Re: [slim] Rhapsody Implementation Needs Improvement
ajkidle;425550 Wrote: I would encourage anyone experiencing issues with Rhapsody to also post here: http://real.lithium.com/real/board?board.id=InstallingRhapsody Performance for me has been horrible the past few days -- I'm lucky to get through 3 tracks without interruption. Napster isn't much better. Funny that Pandora (which is practically free) is rock solid... Actually Pandora *is* free. One can pay a small monthly charge, but afaik, the service is the same as the paid service, at least for now. But it's not really fair to compare on price, because the costs are much higher for a specific-track-or-CD-on-demand service like Rhapsody or Napster. -- aubuti aubuti's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=2074 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=63462 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/discuss
Re: [slim] Rhapsody Implementation Needs Improvement
I would encourage anyone experiencing issues with Rhapsody to also post here: http://real.lithium.com/real/board?board.id=InstallingRhapsody Performance for me has been horrible the past few days -- I'm lucky to get through 3 tracks without interruption. Napster isn't much better. Funny that Pandora (which is practically free) is rock solid... -- ajkidle ajkidle's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=18929 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=63462 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/discuss
Re: [slim] Rhapsody Implementation Needs Improvement
My point here is that Logitech should be doing more, and on two fronts: #1 - More robust code: 80%-90% of the time I can manually correct the playback issues by pressing rewind, or pause/play, etc. depending on which failure mode has occurred. If I can do it manually, the SC software can do it too. We just need more robustly written error handling routines. Of course it would be preferred to not burden SC code with this, but the reality is that Rhapsody's service requires it. And bottom line, I can't with clear conscience recommend a Squeezebox Rhapsody combo to a non-technophile given its track record of reliability (or lack thereof.) Which brings me to point #2... #2 - Bang some heads together at Rhapsody: It's seems Rhapsody doesn't really care about (or isn't responsive to) the end consumer. There are threads all over these forums, the Sonos forums, and Rhapsody forums complaining about reliability, and they've been on-going for well over a year. The big-wigs at Logitech need to be taking this issue to their business partners at Rhapsody. It makes everyone look bad when it doesn't work. Although I wonder if this is just such a miniscule portion of Rhapsody's customer base that they don't care? Subscription based music is a huge selling point for Squeezebox. It needs to work. -- ajkidle ajkidle's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=18929 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=63462 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/discuss
Re: [slim] Rhapsody Implementation Needs Improvement
ajkidle;425069 Wrote: My point here is that Logitech should be doing more, and on two fronts: Squeezebox users need to do more too: call Rhapsody. My Rhapsody performance has been reasonable lately when I've used it, but a couple of times when I experienced multi-day problems (including once when I planned on using Rhapsody to provide entertainment at a get-together), I called them and asked for part of that month's service to be refunded. They agreed it was justifiable and refunded part of my monthly fee. I guess I'm saying that posting here is 100% appropriate, but it's also equally appropriate to call Rhapsody so they also know that their customers are having an issue. And in my experience they are open to that. -- thing-fish ' Most Recent Tracks' (http://www.last.fm/user/thing-fish/?chartstyle=basicrt10) thing-fish's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=5288 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=63462 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/discuss
Re: [slim] Rhapsody Implementation Needs Improvement
Weird, maybe I'm the only one who has issues with Rhapsody. Can't understand how it could be my setup given that Sirius, Pandora, and my local FLACs play flawlessly. I'll give Napster a go -- although my first impressions are that it's missing some of the nice UI options that Rhapsody has, and the tagging seems odd an inconsistent. Maybe I'll get used to it over the next 29 days of the trial. Another issue I'm experiencing with Rhapsody is that it will cut out the last 5-10 seconds of a song and skip to the next track on the playlist. Not every song, maybe about 30% of the tracks I play. Maybe a buffering issue? Any ideas? -- ajkidle ajkidle's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=18929 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=63462 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/discuss
Re: [slim] Rhapsody Implementation Needs Improvement
I've had generally good performance from Rhapsody, except for occasional outages. When it's working, which is about 99% of the time, it seems pretty reliable. I don't listen every day so there might be problems I haven't noticed. -- kh6idf kh6idf's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=16848 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=63462 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/discuss
Re: [slim] Rhapsody Implementation Needs Improvement
ajkidle;424917 Wrote: Weird, maybe I'm the only one who has issues with Rhapsody. Can't understand how it could be my setup given that Sirius, Pandora, and my local FLACs play flawlessly. I'll give Napster a go -- although my first impressions are that it's missing some of the nice UI options that Rhapsody has, and the tagging seems odd an inconsistent. Maybe I'll get used to it over the next 29 days of the trial. Another issue I'm experiencing with Rhapsody is that it will cut out the last 5-10 seconds of a song and skip to the next track on the playlist. Not every song, maybe about 30% of the tracks I play. Maybe a buffering issue? Any ideas? I have about an 80% chance that a 10-track album will play all the way through on any given day. I experienced a major outage on Sunday, which meant that I could not stream or download anything from Rhapsody. (Other users reported this too.) Most often I get timed out waiting for data errors and playback stops. I could never rely on this service for party music, but I still use it to explore music I am thinking of buying. My average ping time to Rhapsody.com is 45ms, with a TTL of 240. I know that different servers are used for the actual streaming, but in general I think I have excellent IP connectivity to servers on the West Coast. -- dsdreamer -- Dreamer, easy in the chair that really fits you... dsdreamer's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=12588 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=63462 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/discuss
Re: [slim] Rhapsody Implementation Needs Improvement
You're definitely not alone. I listen to Rhapsody via my Duet practically every other day, and service is always hit and miss. I have a 12 Meg down Internet connection that is extremely reliable and Pandora plays just fine. Rhapsody though... it's just disappointing in its performance. I honestly still don't know if this is a Slim Devices issue or a Rhapsody issue, but judging from similar threads on the Sonos forums, I'm guessing it's more than likely Rhapsody. Sometimes I can go a few weeks with good performance; these past few days have been absolute garbage though. Tracks stop playing, buffering, etc. I'm almost being forced to use Pandora - which is a shame because I have amassed a huge Rhapsody library! I'm seriously considering the jump to Napster just on principle. Especially seeing as how it is now only $5 a month and you get 5 songs a month for free - all DRM free. Cheers! -- EnochLight EnochLight's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=3392 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=63462 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/discuss
Re: [slim] Rhapsody Implementation Needs Improvement
Rhapsody works for me *most* of the time. Occasionally it's a bit goofy. However, it's that way in their own client too. Can't expect Slim to compensate for all of Rhapsody's shortcomings. As a software/hardware developer, how much time can you afford to dedicate to fighting ghosts - inconsistent, non-repeatable, undocumented problems that may or may not clear up or change tomorrow. How bloated and convoluted do you allow your code become trying to deal with issues you have no control over? You can certainly try your best, but when the server throws you curve balls and unexpected, unreliable, and inconsistent results - there's only so much you can do. -- 86atc250r 86atc250r's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=15476 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=63462 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/discuss
Re: [slim] Rhapsody Implementation Needs Improvement
86atc250r;424949 Wrote: Rhapsody works for me *most* of the time. Occasionally it's a bit goofy. However, it's that way in their own client too. Can't expect Slim to compensate for all of Rhapsody's shortcomings. As a software/hardware developer, how much time can you afford to dedicate to fighting ghosts - inconsistent, non-repeatable, undocumented problems that may or may not clear up or change tomorrow. How bloated and convoluted do you allow your code become trying to deal with issues you have no control over? You can certainly try your best, but when the server throws you curve balls and unexpected, unreliable, and inconsistent results - there's only so much you can do. You can write code defensively or you can write it optimistically. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defensive_programming Since neither of us has probably taken time to read through the code, we can't make strong assertions about how much effort has been put into programming the cases that shouldn't occur compared to the expected cases. Best regards, -- dsdreamer -- Dreamer, easy in the chair that really fits you... dsdreamer's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=12588 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=63462 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/discuss
Re: [slim] Rhapsody Implementation Needs Improvement
Absolutely, However, I think you missed the gist of my point. I was not suggesting you code with reckless abandon, expecting things will always go as expected. Let me detail out the reasoning behind my post: 1.) Rhapsody's service is the only service I ever have any difficulty out of. 2.) Rhapsody doesn't always work properly in their native client 3.) Other friends/family report similar issues with Rhapsody's service 4.) Users of other devices report similar problems interfacing with Rhapsody. Do we see a pattern forming yet? It's probably reasonable to assume that at least some effort has been put into defensive coding due to the fact that those other services are likely not 100% reliable either, yet for the most part they work very well. Perhaps the team just completely drop the ball on only Rhapsody? That is certainly a possibility, but the evidence we do have does not point that way. I wasn't suggesting that any efforts to improve the interface be stopped - I was suggesting, however, that as a developer, at some point you have to again decide when you are going stop complicating your code and expending your resources trying to resolve issues not under your control. You have, at this point put forth a reasonable effort and must move on to dealing with things you can control. Putting in fixes as suggested by the OP seems like it would be counter productive - handing unexpected errors is one thing - trying to predict the various failure modes of an unpredictable system and counter them undocumented, trial error methods that will likely lead to more complex, difficult to maintain, and bug prone code is quite another. -- 86atc250r 86atc250r's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=15476 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=63462 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/discuss
[slim] Rhapsody Implementation Needs Improvement
Love Squeezebox -- have a boom, a duet, and an extra SBR. Great stuff, when it works. And it does just that for my local music and Pandora. But the Rhapsody implementation has been problematic, on and off again, since I bought my Duet shortly after it was released. It's generally a Time out waiting for data kind of error when trying to advance to the next track. Most often happens on the first track of an album, but lately has been happening mid-album with more frequency. I know in the past the finger has always been pointed at Rhapsody for these issues. And granted, their service is spotty. Fine. But let's take that as a given. Their service is poor and unreliable, so find a way to deal with it. I can normally hit rewind, or in someway manually force the desired track to play -- so it seems the Squeezebox software could do the same if the implementation were more robust. I don't know if that's means allowing for a longer time out, or more retries, etc. but why do I have to do it manually? Is this deserving of a bug report? As an aside, does anyone know if Napster is more reliable? I'm running: SC 7.3.3 r26303 WinXP SBR on ethernet SBR on wifi Boom on wifi Andy -- ajkidle ajkidle's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=18929 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=63462 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/discuss
