[PROBLEM] Airplay stuttering since moOde 9

[cramcram]

Made the switch to moOde 9.0.1 from moOde 8.3.9. I used Airplay 2 a lot on 8.3.9 and it was rock solid. Since the switch to moOde 9.0.1 there is regular, reproducible stuttering in the stream. Any hints on what to try? Anybody else having similar issues? 

Hardware is Raspberry Pi 3B+, connection via Wifi. Network setup is stable, did not change.

[Tim Curtis]

At least for me its working perfectly.

Are you using CamillaDSP?

[cramcram]

No DSP

[Tim Curtis]

What source are you streaming?

[TheOldPresbyope]

@cramcram

I use AirPlay only occasionally (using either an iPhone SE or an iPad Mini as the sender) but it's been working fine for me too.

However, I realized the moOde 9.0.1 players I was using it with were based on a Pi 4B and a Pi 5B, both significantly faster than a Pi 3B+.

To try to replicate your condition, I have been listening this evening to a moOde 9.0.1 player on a Pi 3B+ rendering audio via AirPlay from my iPad streaming from Qobuz and Spotify. WiFi was the networking medium.

I heard once in a while what might be characterized as a glitch or stutter though certainly not what I would call regular.

Have you tried increasing the Buffer length in the AirPlay settings in moOde? I arbitrarily bumped it to 0.5 and now haven't heard any artifacts in 30 minutes of a Brahms trio where it would be immediately obvious. I probably overshot and could fine tune the buffer length if need be.

YMMV.

Regards,
Kent

[cramcram]

What source are you streaming?

Regularly from an iPhone 15 Pro. The source doesn't matter, stuttering occurs also when streaming from my Macbook Pro.

[cramcram]

@cramcram

I use AirPlay only occasionally (using either an iPhone SE or an iPad Mini as the sender) but it's been working fine for me too.

However, I realized the moOde 9.0.1 players I was using it with were based on a Pi 4B and a Pi 5B, both significantly faster than a Pi 3B+.

To try to replicate your condition, I have been listening this evening to a moOde 9.0.1 player on a Pi 3B+ rendering audio via AirPlay from my iPad streaming from Qobuz and Spotify. WiFi was the networking medium.

I heard once in a while what might be characterized as a glitch or stutter though certainly not what I would call regular.

Have you tried increasing the Buffer length in the AirPlay settings in moOde? I arbitrarily bumped it to 0.5 and now haven't heard any artifacts in 30 minutes of a Brahms trio where it would be immediately obvious. I probably overshot and could fine tune the buffer length if need be.

YMMV.

Regards,
Kent

Will try the buffer settings, thanks for the hint.

[cramcram]

I spent some more time investigating.

- The Processing power of the Pi 3B+ is not the reason for the stuttering. I have an even slower wired Pi 3B (without the plus) - Airplay works without stuttering.
- I hooked up the player with the stuttering problems with Ethernet today. Voilà, the problems are gone.

I presume there's a change in the Wifi Setup between moOde 8.3.9 and moOde 9.0.1. As I already wrote on 8.3.9 I didn't have any stuttering with Airplay on Wifi. Is there anything I can change in the Wifi configuration? Signal strength is 81%.

[Tim Curtis]

I spent some more time investigating.

- The Processing power of the Pi 3B+ is not the reason for the stuttering. I have an even slower wired Pi 3B (without the plus) - Airplay works without stuttering.
- I hooked up the player with the stuttering problems with Ethernet today. Voilà, the problems are gone.

I presume there's a change in the Wifi Setup between moOde 8.3.9 and moOde 9.0.1. As I already wrote on 8.3.9 I didn't have any stuttering with Airplay on Wifi. Is there anything I can change in the Wifi configuration? Signal strength is 81%.

Nothing in the WebUI but you could try examining the network stats for the wlan0 interface using the commands below. Look for retries, dropped packets etc.

Code:

ifconfig
iwconfig

[TheOldPresbyope]

@cramcram 

There's more differences under the hood between the 3B and the 3B+ besides the CPU speed.

Did you try increasing the buffer length or not? If you didn't then we won't know if that can help mitigate WiFi-related issues when using AirPlay.

Regards,
Kent