Radio streaming stops intermittently

[bpa]

It _seems_ to be with one controller (n.b. they are all wireless)

Wireless is usually the cause of intermittent problems. Is the PC/server wired to router/broadband modem ?

This is the latest of the two SB3s I have and this is logitec branded as opposed to the older Slimdevices branded one.

Irrelevant - same hardware inside.

I even moved the bedroom to the lounge and vice versa to see if the signal was to blame, but the issues appears to have stayed with the bedroom unit.

That seems to indicate a wireless problem which is specific to bedroom area - possibly some sort of equipment related interference.

Today I've had issues where the squeezebox service will just stop on the PC, so then nothing works.
(I have another weird problem, but that's a whole different thread)

Sounds more like 2 more problems.

The annoying thing is that this setup worked perfectly well before and I'm not aware of anything changing.

This is typical of wireless issues.

I do plan to build a new PC from scratch with more memory and host squeeze server there, but that's a while off at the moment.

Unlikely to fix any problem unless you identify the cause of the problems.

And even whilst I'm typing this, the bedroom SB3 is now not playing (but saying it is playing BBC Radio1) and Boom is also not playing (but saying it is playing BBC Radio 1) and I can hear the one upstairs playing perfectly well.

System info and more details always help - for example are you playing AAC or WMA BBC streams ? AAC need transcoding by PC but WMA are played natively by player.

Why have not done the network test on the bedroom player - it is a no brainer - just run the test from the SB3 menu Settings/Information/Network Test. This will help isolate the problem to either network or server.

[bpa]

The other issue I have currently - is that with locally held files (MP3s) no matter how I choose to play them; (I normally put everything on random)
even if I play by genre, artist, album, etc etc... the first track on the playlist repeats, even though on the web console, there are different tracks listed.

This all started when I modified genres to be included in the random feature. I've since changed it back and the issue still appears.

Sounds like you turned on Repeat Current Song. The "Repeat" button is a 3 way option - Off, repeat current song, repeat playlist. Hover mouse over Repeat icon on Web UI to get hint on current setting.

[spindoctor]

System info and more details always help - for example are you playing AAC or WMA BBC streams ? AAC need transcoding by PC but WMA are played natively by player.

Why have not done the network test on the bedroom player - it is a no brainer - just run the test from the SB3 menu Settings/Information/Network Test. This will help isolate the problem to either network or server.

Thank you for persevering

System info is in the first post, but please advise if there's something specific I haven't mentioned.

I've looked at the iplayer settings: (home/server settings/BBC iplayer/Prefer WMA streams) and this is unchecked, suggesting that this is AAC. Should I change this to WMA?

From a network point of view, these are the wireless signal strength:
Bedroom: 36%
Lounge: 28%
Boom (kitchen): 81%

The wireless router is above the Boom, so I'd expect a high reading there. Bedroom is across from the router and the Lounge is downstairs and diagonally furthest away from the router.

For the network tests I did the following:
Run both Boom and Lounge at 1mbps (1000kbps) both running: 100% ave: 99% for over 30 mins _at the same time_ I did this purely because I can stand in one place and control both boxes and see both displays.

The Bedroom player... now that's something different... I can run the tests at any bit rate, but every time, after exactly 30 seconds, the display switches to Weather Underground (my power off screensaver)

However it does not appear to turn off... because when I press right arrow or down arrow, it brings the network test back up. This differs to when the SB is actually powered down, as when you press right, it goes through visibility and precipitation and down arrow advances through the next few days.

So - I can't really do a network test on the Bedroom player for more than 30 secs. At 500kbps it's 100%/100%, at 1000mbps it's 100%/99% at 1500kbps it's 100%/99%-ish

OK, so then I took the bedroom player downstairs to the same position as the Lounge player. Still appears to turn off after 30 secs, but the network test is pretty bad, even though I've expect it to be comparable to the Lounge player. It pretty much gets up to 320 / 500kbps before it starts to drop packets.

After I bring it back upstairs, it's back to the same readings as it was before I tried it downstairs.

Do I have a faulty Bedroom unit?
Are the wireless signal and network tests within expected tolerances?
Is there anyway I can factory reset the Bedroom player? Is this the right course of action?

I thank you again for your time with this.
Regards, Phil

[spindoctor]

Sounds like you turned on Repeat Current Song. The "Repeat" button is a 3 way option - Off, repeat current song, repeat playlist.

Such as basic error on my part - I can't believe I missed this.... Thank you!

[bpa]

I've looked at the iplayer settings: (home/server settings/BBC iplayer/Prefer WMA streams) and this is unchecked, suggesting that this is AAC. Should I change this to WMA?

From a network point of view, these are the wireless signal strength:
Bedroom: 36%
Lounge: 28%
Boom (kitchen): 81%

Using AAC is good because PC acts as a proxy which can help with network related problem whereas a WMA stream will go direct from station to player.

AAC cannot be played natively on Classic or Boom so it is transcoded by SBS into Flac. Flac would typically need at least 700kbps which I think is unlikely with signal strength you indicated. I think this is your problem since you have no problem with MP3 which probably have lower bit rates.

A 10 mins network test would help confirm your throughput - can you not disable the screen saver while you do the test.

Assuming you cannot improve the wireless strength, I suggest you select WMA as preferred format in BBCiPlayer plugin.

If there are still a few problem perhaps you could try enabling PC proxying of the stream using the Settings/Player/Audio/MP3 streaming option - the name is misleading as this setting also applies to WMA streams.

These settings can be changed without system restart so it is easy to run a few tests one after another.

[nicolas75]

Hello

I have now several rebuffering per hour when I'm listening to radio streams.
This started a few weeks ago.
I had almost no problem for several years before ...

I have a wired SB Touch, connected to my router and a FTTH internet connection ( 100 Mbps download and 50 Mbps upload).

I am in Paris, France.

This really recently got worse and worse.
Is it related to mysqueezebox.com ?

[bpa]

I have now several rebuffering per hour when I'm listening to radio streams

Which BBC streams are causing problems ?

[nicolas75]

Which BBC streams are causing problems ?

It is not BBC streams, I am listening to french radios.

People have problems in HongKong
see http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=82862

Honestly I don't understand how people can blame radios streams or internet connections.
Everything works fine listening with a PC and any audio software.

It is only with Squeezebox that we have random rebuffering (and regularly some strange "pops" in the sound as far as I am concerned).

I don't know if there is a problem with mysqueezebox.com, or if the Squeezebox trying to contact some remote IP address interfere with the stream or the playing, or whatever else.

But the problem is quite certainly with Squeezebox software or servers

[bpa]

It is not BBC streams, I am listening to french radios.

This thread was exclusively dealing with problems with BBC streams and the associated plugins/applets.

I think you should start your own thread as you have a different problem.

As a general point, when using mysb.com radio station stream directly from station to player so the problem is either network related or Touch related - the servers are not involved. You should contact support there may be some player incompatibilities with the french stations you are playing or perhaps because stream initial contact is from Germany (i.e. outside France) where the mysb.com servers are located.

[nicolas75]

This thread was exclusively dealing with problems with BBC streams and the associated plugins/applets.

I think you should start your own thread as you have a different problem.

As a general point, when using mysb.com radio station stream directly from station to player so the problem is either network related or Touch related - the servers are not involved. You should contact support there may be some player incompatibilities with the french stations you are playing or perhaps because stream initial contact is from Germany (i.e. outside France) where the mysb.com servers are located.

Well the title of the thread is "Radio streaming stops intermittently"
Which is exactly my problem.
I suggest the title should be changed, if it only deals with BBC ...

I have no problem starting another thread, but, being professionaly involved in software development, I can hardly imagine those problem being related to one specific broadcasting streaming, but much more related to squeezebox devices (in a general way, not only with specific streams)
In my opinion, it would be more useful to have one specific thread about that, than one thread per radio streaming having problem.
Especially if the problem doesn't come from the radio stream, but from the squeezeboxes devices ...

[Edit] I re-read the thread, and in my opinion, nothing really shows that the original problem is specifically related to the BBC ...
Or is it fine with any other radio than BBC ? (which would be the first test to try, if it is not already done)