From: Michael O'Quinn <michael_at_oquinn.info>
Date: Sat, 29 Mar 2003 12:08:36 -0800 (PST)

On Sat, 29 Mar 2003, Linus Nielsen Feltzing wrote:

> Michael O'Quinn wrote:
> > It turns out I can reproduce it on demand, every time with any song on
> > that album. (They are all 256 CBR.)
>
> (bursting out in tears)
>
> I can't reproduce it on my Player. I guess it depends on the hard drive
> type or something...

[pausing for a moment of respectful silence]

Hey, it's not that bad. Really!

I'll tell you what, let's make some cookies -- like they did in The Matrix
-- and I'm sure that soon everything will be Right As Rain.

Here's my recepie...

First, some settings might be significant. Here's what I have...

   FF/RW Min Step = 3
   FF/RW Accel = 0
   Anti Skip Buffer = 7
   New style progress bar on second line of WPS.
   And, of course, this IS a Player we are talking about here.
   It's a newer player too, native firmware 5.08.

Second, find a higher bitrate song. (Quality ingredients make for better
cookies...) It seems to be easier with higher bitrates, probably because
it's easier (quicker) to FF to the necessary point before the disk spins
down.

Third, play the song. It's important to seek to the beginning of the song
from somewhere else, and not just let it start after the previous song
finishes. This is to make sure the buffer is full of this song, and only
this song, from it's exact beginning.

Fourth, watch the song as it plays, and note the exact time the red light
comes on (and the disk spins up, of course) to re-fill the buffer.

Fifth, add 5 to the time you just saw. This is your target seeking time.
In future steps, you will be trying to seek to exactly this time.

Seventh, tap RW to start the song at the beginning. (If it delays and
started playing from from anything other than 0:00, then it won't work.
Seek forward to flush the buffer and then jump back again.)

Eighth, as soon as the display shows 0:00 (And I mean AS SOON as that
happens) press and hold FF and seek to the target time you found in Step
5. This may take several tries, and a small amount of tweaking of the
exact time may be required. It seems like it's actually a range, about
plus or minus 3 or 4 seconds. Some songs seem to be more sensitive, while
others seem to have a wider range of acceptable seek points. I haven't
really done an exhaustive study of this particular aspect...

Ninth, if it doesn't work, seek forward a ways (to flush the buffer) then
go back to step 7.



Just a reminder, it seems to be essential that the disk remain spinning
for this to work. That's probably why it's easier with higher bitrate
songs, since it takes less time to FF to the necessary point.

Has anyone else been able to do this? I've gotten pretty good at it, to
the point that I'm having as much fun proving I can do it to every song as
I am actually listening to the songs themselves. (I guess I'm a Really
Simple Person at heart...)



Oh, BTW, I have a 60GB Toshiba drive due in next week. When it gets here,
I'll try this with that drive, and also with an old 170 MB drive I have
laying around. If I can get it to work with the 170, and you still can't
by then, I'll be happy to ship that drive to you to try it out. Just let
me know.



Good luck!
Michael
Received on 2003-03-29