Playing a large Clip and "Requested buffer too large" exception

Question

Hi All.
Through JavaSound, I am trying to reproduce a WAV audio file that I create within my application. Also the recording/acquisition of the audio file is performed through JavaSound.
The WAV audio file that I am trying to play has the following features:
- 44 Khz, 8-bit, mono
- Length = 1min 36sec
- File size = 4.04 MB
Here is a fragment of my code:
// Get the input stream from the input audio file
audioInStream = AudioSystem.getAudioInputStream(inputFile);
AudioFormat audioFormat = audioInStream.getFormat();
// Compute the buffer size (for a 0.25 seconds buffer)
float bufferTime = 0.25F; // 0.25 seconds of buffer
int frameSize = audioFormat.getFrameSize();
float frameRate = audioFormat.getFrameRate(); // frames per second
int numOfBufferedFrames = (int)(frameRate * bufferTime);
int bufferSize = frameSize * numOfBufferedFrames;
// Create the output data line
DataLine.Info sourceDataLineInfo = new DataLine.Info(Clip.class, audioFormat, bufferSize);
sourceClip = (Clip)AudioSystem.getLine(sourceDataLineInfo);
sourceClip.addLineListener(this);
// Prepare the output line for playing
sourceClip.open(audioInStream);
// Start playing
sourceClip.start();This code works perfectly fine on Windows (I am testing on a Windows XP Pro 32-bit machine).
On the other side, this code throws the following exception on Mac OS X:
javax.sound.sampled.LineUnavailableException: Failed to allocate clip data: Requested buffer too large.
     at com.sun.media.sound.MixerClip.implOpen(MixerClip.java:561)
     at com.sun.media.sound.MixerClip.open(MixerClip.java:165)
     at com.sun.media.sound.MixerClip.open(MixerClip.java:256)
     at mypackage.AudioPlaybackThread.run(AudioPlaybackThread.java:70)
     at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:637)The exception is thrown upon the sourceClip.open(audioInStream); call.
Googling around, I discovered that the MixerClip implementation seems to have some inherent buffer size limitation of 1 MB... Isn't it ridiculous?
But why this is working perfectly fine on Windows - even with clips of 4 megabytes -, while not working with larger clips on Mac OS X?
Also, will the following code line influence the size of the buffer used by MixerClip?
DataLine.Info sourceDataLineInfo = new DataLine.Info(Clip.class, audioFormat, bufferSize);I know that I could use a SourceDataLine class, and write() data into it in order to reproduce my long audio clip, but I need support for pausing, seeking audio to a specific position, seeking forward, etc., and using a Clip would be absolutely perfect for this purpose!
Any help or suggestion would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Marco

Answer 1

Googling around, I discovered that the MixerClip implementation seems to have some inherent buffer size limitation of 1 MB... Isn't it ridiculous?
But why this is working perfectly fine on Windows - even with clips of 4 megabytes -, while not working with larger clips on Mac OS X?Because Apple changes stuff in the JRE and Microsoft doesn't... and I personally believe Mac specifically strips down the JavaSound stuff because of iTunes (anti-competition and such).
Also, will the following code line influence the size of the buffer used by MixerClip?Probably not, no.
I know that I could use a SourceDataLine class, and write() data into it in order to reproduce my long audio clip, but I need support for pausing, seeking audio to a specific position, seeking forward, etc., and using a Clip would be absolutely perfect for this purpose!You can program that functionality yourself, and if you want to open large files in Mac, it sounds like you'll have to.