Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[steelman1991]

Trying to understand the process of streaming from JRiver server to my Android phone (Sony Xperia Z2). Although I am a long time user, it has mostly been for playback of video material (Movies and TV Shows). However I recently started walking (at the suggestion of my doctor) and like many others enjoy listening to my music collection while exercising. I then decided to - rather than transfer the files to an SD card - stream them from my server. I managed to port forward and gain access to the library, but I'm not sure i understand the mechanics behind the process.

I have a limited data allowance (1GB) with my telephone provider and I assume that will be affected by the streaming to my phone - yes? If so, is there anyway to mitigate that usage or is it just the way it works? I switch off 'mobile data' while within my home wifi area, is there anything else I should consider?

[mwillems]

Gizmo has a "cache" setting that will tell it how many tracks in advance to download.  Obviously, you should be careful to disable or reduce the caching to "one track" if you're starting playback from outside your Wi-Fi network as if the cache is set to ten, Gizmo would download ten tracks as soon as you started listening to one (i.e. which could dramatically increase your data usage).

The cache feature can also be used to save data if used carefully; if you set the cache to "ten tracks" and start listening to an album while still on your wi-fi, Gizmo will immediately download ten tracks (i.e. probably a whole album), and then you can go on your way and finish listening to the album without using any data.  You just need to remember to change the cache ahead setting again if you plan to listen to something else on your walk.

[steelman1991]

Amazing how it all falls into place with a simple explanation - don't know how I thought it was doing it, but never thought to describe it as a download. But that explains perfectly why there would be a drain on the data allowance. Just as a side issue, all my files are mp3 (ABR encoded to average 320kbps) any idea how much data is likely used to download 1 file?

Thanks mwillems for your help.

[mwillems]

Amazing how it all falls into place with a simple explanation - don't know how I thought it was doing it, but never thought to describe it as a download. But that explains perfectly why there would be a drain on the data allowance. Just as a side issue, all my files are mp3 (ABR encoded to average 320kbps) any idea how much data is likely used to download 1 file?

Thanks mwillems for your help.

The source quality doesn't determine data usage; it depends on your audio quality settings in Gizmo (there are three choices for audio: low, medium, or high).  "High" is equivalent to high bitrate MP3 as I recall.  I don't do much streaming outside of my wi-fi network (I still use my SD card), so I don't have solid personal data for you.  This post from one of the devs offers a general idea:

Gizmo is indeed designed for streaming, and thats all it can do. It supports caching of music, but the cache is not "smart" to prefer WiFi connections at this time.
If you set the audio quality to "Low" in Gizmo, a 5 minute track will use 2.4 MB, so listening for an hour will use 28 MB of data.
At Medium Quality, it'll already use 4.8 MB for 5 minutes, or 56 MB in an hour, and at High Quality its 115MB for an hour.

source: http://yabb.JRiver.com/interact/index.php?topic=86137.msg594534#msg594534

It's important to note that those numbers are estimates with the cache-ahead set to disabled (setting a higher cache will potentially consume more).

[steelman1991]

Thanks for the pointers - that's great information appreciate it.