Music Playback Stuttering - iTunes 10.2.2

Question

Level 1

4 points

Music Playback Stuttering - iTunes 10.2.2

Hi there,

I've only started experiencing this problem.

Playback music locally on the iMac, audio out of the speakers goes out for 2-5 second at a time. The song keeps 'playing' though.

I can stream audio and video to the ATV2 from the iMac perfectly fine.

I've downloaded and installed the latest version of iTunes. Still the problem appears.

Restarted. Reset PRAM. Verified the disk in Disk Utility (no problems reported).

It is quite frustrating - as I like to listen to music while I work.

Imac Specs:

iMac 27" - Core i5, 8gb Ram.

Latest updates on OS X 10.6.7 and iTunes installed.

Only other programs open are InDesign CS4 (a basic document), Mail, Safari, Illustrator and Photoshop.

Activity Monitor shows over 5gb of ram free. and nothing using more than 5% of the CPU..

iMac, Mac OS X (10.6.7)

Posted on May 22, 2011 10:41 PM

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Answer 1

May 23, 2011 3:44 PM in response to countmacula

I've posted elsewhere in these forums that I am having the same stuttering problem with a 2009 mini -- local playback of music with iTunes occasionally goes silent and then comes back after a few seconds. I have 8 GB of ram and a 7,200-rpm drive. I checked my memory usage with TinkerTool and there are no page outs when this happens.

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Answer 2

Acin

Level 1

8 points

Jul 3, 2011 12:27 AM in response to George Johnson

I often have this problem, but it seems to be limited to MPEG-4 tracks. If I convert them to AAC, the problem disappears. (AIFF tracks behave well, too.) So, I think it's a compression issue.

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Answer 3

Sean M

Level 1

128 points

Dec 3, 2011 11:25 AM in response to Acin

Same problem.

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Answer 4

Dec 3, 2011 2:56 PM in response to Sean M

I'm still having the problem too. It doesn't happen when I stream from my server to the mini -- only when I play the identical recordings from the mini disk. I wonder if it has something to do with the sound on the mini going to sleep and then suddenly reawakening.

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Answer 5

Jun 22, 2012 2:26 PM in response to George Johnson

It has been months without any response from Apple themselves.......frustrating. Surely thay have support reps that monitor these forums!? Isn't that why they exist?

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Answer 6

Avai

Level 1

8 points

Jul 13, 2012 10:24 AM in response to countmacula

I also have this problem. It's been going on for months now, but I see this topic was started last year so I guess that makes sense. I always apply all updates. Currently on OSX 10.6.8 and iTunes 10.6.3. This problem only happens to iTunes; playing songs in Quicktime seems to work fine. Most of my library is MP3 files. Activity monitor shows iTunes almost always using 59 MB RAM and there is always between 1 GB and 2 GB of free RAM so it shouldn't be an issue with RAM. I notice this happens when I'm browsing the internet, using either Safari or Google Chrome. I also spend a lot of time drawing but the music never skips then. Maybe that's just coincidence; I don't know.

It would be nice to see some sort of workaround. I thought at first I needed more RAM or something so my iMac could handle checking mail and playing iTunes at the same time, but RAM is not an issue. (I only have 4 GB instead of 8 like the OP, but still I always have 1 or 2 GB free - really "free" not just "inactive.")

Oh, and my hardware is iMac Quad-Core i5 (Late 2009)

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Answer 7

Aug 3, 2012 8:46 AM in response to countmacula

I have the same problem, for sure, it's not the amount of RAM:

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4166478

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