kindle fire- largest audio latency yet

Below is a repost of my answer from this related thread:

http://forums.adobe.com/message/3750664

REPOST:

Let's be clear:

1) There is "acceptable" latency of the order of half a sec or so ( often less ), which according to the post by Holgate, #7 above, is an issue with -- some versions of ( ? ) -- Android ( not Air specifically ).

2) Then, there is unacceptable delay, which appears to be specific to Air on some Android devices ( particularly Nook Color and Kindle Fire ), where a sound will sometimes play in near sync ( with "normal" Android latency ), and sometimes with a delay of SEVERAL SECONDS ( like 5 or 10, in one of my apps! ), which apparently has something to do with garbage collection ( Holgate post #14, above ).

I can confirm that the unacceptable delay has NOT been fixed as of Air 3.6, testing on Nook Color and Kindle Fire, though it is fine ( no delay ) on the Nexus One.

As pointed out in another forum, playing all your sounds in a silent loop, will prevent sounds from being garbage collected, and will eliminate the delay issue whenever you play a sound, like so:

private function initSounds():void

{

     var silentSndXF:SoundTransform = new SoundTransform( 0 );

     _sound01.play( 0, int.MAX_VALUE, silentSndXF );

     _sound02.play( 0, int.MAX_VALUE, silentSndXF );

     _sound03.play( 0, int.MAX_VALUE, silentSndXF );

     // Note: int.MAX_VALUE is about 2 billion, so even a very short "click" sound of 1/20

     // of a sec would play for 3 years or so -- if the app was never closed !!

}

private function onButtonClick( evt:MouseEvent ):void

{

     _sound01.play();

}

This hack eliminated the severe delay I was getting on Nook Color and Kindle Fire ( several seconds for some sounds, in some situations ), leaving me with the "regular", acceptable Android latency.

Big +1 to this.  I am a Unity3D developer and noticed the same thing.  Audio latency on Kindle Fire is the worst I have seen on any Android device, despite the fact we are getting 60+ FPS.