Chipmunks in your VortexBox?

[andrew]

A few VortexBox users have complained that some streaming talk radio sounds like chipmunks when played through the VortexBox internal player. I think I have a fix for this. Type this from command line.


setup-mplayer


yum clean all


yum -y update


you must then go to Settings -> Advanced -> extension downloader


and install the Alien BBC plug-in


after this is done reboot your VortexBox and your chipmunks should be gone!


Please post if this works for your.

[HalfBit]

Andrew,


I did the installs, and added the Alien BBC plugin. After rebooting, I see Alien BBC installed in the SqueezeCenter Plugins. I still have chipmunks on low-bitrate Internet radio. Other Internet radio plays OK.


Looking in the Alien BBC Plugin, I see there is a Station Menu. It does not include any of the NPR stations. Do I need to add the stations I want to listen to, and if so, how is that done?


Thanks,
HalfBit

[yeswork]

Thanks for the effort. Still have Chipmunks.


I believe having MPlayer is good; now vortexbox can handle RealAudio streams. Thanks. We can now listen to BBC radio.


However, it doesn't fix the problem with NPR (WBUR) and other low bitrate streams that are not realaudio. I bellieve SqueezeSlave has a bug that prevents it from playing NPR and other low bitrate streams. It also seems SqueezeSlave is the preferred player for non-gui/headless installations, while Softsqueeze (which plays these low bit rate streams) is designed for a gui and may have problems running headless continuously.


I have filed a bug report about this on the SoftSqueeze/SqueezeSlave SourceForge repository. http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?group_id=105169&atid=640438




Maybe we can get enough interest in this problem by getting more people to comment, so the SqueezeSlave community will try to fix this bug.

[yeswork]

Oops! NPR DOES Play Correctly!!


I posted the message above too soon. I forgot to reboot.


NPR now plays properly! (Sorry for the incorrect conclusion I posted above)




Thanks Andrew for fixing this!

[andrew]

No problem, this patch get's around the fixed rate of of squeezeslave by resampling the stream to 44.1 as it comes in. It uses a little more CPU power per stream but it isn't to bad.

[yeswork]

A new problem, related to using mplayer, I think.


MP3s that used to play with SqueezeSlave are silent!


Before Mplayer install:


My ripped CDs and MP3s copied from my Windows Box to VortexBox /Flac directory played and NPR played chipmunk


After Mplayer install:


My ripped CDs and NPR play OK. However all the MP3s I have in the /Flac directory (that used to play ok - 192 KBS) can be selected in SqueezeCenter/SqueezeSlave/Vortexbox web interface; they look like they are playing (time bar progresses) however no sound.


This is the error message on the Vortexbox console display [vortexbox.localdomain ~]# Streaming: Launching mplayer -really-quiet -vc null -vo null -cache 128 -af volume=0,resample=44100:0:1,channels=2 -ao pcm:file=/dev/fd/3 /storage/music/flac/AC-DC - Back In Black.mp3
mplayer: could not connect to socket
mplayer: No such file or directory


I can play these MP3 files again by going to SqueezeCenter/Plugins/ and disabling/unclicking Alien BBC plugin and restarting squeezecenter service. Enable Alien BBC, no MP3 plays. Tried to change settings on Alien BBC to not have fast start and/or ignore mp3. Still no sound from those MP3s.


Any suggestions?


Thanks

[andrew]

Look like it might be a quoting problem or somthing I'll take a look.

[yeswork]

Additional Information


With Alien BBC/mplayer installed and active, I can toggle between non-chipmunks or mp3 playing. - See details below




SqueezeCenter/Settings/Advanced/FileTypes


MP3 has two sections, each with two options


FLAC - mplayer.sh/flac or disabled


MP3 - native or disabled




If I choose FLAC mplayer.sh/flac - then NPR at 24 Kbps plays OK (no Chipmunks) but individual MP3 files in the flac directory (and by default copied via vortexbox to the mp3 directory) do NOT play (they just show time advancing but no sound).


If I choose FLAC disabled - then the individual MP3 files play OK but NPR plays chipmunk


Looking at the error message I posed a couple of messages above, I wonder if there might be some clues in the custom-convert.conf file




Hope this is helpful


I really want to be able to play both NPR radio and MP3 files without problems

[HalfBit]

I am not competent to add any diagnostic or test information, but when the Alien BBC plugin was enabled, my SqueezeBox receivers which had played low-bitrate Internate radio just fine, stopped playing it. I have disabled Alien BBC, and now they work fine again.


Like yeswork, I want it all. As it is, I cannot use the VortexBox as a player.

[yeswork]

To HalfBit,


I found the new, beta version of Alien BBC to work better. I still have the chipmunk vs MP3 problem but had fewer other problems.


The beta is available at http://alienbbc.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/testrepo.xml




I am hoping there will be enough interest to track down the problem and get a solution to this MP3 vs chipmunk problem.


Maybe we should sell T shirts with a chipmunk circled with a diagonal line through it (like a road warning sign).

[HalfBit]

I have installed version 1.0 of VortexBox on my VBA, and now need to use the VBA as a player. I found:


Can play FLACs
Can play 32kbps CBR, Internet Radio (NPR)
Can play 128kbps CBR, MP3 Internet Radio (Radio Paradise)
After playing 32kpps Internet Radio, and changing to another input, the VBA player stops functioning for everything.


Has anyone found a way to play 32kbps Internet Radio through the VBA's player AND have it survive that use?
What is the best stop, start, and/or restart command to restore VBA player function after it stops because of playing 32kbps Internet Radio?


Thanks

[TheClerm]

Since upgrading to 1.0, I have the same problem as Halfbit - though I hadn't noticed it was related to the stream's bitrate.


If anyone has a solution, it would be much appreciated.

[HalfBit]

TheClerm said:

Since upgrading to 1.0, I have the same problem as Halfbit - though I hadn't noticed it was related to the stream's bitrate.


If anyone has a solution, it would be much appreciated.



Well, I discovered that both the 32 and 128kbps streams kill my VBA player too, so I guess it's a more general problem.

[yeswork]

Hi,




I believe this "bug" was introduced with squeezecenter/squeezeboxserver 7.4x. (It seemed to work OK with 7,3x and below) There seems to be an issue related to the way squeezeslave on linux interacts/buffers with the current version of the server software.


Unforutunately squeezeslave is not technically software/product supported by Logitech. There seems to be lack of full communication between server software developers and squeezeslave maintainer/developer.


The bug is documented on slimbugs https://bugs.slimdevices.com/show_bug.cgi?id=14740


Andrew has worked to try various fixes, to no avail. There seems to be an underlying squeezeslave/server bug, most prominetly noted when running linux.


My suggestion - vote on the slimbug. The more people that document they are affected, the more impetus there will be to deal with this bug. (Slimbugs requires a user to register to post or vote on bugs). So far there is not even a target date/release for a fix.




I find this bug very annoying. It seems to take more than just a restart of squeezeslave, often a reboot of the vortexbox, to get a somewhat stable squeezeslave. Even after a reboot, squeezeslave is still killed by changing from Internet radio to other sources.


Get those votes on slimbugs!!! Lets try to get it on target to be fixed for the upcomming server version 8.x


Thanks,

[HalfBit]

Yeswork,


Thanks for the clear and complete explanation. I'm off to register and make my vote.


I have found that only a reboot of the VBA clears the problem.


HalfBit