Spotify 3rd Party App playback on Duet

[DuetFan]

That now makes complete sense. I have no problem sending FLAC straight from the PC to the DUET, but streaming FLAC would be well beyond the capability of the local broadband connection and my own network. I can see now why I'd have the buffering issues, etc. Is there an alternative, do you have a "non flac" setting in your app? Or plans to develop something in the future?

Many thanks for all the help.
Graham.

BTW thanks for the amazing iPlayer app for the BBC. I listen to that all the time across all the network devices. "The Archer's" when ever I want it and in any room, what could be better!!

[Triode]

That now makes complete sense. I have no problem sending FLAC straight from the PC to the DUET, but streaming FLAC would be well beyond the capability of the local broadband connection and my own network. I can see now why I'd have the buffering issues, etc. Is there an alternative, do you have a "non flac" setting in your app? Or plans to develop something in the future?

Many thanks for all the help.
Graham.

BTW thanks for the amazing iPlayer app for the BBC. I listen to that all the time across all the network devices. "The Archer's" when ever I want it and in any room, what could be better!!

Probably need to qualify the previous comment as not sure we are talking about the same thing. The plugin will stream from spotify to the server machine as compressed audio, but will then decompress and recompress to flac to stream from the server to the player. Hence if you can stream as flac from the server to the player you should be ok, but these test results suggest this is not possible.

[Rick_W]

Hi Triode,

Still having massive problems with mine - again - no problems sending FLAC files (well the 4 I have amongst 20000 across the network and get exactly the same error messages as DuetFan (also using Duet and also have radio)

But for years everything worked fine now only in the last week or so its fallen apart

Any tips?

[41nick]

I have both a squeezebox radio and a squeezebox classic. I have just tried to install the app (v2.2.5) today and I see the same results as above (on both).

I am hosting the server (v7.7.2) on a Ubuntu 12.04 machine, 64 bit.

I cant see any problems on my LAN that would cause this problem (both the squeezeboxes are happy to play a FLAC file stored on the server), and I have just copied a file from the server to my laptop (same wireless LAN) at a rate of 1.5 MB/sec, which as I understand it, should be plenty fast enough to allow a FLAC file to stream.

When I look at the log file I see the following:

[11:34:04.298271] main:1575 Now playing: Amor De Nadie
[11:34:09.748089] main:539 req: cover.jpg res: spotify:image:bd8e3dfbed7cb2498fe903c8b46dea41196f 218d par: (null) prot: HTTP/1.0 auth: (null)
[11:34:09.913707] write_cover:33 cover fetch: No error
[11:34:10.782095] main:539 req: cover.jpg res: spotify:image:bd8e3dfbed7cb2498fe903c8b46dea41196f 218d par: (null) prot: HTTP/1.0 auth: (null)
[11:34:10.783274] write_cover:33 cover fetch: No error
[11:34:19.223945] main:539 req: relogin res: (null) par: (null) prot: HTTP/1.0 auth: (null)
[11:34:19.224070] main:1529 relogin requested
[11:34:19.224146] main:1558 resetting streambuf
[11:34:19.307657] logged_out:60 logged out
[11:34:34.002898] main:539 req: prefetch.json res: spotify:track:2fzFWaaFeeYeuhrWiIPbi1 par: (null) prot: HTTP/1.0 auth: (null)
[11:34:34.003655] main:618 relogging in as user: nick@XXXX.com
[11:34:34.004899] log_message:80 log: 09:34:34.004 I [ap:1766] Connecting to AP ap.spotify.com:4070
[11:34:34.042976] log_message:80 log: 09:34:34.042 I [ap:1224] Connected to AP: 78.31.8.51:4070
[11:34:35.005612] main:903 prefetching track: No error

Any suggestions are very welcome!

N

[Triode]

Sounds like several people are seeing this - can I check which OS and version people are using - is it specific to certain OSs or not?

If you have a local instance of softsqueeze or squeezeplay on the server machine, can you playback without buffering on that?

[41nick]

Sounds like several people are seeing this - can I check which OS and version people are using - is it specific to certain OSs or not?

If you have a local instance of softsqueeze or squeezeplay on the server machine, can you playback without buffering on that?

Triode

Many thanks for the quick response. My issue was using Ubuntu server 12.04 (64 bit). I have not tried with a soft player, but I did connect my radio via wired Ethernet which did not solve the problem.

However, since making this post, think that I have solved the issue. I noticed that the helper application was spotifydnoflac64, and I tried installing flac (apt-get install flac) and restarting. This appeared to ease the problem (rebuffering started after 3 minutes rather than about 15 seconds). So the other thing I did was to go to the Advanced -> File type menu, and put in the following settings:

FLAC -> native
PCM -> disable

Since doing this, I have had no issues (only 30 minutes testing, but previously it was falling over in a few minutes)

Now I have it working, it seems a first rate plugin!

N

[Triode]

However, since making this post, think that I have solved the issue. I noticed that the helper application was spotifydnoflac64, and I tried installing flac (apt-get install flac) and restarting. This appeared to ease the problem (rebuffering started after 3 minutes rather than about 15 seconds). So the other thing I did was to go to the Advanced -> File type menu, and put in the following settings:

FLAC -> native
PCM -> disable

Since doing this, I have had no issues (only 30 minutes testing, but previously it was falling over in a few minutes)

Sounds like you have enough bandwidth to stream flac but not uncompressed pcm from server to player. Glad this is now working.

[41nick]

Its dropped out a couple of times since I made the last post (always a mistake to report "solved" too early).

I dont think that its a bandwidth issue. I am looking at the bandwidth usage on the wireless router, and with just spotify running, the usage is about 1Mbit/sec. If I try to copy a file from the server to my netbook (using NFS), the usage jumps up to about 20Mbit/sec so I don't feel bandwidth constrained. It feels to me like spotifyd64 isn't generating the data as fast as the squeezebox is consuming it.

I also suspect that it isn't the speed of the spotify feed to my house (I have had this issue with self test where I assume that the file is uploaded completely before its streamed). Also no problems using spotify on a pc. This would make me think that my server isn't powerful enough, (its quite old), but if I look at the process list, spotifyd is the "top" process, using 2% of the CPU. The system is showing 98% idle.

Anyway, thanks for your help.

N

[41nick]

also, there is no change in bandwidth usage before, during or after a playback stall as it rebuffers...

[Triode]

also, there is no change in bandwidth usage before, during or after a playback stall as it rebuffers...

Rebuffering just means the audio output is paused while more audio arrives - so I wouldn't expect this. It is definately worth testing with a local playback application on the server.