Newbie with problems

[mcgoverg]

Hi all, looking for some help.

I've had my wireless SB2 for a couple of days and I've run into some problems.

Firstly the SB goes offline at regular intervals - which I thought might be related to location so I'm currently trying it out in the same rooms as the PC - not ideal since I want it downstairs.

Second (possibly related problem) - I get really bad break up of sound on a pretty regular basis - not on a single track but randomly across the library. HDD is brand new and when I play back locally all seems fine. This is stuff ripped to WMA lossless. Oh by the way it occurs on both analogue and optical connections - haven't tried coax yet.

I also get overlay on the screen from time to time - the connecting to message overlaying on the VU meter display - annoying more than anything else but again I wonder if it might be related to location and dodgy reception?

Final problem - I've ripped a couple of albums using Itunes and Apple Lossless encoder. SB recognises all of the info Artis, Album etc, file type is shown as AAC / M4A. When I play I get no sound whatsoever. SB2 does support Apple lossless right?

Finally a question, I notice elsewhere in the community that there is support for slimserver running on a Buffalo storage device - any idea if this might also be available for the recently announced Netgear SC101?

Thanks in advance for any assistance offered.
Gerry

[ceejay]

Your "going offline" problem sounds like a wireless issue. Moving the SB closer to your PC is certainly one thing to try - the other is to go "wired" temporarily. This would help isolate the problem. A few people (including me!) have had some random problems with wireless connections, some of them came down to the wireless access point / router the SB2 is trying to connect to.

Other issues include interference, especially if (as it sounds) you find it working well most of the time but with sudden losses. Microwaves and cordless phones could be the culprit, either yours or a neighbours.

If there is any possibility of there being another wireless network in range (remember that it may be hidden) you should try a different channel (actually, try this anyway...).

Apple lossless shoud work, but you need Quicktime on your PC. See http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=14410

Unless its a DRM'ed file, in which case you are stuffed.

Ceejay.

[rme]

[QUOTE=mcgoverg]Hi all, looking for some help.

Firstly the SB goes offline at regular intervals - which I thought might be related to location so I'm currently trying it out in the same rooms as the PC - not ideal since I want it downstairs.

Second (possibly related problem) - I get really bad break up of sound on a pretty regular basis - not on a single track but randomly across the library. HDD is brand new and when I play back locally all seems fine. This is stuff ripped to WMA lossless. Oh by the way it occurs on both analogue and optical connections - haven't tried coax yet.

/QUOTE]

SB Goes offline - I had similar problems as mine is downstairs and across the house from my wireless router. I added a 7db gain antenna to my router and it resolved my issue. Also, you may want to check if you have a 2.4ghz phones as these definately interfere with your wireless signal.

I have had breakup of sound in the past and when I check the slimserver pc, it was due to a cpu/disk intensive process running there like disk virus scanning or backups being run automatically. Not sure if your issue is because you are trying to either decode wma to flac to stream and that is running your cpu too high or if you are streaming wma to sb2 (if that is even possible?) and not enough signal strength and bandwidth? I have everything in flac and stream in flac to the sb2 for decoding.

[mcgoverg]

thanks both for the info.

Quicktime installed - now I can play AAC. Also having moved the SB2 to same room as PC it appears to be happy - 'bout 10 hours with no issues.

I'm thinking about going with AAC rather than WMA (aside from anything else i've so far had about 5 albums unknown when ripping with windows media player).

Think I may go for a wired connection..
Gerry