BBCiPlayer V1.6 (and higher) & BBCiPlayerExtra 2.0 (and higher) Support

[Dean_Bayliss]

It's Jessie, and an update responds with at the latest version. I have tried Always display station icon both on and off with no difference, it was icon off originally.

As this is an old version – probably the simplest is to get Debian up to date (RPI2) – just a few other systems I need to move install, so a few days time. I’m sure that will resolve as it sounds like this is just me.

Fresh install of Debian Buster and everything back in place, including FIP/HLS update -- now at IO::Socket::SSL: 2.060 and everything works fine again - almost certainly quicker than finding out what I'd corrupted. Thanks

[vhs]

I'm still having problems on my iMac with Catalina with very slow loading of iPlayer live and on demand stations. Happens on both Squeezeplay and Squeezebox Radio. Log message below:

[20-07-17 12:12:28.3313] Plugins::BBCiPlayer:ASH::__ANON__ (254) Stream closing error fetching UTC time from http://time.akamai.com/?iso - Error on HTTP socket: Interrupted system call
[20-07-17 12:12:40.9186] Plugins::BBCiPlayer::HLS::__ANON__ (319) Chunk fetch status 200 Long chunk fetch time 6278

System info:

Logitech Media Server Version: 7.9.3 - 1591161343 @ Thu Jun 4 04:10:33 CEST 2020
Hostname: vhs.local
Server IP Address: 192.168.1.234
Server HTTP Port Number: 9000
Operating system: macOS 10.15.5 - EN - utf8
Platform Architecture: x86_64
Perl Version: 5.18.4 - darwin-thread-multi-2level
Audio::Scan: 1.02
IO::Socket::SSL: 2.066
Database Version: DBD::SQLite 1.58 (sqlite 3.22.0)
Total Players Recognized: 3

iPlayer settings:

Show in My Apps Enable
Live Stream Preference DASH > HLS > MP3 > FlashAAC
On Demand Stream Preference DASH > HLS > MP3 > FlashAAC
Bitrate for Live stream DASH Use highest bitrate available DASH stream
Bitrate for On Demand DASH Use highest bitrate available DASH stream
Minutes to skip back per keypress 15 min
Minutes to skip forward per keypress 1 min
Allow Transcoding Enable
Show OnAir Text Enable
Always display station icon Enable
Live Text - Squeezebox Classic Top Line
URL for menu.opml replacement http://downloads.sourceforge.net/pro...ault-menu.opml
Seconds to delay start live stream. no delay
Buffer fullness threshold. 255
Source image resolution for program images. 480x480

I've tried reinstalling LMS and the iPlayer plugin and cleared the LMS cache. Any ideas?

Viv

[bpa]

I'm still having problems on my iMac with Catalina with very slow loading of iPlayer live and on demand stations. Happens on both Squeezeplay and Squeezebox Radio. Log message below:

[20-07-17 12:12:28.3313] Plugins::BBCiPlayer:ASH::__ANON__ (254) Stream closing error fetching UTC time from http://time.akamai.com/?iso - Error on HTTP socket: Interrupted system call
[20-07-17 12:12:40.9186] Plugins::BBCiPlayer::HLS::__ANON__ (319) Chunk fetch status 200 Long chunk fetch time 6278

The log message says there is something wrong with your network or your OS.

1. The akaimai time stamp returns a reference time of day - check that you can open this URL from a browser (or wget or curl) on the same Server as LMS. http://time.akamai.com/?iso
2. the 6278 - say it took 6.2 secs for a reply from BBC to a http/get . This is nothing to do with LMS. Normal response time is 80-150msec and not 6,278msec

Are you running a VPN, satellite links, a network monitor, repeater etc..

Does your network have anything (hardware or software) more than just an ordinary wired ISP connections landline/xDSL/Fibre, modem, a router, OSX server running LMS and player.

[vhs]

The log message says there is something wrong with your network or your OS.

1. The akaimai time stamp returns a reference time of day - check that you can open this URL from a browser (or wget or curl) on the same Server as LMS. http://time.akamai.com/?iso
2. the 6278 - say it took 6.2 secs for a reply from BBC to a http/get . This is nothing to do with LMS. Normal response time is 80-150msec and not 6,278msec

Are you running a VPN, satellite links, a network monitor, repeater etc..

Does your network have anything (hardware or software) more than just an ordinary wired ISP connections landline/xDSL/Fibre, modem, a router, OSX server running LMS and player.

Well akaimai seems to work: 2020-07-17T11:42:30Z
No VPN, no satellite, no network monitor, repeater. But BT fibre FTTP with BT router and complete wifi disk i.e. mesh system. Could that be it?

[bpa]

But BT fibre FTTP with BT router and complete wifi disk i.e. mesh system. Could that be it?

mesh is unlikely - I run a mesh network. Some users have "mesh" issues with older players but this network delay is a LMS server issue.

wifi disk ? what does this mean ?

Is server wired or wireless to router ?

[vhs]

mesh is unlikely - I run a mesh network. Some users have "mesh" issues with older players but this network delay is a LMS server issue.

wifi disk ? what does this mean ?

Is server wired or wireless to router ?

The wifi disk is the BT black disk (additional access point) they provide for their mesh system. The LMS server is on my iMac, connected over wifi. Same problem whether on 2.4 or 5 GHz connection. Maybe I'll run a long ethernet able to the router to try it directly and rule out (or in) the wifi).

Thanks

Viv

[bpa]

The wifi disk is the BT black disk (additional access point) they provide for their mesh system. The LMS server is on my iMac, connected over wifi. Same problem whether on 2.4 or 5 GHz connection. Maybe I'll run a long ethernet able to the router to try it directly and rule out (or in) the wifi).

Server on wifi is not good but is not cause of the problem unless there is lots of network traffic.

The bandwidth of a wired connection between router and LMS sever is not shared and full duplex (i.e. devices can transmit and receive at the same time)
A wifi connection is shared amongst all devices using the wifi and radio is half duplex (i.e. only one device can transmit at a time, every packet sent has to be acknowledged).

BT wifi disk probably use alternative radio channel for the link to a remote extender - so it improves range but will not "fix" radio's shared half duplex nature.

[vhs]

Server on wifi is not good but is not cause of the problem unless there is lots of network traffic.

The bandwidth of a wired connection between router and LMS sever is not shared and full duplex (i.e. devices can transmit and receive at the same time)
A wifi connection is shared amongst all devices using the wifi and radio is half duplex (i.e. only one device can transmit at a time, every packet sent has to be acknowledged).

BT wifi disk probably use alternative radio channel for the link to a remote extender - so it improves range but will not "fix" radio's shared half duplex nature.

Although the wifi is delivering downloads at 130Mbs and uploads at 30Mbs which should be more than adequate with little other network traffic I plugged in a cable and stopped the wifi on the server then rebooted the router. No improvement to the startup time. This message:

[20-07-17 16:12:19.7409] Plugins::BBCiPlayer:ASH::__ANON__ (254) Stream closing error fetching UTC time from http://time.akamai.com/?iso - Error on HTTP socket:

Maybe a router setting that I've missed?

[bpa]

Although the wifi is delivering downloads at 130Mbs and uploads at 30Mbs which should be more than adequate with little other network traffic I plugged in a cable and stopped the wifi on the server then rebooted the router.

This packet transit time issue is about latency not throughput. The amount of traffic on the network will affect the latency. Spot measurement of throughput is nto the issue.

However the error log shown is different to packet transit time.

[20-07-17 16:12:19.7409] Plugins::BBCiPlayer:ASH::__ANON__ (254) Stream closing error fetching UTC time from http://time.akamai.com/?iso - Error on HTTP socket:

Maybe a router setting that I've missed?

Unlikely a router setting unless you have changed defautl or used an "optimisation" tool. This is a very short request with a very short response. An "optimised" networks sometimes kill these requests by "bundling" them into a bigger ones.
This is the simplest network request but it is failing in LMS with the "Error on HTTP socket"
Something seems to be set up wrong on the server.
What are the values in the WebUI Settings/Advanced/Network

How long does it take for BBCiPlayer "on Demand" to show the program available ? Is there a noticeable delay ? if so how much ? Due to caching for each test you need to try a different station each time (i.e. only 6 chances)

[vhs]

This packet transit time issue is about latency not throughput. The amount of traffic on the network will affect the latency. Spot measurement of throughput is nto the issue.

However the error log shown is different to packet transit time.



Unlikely a router setting unless you have changed defautl or used an "optimisation" tool. This is a very short request with a very short response. An "optimised" networks sometimes kill these requests by "bundling" them into a bigger ones.
This is the simplest network request but it is failing in LMS with the "Error on HTTP socket"
Something seems to be set up wrong on the server.
What are the values in the WebUI Settings/Advanced/Network

How long does it take for BBCiPlayer "on Demand" to show the program available ? Is there a noticeable delay ? if so how much ? Due to caching for each test you need to try a different station each time (i.e. only 6 chances)

WebUI Settings:

Web Proxy
Web Server Port Number 9000
Radio Station Buffer Seconds 10
Radio Station Timeout 15
Maximum WMA Stream Bitrate No Limit
Synchronized Players Startup Delay (ms)

On Demand shows the programme listings almost immediately but when selected one loads in about 20 secs before playing.
Interestingly other stations e.g. Radio Paradise come through instantly and My Music like Random Mix are also instantaneous. That's why I'm doubting iPlayer plugin.