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[treefog]

This may be a new clue to the problem:

With http://www.radioowensound.com/liveam.ram stream.

The stream stopped playing (no juddering) and the time counter stopped counting displaying 243min's.

I noted that network traffic continued on the machine without any sound or time counting. Nothing running on the machine other than XMplay to cause the network traffic. After closing XMplay all network traffic stopped on the machine. CTRL/ALT/DEL was required to close XMplay.

[Brian]

This stream crashes XMPlay immediately:

http://xgen.vitalstream.com/mcrm.smi?media=1933424&package=1842505

Many thanks

[treefog]

It looks like the juddering problem may be solved. In all my testing with xmp-ra.dll (Mar. 30/06) I have not encountered any juddering.

The only problem I now have is the lockup/crash on the http://www.radioowensound.com/liveam.ram stream. If I have some time today I will do some searching for a NOT-PNM protocol Real Audio 5 stream for a test. I would like to eliminate PNM protocol or Real Audio 5 from the problem.

My notes for the xmp-ra.dll (Mar. 30/06) tests show that it takes from 131min's (2.2 hours) to 243min's (4 hours) of running time before XMplay locks up. With the times involved, my first thought is a memory leak.
 
For a test I replace the HD in my test machine with a Windows 98 OS HD.
Installed XMplay and xmp-ra.dll (Mar. 30/06) on the Win98 machine and ran a test.

XMplay stopped playing at 146min's with a GPF. Not the blue screen of death, just that old Win95/98 "General Protection Fault".

I was able to capture the details for the Win98 GPF:

XMPLAY caused an invalid page fault in
module XMP-RA.DLL at 0167:00fc6d3b.
Registers:
EAX=0000006a CS=0167 EIP=00fc6d3b EFLGS=00210213
EBX=00878258 SS=016f ESP=0239bf80 EBP=00000400
ECX=0000001a DS=016f ESI=00879342 FS=3cef
EDX=0000006a ES=016f EDI=00fa0800 GS=0000
Bytes at CS:EIP:
f3 a5 8b ca 8b 54 24 18 83 e1 03 f3 a4 03 d0 8b
Stack dump:
00000002 008a5910 00000000 00000400 00fc5d9d 00878258
00fa0800 00000400 00001400 008a5910 00fc5fd4 008a5910
00000400 00000280 008a5790 0169001c

[treefog]

Brian's http://xgen.vitalstream.com/mcrm.smi?media=1933424&package=1842505 stream also crashes XMPlay immediately for me but runs ok on Real Audio.

Could not open the stream with Notepad or any other text editor that I have, Invalid File Name.

[treefog]

Found a Real Audio 3 PNM stream and a Real Audio 5 RTSP stream to test with.

Real Audio 3 PNM protocol stream http://www.wbjc.com/wbjc.ram
info0 DDE grab of XMplay General Stats
Title   WBJC - WBJC
File   wbjc.ram
Path   http://www.wbjc.com
Size   27 bytes
Data file   pnm://real.toad.net/wbjc.ra
Data size   Unknown (161792 downloaded)
Format   Real Audio 3.0
Codec   DolbyNET AC3
Flavour   #2 (16 Kbps Music - High Response)
Streams   1 (audio/x-pn-realaudio)
Sample rate   11025 Hz
Bit rate   16 kbps
Channels   1
Output   11025 hz - 16 bit - stereo
 
Real Audio 5 RTSP protocol stream http://wgnradio.com/listen/liveWGN.ram
info0 DDE grab of XMplay General Stats
Title   wgnradio.com - WGN Radio 720 Chicago
File   liveWGN.ram
Path   http://wgnradio.com/listen
Size   48 bytes
Data file   rtsp://live.wgnradio.com:5544/encoder/wgnlive.rm
Data size   Unknown (239616 downloaded)
Format   Real Audio 5.0
Codec   Sipro ACELP-NET
Flavour   #3 (16 Kbps - RealAudio)
Streams   1 (audio/x-pn-realaudio)
Sample rate   16000 Hz
Bit rate   16 kbps
Channels   1
Output   16000 hz - 16 bit - stereo

Real Audio 3 PNM protocol stream http://www.wbjc.com/wbjc.ram has locked up three times requiring a CTRL/ALT/DEL to close XMplay. Run times before a lockup 126min's, 157min's and 143min's.

Real Audio 5 RTSP protocol stream http://wgnradio.com/listen/liveWGN.ram have been running continuously and is now showing 476min's

This should eliminate Real Audio 5 as the problem, looks like its something to do with the PNM protocol.

[Brian]

We can forget about the vitalstream stream I mentioned; I've been able to identify the correct URL, and the stream now plays when entering the URL direct in the XMPlay dialog. But there's still an issue about XMPlay crashing when launching a real audio stream from a web page, in this case this page:

http://www.xlnc1.org/nuke/iframe.php?file=listen.htm

More importantly, I've been getting crashes when playing BBC radio streams. At first I thought they were random, but now I see that there's a consistent pattern to them. A crash always occurs when a program of fixed duration, such as a news bulletin, reaches its end. Here's a three-minute example (not a program I usually listen to, but it's nice and short!):

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/aod/shows/rpms/radio4/bellsonsunday.ram

And here's the error report I get from the Windows Events Viewer:

Event Type:      Error
Event Source: Application Error
Event Category:   None
Event ID:   1000
Date:      2/4/06
Time:      09:23:55
User:      N/A
Computer:   BRIAN
Description:
Faulting application xmplay.exe, version 3.3.0.3, faulting module xmp-ra.dll, version 0.0.0.0, fault address 0x0000a5ba.

Data:
0000: 41 70 70 6c 69 63 61 74
0008: 69 6f 6e 20 46 61 69 6c
0010: 75 72 65 20 20 78 6d 70
0018: 6c 61 79 2e 65 78 65 20
0020: 33 2e 33 2e 30 2e 33 20
0028: 69 6e 20 78 6d 70 2d 72
0030: 61 2e 64 6c 6c 20 30 2e
0038: 30 2e 30 2e 30 20 61 74
0040: 20 6f 66 66 73 65 74 20
0048: 30 30 30 30 61 35 62 61
0050: 0d 0a                     ..     

Many thanks

[treefog]

I get the same problem with http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/aod/shows/rpms/radio4/bellsonsunday.ram stream.

A couple interesting findings:

On five test runs the stream always crashed at 3:57.6min's with a XP error popup screen (xmplay.exe has encountered a problem …….).

My PNM protocol problem require over 2hr's of running time before a lockup and I don't get an error popup screen from the XP OS. The only OS error report I have received was the GPF when I did a test on Win98 OS.

Brian: If you have the time could you run the PNM stream http://www.wbjc.com/wbjc.ram to see if you get the same results? At times I can't get a connection to this stream but I usually get connected if I try a little latter. The provider may be limiting the number of simultaneous connected users.

[Brian]

I can play the WBJC stream, but I'm afraid I'm not in a position to test it over a period of time.

[treefog]

PNM protocol stream http://www.radioowensound.com/liveam.ram

The stream started switching back and forth between juddering and normal play after running ok for 133min's. I periodically checked the audio and found that the condition continued. XMplay has not locked up, just keeps running in the juddering/normal play mode with 518min's now showing.

Any correlation between PNM streams usually locking up within 3hr's of running and a juddering stream not locking up after 8.5hr's of running?

This is the first time I have experienced juddering with xmp-ra.dll (Beta 3, Mar. 30/06).

[Fraggie]

I suspect your system is running out of memory. The plugin keeps buffering all downloaded data, so at some point Windows may refuse to allocate more. This new update will alert out of memory situation. If possible, please check if the crash is just after the error message.

http://dhost.info/pieknyman/bin/xmp-ra.dll

[treefog]

I just started PNM protocol stream http://www.radioowensound.com/liveam.ram with xmp-ra.dll (Beta 3, Apr. 4/06) on two machines.

Test machine #1, HP Vectra, Intel P2, 600Mhz, 256Mb, XP Pro (sp2)
Test machine #2, HP ZE5475 laptop, Intel P4, 2.4Ghz, 512Mb, XP Home (sp2)

I will advise you on the results.

[Brian]

With the latest version of the plugin, when playing the BBC `Bells on Sunday' stream I mentioned above, XMPlay crashes just as the clip comes to an end. The Windows Event Viewer error report is as I detailed above. The only other Windows message is one which says:

`xmplay.exe - Application Error

The instruction at [string of letters and numbers] referenced memory at [a different string of letters and numbers]. The memory could not be "read".'

I can only reiterate that this program is but a few minutes in length. When I play a real audio stream of indefinite length, it carries on for hours with no problems until I decide to stop it.

Many thanks

[treefog]

PNM protocol stream http://www.radioowensound.com/liveam.ram with xmp-ra.dll (Beta 3, Apr. 4/06).

Test machine #1, HP Vectra, Intel P2, 600Mhz, 256Mb, XP Pro (sp2)
Test run #1:
Juddering/normal play started at 93min's. I kept the stream running and XMplay stopped at 174min's. Could not restart the stream and needed to use TaskManager/Processes to unload xmplay.exe.
Test run #2:
Played with no problem for 174min's and then stopped. Could not restart the stream but no problem closing XMplay.

Test machine #2, HP ZE5475 laptop, Intel P4, 2.4Ghz, 512Mb, XP Home (sp2)
Test run #1:
Played with no problem for 174min's and then stopped. Could not restart the stream but XMplay closed and reloaded with no problem.
Test run #2:
Played with no problem for 174min's and then stopped. Needed to use TaskManager/Processes to unload xmplay.exe.

Notes:
No popup before or after XMplay stopped on any of the tests.
Only had juddering on one test.
I cleared XP's Event Viewer logs before starting the test and nothing in the logs after the tests.
What's with the 174min's in all of the tests?

I get the same results as Brian with the http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/aod/shows/rpms/radio4/bellsonsunday.ram stream, and XP's Event Viewer logged the error.

[treefog]

Could you indicate the version change when you update xmp-ra.dll?
Eg.  RealAudio(beta 3.3) or RealAudio(beta 3, Apr. 4/06)

As I sometimes test with four machines, this would make it easier to keep track of the dll version in use.

[treefog]

Something Interesting:

PNM protocol stream http://www.radioowensound.com/liveam.ram with xmp-ra.dll (Beta 3, Apr. 4/06).
Machine - HP Vectra, Intel P2, 600Mhz, 256Mb, XP Pro (sp2)

I have been working in my shop all-day and listening to the stream.

The stream started to judder three times and the juddering always started between 91min's and 94min's. 

Two times no juddering was encountered so after allowing the stream to run 15min's to 20min's beyond 94min's, I closed and reloaded XMplay for another test.
 

[Brian]

[treefog]

 

[Fraggie]

A little update is up, fixing crashing on stream ends. PNM's work flawlessly, while RTSP files have some glitches (erm, anyway it's better than crashing ). Seeking on downloaded files has also been improved.

Maybe I will have some more free time to spend on bugfixing the plugin after Easter.

[Brian]

Thanks for the update, but I'm afraid it leaves me worse off than before. Not only do stream-end crashes continue to happen, but now I can't play several streams that I was previously able to play.

[treefog]

Test with XMplay 3.3.0.4 and xmp-ra.dll (Apr. 12/06)
PNM protocol streams http://www.radioowensound.com/liveam.ram and http://www.radioowensound.com/livefm.ram


Problem with new xmp-ra.dll (Apr. 12/06) and the two PNM streams above: 

Selecting the stream from the playlist, XMplay shows opening but as soon as buffering shows XMplay indexes to the next item on the playlist with a RED line through the PNM stream playlist item.
This applies to both of the above streams.
This is not a problem with xmp-ra.dll (Apr. 04/06).

I switched between xmp-ra.dll (Apr. 12/06) and xmp-ra.dll (Apr. 04/06) four times with the same results.