How do I eliminate the gaps between audio tracks or why does audio stutter? - Mvix Support Center: Technical Support, FAQ, Troubleshooting, Returns and Help

09 Feb 2012

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	How do I eliminate the gaps between audio tracks or why does audio stutter?

Solution Gaps between audio tracks or stuttering are caused by higher than normal seek or access-time from the Hard Drive (HDD). The seek time of a hard disk is the amount of time required for the read/write heads to move between tracks over the surfaces of the platters. Switching between tracks requires the HDD read/write head actuator to move the head arms physically, which being a mechanical process, takes a specific amount of time.

If you are using the Mvix player primarily as an MP3 player, we strongly recommend using HDDs with lowest seek/access time.

The Seek and Access time is also a function of HDD speed, hence, we recommend use of 7200rpm HDDs.

Gaps between audio tracks can also be lowered by using HDDs with 8MB or higher Buffer or Cache size. The size of the Hard disk's cache is improves the performance of the system, for the same reason that adding PC (RAM) memory will improve system performance, and why increasing the system cache will improve performance as well.

Partition your hard drive to 100 GB partitions to help reduce seek time problems.

If you are using 1000s of music files, we recommend that you defragment the HDD after transfering the music files onto the Mvix (HDD). Defragmentation is a process that rearranges and reassembles your files on your hard disk. Think of your hard disk as a shoebox where you store lots of notes (files). Windows XP/2000/NT simply takes your note (file), tears it into pieces and throws it into the box. When you try to load/play that file again, Mvix must first search for each piece and paste them together before the file is finally loaded or played. That process is time-consuming and reduces your performance. Keeing your HDD defragmented ensures better performance and lower access-time.

Finally, and more importantly, the ideal mechanism of storing files on Mvix is to use multiple folders and subfolders. Try to ensure that you do not have more than 20-30 audio files within each folder. This is an important criteria if you are planning to Shuffle-Play the music files.

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18 Aug 2006 01:14 PM