Skipping to the middle of a streaming audio track on various sites causes stuttering and glitchy audio
Hello,
Please reference this support thread on SoundCloud's tech support forums. The thread contains all pertinent information, including videos of the problem and console screenshots made by myself and others. https://www.soundcloudcommunity.com/soundcloud/topics/skipping-to-the-middle-of-a-track-causes-stuttering-and-glitchy-audio-chrome-firefox
In a nutshell, when you try to skip forward during streaming audio, there is a buffering/stuttering issue that prevents proper playback of the track. This problem is confirmed on SoundCloud and Traxsource, and other people in the support thread have mentioned Mixcloud and other streaming sites. In other words, this is not the fault of one particular streaming service or another.
The problem does not occur in Microsoft Edge, Internet Explorer, or Chrome. Well, to clarify, when the problem was posted on the SoundCloud support forums, Chrome was having the same issue. However, they did a version push a few days ago, which fixed it.
Here is my original post on SoundCloud support (minus erroneous information about Chrome), which has pertinent details. Note that we upgraded both Flash and Firefox recently, so although I mention previous versions in my original post, everyone involved has since updated their browsers and Flash.
As of now, the only fix for the issue is to roll back to Firefox 40.0.2. Thanks for any and all help =)
Matt
Original Message===========
Skipping to the middle of a track causes stuttering and glitchy audio (Firefox).
I am running Windows 10 Pro.
There seems to be a caching issue affecting playback - I started noticing this problem three or four days ago. Previously, I could skip through my stream at will, going straight to the middle of tracks or mixes to listen to a few seconds, and determine if I liked the track. Now, I cannot do that on Firefox 41.0.1. The problem is merely annoying on songs that are 3 or 4 minutes in length, as I must let them "cache" for perhaps ten seconds before skipping around. Unfortunately, the problem is a game-breaker on mixes that are, for example, 90 minutes long. If I skip to a point directly in the middle of the mix, nothing happens. The playback button alternates between the "Play" symbol, and the "Caching" symbol ("..."), and if audio does resume, it is glitchy and consists of different parts of the track being played back at once.
I've eliminated my internet connection as a source of the problem by loading up Edge. In Edge 20.10240.16384, the problem does not exist. I can scroll down to any 2-hour mix in my feed, click on the middle of it, and the audio starts right up. No caching, no stuttering or glitching.
I rolled back Flash to version 18 to see if it fixed the problem in Firefox, but it did not. The problem persisted, so I re-upgraded back to Flash 19.
Chosen solution
Yeah, I understand how all of the updates and versions work. I meant to say that it was a tinderbox build. My bad.
I would consider this problem resolved. Several different pre-release versions of Firefox have fixed the issue; I've personally been using two of them that work perfectly. A Bugzilla rep has stated that the fix will be integrated into Firefox 42, which will be released on November 3rd.
I'd now consider this matter closed. Thanks to everyone who helped out here =)
Read this answer in context 👍 0All Replies (19)
Video of the error (please disregard the poor video; I spent little to no time configuring the freeware cap program I used, but the audio gets my point across): http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x38p6cu_soundcloud-playback-problem_music
Firefox 41.0.1 Console Shots:
This is when I first press Play on the track: http://imgur.com/MTq7RRt At this point, the track is playing properly.
This is when I skip to the middle of the track (31:32), and the problem occurs: http://imgur.com/Yao6XKF Note all the partial content requests. The track is buffering and stuttering.
Another shot of the continued partial requests as the track buffers and skips: http://imgur.com/H7707DF This shot was taken 11 seconds after the initial skip to the middle. (31:43)
The last shot, of when the track actually begins playing properly again (31:57), 25 seconds after the initial skip to the middle: http://imgur.com/WhSE3Ky
Bueller....? Bueller....? Bueller....?
It's pretty disheartening to not to have received a single response yet.
https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/firefox?order=votes
Yep, that's me there, at the top with the 17 upvotes.
Anyone?
Modified by Breakbeat
I just upgraded to 41.0.2 and no longer have this problem. Tested over 48 hours, no skipping. Maybe it will work for you too?
check this:
- see if there are updates for your graphics drive drivers
https://support.mozilla.org/kb/upgrade-graphics-drivers-use-hardware-acceleration
- disable protected mode in the Flash plugin (Flash 11.3+ on Windows Vista and later)
https://forums.adobe.com/message/4468493#TemporaryWorkaround
- disable hardware acceleration in the Flash plugin
https://forums.adobe.com/thread/891337 See also:
Fred,
Thanks for your reply.
My graphics drivers are up-to-date. Disabling protected mode and hardware acceleration for Flash had no effect on the problem. The Flash troubleshooting link has a lot of interesting information on fixing video playback performance, but nearly nothing about audio. Yes, problems such as "no volume", or "sound won't play" are covered, but these are not the problems we are having.
When skipping forward on a streaming audio track, playback either does not resume, or if it eventually does, it comes back "stuttering", or in some cases "mixed up" (half a second of current audio will play, followed by half a second of the beginning of a track, back and forth).
This problem does not effect Chrome, IE or Edge. This problem is also not present in Firefox 40.0.2.
Thanks, Matt
radium02 said
I just upgraded to 41.0.2 and no longer have this problem. Tested over 48 hours, no skipping. Maybe it will work for you too?
No, I am running 41.0.2, and the problem persists. Please note that the audio does not skip on it's own - the problem occurs when you manually skip to the middle of a track when it is initially loaded.
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x38p6cu_soundcloud-playback-problem_music
Everyone running 41.0.2 in the SoundCloud support thread is also experiencing the same problem. So far, the only fix for the issue is to roll back Firefox to 40.0.2.
Modified by Breakbeat
Breakbeat said
radium02 saidI just upgraded to 41.0.2 and no longer have this problem. Tested over 48 hours, no skipping. Maybe it will work for you too?No, I am running 41.0.2, and the problem persists. Please note that the audio does not skip on it's own - the problem occurs when you manually skip to the middle of a track when it is initially loaded.
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x38p6cu_soundcloud-playback-problem_music
Everyone running 41.0.2 in the SoundCloud support thread is also experiencing the same problem. So far, the only fix for the issue is to roll back Firefox to 40.0.2.
Interesting. So before I upgraded to 41.0.2 (from the previous version), every time I would skip to somewhere in the song, it would stutter like crazy and would continue for a while (just like your video). After upgrading, it doesn't seem to happen. Then again, it's only been a few days for me so I'll have to wait and see. I hope Mozilla investigates this for everyone else and finds the root cause. It was definitely annoying when it was occurring.
I SPOKE TOO SOON.
This is STILL happening in FireFox 41.0.2 just like the video from Breakbeat shows above.
Windows 10 Firefox 4.0.2 No plugins installed
radium02 said
I SPOKE TOO SOON. This is STILL happening in FireFox 41.0.2 just like the video from Breakbeat shows above. Windows 10 Firefox 4.0.2 No plugins installed
Sorry mate =(
I've called the big guys to help you. Good luck.
The resources for Filing a bug in bugzilla.mozilla.org are listed below:
guigs said
The resources for Filing a bug in bugzilla.mozilla.org are listed below:
Thank you, I will submit a proper bug report when I have a few minutes later on tonight, or maybe tomorrow.
Matt
I submitted a bug report at:
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1218157
Thanks for your help,
Matt
Progress is being made on this. Check out the bugzilla link above. I'm not sure if a fix will make it into 42 or not, but they are aware of the issue, and hopefully we'll have a fix soon.
Thanks all, Matt
Monitoring their chatter on Bugzilla... it's not likely that the error will be fixed in 42, because it is too close to release. They're optimistic about it getting into 43 though.
The latest Nightly build now includes the fix, you can get it here:
Note that although the stuttering and glitching is fixed, seeking forward on a track takes quite a long time. That fix is forthcoming.
This tinderbox build has both the stutter/cache/glitch fix, and seeks normally. It won't update on its own, though:
Modified by Breakbeat
Breakbeat said
This Nightly build has both the stutter/cache/glitch fix, and seeks normally. It won't update on its own, though: http://archive.mozilla.org/pub/firefox/tinderbox-builds/mozilla-central-win32/1445895309/firefox-44.0a1.en-US.win32.installer.exe
All four main channels Release < Beta < Aurora < Nightly get updates as a version starts on Nightly and moves/merges to next channel as a version is Released.
The Tinderbox builds at http://archive.mozilla.org/pub/firefox/tinderbox-builds/ or aka hourlies as Testers may call them also do not get updates though as the update channel they use is default if I recall.
Nightly builds that do get updates if you want to be a Tester are at http://archive.mozilla.org/pub/firefox/nightly/latest-mozilla-central/
Note that for Aurora and Nightly channels they get checkins almost every day so they get updates each of those days. This means that there can sometimes be issues until things are fixed, finished or reverted.
The Beta channel builds are more stable and get say six to twelve Beta builds for a version as the current Beta build for for Fx 42.0 on Beta channel is 42.0b9.
Modified by James
Chosen Solution
Yeah, I understand how all of the updates and versions work. I meant to say that it was a tinderbox build. My bad.
I would consider this problem resolved. Several different pre-release versions of Firefox have fixed the issue; I've personally been using two of them that work perfectly. A Bugzilla rep has stated that the fix will be integrated into Firefox 42, which will be released on November 3rd.
I'd now consider this matter closed. Thanks to everyone who helped out here =)
Modified by Breakbeat
Hello,
Just quickly adding that Firefox 42 is out today, and the problem is resolved.
Thanks, Matt
Hola actualize a mozilla 45.0.1 y hace un skipping en los 6 a 7 segundos de comenzada la reproducción en soundcloud, en la version 43.0.1 y la 44.0.2 no pasa. He probado en mi viejo xp sp2 y en mi otra maquina con win7 igual, alguna respuesta. Hello mozilla upgrade to 45.0.1 and makes skipping in six to seven seconds into playback on soundcloud, in version 43.0.1 44.0.2 does not pass. I tried on my old xp sp2 and my other win7 machine with the same.
Modified by superwar