Squeezebox is officially the worst purchase I have ever made

[ozbrit]

You describe this in a way that implies you are streaming BOTH the squeezebox and Reciva at the same time. Is this true? If so, that's not a fair comparison because both radios will be competing for the stream.

That's simply what Snarlydwarf is trying to point out to you.

OK plain English time. When the US servers are busy, I have problems holding a connection even with the Mysqueezebox.com site, when it does maintain connection anything above 64kbps may re-buffer. Now I'm not that stupid to play another device and share my networks available bandwidth and wonder at why there is a problem. That out of the way, I have the problems with Squeezebox and if I then go to one of my reciva radios the stream connects and plays without the re-buffering going on. I switch off the reciva based radio and try Squeezebox and the constant re-buffering of any streams above 64kbps starts again.

I've adjusted my SB to max 30 secs (I think) and also display to show buffer reserve values. The stations buffer up to 100% and I can then see the buffer reserves diminishing till which time, sound stops.

With one 160kbps stream, no matter what time of night day, weekends, weekdays whatever I can NEVER maintain the buffer for more than a minute or two. Yet my Reciva based radios working off the same home network are as good as gold.

Are you attempting to say there is no deficiency with Mysqeezebox.com when compared to Reciva at my location? If you are then all I can say you've got your heads in the sand.

The re-buffering issues are exactly the same if I switch to the SB PC server and connect that way,

Otherwise, I love my Squeezebox, I really appreciate the spdif connection to my home hifi, my portable Reciva radios do not have this, so that is why I'm disappointed at SB not being able to hold the stream as my reciva radios can. Thats all!

[Mnyb]

OK plain English time. When the US servers are busy, I have problems holding a connection even with the Mysqueezebox.com site, when it does maintain connection anything above 64kbps may re-buffer. Now I'm not that stupid to play another device and share my networks available bandwidth and wonder at why there is a problem. That out of the way, I have the problems with Squeezebox and if I then go to one of my reciva radios the stream connects and plays without the re-buffering going on. I switch off the reciva based radio and try Squeezebox and the constant re-buffering of any streams above 64kbps starts again.

I've adjusted my SB to max 30 secs (I think) and also display to show buffer reserve values. The stations buffer up to 100% and I can then see the buffer reserves diminishing till which time, sound stops.

With one 160kbps stream, no matter what time of night day, weekends, weekdays whatever I can NEVER maintain the buffer for more than a minute or two. Yet my Reciva based radios working off the same home network are as good as gold.

Are you attempting to say there is no deficiency with Mysqeezebox.com when compared to Reciva at my location? If you are then all I can say you've got your heads in the sand.

The re-buffering issues are exactly the same if I switch to the SB PC server and connect that way,

Otherwise, I love my Squeezebox, I really appreciate the spdif connection to my home hifi, my portable Reciva radios do not have this, so that is why I'm disappointed at SB not being able to hold the stream as my reciva radios can. Thats all!

How does it go when you playing local files ?

what is the wifi signal strength ? (can be seen on the info page in settings in the web interface when running a local server )

have you tried it wired to the router ? (note reset necessary and do setup again when wire is plugged in).

[ozbrit]

Yes good strong wifi signal 85% showing, Router 8 metres distant and with one plasterboard wall in between. So not a hitch when listening to shared files from my PC's hard drive.

I've not tried SB wired directly, I don't see what benefit could be accrued by doing this.

This server deficiency story, is not a new one. I've seen a number of posters over the past 18 months complaining, they are generally from Asia. I even lodged a ticket (email) to logitech technical and the operative went through all the usual questions. I suggested they needed more servers and he agreed, then negatively suggested that Logitech were very slow/reluctant to add a resource like this, so unlikely to happen anytime soon.

Thanks for taking an interest.

[Mnyb]

Yes good strong wifi signal 85% showing. Not a hitch with listening to audio over the network from my PC's hard drive.

I've not tried SB wired directly, I don't see what benefit could be accrued from doing this.

Just exclude to the local wifi completely, to get it out of the picture, it's the most common problem here.

have you tried both lossles and mp3 files locally ?

What is your bandwidth ?

Sorry if play 1000 questions with you, but it would be interesting for logitech (if they read this) or others or you ? maybe to figure out exactly where it goes wrong ?

When you are connected directly to mysqueezebox.com
Are the menus responsive or laggy ? are volume change smooth does it scroll text nicely ?

[ozbrit]

Just exclude to the local wifi completely, to get it out of the picture, it's the most common problem here.

have you tried both lossles and mp3 files locally ?

No, not really interested in FLAC files, sorry.

What is your bandwidth ?

I have a 3G connection so the bandwidth is variable, but downloads are generally > 2Mbps, at peak times (7-10pm) it's more like 1Mbps - rarely slower and after midnight 4-5Mbps.

Sorry if play 1000 questions with you, but it would be interesting for logitech (if they read this) or others or you ? maybe to figure out exactly where it goes wrong ?

When you are connected directly to mysqueezebox.com
Are the menus responsive or laggy ? are volume change smooth does it scroll text nicely


I have noticed that at times the menus can be un-responsive or laggy as you describe it, I put this down to 3G being notorious for poor latency ping times to a local server are typically 120ms and to a US server 300ms. But when it comes to streaming audio the latency thing should be less of an issue once you consider the large buffer capacity. On the other hand I cannot configure the buffer time with my reciva radios, seems about 10 secs and stream well.

?

.

[snarlydwarf]

Are you attempting to say there is no deficiency with Mysqeezebox.com when compared to Reciva at my location? If you are then all I can say you've got your heads in the sand.

Well, someone does...

The re-buffering issues are exactly the same if I switch to the SB PC server and connect that way,

So, you get rebuffering, whether or not you are using MySB.com, but it is still a "deficiency" with MySB.com.. even when you're not using it.

I am so glad you made that clear.

[ozbrit]

I'm not fully au fait with what connects with what! I assume the problem(s) which prevent continuous streaming of audio at bitrates higher than 64kbps (intermittently)are the same regardless of whether the connection is made via Mysqueezebox.com or via the Squeezebox server softwareon my PC.

I recently changed PC's re-installed Squeezebox with the latest software, re-configured Squeezebox set-up and all the same re-buffering issues are there.

They are not there with my Reciva radio's using the same home wifi network. I deduct from this it is a Squeezebox flaw. Not hard is it!

If someone posts on this forum that all is not well with the live streaming audio side of Squeezebox then I have to concur. Surely It shouldn't be the work of the end user to work out exactly where in the process Logitech have a flaw with their equipment.

I've just spoken to my friend Ian, who lives a kilometre from here and who I encouraged to buy a Squeezebox, he also has re-buffering issues with this stream: http://tx-magic.bauerdev.com/magic Ian has 1500/256 wired adsl connection.

If it's frustrating you, then imagine what it's doing to Squeezebox Buyers who have parted with a considerable amount of money to find the product isn't doing all it should.

Thanks for your interest.

[andynormancx]

I assume you are going to try connecting the Squeezebox via a wired connection to try and track down whether the issue is down to wifi issues ?

[toby10]

I'm not fully au fait with what connects with what! I assume the problem(s) which prevent continuous streaming of audio at bitrates higher than 64kbps (intermittently)are the same regardless of whether the connection is made via Mysqueezebox.com or via the Squeezebox server softwareon my PC..............

But then I can stream four independent (non-synced players) 320k streams to four SB players (three are WiFi, one is wired) from either SBS or MySB or TinySC without any rebuffering.
I know this doesn't solve your problem, I'm simply pointing out that these players and MySB are more than capable of what you are attempting.

So then the question is "what is different in your setup or environment?"

The suggestion to temporarily try your Boom wired is just to eliminate any possible WiFi issues, strong signal or not.
If you do try it wired make sure the Boom is actually using the wired connection (Boom > Settings > Information > Signal Strength = 0)

Might also be a MySB/RadioTime issue for your part of the world?
Try some other streams in Internet Radio > Music > Internet Radio
... try 1.FM, 181, 977, see if these also rebuffer (also verify their bitrate is 128k or higher).

Also, maybe try installing and using the ShoutCast App? Try some streams from there for testing? This would eliminate any RadioTime stream issues, if that is even the problem.

Try some of the forum member diagnosis suggestions and let us know what the results are.

[ozbrit]

Yes all streams above 128k are re-buffering. I tried a 320k stream and it wouldn't even start playing, got stuck on 10%. I downloaded a 720kbps file from online to my PC's shared files and that plays OK on Squeezebox. As I have pointed out Ian down the road can't stream the 160kbps station either but my reciva does. The reciva's were unable to cope with the 320kbps station.