[slim] Audio Video Bridging (AVB)
Has anyone started looking at the new Audio Video Bridging standards (www.avnu.org)? They look like they could completely change the game for network audio devices like the Squeezebox. -- shawkie shawkie's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=3751 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=81492 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/discuss
Re: [slim] List albums by ... option has no effect?
Anyone? Any ideas? -- shawkie shawkie's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=3751 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=43822 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
[slim] List albums by ... option has no effect?
I'm confused by the behaviour of this option in SlimServer 6.5.4 and SqueezeCenter 7. All my tracks (FLAC) are tagged with both ALBUMARTIST and ARTIST tags. The scanner is assigning contributor roles 5 and 6 respectively. If I have the option set to "List albums by band" I would expect the list of artists to include all contributors in roles 1 or 5. This seems to be what happens. If I have the option set to "List albums by all artists for that album" I would expect the list of artists to include all contributors in roles 1, 5 or 6. This doesn't happen. What is the intended function of this option? -- shawkie shawkie's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=3751 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=43822 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
Re: [slim] Sorting albums by year? Possible?
JJZolx;266951 Wrote: > Right. I've never tagged an album with more than a single year across > all the tracks, so wouldn't know whether that presents a problem. > > > > Not sure what you're asking. It's an option, so you can. Again, I've > never tagged an album with more than one genre, so I don't know how it > will behave. It's a simple eperiment to find out, though. > > > > I'm guessing that you haven't set up a server yet, is that right? > Download the server, set it up on your computer, scan your library and > play with it for a bit. I'm actually running 6.3 on my NAS and laptop and 7.0 on my desktop but like you all my albums are tagged with one year and one genre. The impression I get though is that if I make this a restriction in my software then people will complain. Unfortunately I can't see a good way to reconcile per track years and (multiple) genres with the various sort options (which I think are new in 7.0?). I was wondering if the SqueezeCentre developers have thought about it. -- shawkie shawkie's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=3751 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=42308 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
Re: [slim] Sorting albums by year? Possible?
JJZolx;266888 Wrote: > A year is also stored for each album and comes from the tags found in > the tracks. Normally, the year is the same on all tracks, but if it's > different then the year for the album will be that of either the first > or the last track scanned (I can never remember which). > > Genres look like they're stored in the database in the more expected > manner. Each track has one or more genres. So the album's genre is > according to its tracks' genres. So you can sort albums by year but it will use either the year of the first track (or possibly the last) scanned. So how can you sort albums by genre? There is a similar problem with multiple artists but these get sorted as "Various Artists". This is in itself not that sensible since they are normally displayed as "artist1; artist2". I think I have already decided not to follow this model and to only allow sorting by album artist. What happens if you select the "All Tracks" item rather than a particular album - how are the tracks sorted then? Are they always sorted by album (by what? album title?) then track number? -- shawkie shawkie's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=3751 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=42308 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
Re: [slim] Sorting albums by year? Possible?
shawkie;266143 Wrote: > Can someone please explain how this works? In the database the year > seems to be stored independently for each track on the album so its > possible for different tracks to have different years. I'm not really > sure what this would mean but if that's the way the database is > designed then presumably there is a reason for it? How do you decide > where to place the album in the sort order in that case? Does it appear > twice with some tracks in one place and others in another? I'd really appreciate an answer to this if anyone can give it. In fact, I've had another look at SC7 and noticed that you can also sort by genre so the same applies there too. I'm trying to mirror the behaviour in a standalone application (for a remote control) so it would be nice to have an explanation of how it is meant to work. I guess I could always create a mixed up test album and see what it does but maybe it'll just break? -- shawkie shawkie's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=3751 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=42308 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
Re: [slim] Duet vs Sonos
The funny thing is, the fact that I don't have a Sonos system has absolutely nothing to do with cost. Its simply that I refuse to have such a device operating on 2.4GHz independently of my Wi-Fi network. Those frequencies are simply way too busy (at least in urban areas) already. -- shawkie shawkie's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=3751 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=43155 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
Re: [slim] Duet vs Sonos
JJZolx;266479 Wrote: > Why not? That would seem to be the ovious way of doing it, particularly > if synching and whole house audio are a priority. I also think that a system where audio is "pushed" from the server (like the Sonos) would be much better for whole house synching than the approach used by SlimServer/SqueezeCenter. We could have proper gapless, synched playback and we could have an audio input on the server for true place-shifting. I agree that when SlimServer started out that was probably impossible but now we have 802.11n and 5.0GHz and QoS I'm not at all sure. I think there is now the opportunity to match every aspect of the Sonos system without resorting to proprietry protocols. The DRM problem might be more difficult. I don't really know what the restrictions are. Presumably you can get the digital audio from Rhapsody out of the Squeezebox? What stops you feeding that back onto the network as a decrypted stream? In the meantime, while I wait for Sonos to move to 802.11n or SlimDevices to move from "pull" to "push", I have my own solution which would work fine for people wanting to listen to the same synched Rhapsody stream in as many rooms as they like. Take the digital output from the Squeezebox and wire it to all your rooms. Simple. If you don't like wires then feed it into a video sender (go for 5.8GHz to avoid interference). You can still use a SqueezeController (or whatever) anywhere on your wireless network to control it. In fact, why bother with a Squeezebox at all? Just build a nice little nano-ITX box and run SqueezeCentre and Softsqueeze on it. Plug in a video sender and listen to it anywhere. -- shawkie shawkie's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=3751 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=43155 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
Re: [slim] Sorting albums by year? Possible?
Can someone please explain how this works? In the database the year seems to be stored independently for each track on the album so its possible for different tracks to have different years. I'm not really sure what this would mean but if that's the way the database is designed then presumably there is a reason for it? How do you decide where to place the album in the sort order in that case? Does it appear twice with some tracks in one place and others in another? -- shawkie shawkie's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=3751 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=42308 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
Re: [slim] Whole house audio but I need a controller
I'm making quite good progress. I'm using Sqlite for my database engine
which is convenient at the moment as I can just pull it straight of the
NAS box. Moving and renaming the artwork is more of a problem. I guess
that I could write a database export plug-in for SqueezeCenter at some
point that takes care of it all?
At the moment I've only written a simple album browser although it
already has 8 different views and can easily have about 4 different
sort orders. And its pretty fast. The menu at the bottom will be kind
of dynamic. The space at the top is for the main toolbar ("Now
Playing", "Music Library", "Internet Radio", etc.). The space at the
bottom is for play controls ("Play", "Pause", etc.). Clickable items
are at least 80x50 pixels so you can just about use a finger instead of
a sylus. Its also designed to be easily navigated using just the
direction pad.
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Re: [slim] Whole house audio but I need a controller
shawkie;259280 Wrote: > So I think I'm going to seriously look at writing a native remote > control application (much like Moose) for the Axim PDA. This should > give me much more control over the user interface than a web-based > solution and it will use a local copy of the database so it should be > very fast. I'm making progress with my PocketSqueeze application but I have an important choice to make now. For things like playlists (and especially the current playlist) I will still need to query the server but I will only need the track ids. Am I better off using the CLI (which is meant to be fast but will give me loads of extra stuff I don't need) or a custom skin which could be tailored to provide only the track ids? The main priority is speed (particularly when the server is running on low spec hardware) but also minimal bandwidth usage (because the Axim is only 802.11b). At the moment I'm working with Slimserver 6.3.1 because thats what works on my NAS. Are there any new developments in 6.5 or 7.0 that I should be looking at before I go any further? -- shawkie shawkie's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=3751 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=42108 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
Re: [slim] Whole house audio but I need a controller
I have decided that my current QNAP TS101 is nowhere near powerful enough for SC7 (I reckon it needs at least 256MB RAM). I looked at upgrading it but I can't find anything that ticks all the boxes. Most cheap NAS boxes are too limited in CPU and RAM. Mini-ITX based systems are too big and power hungry (IMHO). That only really leaves Nano-ITX and Pico-ITX. My main problem here is price and finding one with Gigabit ethernet. Then there is the cost and limited functionality of the Squeezebox Controller. So I think I'm going to seriously look at writing a native remote control application (much like Moose) for the Axim PDA. This should give me much more control over the user interface than a web-based solution and it will use a local copy of the database so it should be very fast. -- shawkie shawkie's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=3751 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=42108 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
[slim] Whole house audio but I need a controller
I had a single SB3 and a QNAP running Slimserver 6.4. I also have an Axim PDA and wrote a (mostly unfinished) AJAX-based web skin for it. I've always been interested in whole house audio but for me its more about being able to listen to one thing in any room I choose or in every room at the same time (e.g. for parties) than listening to two different things in two different rooms. That's why I haven't bought any more SB3s. I don't think the current implementation of synchronisation on SB3s is remotely up to scratch (primarily because it introduces gaps between tracks). To solve this problem I have purchased an analog video sender which I will use to send coax digital audio to a second room. This approach means a WiFi remote is essential. My Axim does basically work in this capacity but its a bit sluggish (at least with the QNAP), is only 802.11b and has battery life issues. The new controller looks like it might be an improvement but I have some concerns: a) It requires SqueezeCentre 7.0. I'm not sure if its possible to get this on the QNAP at all or how slow it would be. b) I don't think it caches much/anything on the Controller so it might even be slower than the PDA. My other idea is to write an application for the PDA rather than using a web interface. The idea would be to maintain a complete copy of the track information and artwork locally (I can easily have 4GB of compactflash to store it on). I'm wondering if anyone has any good ideas on how to keep this local copy up-to-date efficiently. -- shawkie shawkie's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=3751 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=42108 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
[slim] Re: Dedicated skin for Dell Axim x51v
Here's a new release. This one has been tested with SlimServer_6_3_x_v2006-06-22. +---+ |Filename: Borg (v0.3).zip | |Download: http://forums.slimdevices.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=1454| +---+ -- shawkie shawkie's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=3751 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=23354 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
[slim] Re: Dedicated skin for Dell Axim x51v
Oh great. I've just tried it with the latest 6.5 update and its broken there too. Looks like I'm going to be busy. -- shawkie shawkie's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=3751 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=23354 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
[slim] Re: What handheld to use as a remote?
The Dell Axim can be used a network music player but you'd have to get extra software to do it. Unfortunately, as far as I'm concerned the sound quality of the Axim hardware is simply not good enough. Can't comment on Sony PSP or Nokia 770. -- shawkie shawkie's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=3751 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=24841 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
[slim] Re: Dedicated skin for Dell Axim x51v
I've been developing it under 6.5 (the last version before that branch became unstable). I think that could be the problem. I'll see if I can find time to test it under 6.2 and 6.3. -- shawkie shawkie's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=3751 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=23354 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
[slim] Re: Dedicated skin for Dell Axim x51v
Okay. The way the text works is it says "Browse?" when its waiting for a request to complete. Then when it gets a response it changes to "Browse!" as it starts to process it. Then when it finishes processing it goes to "Browse". If its getting stuck on "Browse!" then most likely the function that processes the request is encountering an error. This in turn probably means there is a problem with the response from the server. I can think of two likely reasons: 1) You are using a different version of Slimserver and something is behaving differently. What version are you using? 2) Either the client or the server is providing cached data to the javascript code. The new improvements are supposed to let this happen for improved performance but I suspect that you have data from the old version being cached and this is not compatible with the new javascript. I'm not entirely sure how best to sort this. I get the impression that on my x51v the cache is invalidated when you restart IE but possibly a soft reset might help. Also try clearing the cache in the SlimServer directory on the server. Let me know how you get on. -- shawkie shawkie's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=3751 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=23354 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
[slim] Re: What handheld to use as a remote?
You might also consider the Dell Axim x51v. I've done some work on a dedicated skin for it (which should work on similar WM5 devices). Unfortunately I don't have a Nokia 770 so I can't comment on relative speeds. -- shawkie shawkie's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=3751 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=24841 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
[slim] Re: Dedicated skin for Dell Axim x51v
This is a minor update. Just a few performance tweaks for the browse functions. The client (IE) is now allowed to cache the XML data which makes things a bit faster without complicating the javascript too much. +---+ |Filename: Borg (v0.2).zip | |Download: http://forums.slimdevices.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=1429| +---+ -- shawkie shawkie's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=3751 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=23354 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
[slim] Re: Dedicated skin for Dell Axim x51v
Okay. For the time being my skin will be known as Borg on account of my stubborn refusual to support anything other than IE :-). I've got most of the bits I really care about working now (i.e. browsing, now playing, current playlist). I still have to do internet radio, search and settings and some other stuff. As with the last version it really works best in full screen mode, default layout, medium zoom on IE on Windows Mobile 5.0. Also, make sure you let the page has loaded before you try clicking on anything. Please give me your feedback. +---+ |Filename: Borg.zip | |Download: http://forums.slimdevices.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=1412| +---+ -- shawkie shawkie's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=3751 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=23354 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
[slim] Re: Dedicated skin for Dell Axim x51v
Just a quick update on the state of my new skin. I've got most of the other browse functions working now. At the moment I've taken out the "Now playing", "Current playlist" and "Browse artwork" features because they need re-writing. I'll upload a new version once they're back in. In the meantime, here (hopefully) are some decent screenshots. +---+ |Filename: Screen004.jpg| |Download: http://forums.slimdevices.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=1374| +---+ -- shawkie shawkie's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=3751 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=23354 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
[slim] Re: Synchronized Squeezeboxes
I have seen the bug report regarding this but I wanted to try to understand exactly what the problem was before voting for or suggesting a solution. I am considering buying a second Squeezebox but before I do that I need synchronization when playing internet radio and gapless mix albums. To be honest, I'm more concerned about gapless mix albums than internet radio. What I don't understand is, if the Squeezebox plays samples at a rate given only by the frequency of the DAC clock then what happens if this is faster than the internet radio station is running? Or is internet radio not actually a broadcast technology at all? Presumably an internet radio station can't cope with 1000s of clients all asking for different parts of the stream? Unless there is some limit on how far the clients can drift out of sync? And what if the internet radio station is actually sampling an audio source in real time? Or maybe the clients are required to buffer say 30secs worth before playing and just hope they aren't tuned in long enough to exhaust this buffer? What I can't see at the moment is how on earth you can keep two Squeezeboxes perfectly synchronized indefinitely either dropping samples, duplicating samples or adjusting the DAC clock (which would introduce jitter presumably). -- shawkie shawkie's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=3751 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=23353 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
[slim] Re: First sec of song getting clipped off
I've just re-tested 6.5 (nightly from a day or two ago) and for the track I'm using I get the start of the track correctly but I'm missing about 6/100 sec at the end of the track. This is playing a single track on its own and comparing the analog output of the squeezebox with the original FLAC file in Nero WaveEditor. -- shawkie shawkie's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=3751 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=23668 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
[slim] Re: First sec of song getting clipped off
I'm sure that the problem I was having was with the end of tracks. I haven't re-tested it recently to check its still there but since nobody is claiming to have fixed it... -- shawkie shawkie's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=3751 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=23668 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
[slim] Re: Dedicated skin for Dell Axim x51v
I still have shedloads to do but in case anyone is interested I'm uploading an early (I haven't even named it yet) version of my new skin. "Now playing" is working and so is "Browse artwork". Everything else is pretty badly broken. If you have a PocketPC running Windows Mobile 5.0 then I recommend using IE in Full Screen mode with Default layout and Medium zoom. Failing that it does work on IE 6.0 on Windows XP (it doesn't really look right but you get the idea how it works). I doubt it'll work in Firefox or Opera. +---+ |Filename: Sam.zip | |Download: http://forums.slimdevices.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=1304| +-------+ -- shawkie shawkie's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=3751 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=23354 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
[slim] Re: Dedicated skin for Dell Axim x51v
The "Now playing" page now has album art, album title, track artist and track title. It also has prev, play, pause, stop, next and volume. All implemented in AJAX. I have (hopefully) attached a photo. +---+ |Filename: skinphoto.jpg| |Download: http://forums.slimdevices.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=1289| +---+ -- shawkie shawkie's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=3751 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=23354 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
[slim] Re: A Silly Poll
I'm 25, male, renting. -- shawkie shawkie's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=3751 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=22941 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
[slim] Re: Dedicated skin for Dell Axim x51v
I've started working on a skin. I normally develop desktop applications so I'm finding this web development thing a bit of a steep learning curve. It looks like the biggest problem is the way IE Mobile screws around with images. Its possible to get the images to come out right but you have to know how many pixels they are and then halve it! I've managed to write a simple "Now playing" page which uses AJAX requests to update the current song title every 5 seconds. I've got a long way to go but its a start. I think this device could make a really good remote because of the big high-res screen, fullscreen browser, javascript/ajax support, 4-way direction pad. My only real concern is battery life. -- shawkie shawkie's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=3751 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=23354 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
[slim] Re: Qnap TS-101 Update
Slightly off-topic but I'm trying to set my qnap up so that other people on the network can't delete my music collection. I've worked out that I can make my share writeable only by the administrator group for instance. However, I can't work out how to then access the share from Windows XP as one of those administrators. Any ideas? -- shawkie shawkie's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=3751 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=20393 ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
[slim] Re: Qnap TS-101 Update
The problem actually seems to be in the Squeezebox firmware. It drops a fraction of a second at the end of every track. Its a known bug. Mark Lanctot Wrote: > What's the issue with FLAC? > > Must be limited to the Qnap device because FLAC playback works > perfectly for me. -- shawkie shawkie's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=3751 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=20393 ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
[slim] Re: Qnap TS-101 Update
You're probably right. I just thought people might like to know what the limitations are. The specifications don't even state the type or speed of processor so its very hard to know what its going to be like until you try one. Maybe 7Mb/sec isn't bad for a 100Mbit network connection. The Qnap is supposed to have a 1Gbit network connection. I didn't say it was unusable, only that it was slower than I would have liked. Don't forget there will be people hoping to use a PDA or a Nokia 770 as a remote. I'm not saying it isn't a good device. Its just that the slow processor means its not quite as flexible as I had hoped. But then I don't imagine anyone was expecting a Pentium 4 for the price. ultra238a Wrote: > To be honest I think you might be trying to push the box a little bit > too hard by playing FLAC files and copying files to the box at the same > time. Obviously the box is more than capable of being read and written > to by multiple users at the same time. I personally have had 6 > Squeezeboxes playing different music files at once (mixture of wired > and wireless Squeezeboxes too). Some files were MP3 and some were > FLAC. > > I personally think 7Mb/sec is quite decent on a 100Mbit network > connection as the maximum throughput on this connection is 12.5Mb and > taking into account other network traffic that may also be going around > at the same time it isn't too shabby. > > As for the web front end on SlimServer - takes between 3 and 5 secs on > mine to refresh the page each time. More than useable for considering > the target market for this product i.e. the majority of people using > this box will probably not even touch the web front end once they have > it configured. > > Paul > Progressive Consumer Electronics Ltd -- shawkie shawkie's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=3751 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=20393 ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
[slim] Re: Qnap TS-101 Update
I've upgraded the firmware on my 300GB Qnap and am pleased to say its no longer crashing when copying files. The shares are still pretty slow (7MB/sec read and write) even over gigabit ethernet. I guess maybe thats normal for this type of device and gigabit ethernet support is more of a marketing thing. I'm still slightly disappointed though. Playback seems to be working well (I'm using FLAC transcoded to WAV) although I do get drop outs if I'm writing to a share at the same time. I'm expecting it to be even better when they release a version of SlimServer where native FLAC works properly. The interface on the Squeezebox is very responsive (as long as I'm not writing to a share). The web interface on the other hand is very sluggish. It takes roughly 5 secs (sometimes even longer) for the Browse Albums page to load. This is even if I'm not playing anything. Does anyone have any suggestions for speeding it up? -- shawkie shawkie's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=3751 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=20393 ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
[slim] Re: Qnap TS-101 Update
I've got a 300GB TS-101 and am having the problem people have been reporting where you can't copy my music to it. It stops after a few hundred MB. The device seems to crash completely with neither the shares nor the web interface being available. But also, before it crashes it seems to be very slow. I'm seeing about 6Mbytes/sec for both reading and writing. This is over a gigabit wired connection. Is this normal? Is the embedded processor simply not up to the job? Is there any way of monitoring CPU usage? -- shawkie shawkie's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=3751 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=20393 ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
[slim] Re: Playback hangs on some longer songs (WMA)
I think this is probably covered by bug #2938. For what its worth, I've had trouble with the server-side decoding chopping a fraction of a second off the end of WMA VBR files (only noticeable on dance mixes, live recordings, etc.) so your work around may not be 100% perfect either. -- shawkie shawkie's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=3751 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=20972 ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
[slim] Re: Playback hangs on some longer songs (WMA)
I've seen this same problem on files converted using Microsoft's own Windows Audio Converter. In my particular case I was converting to WMA VBR files at best quality. -- shawkie shawkie's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=3751 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=20972 ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
[slim] Re: Serious audio problems
Most things are now working with SlimServer 6.2.1. I can even stream WAV over wireless with no dropouts whatsoever (to the Squeezebox if not Softsqueeze). I still have the problem with the ends of FLAC files (#1434) and the problem with the ends of WMA VBR files transcoded to WAV (which isn't a known bug) and buffering of WMA VBR native files is still a problem (#2944) and the problem with WMA VBR native files stopping halfway through (#2938). FLAC native End of track is missing WAV to FLAC End of track is missing FLAC to WAV End of track is present WAV native End of track is present WMA VBR to WAV End of track is missing WMA VBR native Slow to fill buffer and dropouts near start of track Stops halfway through with buffer still saying 100% -- shawkie shawkie's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=3751 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=21001 ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
[slim] Re: Serious audio problems
I've just gone back to 6.2.1 and downgraded the Squeezebox firmware from 29 to 28 and all the buffering problems seem to have gone. I haven't tried it wirelessly yet and I haven't looked to see what its doing to the ends of tracks either. I think I'll leave the beta testing for others in future. Oddly enough, Softsqueeze over wireless still isn't working right. -- shawkie shawkie's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=3751 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=21001 ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
[slim] Re: Serious audio problems
I've just done a test with SoftSqueeze running on a different PC. So far it looks like over a wired connection it behaves like Softsqueeze did when I ran it on the server PC whereas over a wireless connection it behaves like the Squeezebox. Which is another wierd result. So it looks like: 1) FLAC files (or any other file transcoded to FLAC) don't play out properly on the Squeezebox but do on Softsqueeze 2) WMA VBR transcoded to WAV don't play out properly on the Squeezebox or on Softsqueeze 3) Buffering isn't working correctly on the Squeezebox (wired or wireless) or on a remote copy of Softsqueeze (wireless) but is working on a remote copy of Softsqueeze (wired). However, the behaviour varies depending on both the initial file format and the stream format (e.g. WMA VBR or WAV transcoded to FLAC does get buffered correctly in all cases). The fact that a PC running Softsqueeze over a wireless connection behaves EXACTLY like my Squeezebox suggests to me its not a defective unit. -- shawkie shawkie's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=3751 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=21001 ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
[slim] Re: Serious audio problems
I've got some interesting results from Softsqueeze. It doesn't have any of the buffering problems and it also doesn't have the problem with dropping the end of native FLAC files and files transcoded to FLAC. However, it does have the problem with dropping the end of WMA VBR files transcoded to WAV. I'm going to try running Softsqueeze on a remote PC next. SlimServer Version: 6.2.2 - 6200 - Windows XP - EN - cp1252 Softsqueeze Windows firewall disabled Windows XP Pro SP2 Pentium 4 2.6GHz FLAC native Buffer goes to 100% quickly and stays there No obvious dropouts End of track is present WAV to FLAC Buffer goes to 100% quickly and stays there No obvious dropouts End of track is present WMA VBR to WAV Buffer goes to 100% quickly and stays there No obvious dropouts End of track is missing -- shawkie shawkie's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=3751 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=21001 ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
[slim] Re: Serious audio problems
I haven't tried SoftSqueeze yet. I'll give it a go in a minute. I also want to try going back to SlimServer 6.2.1. My music is on a fast local IDE hard disk. And an update on WMA VBR. Another really wierd result is that WMA VBR transcoded to WAV is also missing the end of the track even though FLAC transcoded to WAV isn't. WMA VBR native Buffer increases to 100% slowly Dropouts near start of track Playback stops half-way through track with buffer still reading 100% WMA VBR to FLAC Buffer goes to 100% quickly and stays there No obvious dropouts End of track is missing WMA VBR to WAV Buffer goes to 0% and stays there for a long time (10s) Frequent dropouts Buffer increases to 100% slowly End of track is missing -- shawkie shawkie's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=3751 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=21001 ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
[slim] Re: Serious audio problems
I don't run anti-virus and have already disabled the Firewall (as I said). CPU usage is very low with no spikes. Looking at Server and Network Health all requests are being processed in a very short time. My server is a Pentium 4 2.6GHz with 512MB RAM. -- shawkie shawkie's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=3751 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=21001 ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
[slim] Re: Serious audio problems
Both PC and Squeezebox are connected to the router by cable! The Network Test plugin indicates I have at least 4Mbits of bandwidth. Oh, and my WMA VBR has gotten off to a good start. The first track stopped half way through (which looks a lot like bug #2938). -- shawkie shawkie's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=3751 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=21001 ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
[slim] Re: Serious audio problems
Okay, I've just done a fairly controlled test. It looks like I'm seeing bug #1434 plus a completely different network or buffering problem. I checked the Server and Network Health whilst running the tests and it indicated that a low buffer was my only problem. So I'm no closer to finding out what is causing the low buffer. I have to repeat this test with WMA VBR but I believe the dropouts I am seeing there occur even when I have a 100% full buffer. SlimServer Version: 6.2.2 - 6200 - Windows XP - EN - cp1252 Netgear WGR614v4 wireless router PC and Squeezebox both connected to router via 100Mbit ethernet Windows firewall disabled Windows XP Pro SP2 Pentium 4 2.6GHz Cross-fading is switched off FLAC native Buffer goes to 10% Buffer goes down to 0% and stays there for a long time Frequent dropouts Buffer increases slowly to 100% End of track is missing FLAC to WAV Buffer goes to 0% and stays there Frequent dropouts Buffer does not increase End of track is present WAV native Buffer goes to 0% and stays there Massive dropouts Buffer does not increase End of track is present WAV to FLAC Buffer goes to 100% quickly and stays there No obvious dropouts End of track is missing -- shawkie shawkie's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=3751 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=21001 ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
[slim] Serious audio problems
Is it just me thats having audio problems with the Squeezebox? I can't understand how anyone can be using succesfully. I have a Squeezebox 3 and SlimServer 6.2.2 on Windows XP Pro. I've already noticed that WMA VBR files don't play properly. They get filled with unwanted silences. Now I've discovered that FLAC and WAV files (and possibly other files) are not being played all the way through before the next track starts! Strangely you can play the same transition twice and the track will be cut short in different places each time. I'm amazed that people bother to use EAC and worry about how good or bad their DAC is when there seem to be much more serious problems with the Squeezebox sound quality. -- shawkie shawkie's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=3751 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=21001 ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
[slim] SlimServer on Linux and WMA
These might be obvious questions but I haven't been able to find definitive answers yet. 1) Is it correct to say that SlimServer under Linux is not able to use WMADEC to transcode WMA files? Is there any other decoder that can be used and does this decoder support WMA VBR? Can it be installed on a NAS (e.g. Qnap TS-101)? 2) Can SlimServer under Linux stream WMA in native format? Does this include WMA VBR? -- shawkie shawkie's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=3751 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=20955 ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
[slim] Re: Squeezebox3 seems very buggy
Yet another update. 5) The artifacts are actually gaps introduced by the squeezebox (or slimserver?). Not entirely suprising. I've tested it with the same track at different bitrates. At 178kbps (avg?) I just get a couple of (relatively) long gaps near the start of the track. At 448kbps (avg?) I get longer gaps near the start and small gaps at fairly regular intervals all the way through the track. I guess thats logical. But why does it play perfectly when transcoded to WAV which is 1440kbps? -- shawkie shawkie's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=3751 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=20773 ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
[slim] Re: Squeezebox3 seems very buggy
Michaelwagner Wrote: > If you're new to the Squeezeboxes, a few comments are in order. > > People on this list know most of this stuff, but forget that newcomers > don't. > > The Squeezebox is a "thin" client (the "slim" in the name), so there's > not all that much in the box itself. A processor, a software DSP, stuff > for the display, the DAC, some memory for a buffer, a network interface, > power regulation, a few other things). Oh, the wireless card if you have > a wireless one. > > Most of the "decisions" are made in the server, which is open source > and easily updated or modified. > > Almost everything you wrote about is really coding in the server, not > the squeezebox itself. > > So when people say "it's not the squeezebox", what they mean is, it's > not something that needs firmware updates, therefore it is easy to > fix. > > There are people on the list who can answer, in more details, whether > what you're describing is a bug, whether it's been fixed in the beta > releases already or not, and how to go about getting it fixed. One of > the things that isn't clear about the squeezebox initially is that > there are so many music formats, so many methods of accessing the > server, etc, that not all options get properly checked out and > sometimes bugs slip through. Okay, I've looked at the bugzilla database (scary reading) and thought I'd update my comments a bit. 1) This is listed as #571 although this report dates from before the SB could do native wma. 2) This is listed as #2486 and #1191. 3) This is not listed. 4) Personally, I think WAV should not be transcoded by default but I don't really care since its configurable. 5) This is not listed and is the most serious in my opinion. 6) This is not listed but also seems to have stopped happening. Not quite sure what changed. 7) This is not listed. My guess is that it sometimes forgets its dealing with a sorted list. 8) I think this only happens in the 6.5 beta so it doesn't really count. If I can create a login for bugzilla I will add bug reports for 3, 5 and 7. -- shawkie shawkie's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=3751 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=20773 ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
[slim] Re: Squeezebox3 seems very buggy
Thanks for your reply. I just tried the latest beta and it seems to have all the same bugs plus a new one. 8) After fast forwarding a WAV file and resuming playback it plays back okay for a few seconds and then becomes slow and choppy. And some more comments 3) If you rewind from the middle of a track it is possible to rewind through the track break into the previous track. So why is this not possible from the start of a track? 7) This bug is definitely still present in both 6.2.1 and the latest beta. -- shawkie shawkie's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=3751 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=20773 ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
[slim] Squeezebox3 seems very buggy
I've just bought a new Squeezebox3 and I can't believe how buggy it seems to be. I'm pretty sure I'm going to be sending it back. 1) Fast forward doesn't work on WMA lossy (CBR or VBR) files. It says Scanning 2X but the audio stops and the progress bar doesn't move. Pressing play causes playback causes it to stop saying Scanning 2X but still no audio. Pressing play again causes playback to start from the beginning of the track. 2) Fast forward on FLAC and WAV causes the progress bar to stop working properly. It counting from 0 again towards the end of the track. It sorts itself out at the start of the next track. I also don't particularly like the way you have to press, hold and then release the button to make it do fast forward or fast forward faster. It would have been much better if the remote had individual buttons for fast forward and track advance. Failing that maybe the longer you hold the button for the faster it goes? 3) Rewind (on WAV and possibly FLAC) just after a track advance causes it to say Scanning -2X but the audio stops and the progress bar doesn't move. Pressing play causes playback to resume. 4) By default WAV gets transcoded to FLAC for no good reason. You save ~25% bandwidth but lose the ability to fast forward or rewind and plus use up CPU time on the server. 5) Playing WMA VBR files on the squeezebox sometimes introduces artifacts. They are not present if the files are transcoded to WAV or FLAC on the server. 6) Sometimes trying to select an internet radio station on the squeezebox with the remote won't work but the same station can be selected using the web interface. 7) In the browse by folder menu using the alphanumeric keys to quickly jump to a particular letter doesn't work properly. The PQRS TUV and WXYZ buttons cause it to get into a state where none of the buttons work correctly. You have to back out of the menu to fix it (and then it only works until you press one of those buttons again). This behaviour doesn't happen when browsing by artist or album. I don't think any of my problems are caused by networking issues. I have 80% signal strength and never have any kind of dropouts. All the things I have seen are completely repeatable. I'm using SlimServer 6.2.1 on Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 with SP2. So are all these problems likely to get fixed anytime soon or is my Squeezebox3 heading back to the supplier? -- shawkie shawkie's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=3751 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=20773 ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
