Possibly a problem with the NEW Web Player

[SCPD]

I started getting reports from listeners about the new web player. Several have stated the audio is unintelligable and choppy. I was able to duplicate the problem with Internet Explorer and Google Chrome (no other browsers checked) by doing the following:

1. Open browser to Madison County, Indiana (IN) Live Police, Fire, and EMS Scanners on RadioReference.com (my feed)
2. Wait appx 2-3 minutes and start looking at the display to the right of the time counter and notice that "Buffering 100%" flashes on and off almost constantly.
3. The audio is choppy and it seems the longer this continues to play the choppier it gets and the delay between the live and RR feed increases.

This occurs on Internet Explorer and Google Chrome (no other browsers checked) since the New web player was added. I have not had reports from any other listeners who use a player other than the web player.

Has anyone else noticed this possible problem or could there be a problem with just my feed. I have not changed any feed provider settings since the transfer from SA.

I use a linux box running Ubuntu 9.10 and darkice to supply the feed.

 

[georgew0819]

I noticed this problem as well with one of my feeds that provided alpha tags. I download the broadcast software package again, reinstalling the same and haven't had a problem since on the XP system I use. Can't say what caused it or why reintalling the software worked but it did. Have you tried that yet?

 

[bezking]

I would try lowering the bitrate on the feed to 16kbps. If this solves the issue, try increasing it slowly until you are at the highest possible bitrate without the issue occuring.

 

[SCANMUNCIE]

I noticed it the other night on my feed also; however, I thought it was a problem on my end.

I ended up stopping ScannerCast from broadcasting and then clicked restarted broadcasting and the problem went away, so I just figured it was on my end.

 

[SCPD]

Thanks to everyone for suggesting possible corrections. Unfortunatelly none are working. I have lowered the bit rate to 16 and re-installed Darkice (as suggsted) but I still get the problem as described in the original post.

NOTE: Nothing in my system setup has changed on the computer I send audio from. This started after the new web player came online - I do not want to say this is the problem but I cannot think of anything else to try.

 

[SCANMUNCIE]

I listened to your feed and i see what you talking about it worked fine for the first 3 minutes and then just keeps re-buffering which causes the audio to drop each time while re-buffering...

I listened in FireFox, IE, Chrome, and Safari.. Didn't seem to matter

 

[blantonl]

Can you post your darkice config (minus the mountpoint and password) so we can have a look at it?

 

[SCPD]

I have tried this config file using "bitrateMode = cbr" and "bitrateMode = vbr"a trying to resolve this issue. Neither seems to have any effect. I also tested with "channel = 1" without any success. I hope you can see something wrong with it that I have missed.

darkice.cfg
[general]
duration = 0
bufferSecs = 8

[input]
device = /dev/dsp
sampleRate = 22050
bitsPerSample = 16
channel = 2

[icecast2-0]
bitrateMode = cbr
format = mp3
bitrate = 16
quality = 1.0
server = audio1.radioreference.com
port = 80
password = <password>
mountPoint = <mount point>
name = RadioReference.com
description = Madison County Sheriff
url = RadioReference.com - Scanner Frequencies and Radio Frequency Reference
genre = scanner
public = yes

 

[blantonl]

Here is my darkice config for the stream that I run. For what it's worth, I listened to your feed for over an hour yesterday from the Web player and it worked fine with no problems.

[general]
duration        = 0        # duration of encoding, in seconds. 0 means forever
bufferSecs      = 5         # size of internal slip buffer, in seconds
reconnect       = yes       # reconnect to the server(s) if disconnected

# this section describes the audio input that will be streamed
[input]
device          = hw:0,0  # OSS DSP soundcard device for the audio input
sampleRate      = 44100     # sample rate in Hz. try 11025, 22050 or 44100
bitsPerSample   = 16        # bits per sample. try 16
channel         = 1         # channels. 1 = mono, 2 = stereo

# this section describes a streaming connection to an IceCast2 server
# there may be up to 8 of these sections, named [icecast2-0] ... [icecast2-7]
# these can be mixed with [icecast-x] and [shoutcast-x] sections
[icecast2-0]
bitrateMode     = cbr       # average bit rate
format          = mp3       # format of the stream: ogg vorbis
sampleRate      = 22050
bitrate         = 16        # bitrate of the stream sent to the server
quality         = 0.8
server          = audio3.radioreference.com
                            # host name of the server
port            = 80      # port of the IceCast2 server, usually 8000
password        = xxxxxxxx  # source password to the IceCast2 server
mountPoint      = xxxxxxxxx # mount point of this stream on the IceCast2 server
name            = Comal, Wilson, Guadalupe, Atascosa, Bandera County Public Safety
                            # name of the stream
description     = Comal, Wilson, Guadalupe, Atascosa, Bandera County Public Safety
                            # description of the stream
url             = http://www.radioreference.com
                            # URL related to the stream

 

[SCPD]

k9jrf - thanks for confirming I am not crazy and for the additional browsers check.

blantonl - I switched to your config file with the obvious exceptions of the input, server, password, and mount point. I am having the same issue. I have checked on several computers with different internet connections but most have the same basic configurations. Could I ask you to listen once more for just a few minutes (I know your probabally busy) to see if you get the same thing. Additionally I have put up a page on my website that connects to the same RR feed and there is no problem there (the page uses windows media player and I want to change it to the RR web player but I keep having this issue and getting Feed Problem reports).

What I am finding is the RR web player starts re-buffering after 2-3 minutes. I notice the timer on the web player slows and at times stops for a second or two while "BUFFERING" is on the screen. It seems as if it does not matter what changes to the config file

Sorry, and thanks for all the help.

 

[dm1313]

Got the same problem...thought it was my scanner and then noticed the player just started constantly buffering about 15 minutes ago. No problems with my DSL connection though.

 

[SCANMUNCIE]

I have created a screen capture video of what the player is doing that K9Barry is talking about..

The video is at: http://fishsimion.net/madisoncosheriff.wmv

k9jrf - thanks for confirming I am not crazy and for the additional browsers check.

What I am finding is the RR web player starts re-buffering after 2-3 minutes. I notice the timer on the web player slows and at times stops for a second or two while "BUFFERING" is on the screen. It seems as if it does not matter what changes to the config file

Sorry, and thanks for all the help.

 

[blantonl]

Folks, we are looking at some buffer changes to maybe help this issue - in the mean time please use an alternative player until we can narrow down the issue further.

 

[blantonl]

Ok, good news folks.

First, it appears that the current MP3 player isn't working for some folks. We're prepared to roll back to the Wimpy player (the previous player)

Second, the folks that write the Wimpy MP3 player have finally released a set of fixes and updates which should resolve the crashes that we experienced. In addition, they've released a number of great skins which we'll investigate and get integrated back in.

We are making progress. By the end of the week we should have some updates rolled out.

Thanks,

 

[jameselawson]

New Player

I just noticed today the player had changed. I'm new (a week or so), love the site and usually have 5 or 6 tabs with different locations going at the same time. With the new player I can't tell which feed is broadcasting because the graphic eq does not show actual feed output. Any plans on changing this?

 

[BingoBingo]

Newbie here....quick question, and I hope I'm on the right thread. I'm trying to listen to Fresno CA police (Live feed)...sometimes it's on, sometimes it's not. Is the live feed only coming from one person? (Maybe they don't run live feed all the time??) It seems I can listen to live feed on the other side of the country - but not my own city! Any help or direction who be greatly appreciated!! Thank you!

 

[car5le]

Has anyone found a resolution to this yet? I am having this problem with ScanCast V0.14 on only one of my 3 feeds.