NOTE: There are many potential causes to the problems cited in the Title. However, after many hours of debugging, applying fixes suggested elsewhere in this forum, and getting nowhere over many months of trying on and off to fix the problems, I discovered the cause of my problems and I have a feeling (based on reading hundreds of similar threads) that many of you out there probably have the same issues and need to fix them in order to enjoy your particular Slim Device.
Note: Since the resolution to this issue involves a configuration setting in Slime Server, the issues and this resolution probably apply to ALL "Slim Devices" (SqueezeBox 1, 2, 3; Transporter, etc.). I own a SB3. If you are experiencing any of the following symptoms, this fix may work for you: 1) Your player stops playing the songs in your playlist for no apparent reason, especially if the playlist was built by adding all of the songs from one or more albums (by clicking the "+" button next to an album name to add the entire album to the Playlist) and your music library consists of both songs and CUE Sheets. 2) When you do add all of the songs from an album to a Playlist (using the SlimServer web application), some of the songs appear more than once in the playlist. In addition to the symptoms above, you may also notice that while in the SlimServer Web Application, if you navigate to Home -> Artists and then click on an Artist and then an Album Name for one of your "Non-iTunes" albums (i.e. - An album that you ripped to your Music Library using EAC or some other software, but NOT for an album that is part of your Music Library because it was imported from iTunes), you may see that some or all of the songs appear more than once in the album listing. If you click on the songs, information about that song will be displayed. If ANY of the songs show Duration = 0:00, then this fix will definitely help you out! See the attached file for an example of what I am talking about. Finally, if you have turned on debugging and viewed the log and have ever seen "Songtime = 0" (Search on "Songtime" in the log), this solution definitely applies to you. So, what's going on? Well basically I found that the SlimServer Scanner application that builds a database for all of the songs in your Music Library was reading the CUE sheets in the Music Library and then creating duplicate entries for them (most containing invalid references to songs with a duration of zero). When SlimServer tries to play these invalid song references, it basically freezes up and doesn't allow you to skip to the next song or do anything else for that matter. How to Fix: 1) Do a simple search (file name = *.* in Windows) on the folder specified as your Music Folder in SlimServer under "Home -> Server Settings -> Basic Settings" and make a note of every file type in that folder that is NOT a music file. For example, I searched my Music Folder and found that the file types of LOG, CUE, & CDA also existed in my Music Folder in addition to all of my FLAC files. These other files types were created when I ripped my CDs using EAC. 2) In the SlimServer Web interface, navigate to "Home -> Server Settings -> File Types" and enter all of those "non music" file types (separated by commas) in the "Disabled Audio File Extensions" box and click "Change" to update your preferences. In my case, the string I entered into that box was "cue, log, cda". 3) Go back to the "Home -> Server Settings -> Basic Settings" web page and under "Rescan Music Library", change it to "Clear Library and Rescan Everything" and then press the "Rescan" button. After your library has finished being rescanned (it may take a long time depending on your library size, but SlimServer will notify you when it has completed by listing the number of albums and songs in your collection), you should be good to go. I have spent MONTHS trying to get my SqueezeBox working and until last night, had NO success despite the insane amount of time I have spent searching the Slim Devices forums. If you are experiencing problems like the ones I mentioned (or even if you aren't), you should exclude all "non music" file types from being scanned in your Music Library. I can't believe that this simple configuration setting isn't recommended for everyone. I can only hope that others benefit from all of the long hours I put into figuring this out because finally, I am LOVING my Squeezebox instead of wanting to toss it out of the window in frustration. Final note: You will see in other postings other suggested fixes to similar problems and they are all valid. So, in addition to my recommendation, you'll want to make sure that: A) You do the simple tests to ensure your Network bitrate is high enough (at least = 3,000 Kbps 100% of the time) B) Verify your music files are not corrupt by playing them on another player or diagnosing them with the proper software (FLAC has very simple, easy to use tools for this). C) The necessary UDP & TCP ports (9000 & 3483) are open on your firewall. There are other suggested fixes, but these seem to be the ones recommended most. BTW, I never had to do ANYTHING with my firewall, wireless router (I have Norton Internet Security 2007 & a Linksys 802.11g router), or FLAC files ... everything would have worked perfectly with the default setup if somewhere, someone had indicated the need to exclude non-music files from be scanned in your music library! I AM 100% POSITIVE THAT MOST PEOPLE EXPERIENCING THE SAME SYMPTOMS THAT I DID HAVE THE SAME CONFIGURATION ISSUE SINCE I HAVE NOT SEEN IT DOCUMENTED ANYWHERE ELSE. If my suggestions fix your problems, reply to this post to let me know ... I'd feel really good about knowing I was able to help others out! Good Luck! - Rono +-------------------------------------------------------------------+ |Filename: Invalid Entry in the SlimServer Music Catalog.doc | |Download: http://forums.slimdevices.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=4198| +-------------------------------------------------------------------+ -- Rono ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Rono's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=15244 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=42832 _______________________________________________ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
