I have it listed as a bug. My first thoughts are I will switch the channel first so it will start playing immediately, then behind the scenes recreate the buffer and start buffering... So at first rewind would do nothing, until you listen to the channel for awhile or pause...

I plan to fix this, as I said it's not listed as a feature, but a bug... which means I believe it is wrong as well and plan to fix it...

david

Okay... I'll back off and wait. My concern is coming from you saying "speed up" versus "make it instant".

Thanks David.