Podcasts: did FFwd and FRwd change in 7.4.1 ??

[AndrewFG]

I am using the new 7.4.1 "App" for playing Podcasts...

I seem to recall that in prior versions (7.3) the FFwd and FRwd buttons used to move forwards and backwards WITHIN the podcast stream.

But now in 7.4.1 it seems that they jump to the END / START of the stream; in other words the function changed from FFwd/FRwd to Next/Prev ...

Is this true? i.e. Did it change from 7.3 ?? (or is it just me?)
And how can I return to FFwd/FRwd back instead of Next/Prev functionality?

And BTW it seems that the Pause/UnPause button also does not work as I recall it used to. Now when you press unpause, it skips back to the start of the podcast stream...

[bpa]

FFW/REW and pause/stop all work OK for me with BBC podcasts.

FFW/REW require podcast server support - perhaps the server you are using does not have the necessary functionality. You should test with a BBC podcast to see if FFW works for you - if not then there may be some sort of bug in relation to your setup.

[dansu1]

Hopefully you'll see this bpa and have a suggestion. I am also unable to fast forward or rewind podcasts. Most but not all of the podcasts that I listen to are from NPR. I tried a BBC podcast and couldn't fast forward or rewind that either. The really intersting thing is that if I access NPR's Fresh Air using the Podcast Player I can't fast forward or rewind. However, if I access exactly the same Fresh Air episode using your NPR Radio (v1.02) plugin I am fully able to fast forward and rewind. You mentioned that you thought that it could be setup issues. I'm using Version: 7.4.1 - r28947 on Windows Vista with a Duet. Any suggestions about what aspect of my setup I should troubleshoot? Thanks in advance.

[andynormancx]

Whether or not you can fast forward through a given podcast can vary from day to day or even from minute to minute. I can load up a podcast, successfully fast forward it. Pause it. Come back a few minute later and now it won't fast forward. Often when this happens, even restarting the podcast won't restore the fast forward.

This happens to be on BBC iPlayer feeds, CNET podcasts and other podcasts. It has happened on and off since at least 7.3.4 (I'm now on 7.4.1), but it doesn't happen often enough for me to get round to raising a bug (it also almost always happens when I'm listening in bed, when I'm not keen to get up and start capturing log files ).

[dansu1]

Unfortunately, it fails nearly 100% of the time for me.

[bpa]

Unfortunately, it fails nearly 100% of the time for me.

I can FFW and REW Fresh Air podcasts and BBC podcasts. I have had occasional failures of playing and these seems to be associated with short podcasts < 10 mins.

I have with controller it is easy not to press FFW or REW long enough in which case the SBS will try to move to next track and that does seem to be buggy with some sources. You must hold FFW/REW down long enough for the popup duration bar to appear - then best use wheel to change start time.

Playing FreshAir using the plugin is playing a proper WMA stream and FFW/REW is handled differently.

Pause issues are separate from FFW/REW as it will depend on TCP/IP and podcast server timeouts and whether at the time of the pause, streamed data has been received but not acknowledged by player.

You need to separate/isolate possible Podcast playing bugs from possible Controller bugs.

When testing FFW/REW - use the WebUI and click (and only one click no double clicking) on the progress bar. If FFW/REW does not work with podcast then it is a server issue. If it does work then problem is in controller or handling of controller FFW/REW requests.

[andynormancx]

When I have my ffwd failures it isn't down the the Controller. These failures happen almost always when I am in bed, using the Boom front panel controls.

My failures aren't down to a failure to hold down the button long enough. When they fail the other obvious indication that it is failed is that there is no progress bar, presumably meaning that the server for some reason doesn't know how long the podcast is ?

I never listen to podcasts less than 30 minutes long, so my issues at least aren't down to short podcasts.

The issue equally hits iPlayer and non BBC streams (Buzz Out Loud, StackOverFlow, .net rocks etc).

The odd think about how it happens is that it is often after a pause. Before the pause everything will be fine, I pause for a few seconds or maybe a couple of minutes. I unpause and the podcast restarts.

I then notice that the progress bar has gone and it won't ffwd (even if I wait 30 seconds). After that the stream is typically broken, even switching to another stream and back will not restore the ffwd. If however I retry the stream some hours later it will work.

Thankfully it doesn't happen _that_ often, I probably listen to 80 podcast/iPlayer episodes or more a month and it only happens 2-3 times a month.

[bpa]

I am trying to rationalise dansu1's (near) 100% failure and my experience of occasional failure.

I think there are multiple bugs and each should be teased out and identified.

I agree with you about one problem occurs there is no duration bar. I have seen this with iPlayer. I think this is because the duration is obtained from a separate interaction with BBC server and not from the URLs. I think SBS may have cached the URl to play the stream and so never repeat the interation to get the duration.

There is a separate problem I have seen where podcasts don't play after a FFW/REW and a the duration is showing.

[andynormancx]

I'm fairly sure I've never seen that second failure mode. Isn't testing/debugging this stuff fun

[bpa]

I'm fairly sure I've never seen that second failure mode. Isn't testing/debugging this stuff fun

I'm not debugging podcast stuff at the moment, they're on a list but not near the top. I came across these issues last year when debugging Softsqueeze problem with podcasts.

However I am curious about the cause of the near 100% failure rate that dansu1 suffers.