Flawless functionality up to v1.6 - SMB1 issues on any v2.x across Win7 -11

2025-03-28 13:40:00

For my purpose, v 1.6 (32bit all the way!) of Foobar suffices in machines WinXP(32), 7(64), 8.1, 10(64) and 11(64), works like a dream! 
Luxury:
I would run Winamp5.66Milkdrop2 in parallel and synch playing of the same networked music file to get the visualizer untill I saw the v2.x (32bit)  release of Foobar2000 to include a 'fooVisMilk' plugin, oh joy I thought!.

In short, I think I am stuck with v1.6 because I can not get rid of a network hickup on my WDTVLive SMB1 (Fixed IP)  device presenting SamsungT5 USB media library to my Windows clients. (Win XP, Win 7, through 10 & recently 11 trying for months the same thing,  "get rid of the playback hick ups & random termination of playback only) ). 

Just now, on Windows 11 I Powershelled the support for SMB2 & 3 out of existence,
leaving only SMB1 operational on that machine, and disconnecting other client machines from the network.
SAME PROBLEM persists, hickups within 10 seconds of starting a track, exclusively using .WAV files.

I am confident having depleted all tweaks to perform the simplest of playback forms via my WDTVLive over Foobar2000 v2.x, locally or to the WDTVLive itself with optical out to a very large amplifier, buffers large&small and all.

THE PLUGIN USED to retrieve from SMB1 Device is the 32bit version developed last in 2015, "foo_upnp (DLNA renderer & server)", in conjunction to "foo _out_upnp  (renderer)" I re-download the only two plugins I use and fell back to old copies of them I had stored, NO DIFFERENCE.

QUESTION, is it likely in Foobar2000 v2.x (32bit) itself on 64bit OS-ses conjunction to a 32bit plugin from 2015 is buggy, or has Microsoft created a pitfall on purpose with the introduction of SMB2 & SMB3 that wasn't shared with the developers of Foobar2k or that old plugin from 2015?"

Re: Flawless functionality up to v1.6 - SMB1 issues on any v2.x across Win7 -11

Reply #1 – 2025-03-28 14:19:56

Just a quick comment that UPnP support has nothing to do with SMB. SMB is used when you access a network share, which to foobar2000 looks just like accessing local hard drive. It's fast and simple and foobar2000 reads the files using operating system's normal file access. foobar2000 version shouldn't affect this one bit, though newer foobar2000 may have some extra workarounds for buggy SMB implementation in various older Linux systems. But that only affects Media Library functionality, not actual file access.

UPnP on the other hand communicates over HTTP. And foobar2000 version should have zero effect for this as long as the UPnP component is supported on that version.

Re: Flawless functionality up to v1.6 - SMB1 issues on any v2.x across Win7 -11

Reply #2 – 2025-03-28 21:08:56

To relply #1, CASE, thanks for contributing, I somewhat confess being inaccurate in my description, true, even 32bit versions of Foobar2k v2.x on Windows 7-11 (64) have 'responsive' directory 'read' access of ~10000 very long and 'network-attached' file names ( I do not/can not use meta data in .WAV)  when selecting a file (whole album of 11 files actually) from my .PLS playlist window within Foobar 2.x to have copied off of the [SamsungT5 USB storage attached to my WDTVLive] to a local storage at where I am running that Foobar instance from...
so SMB1 invoked via Foobar's file handling seems to allow a download rate over the network of sustained 4.1 MB/s   (rate of *.WAV playback is approximately 1.4 MB/s) to SSD.  
Tested aformentioned 4.1 MB/s result right now on Win7(64)Foobar2.24 (32bit)  and Win11(64)Foobar 2.24 (32bit) . 
Both on Dell latitude laptops from 2013 with 72Mbit/s Wifi connections.

Next test on a crippled Win XP 32 bit laptop from 2004 on a slower 54Mb/s WiFi network connection, FOOBAR 1.6 (32bit).
Instructing Foobar1.6 to retrieve the same files from SamsungT5 attached to WDTVlive to the HDD of the crippled laptop has the following result:
Sustained 2.04 MB/s   over SMB1 (the only SMB version XP is natively accustomed to, as is the WDTVLive) 

ODD THING:  The crippled old WinXP32bit laptop & Foobar 1.6 has the nicest snappyness to it when it comes to playback of uncompressed .WAV locally to its own tiny speakers, furthermore, that crippled laptop with a mere  [ 2.04 / 1.4 ] 145% overhead in realtime playback speed versus download rate is also snappy in redirecting back to any other Foobar 1.6 or 2.x, VLC 3.x or secondary WDTVLive client I might have active on my network, be it laptop, desktop or mobile phone, or other WDTVLive hooked into another amplifier.  ... The latter of which, with your help, must be handed off to the UPNP & DLNA rendering plugins.

For good measure, creation of the same playlist to a Windows Mediaplayer version on the Win7-10 series machines anyway, does not result in playback hickups even when SMB2 & 3 are active alongside their legacy SMB1 support.  Those  same Win7-11 machines DO HAVE HICKUPS when running the 32bit version of Foobar 2.x ... inclusive of those two UPNP/DLNA components I need. I had already concluded issues with the 64bit version in that respect before I realised I was stuck on the 32bit versions of Foobar on behalf of that SINGLE foo_upnp component available only in 32 bit.
Also wanting to note that the Default streaming profile enforced in Foobar 2.x is set to 44.1/16bit
I don't use replay gain, transcoding or anything in Foobar 2.x

As for the crippled WinXP32 currently controlling the Win11 Foobar 2.24.1 in a very agile manner, which pleases me, it is actually the one still running Foobar 1.5 instead of 1.6 I mentioned earlier.  I revert to 1.6 on other machines giving issues with 2.x.

Concluding with some confidence: Quick machines with Win7-11 with multiversion support of SMB  foobar2000 v2.x will happiliy digest [WDTVLive+SamsungT5storage]-originating streams deflected off of an old crippled WinXP Foobar 1.5/1.6 on the same WiFi network without any glitches, but those quick machines won't allow their individual Foobar2000 2.x to play back of their own accord from the same source without hickups or playback terminations.
It is in the Foobar 2.x line of software, or Microsoft did mess up something, without Foobar development picking up on it.

The other think I can think of,
I usually have the whole of recommended .NET framework & Core installed everywhere as well as the Visual C++ redistributables on any of my Windows machines if that helps identyfing a problem.

Is it coming down to LOG File generation & analysis, or is someone out there having a EUREKA moment on this one?

Re: Flawless functionality up to v1.6 - SMB1 issues on any v2.x across Win7 -11

Reply #3 – 2025-03-28 21:51:44

You write a lot of text but I don't see any actual error messages or super clear description of what exactly you have configured foobar2000 to do.

If foobar2000 stops playback because of an error it will absolutely report some reason on the console.

Be careful with your units. Capital 'B' means bytes, lower case 'b' bits. 44.1 kHz, 16-bit stereo WAV needs ~0.18 MB/s of bandwidth, or ~1.4 Mb/s.

Re: Flawless functionality up to v1.6 - SMB1 issues on any v2.x across Win7 -11

Reply #4 – 2025-03-28 22:35:44

To relply #3, CASE, you caught me again there, apologies for the messed up units, so the overhead is even way more 'plenty' to play back uncompressed .WAV, it is not network bandwidth, is what I tried to prove.

I did not configure anything in Foobar 2x, I basically toggled off some stuff I don't seem to use.

As you where reading my book sized reply #2,
I tried to figure out where the LOG would reside generated from
Preferences \ Tools \ UPNP \ Server \ Basic Settings .... with Enable Degug messages & Log to file enabled   @ "Finest Level" ... but I can't find a path, nor any .log  in  C:\users\AppData\foobar or elsewhere I think. 
On this same page I have both type of UPNP server activated for local use (excluding streming to the internet) by the way.

Thank you for your directions and patience.

Re: Flawless functionality up to v1.6 - SMB1 issues on any v2.x across Win7 -11

Reply #5 – 2025-03-28 22:57:22

The standard place for foobar2000 and its components to report anything is its console. You can access it from the main menu 'View', then open 'Console'. You can view it in realtime. Or if you prefer, you can click on the 'Write log' button and select a target location where the log files will be written.

Re: Flawless functionality up to v1.6 - SMB1 issues on any v2.x across Win7 -11

Reply #6 – 2025-03-31 13:43:21

To relply #5, CASE, I am in the process of reviewing some console reports at 'finest' resolution with the blind man's eye, some traces of things aborting for some reason...
Next to that, I supplied a THIRD PARTY  with a Win11Pro machine with the same foobar2000 2.24.1 & milkdrop, albeit with a local library instead of a networked one... an NO SUCH problems are observed then, for good measure, I also added the same two components I use myself to the third party setup... flawless.   So it is definitely my own _networked_ Win7-Win11 setup .