06 Nov 08 Forum

Post edited 1:34 pm – January 15, 2010 by yeswork
Post edited 1:36 pm – January 15, 2010 by yeswork

Hi,

Thanks for working on this Andrew.  I've tried it and it is great for a first effort.

Some things worked as I expected, some did not.  See below.

First – my setup: Vortexbox running on a device very similar to the Vortexbox appliance,  with a motherboard-soundcard and a Creative Xmod USB DAC wtih Analog only output.  I normally have TWO squeezeslave devices available, Vortexbox and one that I have named "Creative." I can play and control each separately.

Installation:  a few messages and errors that seemed to be related to checking for prior installtions and enumerating sound devices:

"

ortexbox/primary_db                                            |  45 kB     00:00
Setting up Update Process
No Packages marked for Update
mv: cannot stat `/etc/mpd.conf': No such file or directory
Loaded plugins: fastestmirror
Cleaning up Everything

Starting Squeezebox Server: [10-01-15 12:10:43.2784] main::init (320) Starting Squeezebox Server (v7.4.1, r28974, Thu Jan 14 14:18:19 EST 2010) perl 5.010000
                                                           [  OK  ]
Starting The Music Player Daemon: Failed to load database: Failed to open database file "/var/lib/mpd/database": No such file or directory
output: No "audio_output" defined in config file
output: Attempt to detect audio output device
output: Attempting to detect a alsa audio device
output: Successfully detected a alsa audio device
                                                           [  OK  ]
Shutting down vortexbox-player services:                   [FAILED]
Starting vortexbox-player services:                        [  OK  ]
PHP Warning:  pfsockopen(): unable to connect to 127.0.0.1:9090 (Connection refused) in /opt/vortexbox/rename_player.php on line 16
PHP Warning:  fputs(): supplied argument is not a valid stream resource in /opt/vortexbox/rename_player.php on line 18
PHP Warning:  fread(): supplied argument is not a valid stream resource in /opt/vortexbox/rename_player.php on line 20
PHP Warning:  socket_get_status(): supplied argument is not a valid stream resource in /opt/vortexbox/rename_player.php on line 21
PHP Warning:  fclose(): supplied argument is not a valid stream resource in /opt/vortexbox/rename_player.php on line 27
[vortexbox.localdomain ~]#"

So after the installation there was a "new" squeezeslave device named Vortexbox that played music out the "green" primary output jack.  So far, so good.

I then rebooted.  There was again only ONE squeezeslave device named Vortexbox, when I tried to play music via green jack, I heard no sound!!!  However, music came out of the Creative USB DAC (analog only) AT FULL VOLUME.  I can't seem to use squeezeslave to control the analog volume output from the Creative USB DAC anymore (it worked fine before this beta player).  Also note, there is only one squeezeslave device listed even though the motherboard-soundcard is enabled.

Rebooting with the Creatiive USB DAC unplugged from Vortexbox; now there is again one Squeezeslave device named Vortexbox that outputs music via the green jack, and has volume control via squeezeslave software.

Another issue related to Internet Radio streams.  I can 't seem to play 32K CBR streams anymore.  During the squeezeslave/chipmunk issue, I resolved a problem of listening to my local NPR radio station (WBUR).  The resolution was to switch to 32K asx streams (http://www.wbur.org/wp-content…..smedia.asx).  The old squeezeslave setup played this stream at the right pitch.  The new player does not play this stream at all (it shows it playing but I hear nothing) However switching to the MP3 stream (48K) http://wbur-sc.streamguys.com it plays fine.

Summary for this beta of vb-player on my particular Vortexbox:

Installs fine and plays Internet radio, and local flac files seemingly with out the dreaded "dissapearing/unresponsive device"  (I switched rapildly from one station to another, this used to always kill the old squeezeslave setup, but works OK with this beta so far)

Does not seem to support multiple hardware devices at the same time (i.e. local soundcard and USB DAC) – I get one or the other, with USB DAC taking dominance

USB DAC with Analog output does not seem to have any squeezeslave software volume control (always at full volume)  (Prior instantiation of squeezeslave allowed volume control).

Again – good work.  I look forward this solution being more robust that the old squeezeslave instantiation.  I also hope you can work on supporting multiple concurrent sound devices (all jacks on soundcard and USB DACs – with volume control).

Thanks

Another unexpected behavior.

Can't sync squeezeslave with hardware squeezebox (SB3).

I don't expect exact sync with software and hardware player, but I liked to sync the old squeezeslave with my SB3 so that they were playing the same song.

Today when I tried to sync, the SB3 got stuck at "waiting to sync." Never did sync even after a few minutes.  I tried sync from squeezeslave to SB# and from SB3 to squeezeslave – didn't matter who was master – always got stuck at "waiting to sync."

In the past, I was able to sync the Squeezeslave to SB3.

Hi Andrew,

I have not been sucessfull in getting audio out of my VB Appliance using VortexBox Player Beta. I have tried reinstalling several times hoping that a file might have been missed.But this has not helped.

My command line shows the following at the end of installation of last installation:

/usr/local/sbin/setup-vb-player: line 21:  6717 Terminated              service squeezeslave stop
/usr/local/sbin/setup-vb-player: line 26:  6732 Terminated              /etc/init.d/squeezeslave stop
Stopping Squeezebox Server:                                [  OK  ]
Starting Squeezebox Server: [10-01-16 09:22:14.2354] main::init (320) Starting Squeezebox Server (v7.4.2, r29684, Tue Dec 29 04:03:46 PST 2009) perl 5.010000
                                                           [  OK  ]
Starting The Music Player Daemon: Failed to open /etc/mpd.conf: No such file or directory
                                                           [FAILED]
Shutting down vortexbox-player services:                   [  OK  ]
Starting vortexbox-player services:                        [  OK  ]

It appears that there is a problem with the "/etc/mpd.conf : file and The Music Player Daemon will not open. If I stop "vortexbox-player" and start "squeezeslave" audio plays normally from green audio jack on back of VBA. You may notice that I am running Squeezebox Server v7.4.2. I don't know if this beta version could be an issue. Any ideas on how to proceed?

Bill

Same command line texts as willmd.

finizi

andyd37 said:

Hi Andrew,

Seems to work really well with my atom based vortexbox.

Plays local music with ipeng and can play internet radio via the squeezebox server 'tune in URL' on the web interface.

Is there a file where I can edit the player MAC to allow me to try it with the napster app?

Thanks

Hi Andrew,

Are you able to help with my question relation to changing the MAC?

Thanks