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[handliner]

Newbie here looking for a little help please. I bought JRiver media center 19 April 13, 2014 after trying it out for 30 days. Everything was fine until four days ago, that's when my problems began.

Briefly what I am trying to do with media center is play back music .

I have a Squeezebox classic 3, Squeezebox Touch, and a Logitech transporter that are located in three areas of my house. Primarily I listen to the touch. I have downloaded Whitebear app for Logitech Media Server server. I am playing mostly Flac and some mp3's.

 I have J river installed on two computers a laptop that is seldom used for playback and a desktop that has two external usb hard drives attached. My music is located on the desktop and both external drives. My pc is running a intel I7--3770k cpu with 32 ram of memory. I ran the benchmark under the help menu, the resulting JR Mark was 4295.

Here are the problems that did not exist until recently. (I have tried to resolve the issues by forum searches with no success ). 1) sb touch at times plays one song when any random number of songs are loaded to play then stops without proceeding to the next song. 2) The songs play but will stop and there is a message that comes up on the sb touch that reads rebuffering. The song that is being rebuffered either continues playing after several seconds of the song being mute or else quits and the player goes onto the next song. I am playing from the Main library of media center.

I basically don't understand networking as well as others on this forum but think maybe this is what is causing my problems. Also I haven't uninstalled JRiver and reinstalled the program. If I do uninstall that will be able to reinstall using the original access key that was first supplied to me. Thank you for any help in this matter.

[JimH]

Did you try power cycling everything, including your network?

Did anything change recently?

[handliner]

Thanks Jim for replying. I did not see your post   How to "Fix" MC if it is Hanging or Crashing and I am going to read through it to see if it resolves the issue. In answer to your questions I have not repowered all network and devices but I will. Two things have changed though, I reloaded the library to level the volume on my music. I installed software for a Garmin nuvi to access lifetime maps. Since that I did run system restore to a date before the software change. That restore removed the Garmin software but did not help with my problem. Also I did not mention that I am using Windows 8.1 as my os.

[AndrewFG]

1) sb touch at times plays one song when any random number of songs are loaded to play then stops without proceeding to the next song. 2) The songs play but will stop and there is a message that comes up on the sb touch that reads rebuffering. The song that is being rebuffered either continues playing after several seconds of the song being mute or else quits and the player goes onto the next song.

Two different lines of questions:

1. Are you sure that you don't have two UIs trying to push tracks to the Touch at the same time? e.g. two instance of MC having different playlists that they are both trying to push to the Touch (by Whitebear), or both LMS and MC trying to push to the same Touch ??

2. Are you connected using WiFi ? What format of tracks are your trying to push (Mp3, flac, wav, etc.)? What bitdepth, sample rate, channel count? Do you have MC set to push  in Original format, or Convert to LPCM?

[handliner]

1. Are you sure that you don't have two UIs trying to push tracks to the Touch at the same time? e.g. two instance of MC having different playlists that they are both trying to push to the Touch (by Whitebear), or both LMS and MC trying to push to the same Touch ??

I have both LMS and MC on both of my computers running. The laptop does not have whitebear installed. The laptop does not recognize any of the Squeezebox players in MC. I assume that this due to the fact that whitebear isn't installed. The laptop doers recognize my Oppo 103d and Marantz AV8801 as does my desktop. The laptop does not have any music loaded to play any music. I will turn MC and LMS off on the laptop to see if this resolves anything. I opened task manager on my windows 8.1 desktop and under apps it reads
Media Center 19 (32 bit) . I believe that I have to use LMS in order to play to the touch but am not sure. It is setup to run automatically when the computers are turned on. So in answer to your question I would say no.

2. Are you connected using WiFi ? What format of tracks are your trying to push (Mp3, flac, wav, etc.)? What bitdepth, sample rate, channel count? Do you have MC set to push  in Original format, or Convert to LPCM?

Yes WiFi. flac,mp3 wav . I have Media Network setup for the DLNA sharing to, Conversion:Don't convert audio and Encoder: PCM 16 bit. The sample rate is from 22050Hz to 96000Hz in my music library. I'm sorry I am not sure of what you mean by channel count if you are referring to the devices that MC recognizes underneath the Playing now view there are Player which is my computer plus 11 other devices. in answer to your last question I have this selected but not sure if it is the correct settings, Conversion:Don't convert audio and Encoder: PCM 16 bit.

[AndrewFG]

I have both LMS and MC on both of my computers running. The laptop does not have whitebear installed. The laptop does not recognize any of the Squeezebox players in MC. I assume that this due to the fact that whitebear isn't installed. The laptop doers recognize my Oppo 103d and Marantz AV8801 as does my desktop. The laptop does not have any music loaded to play any music. I will turn MC and LMS off on the laptop to see if this resolves anything. I opened task manager on my windows 8.1 desktop and under apps it reads Media Center 19 (32 bit) . I believe that I have to use LMS in order to play to the touch but am not sure. It is setup to run automatically when the computers are turned on. So in answer to your question I would say no.

There's too much going on. See what happens when you have a single server computer running. This server needs to be running LMS, Whitebear and MC. Turn off the other computer.

Yes WiFi. flac,mp3 wav . I have Media Network setup for the DLNA sharing to, Conversion:Don't convert audio and Encoder: PCM 16 bit. The sample rate is from 22050Hz to 96000Hz in my music library. I'm sorry I am not sure of what you mean by channel count if you are referring to the devices that MC recognizes underneath the Playing now view there are Player which is my computer plus 11 other devices. in answer to your last question I have this selected but not sure if it is the correct settings, Conversion:Don't convert audio and Encoder: PCM 16 bit.

What do you have in MC Settings | Media Network | Add or Configure DLNA Servers | Audio | Mode // Format // Advanced ??

[handliner]

What do you have in MC Settings | Media Network | Add or Configure DLNA Servers | Audio | Mode // Format // Advanced ??

advanced = stereo downmix, box is checked. volume leveling is checked. sample rate same as source

[AndrewFG]

What do you have in MC Settings | Media Network | Add or Configure DLNA Servers | Audio | Mode // Format // Advanced ??

advanced = stereo downmix, box is checked. volume leveling is checked. sample rate same as source

What do you have in Mode?
What do you have in Format?

[handliner]

What do you have in Mode?
What do you have in Format?


mode: original

Format: PCM L16 No header

[AndrewFG]

^

Ok. Without changing anything else, turn off the laptop, keep the desktop running, and try playing different types of tracks. Start with mp3, then Cd rips at 44100hz sample rate, 16 bit depth, 2 channel, and proceed step by step to higher sample rate, higher bit depth, higher channel count, media. And tell me when the Touch starts to have the buffering problems that you mention.

PS if you want to quote a post in your response, please use the quote button...

[handliner]

Ok. Without changing anything else, turn off the laptop, keep the desktop running, and try playing different types of tracks. Start with mp3, then Cd rips at 44100hz sample rate, 16 bit depth, 2 channel, and proceed step by step to higher sample rate, higher bit depth, higher channel count, media. And tell me when the Touch starts to have the buffering problems that you mention.

I just finished playing 2 hours of mp3's @ 128 bitrate with no problems. I just loaded 320 bitrate mp3's I will let you know this goes. I am not sure what you mean by higher channel count and media. I rebooted my modem and router before loading any music this morning. Thank you for your help so far.

[handliner]

So after extensive testing yesterday and today I have found one constant. When I reboot my router and modem after a rebuffering situation the playback is fine until I link different zones together. This leads me to believe that my router is the cause of my problem. Do you agree Andrew?

[AndrewFG]

So after extensive testing yesterday and today I have found one constant. When I reboot my router and modem after a rebuffering situation the playback is fine until I link different zones together. This leads me to believe that my router is the cause of my problem. Do you agree Andrew?

I assume you are using wifi rather than wired Ethernet?

In your earlier post you mentioned that you see 11 devices in MC; this would be is a lot of devices taking up bandwidth on your router..
You also said that the Touch was showing a "buffering" error; this indicates that the Touch is not getting enough bandwidth..
And when you link two zones you are basically pushing out twice as much data as with one zone..

So, yes I would say it is somehow a router problem. But it is not obvious if there would be any tweaks on the router to solve the problem. If your network is simply overloaded then there is not much you can do about it. You could try connecting some of your devices by wired Ethernet instead of via wifi...

[handliner]

I assume you are using wifi rather than wired Ethernet?

I have a wireless router that I use with wired Ethernet and wireless. I also have a wired hub that I use in my theater room.

In your earlier post you mentioned that you see 11 devices in MC; this would be is a lot of devices taking up bandwidth on your router..
You also said that the Touch was showing a "buffering" error; this indicates that the Touch is not getting enough bandwidth..
And when you link two zones you are basically pushing out twice as much data as with one zone..

I really didn't understand this until I began testing, then the light went on.

So, yes I would say it is somehow a router problem. But it is not obvious if there would be any tweaks on the router to solve the problem. If your network is simply overloaded then there is not much you can do about it. You could try connecting some of your devices by wired Ethernet instead of via wifi...

I presently own a Cisco Linksys e3000 router. I have been doing some online research and believe this router http://www.amazon.com/NETGEAR-Nighthawk-AC1900-Gigabit-Router/dp/B00F0DD0I6/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1401132650&sr=8-1&keywords=netgear+nighthawk+r7000 to be a good replacement. Do you or anyone else have a opinion on this router?



[/quote]

[muzicman0]

Also, turn off Wireless B, and G if you can...if you have even one device attached at a slower speed, it will cause all other devices to slow to that rate.  So, if you have a device attached that is Wireless B only, you are only getting 11Mbps.

With that said, I have the e3000 as well, and the wireless signal strength is pretty bad, so I ended up putting DD-WRT on it, and upping the signal strength...even with that, I ended up having to use 2 of them to cover my house, which is only 1650 Sq Ft.

mm0

[handliner]

Also, turn off Wireless B, and G if you can...if you have even one device attached at a slower speed, it will cause all other devices to slow to that rate.  So, if you have a device attached that is Wireless B only, you are only getting 11Mbps.

I was not aware of that and looked it up. SQ Touch B or G compatable SQ Classic Wireless G. Is it possible the touch is using Wireless B?

With that said, I have the e3000 as well, and the wireless signal strength is pretty bad, so I ended up putting DD-WRT on it, and upping the signal strength...even with that, I ended up having to use 2 of them to cover my house, which is only 1650 Sq Ft.

mm0

I will research this as well, as of now I do not know what DD-WRT is. My house has three floors square feet approaching 6000. I'm suprised that it even works.

Really appreciate all the help I have been given. I really don't post very often on forums. I always wondered how people were able to include quote's in their messages. Andrew asked that I do it, looked it up on youtube and now I know.

[muzicman0]

It's possible that it is using B or G...I would guess it would default to G, but who knows.  The router should have a feature where it will only allow certain wireless protocols. 

DD-WRT is an open source 'alternative firmware' for some routers.  If you are not sure what you are doing, I wouldn't suggest trying it without a lot of reading.

[theoctavist]

yep...DD WRT is what you want.  it will maximize the capabilities of the router. really isnt that hard to use.

[handliner]

yep...DD WRT is what you want.  it will maximize the capabilities of the router. really isnt that hard to use.

 

Thank you.

I ended up running a ethernet cable to the Squeezebox touch Friday. This appears to have solved the rebuffering problem that I had,  Playback has been flawless since. I would like to thank everyone for their help in helping me trouble shoot this annoying problem.