DSDPlus 2.228 RDP (Microsoft Remote Desktop) audio issue

[polkaroo]

Does anyone else monitor a DSDPlus machine over RDP?

It seems that if I exit the client and re-login, I lose all DSDPlus audio until I reset the WaveOut device by turning off audio (shortcut 0) and back on (I use 3 for all audio) OR exit and relaunch DSDPlus. This happens every time I close the RDP window and reconnect to my DSDPlus computer on any machine. Remote audio from other sources (eg. VLC or Windows Media Player) works just fine.

 

[nosoup4u]

That is a known issue with Microsoft RDP. I have tried a few fixes over the years and never had any luck. Switch over to VNC for your remote desktop and you won't have that issue.

 

[LimaZulu]

Yep, I can confirm that. You have to use 3rd party application in order to remote login and listen to audio. Something like above mentioned VNC or NoMachine or maybe even Team Viewer (not the best, bust still does the trick)

 

[wgbecks]

Here is a better approach. Download and install RadioFeed from URL ProScan. RadioFeed is an audio streaming program that runs on Windows. Configure the Webserver Audio Streamer section only of the server. You'll also need to setup a audio virtual cable program to bridge the audio to the input of RadioFeed.

If you retain the default settings during configuration, except to set the webserver input source to the virtual audio cable device, then you'll be able to listen to your DSDPlus audio locally on your LAN, as well as from anywhere on the Internet with appropriate port forwarding added to your router configuration.

Configure the PC with a static LAN IP such you'll always have a fixed local address to reach the server as well as to provide a fix LAN IP to direct the remote connections. Make sure this static LAN IP is outside of the DHCP range or your router or alternatively, use IP address reservation to achieve the same result if your router supports this functionality.

If you retained the RadioFeed defaults and have correctly setup the Webserver then you will be able to connect to the server locally on the PC's IP address, IE: 192.168.1.200:5000/stream. From the internet, you'd need a static pubic IP or implement a dynamic DNS service. To connect just substitute the Public IP (hostname.Domain with the port number of 5000 and same mount point of stream. Example: myhomeip.net:5000/stream.

Bill

 

[LimaZulu]

I really do like RadioFeed. Just one small thing is about to make me search for other ways to stream audio and that is latency. Yes, there is a huge latency. You are about to hear the audio 10 seconds later from when it was actually on air. With that being said we can't say we are listening "live" audio anymore. But other than that - great software for streaming!

 

[Whiskey3JMC]

This is why I use Teamviewer

 

[LimaZulu]

Yeah but first of all Teamviewer is meant to be more personal and the whole idea behind it is far more different than logging in just to hear live audio from your computer. Second - Imagine giving your ID to a bunch of friends who want to listen And that's not all - having constant and frequent connections will soon or a later lead you to "commercial use suspected" and your connections will start to be time limited to the point where you will be able to connect just for a few seconds and then you have to wait something like 15 minutes just to be able to connect for a few seconds again. Been there, done that
Not to mention all that lack of backward compatibility between versions.
Teamviewer is definitely not to right choice to "stream" live audio

 

[polkaroo]

Yup, TeamViewer was great. And the problem is, there's no option between free and enterprise-expensive. I've asked them before if there's a "home lab" license or "enthusiast" license - I have no problem paying a reasonable amount for software I use as a hobby (ie. not a professional, not making money.) But $50USD/month to start is too much.

Anyway, the reason for RDP was that I could watch the system as well as listen to live audio. I guess I'll give VNC a whirl again.

 

[LimaZulu]

I am using Tight VNC to control the machine remotely and Radio Feed for streaming. We already discussed Radio Feed but despite this 10 second delay it is by now the best for this purpose. As for the Tight VNC - not quite the perfect one. It usually lags from time to time (not that big of a deal) which it's not connection related. It can't stream audio. Other than that it's quite easy and lightweight, not hard to use interface and it has Android version (it's called Remote Ripple) which is quite good and does not lag as the Windows version Both, Windows and Android versions, basically do what they are meant to do - nothing fancy but does the job! And last but not least- both are free! As for the android version - there are no ads at all!
Recently I saw some new (at least for me) software that seems to be a good Teamviewer alternative which gives you all the bells and whistles - it's free, it can stream audio, it can share devices.... Haven't tried it yet but will definitely do. It's called NoMachine.

 

[ProScan]

The RadioFeed latency is caused by the Media Player network buffer. Perhaps find a media player with an adjustable network buffer.

 

[LimaZulu]

How about web based player that is embedded into RadioFeed's web page - Is there a way to adjust network buffer? Other than that I used VLC, which is a well known network player, and the highest buffer I tried is 3 seconds which is lesser than those 10 seconds delay. Setting the buffer any lower than 3 seconds does not give any delay changes either. Maybe VLC is not the right choice? Any suggestions about player that has an android version also, for mobile use?

 

[polkaroo]

We're getting OT here (maybe start a new topic for audio streaming w/metadata from DSDPlus?) But what would be great is if someone (I have zero programming ability) is able to modify Trunk Recorder to use the DSDPlus folder structure and filename convention.

But back to the original topic, a stopgap solution for now is to turn off synthesized audio prior to closing the RDP window, and turn it back on the next time you log in. Because if you don't, DSDPlus will write some 80MB+ of "Discarded WaveOut Block" error messages to the .event file. I now I have a couple 600MB .event files that even Notepad++ won't open! For smaller .event files, I've managed to bookmark the lines for the search string, then the menu has an option to delete bookmarked lines.

 

[LimaZulu]

I'm dreaming for metadata also but....
There is a poor man solution that I wrote just to test it. It is far, far, away from perfect but if you play a little bit it does what is supposed to do
This is the code that you have to put in a batch file and start it:

@Echo off

:A
break >metadata.gdm

for /f %%i in ('find /v /c "" ^< DSDPlus.event') do set /a lines=%%i
echo %lines%
set /a startLine=%lines% - 2
more /e +%startLine% DSDPlus.event > metadata.gdm

timeout /t 15
goto A

The problem of this is the delay because if there is a few reports that are not any longer than 4 seconds, for example, metadata will change but the actual audio that you hear is from a unit that is not on the air at that moment. This is where timeout kicks in - kind of resolve the issue, but not exactly. There will be some missing ID-s that were over the air during the timeout period. Long story short - this code without the timeout at the end is live, and audio is not

Things that are subject of change in order to customize the code are as follow:
- the name of the event file (if you are using single dongle for example or not)
- number of lines (this number 2 at the end of this line "set /a startLine=%lines% - 2")
- timeout - adjust the time or remove it

 

[polkaroo]

Just wanted to update this issue, it seem to be somewhat fixed with 2.256, instead of thousands of the Discarded WaveOut Block error being displayed and written resulting in overwhelmingly large .event files, DSDPlus now simply displays the number of consecutive Discarded WaveOut Blocks each time it encounters the error.