Topic: "Something went wrong with playback" (cant play from remote server) (Read 6579 times)

ajowers · « **on:** February 18, 2012, 08:20:13 pm »

I have had a HTPC setup since MC14 (now on latest MC17 v17.0.89). This year I turned on Media network and have been streaming music to gizmo both at home and outside my home so I know it works.

Last week I installed MC17 on my laptop and added a local library (plays just fine) nd added my remote media library using the code supplied. It worked fine for a week.

Last night I started getting the "Something went wrong with playback" error. After this occurs I can switch to the local library without changing anything else and it works fine so I feel this is a network related issue.

When I switch to the remote library I see all the artists, albums, tracks, album art... when I dbl click a track, I see the status "Opening..." and after a 5 or 6 second pause I get the error.

I looked at the firewalls and I feel everything is ok. Keep in mind it worked for a week then quit working. I have had several mc17 updates recently however.

Can someone advice me as to what to try? Also Gizmo no longer works either.

so the issue points to my remote server since two sperate devices cn not play from it.

ajowers · « **Reply #1 on:** February 19, 2012, 09:54:30 am »

Does anyone have an idea what I should try at this point? Have I explained this correctly and thoroughly? Posted in the wrong forum maybe?

SeldomSeen · « **Reply #2 on:** February 20, 2012, 07:44:23 am »

I am having the exact same problem. Local library plays fine, but when connecting to the remote library (all WAV files) I get that same "Something went wrong with playback" error.

The files play fine on the main library PC.

I also can not play these files on my android phone using gizmo, they say preparing and show the cover art then change to the resume playback button. If the resume playback button is hit it says preparing again for a few seconds but then goes back to resume playback. The track never starts.

I am not sure if the issues are related, but I am not able to play my main library from either a remote instance of MC or Gizmo.

ajowers · « **Reply #3 on:** February 20, 2012, 08:20:42 am »

Your issue and mine area exactly the same. You described my scenario exactly. I forgot to mention that my main library computer plays just fine and thats its just the remotes that do not play.

As far as I can tell the only thing that changed was an updated version of MC17 from when it last worked and now.

I also reset all my switches, access points and router as well. Another thing I noticed that changed was my comcast ip address. It is almost static in that it remains the same for 4 or 5 months then suddenly I get a new one.

Could the ip change have anything to do with playback issues? Keep in mind I am trying to play locally on the same network and my subnet has not changed at all.

I am on version 17.0.89. What version are you on ?

I would like to see the program create a more verbose and specific set of error messages rather than "something went wrong with playback". Maybe you can add something more specific to this to help the end user determine what areas to look at in trying to solve the problem.

SeldomSeen · « **Reply #4 on:** February 20, 2012, 09:08:26 am »

I am running 17.0.89 on both the server and the client.

I, however, have never had the client working and able to play files from the server PC, as I have just set it up recently. The server PC is running windows 7, the client is running XP.

The client PC has a DELL version of the creative soundblaster live card. I have it set to digital out and as mentioned it plays files, mostly mp3 format, that are stored locally just fine. I played with the MC conversion settings, going from not converting at all to converting everything to 48khz and 44.1khz thinking that the sound card might not like my WAV files. The only message I got was the something went wrong with playback.

I am happy to provide any other info to help track down this issue.

BernhardS · « **Reply #5 on:** February 20, 2012, 11:35:43 am »

Have you tried play mp3? Maybe I have t same/a similary issue. I can only play mp3 from the server, wma and wav dosn't play sinc one of the last updates

SeldomSeen · « **Reply #6 on:** February 21, 2012, 11:13:51 am »

I am able to play a WAV file that is ripped locally, I have not been able to test whether a mp3 file can be streamed from my server to my client. Will try to test that today, I don't currently have any mp3 files on the server, but will convert a WAV to mp3 for a test.

I've exhausted all other testing that I can think of. I would love to be able to get this working. I want the highest quality possible, the reason I ripped to WAV in the first place, space is not a concern and I figured WAV is supported by everything so would be the most compatible.

EDIT

I connected my server to my client library which contains multiple mp3 files. Same message of something went wrong with playback message appears. The same file plays perfectly locally.

bob · « **Reply #7 on:** February 21, 2012, 11:27:03 am »

For gizmo playback, you might be getting hit by the mp3 conversion bug. This will be fixed in versions >=17.0.91 generally available later today.
You may also be getting hit with the same bug if your client options are set to default. I think that wav's will be converted to mp3 by default across library server unless you turn off conversion.
Options->Media Network->Client Options->Audio Conversion.

SeldomSeen · « **Reply #8 on:** February 21, 2012, 12:11:54 pm »

Thanks Bob. I made the changes to never convert and the WAV files play fine across my network. I look forward to the release of .91 to hopefully get Gizmo back up and running for me.

Much appreciated help as always.

JimH · « **Reply #9 on:** February 21, 2012, 01:12:26 pm »

17.0.91 is out now:
http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=70263.msg473720#msg473720

dtc · « **Reply #10 on:** February 22, 2012, 04:19:15 pm »

Bob - could the conversions done by Audio Conversion be reported in the Audio Path display? It is not a very visible conversion option and, unfortunately, it does not default to Never. The "If Necessary" option typically downsamples 24/96 files to 48/44 or something like that. Since you cannot see that that conversion is happening, it is hard to know that, in fact, you are not hearing your Hi Rez files when playing through the library server. Although this conversion is not officially a DSP studio option, it would be nice to see it in Audio Conversion display. It would also be nice if the Audio Conversion defaulted to Never so people don't get into these problems. Thanks.

ajowers · « **Reply #11 on:** February 22, 2012, 05:44:22 pm »

for streaming audio, Is there a way to have it convert for gizmo but never convert for clients on a local network ?

By the way upgrading allowed me to play remotely once again. Occiasionally i would still get the "something went wrong with playback" and I would click ok, then click play again and it would buffer.

I am thinking this is still somewhat problematic. I tried "Never convert" in the options and still got some hiccups. My laptop is wireless N so the wireless may have something to do with the issues.

SeldomSeen · « **Reply #12 on:** February 23, 2012, 11:05:15 am »

Quote from: ajowers on February 22, 2012, 05:44:22 pm

for streaming audio, Is there a way to have it convert for gizmo but never convert for clients on a local network ?

By the way upgrading allowed me to play remotely once again. Occiasionally i would still get the "something went wrong with playback" and I would click ok, then click play again and it would buffer.

I am thinking this is still somewhat problematic. I tried "Never convert" in the options and still got some hiccups. My laptop is wireless N so the wireless may have something to do with the issues.

I am wondering the same thing. I thought it was said that Gizmo always converts to mp3. I am confused by the settings for always, sometimes and never convert as it applies to local, client and gizmo playback. I want to make sure that I'm getting uncompressed playback both locally and to my client, and am fine with mp3 conversion for gizmo. But I am not sure how to be sure that is what I am getting.

I am happy that I am now getting playback on my client and gizmo after the update to the latest version of MC17.

Steve C · « **Reply #13 on:** February 28, 2012, 01:47:54 pm »

I am now having the same issue only with my video media I am on release .95, only seems to have gone wrong on installation of this version. was working fine prior.

Savoir · « **Reply #14 on:** August 12, 2012, 09:54:26 am »

So, guys, any updates on this issue? Just bought MC 17.0.182 and tried to stream the files from home server TO ANOTHER PC WITH MC 17 and from home server to Android device as described by the people above and got the same result for FLAC files, from what I can tell. Turning conversion off resolved the issue but I wonder why at all that happens.

Any ideas?

EDIT: see in caps.

bob · « **Reply #15 on:** August 13, 2012, 10:27:37 am »

Currently if you are using Gizmo on Android the files are always converted to mp3.
The library server client settings in Media Network only concern a connection from a MC client to a MC server.

Savoir · « **Reply #16 on:** August 13, 2012, 11:58:25 am »

Quote from: bob on August 13, 2012, 10:27:37 am

Currently if you are using Gizmo on Android the files are always converted to mp3.
The library server client settings in Media Network only concern a connection from a MC client to a MC server.

Corrected the original post, please see above. The issues still persists.

bob · « **Reply #17 on:** August 13, 2012, 12:36:20 pm »

Quote from: Savoir on August 13, 2012, 11:58:25 am

Corrected the original post, please see above. The issues still persists.

Sorry. Perhaps I'm not getting the issue.

Files to Android will always be converted. There isn't any control over that at this time.

The client options when on a client MC PC control what get's sent to that PC from the MC Server PC. If you want to stream the flacs unconverted you should set "never convert".
"convert audio when necessary" in this context means to convert anything that isn't in the format of the selected encoder to that format. As an example, that means that if your library is a mix of flac, ogg and mp3, the flac and ogg will get converted to mp3 and the mp3 will be streamed without conversion. The reason you might want to do this is if you were bandwidth limited and couldn't support streaming the flacs for example. The final option, "convert always", in the example above, will convert the mp3 to mp3 as well as the flac and ogg to mp3. You might want to do this if you had to support a really low bandwidth connection and some of your mp3's were of higher quality.

Savoir · « **Reply #18 on:** August 13, 2012, 04:50:41 pm »

Quote from: bob on August 13, 2012, 12:36:20 pm

Sorry. Perhaps I'm not getting the issue.

Files to Android will always be converted. There isn't any control over that at this time.

The client options when on a client MC PC control what get's sent to that PC from the MC Server PC. If you want to stream the flacs unconverted you should set "never convert".
"convert audio when necessary" in this context means to convert anything that isn't in the format of the selected encoder to that format. As an example, that means that if your library is a mix of flac, ogg and mp3, the flac and ogg will get converted to mp3 and the mp3 will be streamed without conversion. The reason you might want to do this is if you were bandwidth limited and couldn't support streaming the flacs for example. The final option, "convert always", in the example above, will convert the mp3 to mp3 as well as the flac and ogg to mp3. You might want to do this if you had to support a really low bandwidth connection and some of your mp3's were of higher quality.

That's perfectly understandable and reasonable. The issue is that whenever the value is set to other than "never convert" I get the "Something went wrong with playback" error.

bob · « **Reply #19 on:** August 13, 2012, 06:05:37 pm »

Quote from: Savoir on August 13, 2012, 04:50:41 pm

That's perfectly understandable and reasonable. The issue is that whenever the value is set to other than "never convert" I get the "Something went wrong with playback" error.

Thanks, I understand now.
When you stream from a MC server to a MC client, what is your encoder set to? If it's the default mp3, perhaps you are missing the mp3 encoder? It's downloaded automatically the first time it's needed.

Savoir · « **Reply #20 on:** August 15, 2012, 03:01:53 pm »

Quote from: bob on August 13, 2012, 06:05:37 pm

Thanks, I understand now.
When you stream from a MC server to a MC client, what is your encoder set to? If it's the default mp3, perhaps you are missing the mp3 encoder? It's downloaded automatically the first time it's needed.

The MP3 encoder is there, just checked. Must be something else. If I can send files or reports somewhere for investigation, please let me know.

bob · « **Reply #21 on:** August 16, 2012, 10:45:04 am »

Quote from: Savoir on August 15, 2012, 03:01:53 pm

The MP3 encoder is there, just checked. Must be something else. If I can send files or reports somewhere for investigation, please let me know.

Thanks, a few more questions...
What version/build of MC are on each PC?
Are both PC's on the same LAN?
Is the media in question local files on the MC server PC or somewhere else (like a NAS)?
Are the tracks being played back on the client PC or pushed to another device?

Is the MC temp dir on the server PC write-able?

NorRob · « **Reply #22 on:** August 21, 2012, 04:57:49 pm »

Same, same but different...

I just ran into this conversion bug using version 17.0.182 on Vista (ugh, upgrading this soon).
Files (ape, wmv, mp3) play fine on pc that's running MC and where the files are stored, but when I try to send them to my Marantz 5006 receiver, I get the same error as above.

Turning off conversion fixes the problem. But maybe I don't want files to be converted anyway...
No mobile involved (yet, want to try Gizmo as soon as I'm up to speed).

bob · « **Reply #23 on:** August 23, 2012, 09:18:10 am »

Are you sending the files to the receiver from the client PC (using a "there:" zone) after attaching to the server PC's library server?
If so, the conversion sendings used are the ones on the server PC.

Savoir · « **Reply #24 on:** August 28, 2012, 02:35:04 pm »

Quote from: bob on August 16, 2012, 10:45:04 am

What version/build of MC are on each PC?

17.0.182

Quote from: bob on August 16, 2012, 10:45:04 am

Are both PC's on the same LAN?

Yes. It's mixed LAN and WLAN.

Quote from: bob on August 16, 2012, 10:45:04 am

Is the media in question local files on the MC server PC or somewhere else (like a NAS)?

It's MC server PC.

Quote from: bob on August 16, 2012, 10:45:04 am

Are the tracks being played back on the client PC or pushed to another device?

Pushed. I've tried Gizmo on Android, iPad and a W7-based laptop.

Quote from: bob on August 16, 2012, 10:45:04 am

Is the MC temp dir on the server PC write-able?

Just tried creating a text file there. It worked.

bob · « **Reply #25 on:** August 28, 2012, 04:12:24 pm »

Quote from: Savoir on August 28, 2012, 02:35:04 pm

...
Pushed. I've tried Gizmo on Android, iPad and a W7-based laptop.
...

So, you are loading a library from an MC server PC onto a MC client PC then accessing the MC client PC from either Gizmo or WebGizmo?
If so I'd suggest accessing the server directly from the Gizmo/WebGizmo device instead of through the client.

Savoir · « **Reply #26 on:** August 30, 2012, 06:07:16 am »

Quote from: bob on August 28, 2012, 04:12:24 pm

So, you are loading a library from an MC server PC onto a MC client PC then accessing the MC client PC from either Gizmo or WebGizmo?
If so I'd suggest accessing the server directly from the Gizmo/WebGizmo device instead of through the client.

Of course not. I'm accessing the library on MC server PC from and Android device, from iPad and from a laptop via WebGizmo, just to check), all at the different times.

Matt · « **Reply #27 on:** August 30, 2012, 01:48:40 pm »

I'm trying to understand the problem.

So you connect with Gizmo (on Android) and try to play a file from the server on the server? And that fails?

What happens if you sit at the server PC and try to play the same file in the same zone? Is it possible the server just can't play the file?

Savoir · « **Reply #28 on:** August 30, 2012, 04:01:01 pm »

Quote from: Matt on August 30, 2012, 01:48:40 pm

So you connect with Gizmo (on Android) and try to play a file from the server on the server? And that fails?

It works for MP3 only. If I try to play albums that are in FLAC, the Android device is stuck with "Preparing..." forever. Same stuff for iPad: it plays MP3 fine, but any FLAC file makes WebGizmo show "running circle" or whatever you call it forever.

Quote from: Matt on August 30, 2012, 01:48:40 pm

What happens if you sit at the server PC and try to play the same file in the same zone? Is it possible the server just can't play the file?

You can imagine FLAC files do play on server PC.

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Author Topic: "Something went wrong with playback" (cant play from remote server) (Read 6579 times)