ScannerCast, Sounds like crap??

[richtidd]

I got an email today about the ScannerCast RR edition and i downloaded and installed that, previously i was using Oddcast, now i get an email from a regular listener saying it sounds like crap. I asked what he meant about that and he said it sounds like the speaker is in the bottom of a tin can.

Ok, i fired up my laptop and listened to it, wow it does sound like crap. I don't see any audio adjustments in this program so i played with the sound card mixer and i can't make it sound good at all. But if i go back to OddCast and set the mixer back to where it was it sounds great, full rich audio, ScannerCast sounds like its severely limiting the audio quality and i can't find any settings to fix that.

The scanner is a BC785D and the audio is from the line out record jack to the line in jack on a Creative sound card. Usually with OddCast all i have to do is set the line-in in the mixer to about 50% and i'm good. Now i have to set it to 70% with ScannerCast to make it readable and it sounds horrible.

Any ideas???

ScannerCast works well on other feeds we approve.

The sound is good.

I am betting it is your audio connection?

How & with what cables do you have the scanner connected to the computer?

 

[kb0nly]

ScannerCast works well on other feeds we approve.

The sound is good.

I am betting it is your audio connection?

How & with what cables do you have the scanner connected to the computer?

As mentioned it IS NOT the audio connection as it works just fine in OddCast. Its from the line out of the scanner to the line in of the sound card, a SB Audigy. It works great in OddCast, but if i close OddCast and open ScannerCast the audio sounds totally different, i am not making any changes to the mixer at first, but then i noticed ScannerCasts level was really low so i moved the Line In slider from 50% to 70% and then its loud enough but not very readable and tinny sounding. But now if i close ScannerCast and open OddCast its booming and overdeviating so i have to move the slider back down to 50% and all is well again.

It has been running OddCast for over a year no problems, no cable changes or setup changes, just installed ScannerCast to try it.

 

[kb0nly]

Oh also RR keeps sending me emails today saying my feed is down, but i checked the computer and it still shows connected in ProScan with ScanCast. So i hit disconnect and connect and then it works again on the website.

I'm going to shut off ProScan and go back to OddCast for another 24 hours and see the difference and if it keeps going offline and randomly disconnecting the listeners.

 

[blantonl]

kb0nly,

Man, you are one active issue identifier... We had an error this evening which caused alerts to go out for down feeds when they weren't. That is our fault. And we appologize.

However, dude, you need to take a chill pill. You are jumping around on feed clients and configurations faster than a bag of popping pop-corn.

My advise to you... go back and run Oddcast and be done with it. It is almost painful to watch you jump around and blame everyone for "sounding crappy" and other stuff. It sounds to me like with you switching and jumping around so much that you hardly have time to even troubleshoot or see if the problem is on your end. God help your poor computer if you do this with all other software you run.

We're not perfect on our end, but the way you are approaching this process isn't helping the situation.

 

[jeffreyk]

The RadioReference standard bit rate for broadcasts is 16kbs, which is more than sufficient for standard mono speech audio.

I have to respectfully disagree about the 16kbps being more than sufficient. I don't really think there is a problem between OddCast and ScannerCast at the same data rate. There is however noticeable audio artifacts especially during the silent part of the transmission from the police agency at 16kbps which is annoying. I have found too when someone is speaking in the background during an arrest, I can't make out what that person is saying at 16kbps but I can easily make it out at 32kbps. That being said, I know that it costs more money to broadcast at a higher data rate so I can live with the 16kbps. I appreciate RadioReference big time. You are revolutionizing this ability for everyone to listen to the police scanner or other agencies. One of the police officers in my town even listens to the feed because he lives too far away when he is at home which is awesome that even the police are finding it advantageous.

 

[kb0nly]

kb0nly,

Man, you are one active issue identifier... We had an error this evening which caused alerts to go out for down feeds when they weren't. That is our fault. And we appologize.

However, dude, you need to take a chill pill. You are jumping around on feed clients and configurations faster than a bag of popping pop-corn.

My advise to you... go back and run Oddcast and be done with it. It is almost painful to watch you jump around and blame everyone for "sounding crappy" and other stuff. It sounds to me like with you switching and jumping around so much that you hardly have time to even troubleshoot or see if the problem is on your end. God help your poor computer if you do this with all other software you run.

We're not perfect on our end, but the way you are approaching this process isn't helping the situation.

Whatever... If your computer is so slow that you cant do it then i feel sorry for you.

As for changing software, tell RR to stop sending me the damn emails all the time about changing to ScannerCast cause i aint gonna after hearing it.

And if you read my previous posts you will notice that no other changs were made other than the program that was running, which is why i was confused and posted as to why the audio is so much different from one program to another WITHOUT any other changes. The PROBLEM WAS NOT ON MY END.

At this point i might just yank the plug completely.

 

[blantonl]

The PROBLEM WAS NOT ON MY END.

At this point i might just yank the plug completely.

Umm.. OK.