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Topic: Safest Playback Method (Read 3177 times) previous topic - next topic
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Safest Playback Method

I plan to use Foobar to play the accompanient CD tracks for our Easter Cantata at church in a few weeks. Which is the safest and surest method to use: standard playback or Ram Disk playback?

Safest Playback Method

Reply #1 –
DirectSound output. That's first about safe playing. In case of CD best option would be to simply rip them to hard drive - using CDEx, EAC of foobar itself. You can rip them fast just to .wav files - without compression. After everuthing is done you can simply delete wave files...

Safest Playback Method

Reply #2 –
Quote from: jdycus on
the safest and surest method

An answer depends also on what jdycus thinks that could happen.

For example maybe he has a power outage or a hard disk failure during performance in mind.

So please explain your question a little bit more for better help, jdycus.
This is HA. Not the Jerry Springer Show.

Safest Playback Method

Reply #3 –
Most obvious answer is the best so I assume he must be asking about dropouts / bufffer underruns / skips. That's why ripping CD to HDD will be best option - faster reading, independence from accidental touching CD surface, DVD failure etc. So standard playback from HDD
Additionally playing files from HDD will cost far less power than from DVD - good to remember if you are going to use laptop without PSU and want to run only on battery.

I am curious what brilliant advices you have Robertina in case of HDD failure? Spare PC? Quick swap of HDD with preconfigured OS? Creating mirroring RAID? Accidental failure is very unlikely to happen and mostly just fatal so you can not do anything about it, especially while playing something live. Best option is to check HDD condition before you start show and simply not to kick or punch PC while running.
In case of power outage... well, I think foobar don't have plugin for managing UPS yet so such question is irrelevant in this forum.

Safest Playback Method

Reply #4 –
My answer had nothing to do with yours, EpicForever, so why that aggressive reply? As the picture I linked to clearly indicates my contribution was even written in a humorous vein.

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Most obvious answer is the best

No. The most precise answer is the best answer. And in your case it is each omitted answer.

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I am curious what brilliant advices you have Robertina in case of HDD failure?

As a professional musician who has to make sure that exactly these possible problems - failure of instruments or computers or power blackout - don't occur during live performances I would have had some advices indeed. Whether or not they would have been considered to be brilliant - the OP would have tell me. The OP, not you.
This is HA. Not the Jerry Springer Show.

Safest Playback Method

Reply #5 –
Sorry I didn't make myself clearer. I do not plan to play directly from the actual physical CD disk. It would be my intention to rip the cd to wav files, place in a playlist in Foobar, and play from there. I was just wondering if there would be any less likely of playback problems if after making a playlist to use foo_ramdisk and then use "Utilities/Send to Ram-disk." My greatest fear would be hard drive failure during performance. If I use Ram Disk, would playback continue if hard drive failed? Thanks all for your replies.

Safest Playback Method

Reply #6 –
Just check HDD condition using HDD health, Crystal Disk Info, AIDA64 or whatever program that reads SMART attributes and reports health of HDD. If there are no warnings then probability of HDD failure is very very very low. I don't believe that using RAM disk will increase safety. It is said that free neutrinos that are passing through Earth are able to alter RAM memory state or state of any other digital device which uses semiconductor memory. I think it is more likely to catch a neutrino in RAM than have unpredictable HDD crash when SMART indicates that disk is OK.
I am not joking.

Safest Playback Method

Reply #7 –
The RAM disk can be used to overcome timing problems coming from the storage device, e.g. if the device is too slow or to protect against the effects of a disk entering a power saving mode. Particularly, it helps to avoid stutters.

The RAM disk is not a suitable protection against actual hardware defects. Such defects are rare and can have a wide range of effects. Playback might fail because the audio file becomes unreadable. The computer might lock up or crash because a system file is corrupted. The RAM disk also does not protect you against failures which occur before you load the audio files into it.

Safest Playback Method

Reply #8 –
In such mission critical situations, it also makes sense to have a second 'tested' system set up and readily available, just in case.
Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?  ;~)

Safest Playback Method

Reply #9 –
Quote from: 2tec on
In such mission critical situations, it also makes sense to have a second 'tested' system set up and readily available, just in case.


Exactly. The only thing you can really do to backup your a... bilities to perform. There is nothing like "safest playback method" and no other golden hints or brilliant advices that could be given... Just take 2 laptops, rip CD to both of them and be sure about their batteries, PSUs and HDD SMART statuses.
Other thing - you can doublecheck for unwanted DSPs (like adding or removing silence, changing pitch/tempo) and proper playback order (Default instead Shuffle or Random).
You can also copy CD twice, at low speed, take 2 hardware CD players (even portable ones like Discman) and forget about PCs and fiddling with various output methods and playback methods...

Safest Playback Method

Reply #10 –
Quote from: jdycus on
Which is the safest and surest method to use: standard playback or Ram Disk playback?
Quote from: EpicForever on
DirectSound output. That's first about safe playing.
Quote from: EpicForever on
There is nothing like "safest playback method"

-----

Since some utterances in your newest post again refer to my contributions here: In contrary to you I didn't make any statement regarding the pros and cons of playback methods. What I did was asking the OP what risks he had in mind when talking about "safe and surest method". And with my guess

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power outage or a hard disk failure during performance

I hit the nail on the head, didn't I:

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My greatest fear would be hard drive failure during performance.

And while my assumption exactly met the OP's fear you started a number of unrelated reprovals, waffling on "brilliant advices" and failure stats. And now you do it again:

Quote from: EpicForever on
There is nothing like "safest playback method" and no other golden hints or brilliant advices that could be given...

To clarify: Nobody but YOU introduced the term of brilliant advice, and nobody claimed he would be able to offer advice being of 'brilliant' quality. But this doesn't keep you from arguing against your own wording. Please notice that you are not arguing against me: You are arguing against your own prejudices and misreadings.

Quote from: EpicForever on
Quote from: 2tec on
In such mission critical situations, it also makes sense to have a second 'tested' system set up and readily available, just in case.

Exactly. The only thing you can really do to backup your a... bilities to perform. There is nothing like "safest playback method" and no other golden hints or brilliant advices that could be given...

Why wasn't that your first and only contribution in this thread then? Maybe I wouldn't have seen any necessity then to add or ask something..

Often enough you flood this forums with computer-related problems (both hardware and software) like no one else. It's funny that you of all people present yourself being an expert. Who clothed you with this authority?
This is HA. Not the Jerry Springer Show.

Safest Playback Method

Reply #11 –
Please don't be so butthurt

Safest Playback Method

Reply #12 –
Well, it seems I've sparked an interesting debate, and all comments are appreciated. After having read all comments, I guess its a crap shoot as to whether a standard cd player is more or less likely to brake down than a laptop playing wav files via Foobar. And obviously, having a backup is wise. In analyzing my own thinking, what I should have asked at the very first: does using Peter's Ram-Disk add on component eliminate the possibility of ANY playback problems; ie, what is the benefit of this component?

Safest Playback Method

Reply #13 –
Quote from: jdycus on
Does using Peter's Ram-Disk add on component eliminate the possibility of ANY playback problems? What is the benefit of this component?

No. Less or no disc usage, ergo no moving parts.

As others said, have a backup PC (or any device really) capable of taking over if the first breaks down.

Safest Playback Method

Reply #14 –
Quote from: Daeron on
No. Less or no disc usage, ergo no moving parts.


During playback. You do have to read all of the data from the HD in the first place. If there are corruptions in the file -- from a bad rip or HD problems, or both -- you aren't guaranteed that the copy in the RAM disk is playable.

The point of failure needn't be related to storage or audio. I've had poorly written wireless drivers cause stuttering. Graphics drivers can crash, and although recent versions of Windows can restart them without a reboot, your PC could be temporarily too busy to play audio.
That's so plausible, I can't believe it.

Safest Playback Method

Reply #15 –
That's what I meant, but thanks for the clarification if it wasn't clear.