AAC playback/streaming stopped after installing SC 7.3

[PeterAndHisDuet]

Hi,

I previously had M4A files playing back successfully through SqueezeCenter 7.2, but after installing 7.3, it hasn't worked. If it's currently playing a playlist, it will skip over the M4A files and go to the next song.

I'm currently running on a Buffalo Linkstation and have checked and confirmed I have FAAD/FLAC and LAME installed. I've re-installed them just to confirm.

I turned on "Info" logging in Player.Source to see if that will provide any indications...


[08-12-12 23:03:15.1324] Slim::Player::Source::playmode (172) 00:04:20:16:dc:d6: Current playmode: stop
[08-12-12 23:03:15.1493] Slim::Player::StreamingController::play (1546) 00:04:20:16:dc:d6
[08-12-12 23:03:15.1656] Slim::Player::StreamingController::_Stop (532) Song queue is now 0
[08-12-12 23:03:15.1716] Slim::Player::StreamingController::_setPlayingStat e (1779) new playing state STOPPED
[08-12-12 23:03:15.1776] Slim::Player::StreamingController::_setStreamingSt ate (1792) new streaming state IDLE
[08-12-12 23:03:15.1938] Slim::Player::Song::new (64) index 0 -> file:///mnt/home/shared/Music/iTunes%20Music/10,000%20Maniacs/MTV%20Unplugged/01%20These%20Are%20Days.m4a
[08-12-12 23:03:15.2020] Slim::Player::StreamingController::_setStreamingSt ate (1792) new streaming state TRACKWAIT
[08-12-12 23:03:15.2096] Slim::Player::Song::getNextSong (178) file:///mnt/home/shared/Music/iTunes%20Music/10,000%20Maniacs/MTV%20Unplugged/01%20These%20Are%20Days.m4a
[08-12-12 23:03:15.2179] Slim::Player::StreamingController::_nextTrackReady (639) 00:04:20:16:dc:d6: nextTrack will be index 0
[08-12-12 23:03:15.2240] Slim::Player::StreamingController::_Stream (913) 00:04:20:16:dc:d6: preparing to stream song index 0
[08-12-12 23:03:15.2301] Slim::Player::StreamingController::_Stream (918) Song queue is now 0,0
[08-12-12 23:03:15.2379] Slim::Player::Song::open (302) file:///mnt/home/shared/Music/iTunes%20Music/10,000%20Maniacs/MTV%20Unplugged/01%20These%20Are%20Days.m4a
[08-12-12 23:03:15.2774] Slim::Player::TranscodingHelper::checkBin (260) couldn't find binary for: mov123
[08-12-12 23:03:15.2857] Slim::Player::TranscodingHelper::getConvertCommand 2 (451) Error: Didn't find any command matches for type: mov
[08-12-12 23:03:15.2921] Slim::Player::Song::open (323) seek=false time=0 canSeek=0SEEK_ERROR_TYPE_NOT_SUPPORTEDmov
[08-12-12 23:03:15.3088] Slim::Player::TranscodingHelper::getConvertCommand 2 (454) Matched: mov->flc via: [faad] -w -f 2 $FILE$ | [flac] -cs --totally-silent --compression-level-0 --endian little --sign signed --channels 2 --bps 16 --sample-rate 44100 -
[08-12-12 23:03:15.3150] Slim::Player::Song::open (340) Transcoder: streamMode=I, streamformat=flc
[08-12-12 23:03:15.3213] Slim::Player::Song::open (364) Opening stream (no direct streaming) using Slim::Player::Protocols::File [file:///mnt/home/shared/Music/iTunes%20Music/10,000%20Maniacs/MTV%20Unplugged/01%20These%20Are%20Days.m4a]
[08-12-12 23:03:15.3403] Slim::Player::Protocols::File::open (79) duration: [294] size: [7103092] endian [] offset: [0] for file:///mnt/home/shared/Music/iTunes%20Music/10,000%20Maniacs/MTV%20Unplugged/01%20These%20Are%20Days.m4a
[08-12-12 23:03:15.3462] Slim::Player::Protocols::File::open (96) Opening file /mnt/home/shared/Music/iTunes Music/10,000 Maniacs/MTV Unplugged/01 These Are Days.m4a
[08-12-12 23:03:15.3589] Slim::Player::Song::open (385) URL is a song (audio): file:///mnt/home/shared/Music/iTunes%20Music/10,000%20Maniacs/MTV%20Unplugged/01%20These%20Are%20Days.m4a, type=mov
[08-12-12 23:03:15.3733] Slim::Player::Song::open (457) Tokenized command "/usr/local/bin/faad" -w -f 2 "-" | "/usr/bin/flac" -cs --totally-silent --compression-level-0 --endian little --sign signed --channels 2 --bps 16 --sample-rate 44100 -
[08-12-12 23:03:15.5877] Slim::Player::StreamingController::_Stream (956) 00:04:20:16:dc:d6: stream
[08-12-12 23:03:15.6204] Slim::Player::StreamingController::_Stream (985) Song queue is now 0,0
[08-12-12 23:03:15.6315] Slim::Player::StreamingController::_setPlayingStat e (1779) new playing state BUFFERING
[08-12-12 23:03:15.6376] Slim::Player::StreamingController::_setStreamingSt ate (1792) new streaming state STREAMING
[08-12-12 23:03:19.0017] Slim::Player::Source::_readNextChunk (499) end of file or error on socket, song pos: 0
[08-12-12 23:03:19.0282] Slim::Player::Source::_readNextChunk (508) Didn't stream any bytes for this song, so just mark it as played
[08-12-12 23:03:19.0472] Slim::Player::StreamingController::playerTrackStar ted (1613) 00:04:20:16:dc:d6
[08-12-12 23:03:19.0623] Slim::Player::StreamingController::_setPlayingStat e (1779) new playing state PLAYING
[08-12-12 23:03:19.0799] Slim::Player::StreamingController::_Playing (346) Song 0 is not longer in the queue
[08-12-12 23:03:19.0979] Slim::Player::StreamingController::_Playing (352) Song 0 has now started playing
[08-12-12 23:03:19.1255] Slim::Player::StreamingController::_Playing (381) Song queue is now 0
[08-12-12 23:03:19.1317] Slim::Player::Source::_readNextChunk (515) 00:04:20:16:dc:d6 mark end of stream
[08-12-12 23:03:19.1411] Slim::Player::StreamingController::_setStreamingSt ate (1792) new streaming state STREAMOUT
[08-12-12 23:03:19.8850] Slim::Player::StreamingController::playerEndOfStre am (1688) 00:04:20:16:dc:d6
[08-12-12 23:03:19.8912] Slim::Player::StreamingController::_setStreamingSt ate (1792) new streaming state STREAMOUT
[08-12-12 23:03:19.9014] Slim::Player::StreamingController::playerReadyToSt ream (1628) 00:04:20:16:dc:d6
[08-12-12 23:03:19.9083] Slim::Player::StreamingController::_setStreamingSt ate (1792) new streaming state IDLE
[08-12-12 23:03:19.9161] Slim::Player::StreamingController::nextsong (747) The next song is number 0, was 0


It seems to fail with the error "end of file or error on socket, song pos:", but I don't know what that means.

Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated?

Thanks.

[lowjumpingfrog]

I am running SqueezeCenter from Hardy Heron and the package manager notified me of the SqueezeCenter Update. When I did the update it flagged overwriting the types.conf file that I edited previously to play aac & m4a files. So, I overwrote the file and went back and re-did my edits, carefully using diff. Mplayer and FAAD seem to be working fine independently of Squeezecenter. And I can play AACPlus streams from sky.fm without any problems. When I try to play m4a files everything looks like it working. The album art shows but, the player jumps from track to track and stops occasionally to act as if it is playing the file. I attached my conf files. Did something else change?
Thanks

[bpa]

7.3 has new lines in convert.conf types files. It is dpocumented in the convert.conf file.

Syntax is strict white space hash white space new directives.



# Transcoding for AAC files.
mov flc * *
# F
[faad] -w -f 2 $FILE$ | [flac] -cs --totally-silent --compression-level-0 --endian little --sign signed --channels 2 --bps 16 --sample-rate 44100 -

mov mp3 * *
# FB:{BITRATE=-B %B}
[faad] -w -f 2 $FILE$ | [lame] --resample 44100 --silent -q $QUALITY$ $BITRATE$ -r - -

mov wav * *
# F
[faad] -w -f 2 $FILE$

[kmoloney]

Hi all,

I made the change suggested in an earlier post in the conf files and now get a stream to players for AAC files, instead of skipping like before. AAC files work fine on Squeezeboom and Squeezeplay Beta, but only get white noise on softsqueeze and squeezebox. Any ideas? I am streaming from a Linux box using Squeezecenter 7.3 and listening via softsqueeze.

--Kirk

[PeterAndHisDuet]

7.3 has new lines in convert.conf types files. It is dpocumented in the convert.conf file.

Syntax is strict white space hash white space new directives.



# Transcoding for AAC files.
mov flc * *
# F
[faad] -w -f 2 $FILE$ | [flac] -cs --totally-silent --compression-level-0 --endian little --sign signed --channels 2 --bps 16 --sample-rate 44100 -

mov mp3 * *
# FB:{BITRATE=-B %B}
[faad] -w -f 2 $FILE$ | [lame] --resample 44100 --silent -q $QUALITY$ $BITRATE$ -r - -

mov wav * *
# F
[faad] -w -f 2 $FILE$


I made the changes as you suggested and it now streams M4A/AAC files. Now I need to convince it to prioritise mov-mp3 over mov-wav transcoding, as with wav, I get a lot of buffering/stuttering.

[bpa]

SC will always choose mov->flac first so the cause of your stuttering might be either disabled mov->flac.

To choose mov->MP3 - disable mov->flc and mov->wav or enable bit rate limiting for the player but you must have lame installed.

[PeterAndHisDuet]

Thanks for the response bpa.

I've set to "disable" in SC settings, the AAC->WAV and AAC->MP3 transcoding and now it's using FLAC. What I've noticed is that AAC->FLAC is less CPU intensive on NAS, than the other two mechanisms. So I think I've found the solution that works perfectly for my system... So far been streaming for about 30 minutes and it's working a treat.

Thanks for your help.

[lowjumpingfrog]

Thanks BPA that was it! Everything is back to goodness. I removed custom-convert.conf and made the changes you suggested in the convert.conf file. I did not look in the convert.conf file. I was still in the mode of making these changes in the custom-convert.conf file.

[bpa]

It is better for you to put your customisations into a custom-convert.conf file as it will not be lost between updates.

If you want you can have multiple custom-convert.conf files - just create directories under server/Plugins and have a single custom-convert.conf file in each directory.

[MikeWynneDub]

Can someone please help me!!!

I'm running 7.3 on Ubuntu 8.10 and after upgrading from 7.2 AAC/M4A have stopped working (yet again!).

I've tried following the info in this thread and this one

http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=56472

but it all seems a bit contradictory and confusing.

I've tried adding BPA's code to my convert-conf and played around with custom-convert.conf but they still won't play.

It's intensely annoying that this seems to happen after each upgrade and there's always something different that needs to be done to rectify this issue.

I've mplayer, GStreamer etc. and what I think is the full suite of codecs installed.

I'm uploading my convert-conf and custom-convert-conf files (which both live in /etc/squeezecenter/) and if someone could take a look and tell me what's wrong I'd be extremely obliged!

Thanks in advance

[andyg]

http://wiki.slimdevices.com/index.php/AAC#AAC_on_Linux

[MikeWynneDub]

Hi Andy,

Many thanks for the wiki link...

However (and maybe I'm being a bit thick here), do I add the lines to...

1. slimserver-convert.conf
2. convert.conf
3. custom-convert.conf

Because I've already got the 7.3+ lines in convert.conf and I don't have a slimserver-convert.conf. I DO have a slimservice-convert.conf though...

Thanks

Mike

I've just re-read the wiki more carefully this time and I gather that I must create slimserver-convert.conf and paste the 7.3+ code. - I'll give this a try now...

[MikeWynneDub]

This just isn't working for me...

I've looked at the wiki entry for AAC on Linux...

http://wiki.slimdevices.com/index.php/AAC#AAC_on_Linux

and followed the instructions as I read them.

I.e. if slimserver-convert.conf doesn't exist then create it (which I've done and given it the same permissions as convert.conf etc.) and paste in the code lines for 7.3+ as in the wiki page.

My convert.conf and custom-convert.conf are the stock versions that installed with the upgrade.

When I restart SqueezeCentre I get nada, that is the track doesn't play - it just stays stuck on 0:00.

For what it's worth when I go Settings>Advanced>File Types>AAC or Movie File all the options are showing as Disabled.

When I added the 7.3+ code lines to convert.conf the track at least appears to play but with no sound.

Could somebody please direct me to where I might be going wrong or send me a set of conf files that will work for AAC in 7.3 on Ubuntu 8.10.

This is beginning to really annoy and frustrate me (and I don't want to be annoyed and frustrated on my birthday and I also want to be able to play ALL my music collection!).

Btw, everything was working fine under 7.2 so I have to assume that FAAD, LAME and all that stuff is present and correct.

Thanks in advance...

[MikeWynneDub]

Aaaagh!

My bad!

Turns out FAAD was NOT installed....

All is now well...

[cinchel]

Hi all,

I made the change suggested in an earlier post in the conf files and now get a stream to players for AAC files, instead of skipping like before. AAC files work fine on Squeezeboom and Squeezeplay Beta, but only get white noise on softsqueeze and squeezebox. Any ideas? I am streaming from a Linux box using Squeezecenter 7.3 and listening via softsqueeze.

--Kirk

I am having the same prob...i use stream.mp3 to steam from my linux box at home to my windows box at work (using itunes).

I have followed the various suggestions on getting m4a files to play (ie created the correct updated custom-convert.conf) and now squeezecenter doesnt just flip by them...its plays them..but its all static.

any suggestions. thanks
cinchel

[bpa]

If you have white noise or static after transcoding to MP3 - try changing the setting of the lame "-x" option.

[cinchel]

If you have white noise or static after transcoding to MP3 - try changing the setting of the lame "-x" option.


thank you ..just noticed that...

in the wiki the "-x" is in the old (SC <=7.2) custom-convert.conf sample but is not in the new (SC >=7.3) custom-convert.conf sample

i am running 7.3 and added the "-x" to the custom-convert.conf and all is working again.

maybe the wiki should be updated...or made consistent

[bpa]

The setting of -x depends on the version of lame you have installed. IIRC The lame developers found a bug which meant the -x was wrong/inverted and I think it was changed between 3.96 and 3.98.

So the wiki is both right and wrong depending on the version of lame which is outside the control of SC.

[patch42]

thanks bpa - I had not noticed this, I just blindly copied my old convert.conf file and wondered why it didn't work . .


7.3 has new lines in convert.conf types files. It is dpocumented in the convert.conf file.

Syntax is strict white space hash white space new directives.



# Transcoding for AAC files.
mov flc * *
# F
[faad] -w -f 2 $FILE$ | [flac] -cs --totally-silent --compression-level-0 --endian little --sign signed --channels 2 --bps 16 --sample-rate 44100 -

mov mp3 * *
# FB:{BITRATE=-B %B}
[faad] -w -f 2 $FILE$ | [lame] --resample 44100 --silent -q $QUALITY$ $BITRATE$ -r - -

mov wav * *
# F
[faad] -w -f 2 $FILE$

[kmoloney]

Thanks to bpa for pointing out -x. It fixed the static problem going from Linux to Windows, allowing me to upgrade.

[moso]

I have followed the instructions in this thread to modify custom-convert.conf, but my M4A files will not play and I get this error message in the server log;

[08-12-20 08:18:32.7961] Slim::Player::TranscodingHelper::_getCapabilities (163) Capabilities for mov-mp3-*-*: syntax error in FB:{BITRATE=-B %B}
[08-12-20 08:18:32.7965] Slim::Player::TranscodingHelper::_getCapabilities (163) Capabilities for mov-wav-*-*: syntax error in F

Any ideas?

[bpa]

There must be one and only one white space before the # and one and one white space after the hash



# F correct
# F incorrect
# F incorrect
# F incorrect


White space can be space or tab but not a tab expanded into spaces by editor.

[moso]

Thanks - I solved it by starting a fresh file and typing the lines in manually. Using notepad in Windows and copying to the linux machine was just too simple..

[reg2117]

SC will always choose mov->flac first so the cause of your stuttering might be either disabled mov->flac.

Is this documented anywhere? It doesn't seem to appear in the Wiki, the comments on the convert.conf, or in a cursory google search.

[bpa]

That comment related to a specific problem. Stuttering is the most common symptom of a problem but the source of the problem will depend on the user system/network configuration, the players, server and how it is being used.