Scanner Force Public Test

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SCPD

QRT
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I have been working on this application for over a month and those of you guys who remember the other beta from this thread will notice that this beta is not only open to the public (for v1.0.2), but it has been completely redone and is much more stable. If you would like to test Scanner Force BETA v1.0.2, please follow the instructions below. The license key below will only be available until the next beta is release or the final version comes out (which ever comes first). I would appreciate feedback on this application that includes bugs, suggestions, thoughts, comments, etc... If you don't intend on providing this, please don't participate.

Features of Scanner Force:
Scanner Force's major idea is the ability to have a stable Windows Application that you can use to play feeds and minimize them to the system tray (clock area). This will reduce clutter in your taskbar and give you an easy way to see how many people are listening to that thread (updated every 1 minute). Another great feature of Scanner Force is the ability to use pan (Balance). This allows you to move audio to the left or right speaker which is useful for feeds that have Police and Fire on separate speakers or if you want to play multiple feeds and have one play on one speak and another on another speaker.

Downloading and Installing Scanner Force:
Follow the instructions below to test Scanner Force:

  1. Download Scanner Force
  2. Install Scanner Force
    • This will try to automatically install the .NET Framework 3.5, but if fails will need to be installed manually from the Microsoft Update process.
  3. Run Scanner Force
    • When you are asked for the license key, use {42f57623-200a-4ce8-9941-f29eedee406a}
    • The license key is a public beta one and will become unauthorized once the next beta is release or the final version.
  4. Come back to this thread and leave feed back!
    • Testers that leave feed back will be considered for future beta testing and possibly future discounts.
 

richtidd

Active Member
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Dec 19, 2002
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San Mateo, Ca
I have been working on this application for over a month and those of you guys who remember the other beta from this thread will notice that this beta is not only open to the public (for v1.0.2), but it has been completely redone and is much more stable. If you would like to test Scanner Force BETA v1.0.2, please follow the instructions below. The license key below will only be available until the next beta is release or the final version comes out (which ever comes first). I would appreciate feedback on this application that includes bugs, suggestions, thoughts, comments, etc... If you don't intend on providing this, please don't participate.

Features of Scanner Force:
Scanner Force's major idea is the ability to have a stable Windows Application that you can use to play feeds and minimize them to the system tray (clock area). This will reduce clutter in your taskbar and give you an easy way to see how many people are listening to that thread (updated every 1 minute). Another great feature of Scanner Force is the ability to use pan (Balance). This allows you to move audio to the left or right speaker which is useful for feeds that have Police and Fire on separate speakers or if you want to play multiple feeds and have one play on one speak and another on another speaker.

Downloading and Installing Scanner Force:
Follow the instructions below to test Scanner Force:

  1. Download Scanner Force
  2. Install Scanner Force
    • This will try to automatically install the .NET Framework 3.5, but if fails will need to be installed manually from the Microsoft Update process.
  3. Run Scanner Force
    • When you are asked for the license key, use {42f57623-200a-4ce8-9941-f29eedee406a}
    • The license key is a public beta one and will become unauthorized once the next beta is release or the final version.
  4. Come back to this thread and leave feed back!
    • Testers that leave feed back will be considered for future beta testing and possibly future discounts.

Using it now.

Nice program.
Well done so far.

Will load it on to other computers for testing.
 

johnmac

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Feed Provider
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Westminster, Ma
First thoughts -

Some functions do not appear to be available, assume those will become active at some point?

It would be nice to have an indication of active audio. If you have two or three feeds up there is no way to tell which one is active.

Look forward to updates
 

richtidd

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Loaded it on the following:
Desktop with XP
2ea Netbooks with XP
Laptop with Vista

Loaded & works fine on all.

On the Desktop & Laptop, the Windows "Just-in-Time" debugging tool comes up & is hard to get rid of. It does not come upon the Netbooks.

Re Scanner Force"
I see I can have more than one agency to to listen to.
I also see this supports tags.

Good program so far.

Will keep testing
 

N2JDS

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Messages
378
Location
St. Peters, Mo
I like it so far. 1 feature I like is the Left Right speaker choice. I am listening to 2 feeds and have them split between left and right for each. What kind of price are you looking at for once it goes "On Sale" ?
I really like that my ID tags come through too. Maybe in the future, another tab could be added , next to where you have "General" and "Counties" to bring up the page for feed provider info, which for many of us, includes feed info, such as what is being streamed. Good Job.

St. Charles Countywide EMS, Fire, and Law Live Scanner Audio Feed
 

Tweekerbob

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May 27, 2004
Messages
614
The tags on my feed are being truncated, presumably by my use of the hyphen, used in 99% of my tags.
For example, "Placerville PD - Main (154.965)" is showing up as "Main (154.965)" in your program.
 

Ve1gco

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Joined
Mar 30, 2009
Messages
3
Location
Dartmouth Nova Scotia Canada
Scanner Force

I have downloaded and am using the program.
So far I like what I see and here But it would be nice to be able to see the Alpha tags.
I'm not sure it a pop up balloon or maybe something on the side bar or a tool bar in Internet Explorer/Fire Fox would be of any use. It just would be nice to know who you are listening to be it City east City west etc...
the stereo speaker system if fantastic i have three feeds going yesterday one left one center and one right
it was very clear and easy to follow each feed.Maybe down the road this could be linked to the surround sound in windows to be able to deliver 4 or 5 feeds.
Also my be some links to the county police/fire/public safety web sites would be nice.
I will be putting this program to the test tonight andd tommorow as we have a major ind a rain storm going to make land fall so it should get busy here,
Will let you know how we do.

Graham
VE1GCO
 

johnmac

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I have a feed that feeds through radioreference that feeds alpha tags fine on winamp, but nothing on scanner force. Am I missing something.

I did check a few others that had alpha tags and did see some working, but slow to respond.
 

SCPD

QRT
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Virginia
This will be a long reply, so bear with me.

Some functions do not appear to be available, assume those will become active at some point? It would be nice to have an indication of active audio. If you have two or three feeds up there is no way to tell which one is active.
Yes, I plan to support those features in a next release. Because it will take a little bit of coding time, they will be removed on the release, but added on the next beta/release (soon). They will include saving feeds to a file for easy access, and ability to open multiple feeds with one file. Also, for active audio, do you mean something like a LED on scanner to indicate that the feed has audio?

On the Desktop & Laptop, the Windows "Just-in-Time" debugging tool comes up & is hard to get rid of. It does not come upon the Netbooks.
Is the Desktop & Laptop that have JIT debugging use x64? I haven't come across that yet, so I guess its hard to debug. Does it come when you try to start the feed selector or when you try to play a feed? Does it prevent you from actually listening to a feed or can you get around it? (Sorry for the load of questions, this will be hard to debug... I guess I might have to create a VM with similar setup) Also try a Windows update is possible.

I am listening to 2 feeds and have them split between left and right for each.
That's my favorite feature too. If you hook your laptop up to the car speakers, that really makes it work as designed. You have to set the volume, but once the volume and pan are set, my program will remember them PER feed. So my program will set those different with another feed!

What kind of price are you looking at for once it goes "On Sale" ?
Right now I keep changing what my pricing is going to be. I'm thinking $10-$15 for radio reference members and $15-$20 for non-radio reference members (like when they come from Google, Bing, or Facebook). I was planning on making live listeners a premium feature, but for now I'm trying to get this working before the end of march (as that's when my free $100 Google Ads credit expires). I'm also open for suggestions at this time, but remember that this took me many months to design!

The tags on my feed are being truncated, presumably by my use of the hyphen, used in 99% of my tags.
For example, "Placerville PD - Main (154.965)" is showing up as "Main (154.965)" in your program.
Would you mind posting the feed ID if you have it. I can then look into this.

So far I like what I see and here But it would be nice to be able to see the Alpha tags.
I'm not sure it a pop up balloon or maybe something on the side bar or a tool bar in Internet Explorer/Fire Fox would be of any use. It just would be nice to know who you are listening to be it City east City west etc...
the stereo speaker system if fantastic i have three feeds going yesterday one left one center and one right
it was very clear and easy to follow each feed.Maybe down the road this could be linked to the surround sound in windows to be able to deliver 4 or 5 feeds.
Also my be some links to the county police/fire/public safety web sites would be nice.
I will be putting this program to the test tonight andd tommorow as we have a major ind a rain storm going to make land fall so it should get busy here,
Will let you know how we do.
Your post brings me many ideas. Going down your post, I'm a little lost on alpha tags as that is a supported feature at the moment. Would you mind posting the feed id of the feed you're not going alpha tags. Next, I might add a feature (off by default) to where you can have the alpha tags popup in a balloon at the bottom of the screen (or maybe I'll brush up on my C++ and try to make a taskbar toolbar where it will display this). I'll have to check on surround sound, but good idea. I'd love to have a feed behind me when a foot pursuit comes out :p
My next great idea from this is a possible way for people to get a free version. Because I don't have any information from the RR API, I might have positions available for people to submit this information (codes and signals are a huge plus) and have it linked per feed. I'll work on this idea (possible for the next beta/release). Let me know how the player works tonight!

I have a feed that feeds through radioreference that feeds alpha tags fine on winamp, but nothing on scanner force. Am I missing something.

I did check a few others that had alpha tags and did see some working, but slow to respond.
johnmac, please post the feed id that's having problems and I'll look into it. The slow delay is from RR and not me. (Mine should only have a few seconds of delay because of a timer)
 

SCPD

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Another option that I almost WILL include is a IE/Firefox toolbar so you can start feeds directly from there and open the player directly!
 

Utah_Viper

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So far after a very quick run it looks solid. You adreesed the few ideas I have thought of since others asked as well. I hope to play with it more later.

One idea... can you pull the "Feeds With Alerts" Somehow?
 

SCPD

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So far after a very quick run it looks solid. You adreesed the few ideas I have thought of since others asked as well. I hope to play with it more later.

One idea... can you pull the "Feeds With Alerts" Somehow?
I've talked to Lindsay about this and right now (or at least for a long while) this won't be possible. I'm guessing an option that I can make is either a java/flash IRC chat or an unofficial feed alerts function that anyone can update (I'm not too comfortable about that last one, but an IRC chat is my favorite idea for the future, but will have to have moderators)
 

SCPD

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I have a feed that feeds through radioreference that feeds alpha tags fine on winamp, but nothing on scanner force. Am I missing something.

I did check a few others that had alpha tags and did see some working, but slow to respond.
At the moment, I'm not seeing your alpha tags show up on the online java player either.
 

SCPD

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Another feature that may be requested that I have added to the list of options to try and implement... I want to make an instant playback button. It will be like some police cruisers and save 30secs into memory and will play it back when the button is pressed. Also a record feature is possible too.
 

N2JDS

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Another feature that may be requested that I have added to the list of options to try and implement... I want to make an instant playback button. It will be like some police cruisers and save 30secs into memory and will play it back when the button is pressed. Also a record feature is possible too.
Now you're talking. I'd definitely pay for those features.
 

Tweekerbob

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Messages
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ggraves said:
Tweekerbob said:
The tags on my feed are being truncated, presumably by my use of the hyphen, used in 99% of my tags.
For example, "Placerville PD - Main (154.965)" is showing up as "Main (154.965)" in your program.

Would you mind posting the feed ID if you have it. I can then look into this.

Feed ID 559. This may be a problem inherent in MP3 metadata. Even Winamp thinks that the Artist is Placerville PD and the Song is Main (154.965). May just change the way I send them to prevent problems with multiple players. Thanks.
 

SCPD

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Feed ID 559. This may be a problem inherent in MP3 metadata. Even Winamp thinks that the Artist is Placerville PD and the Song is Main (154.965). May just change the way I send them to prevent problems with multiple players. Thanks.
I've taken a look and I don't know what would cause this. That would be my best guess as well.
 

richtidd

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I have had two net books running for 6 hrs without any problems.

Both where on only one feed with tags.
 

SCPD

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One feature that I added and was request is auto reconnect (I think only a few feeds are bumpy, so it may not have done that).
 

johnmac

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My feed that does not show alpha tags is Massachusetts, Worcester County, Northern Worcester County Fire and EMS (Feed 712).

Also some kind if indicator on audio would be nice. Your idea of a light would be fine. Just so you now which feed is active.
 
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