Topic: Streaming Problems? (Read 4719 times)

Nikolay · « **on:** September 08, 2003, 11:21:34 am »

Hi everybody,

We received multiple bug reports about problems connecting to WMA or MP3 streaming radio stations using Media Center, but we could not reproduce the behavior.

Does anybody else experience the problem? If so, please post you system info and any other information which you think can help us to solve the problem.

Thanks,
Nikolay

Rands · « **Reply #1 on:** September 08, 2003, 12:17:15 pm »

I was one of the ones who posted about this. My original set-up was an Athlon XP 2100+ with 1 gig of PC2700 on an MSI KT3 Ultra motherboard which is VIA-based.

That machine has since been upgraded to a Barton 3000 running on an MSI K7N2 Delta which is nForce2-based. Everything else in the system is the same. This new setup plays all streams flawlessly.

I also have a laptop that has the same streaming issues as my old workstation. It's a Toshiba Portége 3505 with 128 megs of RAM and is an ALi-based chipset.

The streaming issues were inconsistent (some streams played fine, some didn't; rarely one that played fine would sometimes start messing up for awhile). I was able to stream all WMA but not all MP3 streams.

There are two other machines I tested this on but, unfortunately, I don't have the specs for them as they're machines belonging to a friend of mine. One of them was an old Sony VAIO. The new one is an Intel Celeron with an MSI motherboard (can't recall which one or what chipset it ran).

I hope this helps.

MGD_King · « **Reply #2 on:** September 08, 2003, 01:31:24 pm »

I'm running a VAI chipset based machine and I have no problems streaming, however, I only listen to one stream.

Tweaker · « **Reply #3 on:** September 08, 2003, 02:03:07 pm »

I also have a problem with the streaming media when it comes to playing WMA & MP3's. Personally, I'm not sure why MP3's won't play. I have a theory about the why the WMA won't play but I haven't tested it yet.

My theory on the WMA files not playing may be because I have everything unchecked in WMA on both the Privacy & Security tabs of WMA.

Below is my current system info:

Media Center Registered 9.1.246 -- C:\Program Files\J River\Media Center\

Microsoft Windows XP Workstation 5.1 Service Pack 1 (Build 2600)
AMD Athlon 1383 MHz MMX / Memory: Total - 392 MB, Free - 212 MB

Internet Explorer: 6.0.2800.1106 / ComCtl32.dll: 5.82 (xpsp1.020828-1920) / Shlwapi.dll: 6.00.2800.1226 / Shell32.dll: 6.00.2800.1106 (xpsp1.020828-1920) / wnaspi32.dll: N/A
Ripping / Drive E: Copy mode:ModeBurstBigBuffer CD Type:Auto Read speed:Max
Drive F: Copy mode:ModeBurstBigBuffer CD Type:Auto Read speed:Max
Digital playback: Yes / Use YADB: Yes / Get cover art: No / Calc replay gain: Yes / Copy volume: 32767
Eject after ripping: No / Play sound after ripping: No

Burning / Drive F: LITE-ON LTR-52246S Addr: 1:1:0 Speed:40 MaxSpeed:52 BurnProof:Yes
Test mode: No / Eject after writing: Yes / Direct decoding: Yes / Write CD-Text: Yes
Use playback settings: Yes / Normalization: None

Tweaker · « **Reply #4 on:** September 08, 2003, 02:22:01 pm »

Nikolay,

I tried my theory of opening WMA and checking all the boxes on the Privacy & Security tabs of WMA rebooted my computer, opened MJ and went to File Assoc. and checked the boxes for WMA. I then went to Media Center and tried playing stations using WMA and they all play now. Several MP3's Stations that I also tried play now too.

Media Center Registered 9.1.246 -- C:\Program Files\J River\Media Center\

Microsoft Windows XP Workstation 5.1 Service Pack 1 (Build 2600)
AMD Athlon 1383 MHz MMX / Memory: Total - 392 MB, Free - 239 MB

Internet Explorer: 6.0.2800.1106 / ComCtl32.dll: 5.82 (xpsp1.020828-1920) / Shlwapi.dll: 6.00.2800.1226 / Shell32.dll: 6.00.2800.1106 (xpsp1.020828-1920) / wnaspi32.dll: N/A
Ripping / Drive E: Copy mode:ModeBurstBigBuffer CD Type:Auto Read speed:Max
Drive F: Copy mode:ModeBurstBigBuffer CD Type:Auto Read speed:Max
Digital playback: Yes / Use YADB: Yes / Get cover art: No / Calc replay gain: Yes / Copy volume: 32767
Eject after ripping: No / Play sound after ripping: No

Burning / Drive F: LITE-ON LTR-52246S Addr: 1:1:0 Speed:40 MaxSpeed:52 BurnProof:Yes
Test mode: No / Eject after writing: Yes / Direct decoding: Yes / Write CD-Text: Yes
Use playback settings: Yes / Normalization: None

knickelfarz · « **Reply #5 on:** September 08, 2003, 02:57:12 pm »

Hi Nikolay - Thanks for this thread :-)

I don't have problems when I just listen to a stream. The problems I reported appear when I try to connect to a stream or when I switch to another stream. The "awful stuttering" always comes up when MC is buffering web content... Normaly, the stuttering appears only for some seconds. But if the connection to a station gets lost (station going offline, less bandwith...) the stuttering is going on untill it's stopped manually. Sometimes MC displays "buffering", sometimes "waiting". But even if the stream comes back (and other programs play it again), MC won't stop stuttering... In some cases, MC crashes after a while without comment. When trying to reconnect to a "lost" station, MC crashes always. When trying to connect to a station that does not exist any more (IP/Port has changed / station offline), MC always crashes, sometimes after some seconds, sometimes immediately. If this happens, I have to use a backuped library to get MC to work again...

I tried to use Direct Sound, Wave Out and ASIO (if possible) as output for MC, but there was no difference. There were even no difference between the last ten builds of MC.

I compared it several times with MJ 8 and WinAmp (both with different outputs also) and they didn't showed these problems... both were muting seamless while buffering and didn't crashed when a station was "lost".

I made these comparisons on three machines:

The first one (my workstation) has a boot manager and for my testing and "developing" for MC I use a "fresh" image of a "clean" W2K installation which I copy over from time to time. This PC uses an Audigy PlatinumEX as soundcard.

My girlfriends "typewriter" is an older AMD 266 running NT4SP5 and uses an older Soundblaster.

My little fileserver is based on a VIA EPIA-M MiniITX board (667MHz) and uses the onboard digital output (I'm using a second one with the same board as livingroom PC, but I didn't tested MC on this one yet).

Here's the sysinfo of my "workstation"... If you think it's worth to post the sysinfo of the other machines, let me now :-)

-------------------------------------------
Media Center 9.1.246 -- C:\Programme\Audio\Media Center\

Microsoft Windows 2000 Workstation 5.0 Service Pack 2 (Build 2195)
Intel Pentium 4 2020 MHz MMX / Memory: Total - 1048 MB, Free - 712 MB

Internet Explorer: 6.0.2800.1106 / ComCtl32.dll: 5.81 / Shlwapi.dll: 6.00.2800.1226 / Shell32.dll: 5.00.3315.2902 / wnaspi32.dll: Internal ASPI Layer

Ripping / Drive I: Copy mode:ModeBurstBigBuffer CD Type:Auto Read speed:Max
Drive J: Copy mode:ModeBurstBigBuffer CD Type:Auto Read speed:Max
Digital playback: Yes / Use YADB: Yes / Get cover art: No / Calc replay gain: Yes / Copy volume: 32767
Eject after ripping: No / Play sound after ripping: No

Burning / Drive J: TEAC CD-W524E Addr: 1:1:0 Speed:24 MaxSpeed:24 BurnProof:Yes
Test mode: No / Eject after writing: Yes / Direct decoding: Yes / Write CD-Text: No
Use playback settings: No / Normalization: None
---------------------------------

P.S.: The machines are all running on the same LAN (not wireless) and are connected to the internet with a SMC Barricade DSL router. The LAN / internet connection offers enough bandwith to play four streams and more, the stuttering also appears when there's more than 50% bandwith available. I only use mp3 streams with 128k or more (no wma).

I hope there's a way to fix these problems

knickelfarz · « **Reply #6 on:** September 08, 2003, 03:23:51 pm »

Just tested build 247 - Sorry to say, but nothing has changed...

Listening to: 'Miguel Graca - The Wellbeing' by 'WebRadio: Digitally Imported > Deep House Channel' on Media Center 9.1

Rands · « **Reply #7 on:** September 08, 2003, 03:53:40 pm »

Quote

Listening to: 'Miguel Graca - The Wellbeing' by 'WebRadio: Digitally Imported > Deep House Channel' on Media Center 9.1

Totally OT but if you like that station, you should give www.protonradio.com a listen too. Fantastic stuff.

knickelfarz · « **Reply #8 on:** September 08, 2003, 04:15:15 pm »

Quote

Totally OT but if you like that station, you should give www.protonradio.com a listen too. Fantastic stuff.

Yeah, they are cool, one of my favorites... sometimes I'm also in the mood for www.philosomatika.com

Very stable 160k stream

knickelfarz · « **Reply #9 on:** September 08, 2003, 04:38:12 pm »

While waiting for fixes... here's a little goody for "streamers"

Download Webradio "Coverart"
Want more?

knickelfarz · « **Reply #10 on:** September 09, 2003, 08:00:11 am »

Again tested build 247 and discovered a new behavior...
Some streams can not be connected or play only for some seconds, then they start to stutter and this message is displayed:

"Windows Media Error:
The specified protocol is not supported."

or

"Windows Media Error:
Unknown error [0x80070040]

After confirming the message, MC jumps to the next entry in playlist.
The funny thing is: The streams are MP3 streams, not WMA...
Here is an example: http://di.fm/mp3/jazz128k.pls

As before, these streams play fine in MJ 8 and WinAmp.

Scurdog · « **Reply #11 on:** September 09, 2003, 11:58:27 am »

I too am having the streaming problems. My device stats are below.

I try to listen to NPR radio and get an error reading "Real Player: Requested file not found. The link you followed may be outdated or inaccurate." It has always worked before and works fine straight through Real Player.

Then, after clicking OK, I get the error reading "Media Center encountered errors while trying to play the last several files. Please make sure that the path in your directory points to the right location."

Then click OK and I get a blank Media Center screen with no options other than Close, Minimize or Expand. I click expand and then other options begin becoming available. Please get the streaming sorted out.

Processor
Model : AMD Athlon(tm) XP 1800+
Speed : 1.53GHz
Model Number : 1800 (estimated)
Performance Rating : PR2224 (estimated)
Type : Standard
L2 On-board Cache : 256kB ECC Synchronous Write-Back

Mainboard
Bus(es) : ISA AGP PCI IMB USB FireWire/1394 i2c/SMBus
MP Support : 1 CPU(s)
System BIOS : Award Software International, Inc. 6.00 PG
Mainboard : ABIT <http://www.abit.com.tw> VT8366A-8233 (KR7A[-RAID]|[-133[R]])
Chipset : Gammagraphx Inc VT8366/A,VT8367 Apollo KT266/A,KT333 CPU to PCI Bridge
Front Side Bus Speed : 2x 133MHz (266MHz data rate)
Total Memory : 256MB DDR-SDRAM
Memory Bus Speed : 2x 133MHz (266MHz data rate)

Video System
Monitor/Panel : Dell D1025HTX
Adapter : NVIDIA GeForce3 Ti 200

Physical Storage Devices
Removable Drive : Floppy disk drive
Hard Disk : IBM-DTLA-307060
Hard Disk : WDC WD200EB-00CSF0
Hard Disk : MAXTOR 6 L080J4 SCSI Disk Device
CD-ROM/DVD : CD-ROM Drive/G6D
CD-ROM/DVD : TOSHIBA DVD-ROM SD-R1202

skeeterfood · « **Reply #12 on:** September 09, 2003, 02:07:09 pm »

Quote

While waiting for fixes... here's a little goody for "streamers"
Download Webradio "Coverart"
Want more?

How do I use these? Won't I have to reassoicate them every time I play the station?

They're very nice by the way. Thanks!

-John

knickelfarz · « **Reply #13 on:** September 09, 2003, 02:53:32 pm »

Quote

How do I use these? Won't I have to reassoicate them every time I play the station?

When you have the stream working, you can add it to a playlist or even to the library... you can then also assign an image

knickelfarz · « **Reply #14 on:** September 09, 2003, 03:16:32 pm »

My "stream report" for build 248...

The above mentioned "Windows Media Error" has gone, the mentioned example (and some others) now work fine...

The stuttering when changing the station or when a stream gets "lost" is still there, but MC is still responding to user action, so another stream or library track can be selected. The crashes caused by "lost" stations have gone.

Aside from the missing mute while buffering, it works much better now

Listening to: 'Miles Davis - Two Bass Hit' by 'WebRadio: Digitally Imported > Modern Jazz Channel' on Media Center 9.1

Scurdog · « **Reply #15 on:** September 09, 2003, 06:08:16 pm »

I am still getting the streaming problems on 248!

John

NanjingGuy · « **Reply #16 on:** September 09, 2003, 08:30:43 pm »

I can reproduce this by doing the following.

Add some local files to Playing Now.

Open any stream. I use http://64.236.34.141:80/stream/1005/

Play the stream for a minute or so.

Double click any of your local files in Now Playing.

As the stream fades out and the local file fades in you will get the stuttering and it will continue until you stop playback.

At least I can do this 100% of the time following this sequence.

I get the stuttering from time to time anyway, but this always produces it.

nameless · « **Reply #17 on:** September 09, 2003, 08:44:09 pm »

Can someone please provide the URL for a WMA stream? I have a hunch as to a potential fix, but I don't want to waste anyone's time chasing shadows...

Scurdog · « **Reply #18 on:** September 11, 2003, 05:35:58 am »

Still having the streaming problems I reported above with Build 249. 245 is the last version that worked properly on my machine for streaming NPR.

I updated Real Player to include the latest version and all possibly needed plug-ins and the behavior is the same as I had reported, two error boxes, one from Real Player and one from MC.

I am using IE 6.0.2800.1106.

What other pertinent information regarding my machine would be helpful.

knickelfarz · « **Reply #19 on:** September 11, 2003, 07:38:35 am »

Still get that heavy machine gun while buffering / searching for lost streams with build 249... but It's *much* more stable now, couldn't get it to crash even with fast switching

When there's something else in the playlist, it usually doesn't take more than about eight seconds until it jumps to another station / track - previous 248 builds where hanging until they crashed... Huah - the stutter of death

Now only a very few streams hang, but it's not possible to say it happens with specific streams...

mkutsen · « **Reply #20 on:** September 11, 2003, 02:39:16 pm »

I am having exactly the same problem as knickelfarz> Except in my case, it only happens with ASIO and not with Wave otput.

Here is the link:
http://di.fm/mp3/vocaltrance128k.pls

My setup:
Media Center Registered 9.1.250 -- C:\Program Files\J River\Media Center\

Microsoft Windows XP Workstation 5.1 Service Pack 1 (Build 2600)
Intel Pentium 4 2805 MHz MMX / Memory: Total - 523 MB, Free - 314 MB

Internet Explorer: 6.0.2800.1106 / ComCtl32.dll: 5.82 (xpsp1.020828-1920) / Shlwapi.dll: 6.00.2800.1226 / Shell32.dll: 6.00.2800.1233 (xpsp2.030604-1804) / wnaspi32.dll: N/A
Ripping / Drive D: Copy mode:ModeBurstBigBuffer CD Type:Auto Read speed:Max
Drive E: Copy mode:ModeBurstBigBuffer CD Type:Auto Read speed:Max
Digital playback: Yes / Use YADB: No / Get cover art: Yes / Calc replay gain: Yes / Copy volume: 32767
Eject after ripping: No / Play sound after ripping: Yes Soundfile: chord.wav

Burning / Drive D: SONY DVD+RW DRU-120A Addr: 0:0:0 Speed:12 MaxSpeed:12 BurnProof:No
Drive E: SONY DVD RW DRU-500A Addr: 1:0:0 Speed:24 MaxSpeed:24 BurnProof:Yes
Test mode: No / Eject after writing: Yes / Direct decoding: Yes / Write CD-Text: Yes
Use playback settings: No / Normalization: None

Scurdog · « **Reply #21 on:** September 12, 2003, 05:38:30 pm »

Still having the streaming problem with NPR on build 251. Just a guess, but I assume many people will be using MC 9.1 for that purpose. You migh want to take it seriously.

mnageeb · « **Reply #22 on:** September 15, 2003, 09:46:22 pm »

My restore times are finished how to reinstall?

mnageeb · « **Reply #23 on:** September 15, 2003, 09:46:27 pm »

My restore times are finished how to reinstall?

INTERACT FORUM

Author Topic: Streaming Problems? (Read 4719 times)

NanjingGuy

nameless