Announce: Wave Input plugin v1.00

[PasTim]

Because, to be frank, although you say you are 90% sure Norton is at fault, you really can have no idea whether that is the case until you uninstall it. Everything else is just guessing at what the cause is I'm afraid.

Also, it has been a long time since I installed Norton*, but I seem to remember it used to have a modular install, so maybe you can avoid installing the bit that scans every network stream for nastiness.

* haven't used it for many years, stopped using it because it slowed machines down so much if you were a software developer constantly creating new .exe files

Well, you were right and I was totally wrong. I had thought that your comment on delays occurring early on meant it must be a problem on my own PC, and did not see what else it could be. Having seen the flac.exe I/O counts go up and down in sync with playing the source I could not see what else could be happening other than Norton buffering the output.

I uninstalled all security software. No change. I Re-installed it. No change.

I thought to look at the network traffic using the Windows Task Manager. Sure enough, when I start the source, network traffic though my PC network card goes up almost instantaneously, but nothing comes of the Touch for delays between 10 sec to 2 minutes. When I stop the source, network traffic stops almost immediately, but sound still comes out of the Touch.

So, either the Touch itself is buffering a lot for some reason, or the stream is going elsewhere and coming back later.

I'm on Ethernet, not wireless. I will later try disconnecting myself from the outside world just to make sure I'm not sending Mahler to MI5 (I need to get others off the 'net first). I have a suspicion that some scrobbling may have been occurring. I never looked at this, having zero interest in it, but I did find it on in the Touch (I've never touched it as far as I'm aware).

Are there other buffering options in the Touch? I can't find any.

[PasTim]

I am getting somewhere. If I disable wavin to flac and mp3, and use pcm instead (in the file types set-up), it works fine, although it uses more PC cpu and network bandwidth. If I enable mp3 that also works (via lame).

The one that causes the problem is flac. I can only assume the Touch is having trouble decoding it and that is where the random delays are taking place. That's a puzzle, since it used to work fine (I know I keep saying that...) and all other flacs in my library play very well indeed.

I see comment that flac may be in some way native to SBS now (sox?). I'm looking at the parameters you use in custom-convert.conf but can't see anything obviously wrong.

Any thoughts?

[PasTim]

Not being able to let strange issues go, I did some more tests with wavin to flac. I went forwards to SB 7.6 at one point for other reasons, but have now backed off to 7.5.3 and that's what I tested below.

- I start wavin playin (and check flac process is running)
- I start playing some music (using foobar and flacs for ease of use - other sources behave the same)
- With Task manager on the PC I see the network appears to be already busy
- I wait until I hear music (1 or 2 minutes)
- I then stop the source (foobar)
- I then start a Windows Network Monitor capture and see what I find

I find very little network traffic at all, but the music is still playing from the Touch.

From this I'm close to 99% sure the buffering must be in the Touch. I can't think of anything else to try. With PCM I'm still fine - everything is in sync and playing well, so I'm quite happy.

However, this behaviour is very strange.

[Labarum]

The link higher up this thread to the Wave Input Wiki returns an error

It's here

http://wiki.slimdevices.com/index.php/WaveInput_plugin

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I cannot get my Samsung Q210 Laptop to show "Stereo Mix" or anything useful. The sound drivers are up to date and I see no was to downgrade them.

I have more homework to do!

[bpa]

Many laptop vendors ship a deliberately crippled driver without the "Stereo Mix" or similar facility.

You'll need to google to see if someone has a solution or you may need to go the audio chip vendor to see if there is a proper windows driver available

[Labarum]

You'll need to google to see if someone has a solution or you may need to go the audio chip vendor to see if there is a proper windows driver available

Thanks, I put out a few feelers. It's and NVIDIA setup.

[bpa]

If it is HD audio make sure you are using it in 2 chan mode.

[rrand]

Constantly audio stops and goes into buffering

Hello, not sure what is going on...I've been up and down this thread so I apologize if I missed a fix for this. When I'm using this Wave Input plugin my Squeezebox Boom goes into "buffering" maybe 10 times per song. It's so annoying as to make the plugin unusable. Can anyone give me some direction? I don't know where to start.

Thanks.

[bpa]

I don't know where to start.Thanks.

Give some info about your system, player and setup.

WaveInput normally uses Flac between PC and player. If your network is not capable of Flac or your PC is not up to transcoding then you will get buffering.

[PasTim]

Hello, not sure what is going on...I've been up and down this thread so I apologize if I missed a fix for this. When I'm using this Wave Input plugin my Squeezebox Boom goes into "buffering" maybe 10 times per song. It's so annoying as to make the plugin unusable. Can anyone give me some direction? I don't know where to start.

Thanks.

My problems were solved by changing the File Types settings (Server Settings, Files Types). Make a note of the settings you have for "Wave Input", and then try:

FLAC - Disabled
MP3 - Disabled
PCM - Wavin2cmd

Every system seems to be different, but that completely fixed my problems. If it doesn't work, change the settings back to what they were.

My Other problems with re-buffering were related to my PC's Network Interface Card, which was not set to use 'Autonegotiation', and that affected high quality PCMs.

[rrand]

Give some info about your system, player and setup.

WaveInput normally uses Flac between PC and player. If your network is not capable of Flac or your PC is not up to transcoding then you will get buffering.

Windows 7, Squeezebox Boom, SqueezeBox Server 7.5.4

I know it is using FLAC because I changed a couple of settings in the custom-convert.conf file and they took. (I changed them back to default as they didn't help.)

I can actually hear a good portion of the song. Doesn't that mean my network is capable of FLAC? The song just stops in the middle of playing and rebuffering appears at the top of the Boom's display.

[rrand]

My problems were solved by changing the File Types settings (Server Settings, Files Types). Make a note of the settings you have for "Wave Input", and then try:

FLAC - Disabled
MP3 - Disabled
PCM - Wavin2cmd

Every system seems to be different, but that completely fixed my problems. If it doesn't work, change the settings back to what they were.

My Other problems with re-buffering were related to my PC's Network Interface Card, which was not set to use 'Autonegotiation', and that affected high quality PCMs.

I tried using PCM only. The same thing happens. The song is playing but many times per song the audio stops and begins rebuffering before playing again.

I don't know where you find autonegotiation on Windows 7 though. Is it a wireless NIC?

[PasTim]

I don't know where you find autonegotiation on Windows 7 though. Is it a wireless NIC?

Are you wireless or wired?

On a wired connection you should be able to see the properties of the NIC device. I'm still on XP, and am not sure how you find the properties on Windows 7.

On XP, my NVIDIA Ethernet NIC device had a number of 'Advanced' options for speed and full/half duplex. I needed to select Autonegotiation to get it to work properly. Depending on your NIC you may have other options.

On Wireless you probably don't have those options.

I'm also using a Touch, and don't know much about the Boom.

[rrand]

Are you wireless or wired?

On a wired connection you should be able to see the properties of the NIC device. I'm still on XP, and am not sure how you find the properties on Windows 7.

On XP, my NVIDIA Ethernet NIC device had a number of 'Advanced' options for speed and full/half duplex. I needed to select Autonegotiation to get it to work properly. Depending on your NIC you may have other options.

On Wireless you probably don't have those options.

I'm also using a Touch, and don't know much about the Boom.

I'm wireless. That's why I couldn't find it. Sorry, I should have said.

[PasTim]

If you can't find the source of the problem you may have to go back to basics. I connected my Touch directly to my PC via an Ethernet cable. To do this I had to use a fixed IP address - I don't know if you can do this with a Boom. I managed to show that my problems were not in the network switches or network cabling. Since there is little one can change on the Touch I then worked back into the PC, looking at the NIC, and found a problem there.

If that doesn't help, the next thing I'd look at would be security software. If you can test with a direct connection (and no internet connection) it should be safe to turn off all security software and see whether that helps.

You might also check the CPU and Network loads using whatever Windows 7 has for Task Manager. The network load should be trivial for flacs (1-2%), and the CPU shouldn't be busy.

I assume you have set your sound card to record 'Wav'?