Jamcast

Hi Accolon,

Thanks for stopping by the forums. I'm not sure about this, we've not gotten Windows 8 deployed for testing Jamcast yet. Tried last week but the preview version of Windows 8 took issue with our VM's CPU emulation...

Were you met with success on previous versions of Windows 8? How does the CPU utilization look during all of this?

The audio driver might be be the culprit here... historically this is true pre-Windows 8. If I knew for sure the Virtual Soundcard worked well on Windows 8 I might be more confident of that in this case, too.

Thanks!

Hi Accolon,

Hmm, OK. This one may be tough to track down given the general lack of support for Windows 8 at this moment in time.

You could try hardware capture mode, in Jamcast Server Manager on the Content/Virtual Soundcard tab you can select this. You would then need to enable Stereo Mix (or similar) as the Default recording device in Windows -- this will achieve the same effect for capturing audio from the PC.

Also, in Jamcast Server Manager on the Server/Logging tab you can set the logging level to Debug and then reproduce the issue by playing the Virtual Soundcard for a minute or so, then Stop playback and Stop the Jamcast service, then send the log over this way. It's possible there may be some clue in there for me as well.

Sorry I don't have clearer solutions for you at this time.

Thanks!

Thanks for the reports. I will make a concerted effort to get a Windows 8 environment up and running ASAP so that I can have a look for myself.

Depending on what's going on, a fix may not be immediately available. But when things are working properly, we can get your trials extended no problem if you like.

Stay tuned, I will report back here with any progress or new information.

Thanks!

Yes, I see it is glitching (audio data discontinuities) very bad in WASAPI mode. I see references on the web to this being a problem in the latest Windows 8 preview, I also see mention of some thread-related behaviors that changed with WASAPI and Windows 8 that could very well explain this problem. I'll need to set up an environment, reproduce the issue, and then see if these recommendations work.

I see you tried hardware capture mode as well, did you get different results with that audio?

Thanks!

Ah, I understand.

On the Recording tab, right-click and make sure "Show disabled devices" and "Show disconnected devices" are enabled. (this is in Windows 7, hopefully the same applies to Windows

What other choices to do you see?

If it's not there, it's because the driver for your audio card excludes Stereo Mix or doesn't support it.

Thanks!

Hi Scott,

Did you have a chance to setup a repro?

infrb, I've sent you a link to a new build of Jamcast with some updates to address this issue. My Windows 8 environment is performing poorly so I'm a bit disadvantaged, however this new build includes something that Microsoft has documented as necessary for Windows 8 (and it still works on Windows 7). I'll have to rely on you guys to know it it helps or not.

Thanks!

OK, thanks for the feedback!

After some thought, I rolled the previous changes back and made another attempt at the same thing. I sent you another PM with the link. I actually see significant improvements this time, but again... my test environment is a bit unstable to be certain of much anything. Let me know how it works for you.

Thanks!

Thanks for the heads-up on the email notifications. Hopefully you received a notification this time.

I was especially hopeful the last build would be the fix here, it was an aggressive change and should satisfy the new requirement for Windows 8 that Microsoft has mentioned in this context.

I also saw the glitch count (indicated in the jamcast.log) go from several thousand to 0 with this new build. Glitches are discontinuities in the audio capture, that many (as indicated in your logfile as well) will produce audio that sounds broken, not smooth, etc...

Was your logfile still in debug or trace mode? Could you put into trace and reproduce one more time with the 221 build, I'd like to have a look just to be sure.

Unless something occurs to me after looking at your logfile, I imagine we'll probably have to wait for Windows 8 final, or more information from Microsoft...

Thanks for all your help with this one.

Thanks again.

I see no change in your logfile whatsoever in terms of improvements in audio glitches, which I *did* see in my latest attempts (but again, too unreliable to be conclusive).

I imagine the changes I implemented in this latest build will ultimately be required for Windows 8 one way or another, without respect to this particular issue. As to the matter at hand, we could be chasing a bug in a preview version of the operating system for all we know at this point...

I think we're going to have to wait this one out. I'm sorry we didn't get it this time, but I don't think our efforts were wasted. I really appreciate your time and assistance on this, I think it's safe to say this WILL be fixed at some point.

Thanks!