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Thaumic Cast

Sound cuts out

First, listen for which it is. It tells you where the trouble is.

  • Every room cuts out at the same moment. The audio is reaching the companion late, between your browser and the companion.
  • One room cuts out on its own. That speaker’s Wi-Fi is stalling.

The apps usually work out which, and say so. Their notices name the setting to change and the value to change it to; do what they say first.

Every room together

Section titled “Every room together”

The extension may say Gaps in the sound:

Audio from this browser reached the desktop app late 3 times in the last minute, and every speaker had a gap to show for it. Raise smoothing to 300 ms.

Try these, in order:

  1. Plug the laptop in. A laptop on battery saves power wherever it can, and the browser is one of the first places.
  2. Raise Smoothing, to the value the notice suggests. It is in the extension’s Settings, under Audio › Advanced. Each step adds that much delay.
  3. Leave Keep the tab awake on. It is on unless you turned it off, in Settings › Finer points. Your browser throttles a tab it thinks is silent, and a throttled tab sends audio late.
  4. Give the computer less to do. Close what is busy, or connect it by cable if it is on Wi-Fi and the companion is on another computer.

If the notice says smoothing “does not stretch that far”, the delays are longer than any setting can absorb: a busy or sleeping computer, or Wi-Fi between your browser and the companion. Give the computer less to do, or a cable.

Pieces missing from the audio

Section titled “Pieces missing from the audio”

Pieces missing from the audio means the browser itself dropped some of the tab’s sound before Thaumic Cast got it. On Windows 11, with the desktop app on the same computer, browser-wide capture usually cures it: it takes the sound from Windows instead of the tab. Elsewhere, the speakers can only play what reaches them; plugging in and closing busy tabs help.

One room on its own

Section titled “One room on its own”

The extension shows Cut out or May cut out under the room, and the desktop app puts a notice in Rooms:

Kitchen cut out: the Wi-Fi stalled for 700 ms, and a 500 ms head start lasts 500 ms. Set it to 1000 ms.

  1. Raise the Speaker head start to the value suggested. It is in the desktop app’s Settings, under Speakers, and takes effect when the speaker next connects: stop the cast and start it again. It adds the same delay, which video sync allows for.
  2. Move the speaker nearer the router, or give it a cable. When a stall is longer than the longest head start (2000 ms), the app says it is “a matter of furniture”.

On Thaumic Cast Server, the head start is pcm_connect_burst_ms in the config; restart the server after changing it.

A speaker that runs low over a long cast

Section titled “A speaker that runs low over a long cast”

“The clock in Kitchen runs a little fast” means the speaker plays slightly faster than audio arrives, and its reserve drains over a long cast. Keep Clock drift correction on in the desktop app’s Settings, under Speakers. If the notice says the clock is further out than correction is permitted to correct, stop the cast and start it again: that refills the reserve.

Section titled “Related”