Silence from a streaming radio station

[mikeh49]

Recently one of my streaming stations quit playing. The server connects and stays connected, shows the correct bitrate, but there is no sound. All of my other stations play properly. LMS is a recent 7.9.2 nightly running on Debian Stretch on a Kirkwood SOC box. Players are Squeezelite on Debian on Pogo Plugs. Same situation on both players and same on my previous 7.8 server on the famous Squeeze on Arch on a PogoPlug. I set the logging to info for the streaming components (as far as I can tell) but I can't discern a difference between a stream that plays and the one that does not. The URL for the stream plays properly in VLC and in a browser tab on both Chrome and Opera. And their app plays on an IOS device.

The stream is 48 kbs MP3 which seems a pretty low bitrate for music.

The station is Northwest Public Broadcasting/Radio from Washington state. The URL is http://134.121.234.129:8000/NWPRCLASSICAL

I have contacted the station and they did not immediately ID a problem. Since the URL plays, they are not highly motivated, I think.

Is there an app to view the stream to see if there is something there? Wireshark?

Thoughts anyone?

[philippe_44]

Does it redirect to HTTPS?

[garym]

I just saved your link as a favorite in LMS and it played fine for me.

[bpa]

Low bit rate is because it is a low sample rate only 22.05kHz - some device cannot play low sample rate. You may need resampling and if using squeezelite on say ALSA - choose a different device.

[mikeh49]

Thanks for the suggestions. Interesting on the low sample rate and squeezelite. I'm pretty sure I'm using the ALSA sound system on the players. I'll look into that and report back. If ALSA is a problem for low sample rate, then is there another option?

[mikeh49]

I think my problem is related to the old version of squeezelite I am using. I tried the Squeezelite-X app on Windows which uses about the latest version of squeezelite, and the problem stations work. So, is the solution a new version of squeezelite, or does the Windows audio system handle the low bitrate inherently? I see the new version of squeezelite has options for resampling. Should I take this to the Linux forum?

[philippe_44]

I think my problem is related to the old version of squeezelite I am using. I tried the Squeezelite-X app on Windows which uses about the latest version of squeezelite, and the problem stations work. So, is the solution a new version of squeezelite, or does the Windows audio system handle the low bitrate inherently? I see the new version of squeezelite has options for resampling. Should I take this to the Linux forum?

What is your squeezelite version? Resampling has been enabled for ages, but you have to use the right command line with -r to set the accepted rates and -R so allow resampling. It allows SL to

- inform LMS of it’s max capable rate
- make local decision when receiving a track to select a sample rate that is acceptable by the card
- resample to the next authorized rate if received rate is not acceptable

See the command line if the GH site for detail

[bpa]

Thanks for the suggestions. Interesting on the low sample rate and squeezelite. I'm pretty sure I'm using the ALSA sound system on the players. I'll look into that and report back. If ALSA is a problem for low sample rate, then is there another option?

You have provided no details on your system (including squeezelite version number). It may be possible to confirm/refute the diagnosis which prevent you wasting time.

ALSA can provide the resampling if you use devices names such as "default:" but will not provide resampling if using device name such as "hw:" - so a solution for this stream may simply be just changing the output device name but may not be right solution for other sources so system details again would help.

Otherwise the squeezelite resampling option is your best option but the command-line options can be very picky to get right.

[mikeh49]

OK, I'll get more info. I agree the -r and -R options in Squeezelite look daunting. Thanks.

[mikeh49]

Here's a start:

Squeezelite 1.6.4 running on Debian Wheezy with Vantec mini DAC

Squeezelite 1.6.4 has the -r option

Squeezelite command line is: squeezelite -o DAC=front:CARD=Device,DEV=0 -n PogoP21 &

root@PogoP21:/opt/squeezelite# aplay -l
**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: Device [USB Audio Device], device 0: USB Audio [USB Audio]
  Subdevices: 0/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

root@PogoP21:/# aplay -L
null
    Discard all samples (playback) or generate zero samples (capture)
default:CARD=Device
    USB Audio Device, USB Audio
    Default Audio Device
sysdefault:CARD=Device
    USB Audio Device, USB Audio
    Default Audio Device
front:CARD=Device,DEV=0
    USB Audio Device, USB Audio
    Front speakers
surround40:CARD=Device,DEV=0
    USB Audio Device, USB Audio
    4.0 Surround output to Front and Rear speakers
surround41:CARD=Device,DEV=0
    USB Audio Device, USB Audio
    4.1 Surround output to Front, Rear and Subwoofer speakers
surround50:CARD=Device,DEV=0
    USB Audio Device, USB Audio
    5.0 Surround output to Front, Center and Rear speakers
surround51:CARD=Device,DEV=0
    USB Audio Device, USB Audio
    5.1 Surround output to Front, Center, Rear and Subwoofer speakers
surround71:CARD=Device,DEV=0
    USB Audio Device, USB Audio
    7.1 Surround output to Front, Center, Side, Rear and Woofer speakers
iec958:CARD=Device,DEV=0
    USB Audio Device, USB Audio
    IEC958 (S/PDIF) Digital Audio Output

There is no etc/asound.conf

I can provide the var/lib/alsa/asound.state if needed.

Is the issue perhaps with the DAC? I can try a couple of others, but none are high end, and I don't recall their chip. I think it is the common low cost one.