iTunes choppy playback

[tenpin]

Just got me a new Mac, pointed iTunes at my music library on an external USB disk, and playback is really choppy - some good 2-3 second pauses in the middle of songs.

I have unchecked the "keep my collection organised" option, which seems to help, and also the "put hard disks to sleep" option in Preferences. But I'm still getting choppiness.

Any other ideas?

[Spacecadet]

I'm sure I read of an option in Itunes which fixes this.
let me google

[Spacecadet]

can't find it now...
I'm sure it was something to do with the audio playback options

[DiscoStu]

Can't believe I get to say this but...



















Get a PC

[MikeC1408]

Don't get a PC

under

ITunes\Preferences\Advanced theres a Streaming Buffer Size.

Could this be what your looking for?

My library is on an external HHD and I have this set to Medium and I don't get any issues.

[tenpin]

Don't get a PC

under

ITunes\Preferences\Advanced theres a Streaming Buffer Size.

Could this be what your looking for?

My library is on an external HHD and I have this set to Medium and I don't get any issues.

I have mine set to max, doesn't seem to help.

Shall copy the library to the local hard drive overnight and try again tomorrow, see if its the USB drive causing the issue. Might as well fill this lovely half a TB with something!

[Sysman]

Is the USB connection direct or via a hub?

[tenpin]

Is the USB connection direct or via a hub?

Direct - it's a Freecom 400GB drive. I suspect either fragmentation, some inner device check thingy that OSX is doing or something to do with spinning up/down hard disks.

Copying the music library to the Mac hard drive fixes the choppy playback issue (but means I have to have all that music on my hard disk now - ho hum)

[Durbs]

I'm sure I read of an option in Itunes which fixes this.
let me google

I had this in Windows and it was literally a checkbox somewhere that fixed it. Cant remember what it was but some Quicktime option rings a bell.

Not much help then.