Oddcast acting odd

[djbrane]

Anyone having some weird issues with Oddcast?

When I got up this morning, it said it was disconnected. However, I never got a text saying it was and in RR it says it was connected. When I pressed connect, under transfer rate, it keeps saying "Connecting in"...and will count down. Then begin all over again. It did that about 5 different times and now went back to saying "disconnected". But...it is connected on RR

Suggestions?

 

[PeterGV]

I can't comment specifically about Oddcat, but I can tell you that ScannerCast users are seeing all SORTS of strange networking problems. ScannerCast thinks it's connected but RR thinks it's not... periodic disconnections... etc.

I think this is related to an increase in overall internet traffic during the holiday seasons, but that's just a big guess on my part.

So, while I can't really offer any concrete help, I guess the point of my reply is "You are not alone"

Peter
K1PGV

 

[hvscan]

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry9530/5.0.0.328 Profile/MIDP-2.1 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/105)

I experienced a similar situation...switched to ScannerCast and now use it for all my feeds. It's much easier and more efficient than OddCast.

 

[djbrane]

I've got Scannercast too, but cannot figure it out or get it to begin working or would be using it.

 

[kendrik578]

Just go to the icecast tab and check send stream to RR then you should see where you enter your RR username/password and after that click get config and after you see the check mark use the pull down and select your feed then click start broadcast.

 

[Bote]

Anyone having some weird issues with Oddcast?

Suggestions?

In all the years and versions of Oddcast and Edcast, I have never gotten it to work, period.

I highly recommend ScannerCast. Even though it is still considered a beta-test package, it is custom tailored for scanner streaming. It aint perfect, but the developer is on here and is very responsive to constructive feedback on improving it.

 

[cdesigns]

same problem here with oddcast, it disconnected today and it kept trying to connect, I got the email from RR saying my feed was down.

 

[djbrane]

OK...switched to Scannercast. It's odd too. It says ERROR, not communicating with Scanner. But it looks like it is because my feed is up.
I would like to experiment with using alpha tags, but not sure how to do that. Also, want to make sure everything is ok with scannercast first before tackling that.

 

[Bote]

When ScannerCast says "ERROR not communicating with scanner" it means exactly that: it has no serial data communications with the scanner. No doubt you selected either Uniden 396/996 or GRE 500 at the top and have no serial cable connected to the radio to send channel tags with your stream.

If you have that capability you should definitely do it because it adds so much for the listener to know what he is hearing. You just hook up the cable and whatever alphanumeric labels you have stored for each channel with get sent with the stream. There's nothing more to tackle than that, it's easy-peasy.

The "Icecast forwarding" tells you if you are streaming to the server, that's where the audio packets go.

 

[PeterGV]

OK...switched to Scannercast. It's odd too. It says ERROR, not communicating with Scanner. But it looks like it is because my feed is up.
I would like to experiment with using alpha tags, but not sure how to do that. Also, want to make sure everything is ok with scannercast first before tackling that.

Dude... did you read the info on the ScannerCast web page? Did you read the Configuration and Usage page? Seriously, I don't think I can make it any simpler to setup ScannerCast. In terms of what the error means, please refer to the section titled Checking Status and Troubleshooting on the Configuration and Usage page of my web site. It says, in part:

Scanner Connection -- Shows if ScannerCast is successfully communicating with your scanner. If this says "OK", it means that ScannerCast is successfully retrieving tag information from your scanner. If this says "NOT COMMUNICATING" there's something wrong (or your not using a supported scanner). Stop ScannerCast, go back to the "Config" tab, and check what you've specified for "Control Port" and "Speed". Check your wiring and connections. If you're using a Uniden scanner, check to be sure that the speed set in your scanner matches the speed you set in ScannerCast. If you're using a GRE scanner, be sure you've selected the right COM port number (check Windows Device Manager for a port named "USB Serial Port" -- that's the COM port number you'll want to use.​

If after reading those two pages you still have problems/questions, let us know and we'll be more than happy to answer any remaining questions you have.

Peter
K1PGV

 

[SCPD]

Peter, I too has some small issues. Then I uninstalled the version I had and downloaded your most recent version and those issues went away.

Now I see an awful lot of disconnects on my feed, But its not Scanner Cast doing it, it's the icecast server dropping and re-loading about once every few hours. Now Scanner Cast shows this where as Odd Cast does not. Could this be some of y'alls problems?

I'm running Scanner Cast now and this version has worked flawlessly for 3 days running. Ice Cast still drop's briefly but Ice Cast and Scanner Cast are two separate deals.

Now there is a SC glitch I have noticed that I wish didn't happen, Its when I need to stop the feed to update the scanner, SC will often lock up and close thus prompting a Micro Soft error report.

One question for Peter: Does Scanner Cast support Joint Stereo feeds now? I had an issue with this in the past and had to move Joint Stereo to Odd Cast because of it. Is this now fixed?

 

[PeterGV]

Now there is a SC glitch I have noticed that I wish didn't happen, Its when I need to stop the feed to update the scanner, SC will often lock up and close thus prompting a Micro Soft error report.

One question for Peter: Does Scanner Cast support Joint Stereo feeds now? I had an issue with this in the past and had to move Joint Stereo to Odd Cast because of it. Is this now fixed?

Thanks for the reports. PLEASE tell me more about this glitch that you see! Exactly what do you do when it happens? Do you get a file named "scannercast_ERROR.log" in the directory that has scannercast.exe? If you do, will you email it to me, please?? Or, perhaps, get the data from the error pop-up that you're seeing and email THAT to me?

Sounds like you found a good bug, and I'd like to fix that. I'm preparing yet another update, so I just need the data.

In terms of stereo encoding: ScannerCast uses "regular" stereo encoding, with the latest LAME DLL. If you run your feed at 32Kbps, and select "stereo" this should work for you. Unfortunately, LAME (the MP3 encoder) doesn't support "dual stereo" which is what we all REALLY want (entirely separate left and right channels).

Peter
K1PGV

 

[SCPD]

Even with the little glitches in Scanner Cast - Its still a Better by far application the Odd Cast so it will always have my vote!

The next time I get the error, I'll log it and email you the log file report. Its generally when I close the program to quickly or Stop it and touch it with my mouse, it will error or crash - but it always comes back ok when re-loaded.

 

[PeterGV]

Even with the little glitches in Scanner Cast - Its still a Better by far application the Odd Cast so it will always have my vote!

The next time I get the error, I'll log it and email you the log file report. Its generally when I close the program to quickly or Stop it and touch it with my mouse, it will error or crash - but it always comes back ok when re-loaded.

Thanks, both for the nice comments AND for the promise of an error report.

By all of us working together, we'll make the best darn scanner streaming application for the radio community.

Peter
K1PGV

 

[djbrane]

Dude... did you read the info on the ScannerCast web page? Did you read the Configuration and Usage page? Seriously, I don't think I can make it any simpler to setup ScannerCast. In terms of what the error means, please refer to the section titled Checking Status and Troubleshooting on the Configuration and Usage page of my web site. It says, in part:

Scanner Connection -- Shows if ScannerCast is successfully communicating with your scanner. If this says "OK", it means that ScannerCast is successfully retrieving tag information from your scanner. If this says "NOT COMMUNICATING" there's something wrong (or your not using a supported scanner). Stop ScannerCast, go back to the "Config" tab, and check what you've specified for "Control Port" and "Speed". Check your wiring and connections. If you're using a Uniden scanner, check to be sure that the speed set in your scanner matches the speed you set in ScannerCast. If you're using a GRE scanner, be sure you've selected the right COM port number (check Windows Device Manager for a port named "USB Serial Port" -- that's the COM port number you'll want to use.​

If after reading those two pages you still have problems/questions, let us know and we'll be more than happy to answer any remaining questions you have.

Peter
K1PGV

Thank you to everyone for all the help.
I have read over every word on your set up and trouble shooting page.
Audio is fine, now am having issues with tags. Scanner Connection: Not Communicating with scanner.

Using the GRE supplied programming cable. Com Port only gives me two choices, Com Port 1 and Com Port 3, I have tried them both, does not change anything. I just used the cable to program and did not unplug it after, so i know it has a good connection.

I have done everything your page says to do.

 

[Bote]

stereo is for music

...
In terms of stereo encoding: ScannerCast uses "regular" stereo encoding, with the latest LAME DLL. If you run your feed at 32Kbps, and select "stereo" this should work for you. Unfortunately, LAME (the MP3 encoder) doesn't support "dual stereo" which is what we all REALLY want (entirely separate left and right channels).

Stereo encoding is less than ideal at these low bit rates, joint stereo is not usable at all.

MaxTracker, joint stereo is only for music. When you feed it totally separate audio on the left and right channels it has a tough time encoding properly because it is counting on the left and right channels being mostly the same, which is true for most music. A separate scanner feed on each channel will make its head explode. I tried it several years back and it sounded horrible, it sounded like bleedover.

It's generally better for both the feed op and the listeners to set up a second separate feed. This keeps the bit rate low on each feed for end users who might be on a low-bandwidth wireless link and only want one of the programs anyway. In other words, why download twice the data when you only want half of it? They can always start two player sessions and listen to both separate feeds if they want and the bandwidth still adds up the same.

I haven't tried two ScannerCast sessions on the same machine, but I don't have two sound cards in one to test it with anyway. I wonder if that would work?

 

[SCPD]

Thanks, both for the nice comments AND for the promise of an error report.

By all of us working together, we'll make the best darn scanner streaming application for the radio community.

Peter
K1PGV

Ask - And thou Shalt Receiveth!

EventType : clr20r3 P1 : scannercast.exe P2 : 1.0.0.0 P3 : 4b129602
P4 : mscorlib P5 : 2.0.0.0 P6 : 4a7cd8f7 P7 : 1164 P8 : 0
P9 : system.objectdisposedexception

 

[djbrane]

OK...so I have had some issues switching over to Scannercast and trying to get my alpha tags going. It has been quite the afternoon and evening of troubleshooting.
I have to publicly thank Peter for all his help and patience. He has one hell of a product in Scannercast and has been tremendous to work with. I cannot thank you enough. Not only Peter, but to all those that take the time to help idiots like me out all over this great website.

Keep up the great work guys!!!

 

[PeterGV]

-- blush --

Aw, t'weren't nothin'

Peter
K1PGV

 

[PeterGV]

Ask - And thou Shalt Receiveth!

EventType : clr20r3 P1 : scannercast.exe P2 : 1.0.0.0 P3 : 4b129602
P4 : mscorlib P5 : 2.0.0.0 P6 : 4a7cd8f7 P7 : 1164 P8 : 0
P9 : system.objectdisposedexception

Ah, yes... I get a few of those reports a week.

I freakin' HATE those "object disposed exceptions" -- arrrgh... hard to track down, too.

Fortunately, it IS on program stop/exit.

Thanks for that report, I really *do* appreciate it.

Peter
K1PGV