MEP - 4.04 - Audio pops on opening of Popful mail

[Tianfeng]

The long opening cinematic when you start a game in Popful Mail pops or skips around 3 times during the playback.  I verified on several different systems and had Artemio cross verify and record it from an original disc.  I have attached the two recordings here. The first pop happens at around 1 minute. https://wetransfer.com/downloads/9c96dbcadeac937e16524cb7812c459c20200810194400/93cdfe

[Tianfeng]

I saw that the link had expired so I recorded it again. If you put this in a DAW you will see the spots of silence.
 https://1drv.ms/u/s!AsngWlNWGl3BgYBgDKUYIvUW_TIr9g?e=nEPEBb

[Tianfeng]

Here are the drops and the time marking for the audio file.  The top is a sega cd model 2 and the bottom is the mega everdrive pro.

[Aether Knight]

There are multiple skips on all the cut scenes, not just the intro. I have a new game save where you can jump to any area and play out any cutscene to test out. This was tested on the latest fw (v4.04)

[Tianfeng]

I didn't bother testing further because the consistency of the drops seems a buffer running out but that is just a guess.  It makes sense that it would be in all of the cut scenes longer than a minute I am guessing.   Does that track with what you found?

[Aether Knight]

Haven't done thorough testing however the 2-3 cutscenes I played out, each one had periodical skips. Seems like it only does it during cutscenes as most of the regular character dialogue seems to play fine on my end. I was actually in the middle of x-ferring my MCD saves over yet again and happened to notice it when I fired up Popful Mail.

[Tianfeng]

I saw in the other thread that you wanted console and SD card information.  This is this was recorded   form an unmodified North American model 1 va3.  The SD card is a 128gb Samsung evo select. This has been confirmed on modded systems as well. It was also confirmed but 4 other people using separate systems and sd card.  If thier is any recommendation about how to format as card to avoid this issue I am willing to try. 

[TheShadowRunner]

I saw in the other thread that you wanted console and SD card information.  This is this was recorded   form an unmodified North American model 1 va3.  The SD card is a 128gb Samsung evo select. This has been confirmed on modded systems as well. It was also confirmed but 4 other people using separate systems and sd card.  If thier is any recommendation about how to format as card to avoid this issue I am willing to try.

Maybe try formatting with this app:
https://www.sdcard.org/downloads/formatter/
with default settings (= exfat for 128GB).
Hope it helps.

[Tianfeng]

This has been a while with no updates and no proposed fixes.  Since I have only been able to confirm that this is happening to every user I have talked to, can anyone show me the opposite? Is anyone able play this opening without the audio drops?  And if you can what is your set up?

[KRIKzz]

This has been a while with no updates and no proposed fixes.  Since I have only been able to confirm that this is happening to every user I have talked to, can anyone show me the opposite? Is anyone able play this opening without the audio drops?  And if you can what is your set up?

I just returned from working over ed64 update. It is not something related to sd cards or whatever else, i looking on this problem and i have the same behavior.

[Tianfeng]

Awesome.  Thanks Krikzz and let me know if I can help.

[Tianfeng]

I am confirming this is fixed in 4.05.  Thanks Krikzz

[KRIKzz]

I am confirming this is fixed in 4.05.  Thanks Krikzz

Eke's Genesis-Plus-GX bugfix log helped a lot with Popful Mail. He fixed similar bug and it make me look closer on mcd timer. As it often happens with mcd, problem was related to the undocumented details of timer behavior.

[Retro-Nerd]

Yep, the CD fixes works.

BUT: The new firmware 4.05 seems to break the in-game menu somehow. When i go into the menu, after started a game Rom, and want to return to the game (or exit) then the machine freezes. With a green screen and static noise. Switching back to firmware v4.04 and everything works fine.

[KRIKzz]

Yep, the CD fixes works.

BUT: The new firmware 4.05 seems to break the in-game menu somehow. When i go into the menu, after started a game Rom, and want to return to the game (or exit) then the machine freezes. With a green screen and static noise. Switching back to firmware v4.04 and everything works fine.

Weird, i can't reproduce that problem. Make sure you updated all files. I can see exactly same behavior if MEGA\mappers\00.rbf wasn't updated.